Query: Ballast on 17th century ships

[Kerryn Offord]

Could anybody point me to easily accessible references on ships ballast
for warships and transports.

Danish and French Navy... in the early 1600s

I know Vasa had stone ballast. Batavia had lead (220 tons..)..

But anything on what ships might have stored deep in the hold in this
line.. size and weight of stones etc would be interesting... Images also.

Thank you.

Kerryn Offord

[Eystein Roll Aarseth]

Post by Kerryn Offord
Could anybody point me to easily accessible references on ships ballast
for warships and transports.
Danish and French Navy... in the early 1600s
I know Vasa had stone ballast. Batavia had lead (220 tons..)..
But anything on what ships might have stored deep in the hold in this
line.. size and weight of stones etc would be interesting... Images also.

The "model builder's guild" at the Danish Naval Museum
(http://www.orlogsmuseet.dk) might be able to help. Try mailing
Poul Beck: ombl.formand (at) sol.dk

EAa

[Richard Casady]

On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 05:34:34 -0500, Eystein Roll Aarseth

Post by Kerryn Offord
Could anybody point me to easily accessible references on ships ballast
for warships and transports.

New York Nautical, at the lower end of Manhatten. thousands of
charts from everywhere and books.

Find a merchant officer textbook. Mine has lots of space devoted to
stability calculations. Ballast in modern ships is generally water
tanks low in the hull. The smaller stuff has often used cast iron or
lead. I have heard of a ballast keel made of depleted uranium.

Post by Kerryn Offord
Danish and French Navy... in the early 1600s
I know Vasa had stone ballast. Batavia had lead (220 tons..)..
But anything on what ships might have stored deep in the hold in this
line.. size and weight of stones etc would be interesting... Images also.

One would think they would be in a handy size for handling by one man.
Say ten to fifty pounds. There is probably an optimum that shifts the
most weight per unit time.

A digression: there are buildings in East coast harbors made from
English stone that came over as ballest. If you load heavy cargo low
in the ship you may not need the stone. You definitely want it when
traveling empty.

Casady

[Soren Larsen]

Post by Kerryn Offord
Could anybody point me to easily accessible references on ships
ballast for warships and transports.
Danish and French Navy... in the early 1600s

In the 1700's the danish navy used gravel, stones, kentledges,
old cannon


I'll look for some 1600's references.


OK

In 1964 iron bars from the galley of Enhjørningen (Unicorn)
was recovered from Jens Munk's wintering site at Churchill
River in Canada.

http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1SEC881206

Move forward until you get to the arctic sites.

Enhjørningen was a Danish brig with 18 12pd cannon build 1605.

Enhjørningen was scuttled by the 3 survivors of the ill-fated expedition
before they sailed Lamperen back across the Atlantic.


Cheers
Soren Larsen

[Kerryn Offord]

Post by Soren Larsen

Post by Kerryn Offord
Could anybody point me to easily accessible references on ships
ballast for warships and transports.
Danish and French Navy... in the early 1600s

In the 1700's the danish navy used gravel, stones, kentledges,
old cannon
I'll look for some 1600's references.
OK
In 1964 iron bars from the galley of Enhjørningen (Unicorn)
was recovered from Jens Munk's wintering site at Churchill
River in Canada.
http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1SEC881206
Move forward until you get to the arctic sites.
Enhjørningen was a Danish brig with 18 12pd cannon build 1605.
Enhjørningen was scuttled by the 3 survivors of the ill-fated expedition
before they sailed Lamperen back across the Atlantic.
Cheers
Soren Larsen

Thank you,

That's about what I've been finding..

Old cannon cut up (Probably so someone can't try to fire them) ammo, and
stones, lots of stones...

[Pete Granzeau]

On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:05:19 +1200, Kerryn Offord

Post by Kerryn Offord
Could anybody point me to easily accessible references on ships ballast
for warships and transports.
Danish and French Navy... in the early 1600s
I know Vasa had stone ballast. Batavia had lead (220 tons..)..
But anything on what ships might have stored deep in the hold in this
line.. size and weight of stones etc would be interesting... Images also.

I have seen something someplace that indicated that rip rap used for a mole
had originally been ballast of ships coming in and loading cargo of some
kind for transport out. So at least there, ballast was something cheap
(like rocks) that could be picked up if a voyage had to be made without
cargo aboard.

