I've been collecting and reading the series of books/novels by Patrick OBrian (21 in total) about the British Navy during the Napoleonic wars in the early 1800's.
Each book has cover artwork by Geoff Hunt, a marine artist who usually paints in oils. His work is absolutely amazing and really brings to life the incredible beauty of the old man of war tall ships.


The photo above is a copy of his artwork and is obviously HMS Victory, probably the most famous ship in history.
For me, she and many others of her era are the most beautiful ships ever to take to water. I could look at her all day.
And they can keep all of the multi million dollar sail or power boats of today, they don't even come close...

Wonderful painting Cocky. I've actually been aboard Victory and stood at the spot where Nelson fell.
The shipbuilders art back in the day was second to none. How they worked those massive timbers is
amazing. I was not allowed to take photo's on board however, so no selfies.

samsturdy said..
Wonderful painting Cocky. I've actually been aboard Victory and stood at the spot where Nelson fell.
The shipbuilders art back in the day was second to none. How they worked those massive timbers is
amazing. I was not allowed to take photo's on board however, so no selfies.

I've seen videos on YouTube but hope to go myself one day also.

samsturdy said..
Wonderful painting Cocky. I've actually been aboard Victory and stood at the spot where Nelson fell.
The shipbuilders art back in the day was second to none. How they worked those massive timbers is
amazing. I was not allowed to take photo's on board however, so no selfies.

I took plenty about 3 years ago. This is how real hammocks look rigged correctly.

Karsten said..

All@Sea said..

This viking ship also strikes me as quite beautiful in it's relative simplicity - less ornamentation and complexity.

Though you have to wonder - if the bow and the stern were raised on wave crests with a trough in the middle, you'd think the vikings would have needed a massive structural beam to keep the hull from snapping admidships.

I watched a doco on the Viking Longships, they were really flexible and could sail at 15 knots!

They were also light enough to be carried over land if need be, amazing.

Wow! Both brilliant boats! For VFM you'd have to go the Salthouse, but that Farr is just beautiful, and I bet she's fast too!