The best cinematic source for a Carrack/Nao is Ridley Scott's film, '1492'. I don't recall of any other film that features such ships. Watching it, I noted a few details which aren't apparent on most images and models of the Santa Maria I've examined of late. The Captains cabin on the upper afterdeck is much longer and the ships carry much more sail than most illustrations show (though this isn't apparent from the image above which shows the ship having arrived at Guanahani Island). No doubt this is because the ships in the film are genuine replica's.
The film also has some excellent footage of the two other ships and I particularly like the shape of the Pinta with its lateen sails. I've seen quite a few models and illustrations of the Pinta in the last few days and they differ much more than the Santa Maria. In some cases she has two masts as here and in other cases she has three. One model even has her as a full carrack instead of a Caravella Latina as she clearly was.
6 comments:
Modern sail boat designers know a lot about sail area safety margins. Most (earlier) replica ships are deliberately constructed with smaller sail areas for safety reasons. They are pretty careful during (f. ex.) filming. Just occasionally, for speed trials, replicas get fitted rigs that approach the theoretical optimum.
Old illustrations often have wacky perspective, so depictions of small sails don't mean anything.
There is something weird about the top of this page as viewed with Opera.
That contradicts what I've seen though. In the film they spread as much canvas as they could, where as most models of the Santa Maria have only the one main and one fore and aft.
I'm probably just being pedantic but I don't like any of the models of the Santa Maria I've seen thus far. The fact that they all differ so much speaks against their accuracy. (And the Pinta is even worse)
Okay, so...
I looked at the page in Opera and it was as if none of the changes that showed in IE were evident at all. I have no idea what was going on so I've reinstalled the original code for the time being.
Yet another failed html experiment!
Moif,
Regarding the Pinta - is it possible they had an additional mast they could rig if they needed? I know that some small craft have a mast that be removed when not required - there are several boats in the dock now that have that assembly.
Hi MM.
Well, ships in those days were easily modified so I guess, if needs be they could rig another mast if they wanted to.
If (or when) I make a model of a Caravella Latina, then I would make it with two masts, just because that would be easier, and give more gaming space on as small a model as possible.
Here are some other variations of the Pinta that demonstrat how differently that ship is depicted today:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v59/evilmoif/Robin%20Hood/mm16.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v59/evilmoif/Robin%20Hood/pinta.jpg
About sail areas; we may be at cross purposes.
When C20th / C21st people reconstruct an ancient ship, they are usually fairly cautious. Reconstructions generally have slightly smaller rigs than would give (theoretical) optimum performance.
Film directors who have access to a reconstruction may get the crew to pile on all available canvas, but still within the limits of the under-sized rig.
Ancient sailers (mostly) had more experience with their ships than reenactors. Life was also (again, mostly) cheaper. From this, I'd expect that they would (probably) use larger rig, but more skillfully.
Html: I had a peek in Exploder (6, unmodified for a year or so), and saw the same blank at the top as in Opera.
Oleg.
Odd. I didn't have a blank top in Opera.
What I got was a whole mess of background shapes and colours all messed up.
How does it appear to you now?
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