This may not qualify, as it was written as fiction, but in O'Brian's
Aubrey/Maturin series, Aubrey uses _Surprise_'s carronades as ballast when
he is required by the Admiralty to carry long guns. As I remember, when he
takes her private, he reverses the situation, carrying the long guns as
ballast and using the carronades.

[Jack Linthicum]

Post by Kerryn Offord
Could anybody point me to easily accessible references on ships ballast
for warships and transports.
Danish and French Navy... in the early 1600s
I know Vasa had stone ballast. Batavia had lead (220 tons..)..
But anything on what ships might have stored deep in the hold in this
line.. size and weight of stones etc would be interesting... Images also.
Thank you.
Kerryn Offord

Archaeology lives off of ship's ballast, it is the usual marker for
where a sunken ship lies. This is two pages from archaeology 17th
century ship's ballast



18th Century Ballast Site off LouisianaIn May 1989 an eighteenth
century site was identified off the Chandeleur Islands, east of the
Mississippi River delta. The site was investigated by Texas A&M
University and published under study number MMS 89-0092. A ballast
pile, pottery shards, a lead patch, a lead bilge pump tube, and six
iron cannon were recorded during the investigation. No hull remains
were found at the site and researchers concluded that the site
represented the location of an accidental grounding and discard of
unnecessary ballast and ordnance to lighten the ship. This hypothesis
was supported by the fact that all six cannon were damaged in some way
and, while useless as ordnance, could have functioned as ballast.
Interestingly, three of the cannon were of Swedish manufacture and
were cast between 1771 and 1784. The research was sponsored by the MMS
under permit from the State of Louisiana.

The china has been brought to Ostend in great quantities in the 18th
century, first by the Ostend Company and later by mariners from Ostend
in Foreign Service, mainly as ship's ballast.
http://www.vliz.be/Vmdcdata/imis2/ref.php?refid=41150

The 1622 Spanish Treasure Fleet Disaster in the Dry Tortugas
Spanish galleon.
Investigations of the possible Nuestra Se�ora del Rosario
and the Swivel Gun Nest Site.

http://www.anthro.fsu.edu/research/uw/research/ships/rosario.html


ARTIFACT OF THE WEEK Curator Bly Straube could hardly believe her eyes
when archaeologists probing the cellar in the northeast corner of the
fort recovered an early Roman oil lamp dating to 100 or 200 AD. Made
in Gaul, the mass-produced firma lampe would have been common in Roman
London, she says, and it was probably brought to Jamestown some 1,500
years later as part of a load of ship ballast dredged up from the
Thames River.
http://www.topix.net/content/trb/2007/06/elements-of-surprise

The vessel was built in an unusual manner with a double layer of
planking and constructed by building the vessel up from the keel with
planks and later adding the ribs. Many unusual and interesting
artefacts were recovered from the site. These include a prefabricated
portico, ornate silverware, ceramics and bricks, all of which were
part of the 'paying' ballast of the vessel.
http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/maritime/march/shipwrecks/Batavia/batavia.html


The possibility of mistaking natural fractured flint stones for
artifacts has always been problematic to researchers in the Old World
and the New World. This problem increases ten-fold when artifact-like
assemblages are collected from heaps of nonindigenous stone which was
brought to the New World as ballast. Such a ballast station consisting
of flint from the Thames in England and deposited in New Rochelle, New
York, is described, and its ramifications are discussed.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7316(196804)33%3A2%3C240%3AAFBSIN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P

[Mark Borgerson]

Post by Jack Linthicum

Post by Kerryn Offord
Could anybody point me to easily accessible references on ships ballast
for warships and transports.
Danish and French Navy... in the early 1600s
I know Vasa had stone ballast. Batavia had lead (220 tons..)..
But anything on what ships might have stored deep in the hold in this
line.. size and weight of stones etc would be interesting... Images also.
Thank you.
Kerryn Offord

