What's available on the WWW?

This section is for WWW (Browser access using Firefox, Netscape, Explorer, etc.).

This question has sections labeled:

• SPECIAL!!!
• General
• FAQs On-line
• Lists of Links to Other Sites
• Model Boating & Clubs
• Ship Model Dealers and Suppliers
• Books and Book Shops
• Miscellaneous
• Sailing Ships
• "Steam" ships
• Maritime Museums and Research Projects (including Nautical Archaeology)
• Research Ships
• Government / Military

SPECIAL!!!

The Maritime History Virtual Archives: a GREAT!!! (and one of the first!) WWW location, maintained by Lars Bruzelius (in Upsala, Sweden).

The Information Seaway (Seaways' Ships in Scale page).

The Nautical Research Guild has been linking researchers, collectors, and builders of the highest quality ship models for nearly fifty years. Members share a common dedication to learning about ships and maritime history through academic research as applied and expressed in the process of ship model building. Founded in 1948, The Nautical Research Guild, Inc. is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational organizatio supported by an international membership.
The Guild offers a great deal of assistance to researchers and model builders at it's site. In particular, specialized pages are included at: NRG:Resources

In order to avoid duplication (and to help make the FAQ smaller), entries that appear at the above sites will NOT be duplicated in the FAQ; you are encouraged to visit these sites for further links. (It's also likely that these sites are more current!)

General

Building the Yacht Models (A superb set of photographs of the construction of a model by a professional).

Cardstock ship modeling: Digital Navy allows you to download card models to print out and assemble.

Information on Cannons can be found at: (Civil War Re-enactors).

International Plastic Modelers Society has a web site.

Pop-pop Pages celebrates the amazingly simple and simply amazing steam toy, the pop-pop boat.

Welcome to The Spire Project contains a lot of information for those trying to research something using the Internet (It's an expanded version of the Information Research FAQ.).

Image and Sound Databases gives you a number of different databases to search for a variety of types of image - e.g.: the Smithsonian Photographic Collection or Colombia University Image and Video Catalog.

Thomas Register. Yes! it's online and you can search it too!

Ship Model Mailing List Homepage (SMML) is oriented toward Resin models, but contains a lot of useful information, including that list's Archives, Hints'n'Tios, etc., as well as detail on subscribing to SMML.

ModelWarships.com is for Scale Model Warships of all eras and all scales. Your source for Warship related reviews, both in the box and full buildup, feature articles, Ship walkaround and Museum photo tours, Modelers gallery a message board for your questions, and links to other related sites.

Another site for (modern) warship modeling: SteelNavy.com. Useful information, links to related web sites as well.
{Jeff Herne}

The goal of Warship Models Underway is to promote the hobby of radio control warship modeling.

Titanic Research & Modeling Association.

Sea Foto is a source of maritime images.

If you enjoy 18th C engravings of maritime subjects you should have a look here. Select Schepen and you can access the splendid engravings of Gerrit Groenewegen, which were publsihed in Rotterdam in 1789 under the title Verzameling van vier en tachtig Stuks Hollandische Schepen geteekend en in Koper gebragt door G Groenewegen ('Collection of 84 engravings of Dutch ships, drawn and engraved on copper by G Groenewegen'). These can be downloaded as JPegs, sized at about 60K each. (Site mostly in Dutch)
The work of this artist will be familiar to many modellers, since individual engravings have been widely used to illustrate books about maritime history and ship-modelling ....for instance Petrejus' book on the Brig-of-War IRENE. Groenewegen's system of naming ship types is a little idiosyncratic ...for instance he describes a Brig as a 'Barkentyn', but they are well worth a look.
{John Harland}

The ModelShipwrights site was "originally intended as a discussion and Email list for scratch builders of sailing ship models working to the plans of Jean Boudriot and Harold Hahn. The list now includes members building glass fiber hulled and radio controlled models alongside the traditional plank on frame static models that have been with us for hundreds of years."
While there, if you click on W2W (Warships to Workboats}, you'll find an on-line model ship building magazine dedicated to the presentation of items of interest to model ship builders. It is a cooperative effort of the Modelshipwrights' List and The Warrior List. It's contributors are members of both e-mail list groups, and articles presented in the journal reflect their varied experience in this hobby. It is published quarterly, and may be downloaded free of charge.