Archaeology lives off of ship's ballast, it is the usual marker for
where a sunken ship lies. This is two pages from archaeology 17th
century ship's ballast
18th Century Ballast Site off LouisianaIn May 1989 an eighteenth
century site was identified off the Chandeleur Islands, east of the
Mississippi River delta. The site was investigated by Texas A&M
University and published under study number MMS 89-0092. A ballast
pile, pottery shards, a lead patch, a lead bilge pump tube, and six
iron cannon were recorded during the investigation. No hull remains
were found at the site and researchers concluded that the site
represented the location of an accidental grounding and discard of
unnecessary ballast and ordnance to lighten the ship. This hypothesis
was supported by the fact that all six cannon were damaged in some way
and, while useless as ordnance, could have functioned as ballast.
Interestingly, three of the cannon were of Swedish manufacture and
were cast between 1771 and 1784. The research was sponsored by the MMS
under permit from the State of Louisiana.
The china has been brought to Ostend in great quantities in the 18th
century, first by the Ostend Company and later by mariners from Ostend
in Foreign Service, mainly as ship's ballast.
http://www.vliz.be/Vmdcdata/imis2/ref.php?refid=3D41150
The 1622 Spanish Treasure Fleet Disaster in the Dry Tortugas
Spanish galleon.
Investigations of the possible Nuestra Se=F1ora del Rosario
and the Swivel Gun Nest Site.
http://www.anthro.fsu.edu/research/uw/research/ships/rosario.html
ARTIFACT OF THE WEEK Curator Bly Straube could hardly believe her eyes
when archaeologists probing the cellar in the northeast corner of the
fort recovered an early Roman oil lamp dating to 100 or 200 AD. Made
in Gaul, the mass-produced firma lampe would have been common in Roman
London, she says, and it was probably brought to Jamestown some 1,500
years later as part of a load of ship ballast dredged up from the
Thames River.
http://www.topix.net/content/trb/2007/06/elements-of-surprise
The vessel was built in an unusual manner with a double layer of
planking and constructed by building the vessel up from the keel with
planks and later adding the ribs. Many unusual and interesting
artefacts were recovered from the site. These include a prefabricated
portico, ornate silverware, ceramics and bricks, all of which were
part of the 'paying' ballast of the vessel.
http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/maritime/march/shipwrecks/Batavia/b=
atavia.html
The possibility of mistaking natural fractured flint stones for
artifacts has always been problematic to researchers in the Old World
and the New World. This problem increases ten-fold when artifact-like
assemblages are collected from heaps of nonindigenous stone which was
brought to the New World as ballast. Such a ballast station consisting
of flint from the Thames in England and deposited in New Rochelle, New
York, is described, and its ramifications are discussed.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=3D0002-7316(196804)33%3A2%3C240%3AAFBSIN%3=
E2.0.CO%3B2-P

IIRC, ship's ballast and, more recently, ballast water, is a big source
of invasive species in many harbors. Zebra mussels in the Great Lakes
being probably the most damaging to date.


Mark Borgerson

[george]

Post by Kerryn Offord
Could anybody point me to easily accessible references on ships ballast
for warships and transports.
Danish and French Navy... in the early 1600s
I know Vasa had stone ballast. Batavia had lead (220 tons..)..
But anything on what ships might have stored deep in the hold in this
line.. size and weight of stones etc would be interesting... Images also.
Thank you.

You might also look at the use of sand as ballast.

[Kerryn Offord]

Post by Kerryn Offord
Could anybody point me to easily accessible references on ships ballast
for warships and transports.
Danish and French Navy... in the early 1600s
I know Vasa had stone ballast. Batavia had lead (220 tons..)..
But anything on what ships might have stored deep in the hold in this
line.. size and weight of stones etc would be interesting... Images also.
Thank you.
Kerryn Offord

Thank you everybody

Kerryn

[Weatherlawyer]

Post by Kerryn Offord

Post by Kerryn Offord
Could anybody point me to easily accessible references on ships ballast
for warships and transports.
Danish and French Navy... in the early 1600s
I know Vasa had stone ballast. Batavia had lead (220 tons..)..
But anything on what ships might have stored deep in the hold in this
line.. size and weight of stones etc would be interesting... Images also.

Thank you everybody

Admiral He seems to have used a ballast tank or tanks in his
unbelievably massive ships to store food in the form of mussels.
Dashed clevva those Chinese. If you are going to have mud or sand
ballast you might as well make it pay its ferry, man.

I imagine that using stone instead would permit easier removal and
more secure packing? Lead because of it's malleability is considered
the most superior infill in modern plastics.

It seems (to me at least) that Noah used ballast tanks loaded with
rainwater in the roof of his mobile home one year. I suppose the
designer had it in mind to use the weight shifting ability as a
stabiliser.

Mind you it was easily replenished in the conditions it was designed
for and subsequent vessels have ignored the device. (Unless you count
submarines of course.)

I suppose you could argue that Noah's ship was a submarine.