For the past three years, Warships to Workboats has been a staple online ship modelers magazine offering high quality articles in a periodical format. Through the hard work of the editorial crew, it was produced quarterly and there are eleven issues on both the Modelshipwrights and Warriorgroup web sites for downloading.
Due to the pressures of production and the very large commitment required to make this happen, we are no longer able to produce the magazine in this format. As an alternative, a small group of modelers have changed the format of Warships to Workboats to a wiki. This is a web based approach that is fast becoming a popular way to present material on the internet.
Articles will still be solicited from modelers around the world and processed by our editorial staff. Once processed, the articles will be posted on the wiki for all to see. Articles will be updated to the wiki as received and notices will be sent to the ship modeling community on a regular basis to remind people to check the wiki for new material.. In this way, the material will still be available to the modeling community.
Click here to visit the wiki.
We hope you enjoy it, the W2W staff.
{BIll Short}

Sailcut and Carene Has "CAD" freeware to design boat hulls and sails.

Glory Ships - Pictures of shipmodels.

A concise history of The Development Of Square-rigged Ship From The Carrack To The Full-rigger - in 6 parts.

William Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine Includes French terms as well, and was originally published in MDCCLXXX)

National Woodcarving School "for the beginner and more advanced carver. Detailed step by step free tutorials to learn the fundamental in relief and chip carving. This site also includes: courses, free patterns, sharpening techniques, wood finishing and staining techniques and lots more in the art of woodworking." You may find some useful tricks here for carving those shipmodel decorations!

There's a useful collection of information on Acid Etching (Photo-etching), as well as other processes used to make kits (Injection molding, Vacuum forming, etc.)

Richard Hunter has a web site on Figureheads - click on the archives for pictures.

Scott Bushnell has a web site on "Desks, Work Spaces, Storage and Tool Ideas" at Ship Modeler's Desktop.

Ever thought about using bird-shot to represent scale cannon-balls? Griffin & Howe presents a Shot Size Table giving all American, English and European dimensions for shot.

Kazunobu Shirai has a site that shows many of his models: Wooden Sailing Ship Models - YOKOHAMA Workshop. The site itself is mostly in Japanese, but there's enough English to allow navigation to the pictures.

Dry Dock Models :: Tall Ship Model Image Gallery is a place to view (and display) pictures of ship models.

Here are some sites/companies for stuff about Great Lakes Ship Modeling: {Don Stauffer}
Bearco Marine
Sylvan Scale Models
Also,

Great Lakes Modeling PO Box 340 Rosemounnt, MN 55068 Email

Great Lakes Memories PO Box 51183 Livonia, MI 48151-5183 Email

Joseph Neumeyer, miniature builder for film productions such as Titanic, Starship Troopers, and so forth, has produced a number of dioramas - many of which feature ships at sea. They can be seen at: Joseph Neumeyer's Dynamic Dioramas. The sea scenes feature WW II ships ranging from submarines and PT boats to the battleship Missouri. The 'water' in the dioramas is nicely done, as is the weathering on the ships. {Mike Graff}

Questions for Young Officers are from The New Practical Navigator (1814):

The following Questions and Answers are recommended to the perusal of young Gentlemen belonging to the Sea, in order to refresh their Memories, previous to that Examination which they must pass through, before they are appointed to a Commission in the Royal Navy, or an Officer in the East India Service; as it is probable similar ones may be asked by those appointed to examine them, at the navy Office and the East-India House.

The Stockholm IPMS site includes a Color Reference Chart that compares paints available from various manufacturers.

The Dockyard Museum site includes the the Vickers PhotogaphicArchive, a collection of images from the Vickers Shipyard (Barrow-in-Furness, England), sorted by Armaments, Engineering, Shipbuilding, The Shipyard, and Vessel Names. Thumbnail images can be expanded (and are apparently available for purchase).

MIT has Index of /museum/collections/images/2005 lists some PDF files (look for "Owen *.pfd") which are a guide to the George Owen Collection. Worth a visit!

As an experiment, Model Expo is providing a PDF version of the instruction manual for their 1:48 ARMED VIRGINIA SLOOPon-line. You can get and evaluate the instructions before buying the kit! {Marc Mosko}

Dens Model Ships contains models of ships, that are all Scratch Built, at a uniform scale of 1:96.

A practicum on building the Model Shipways Sultana is becoming available...looks good!
And, there's another set of Sultana build lessons as well!

There are a lot of Pictures available at this site - paintings (click on any thumbnail!), models, and drawings; organized by country.

Frequently Asked Questions About ROPE published by Manila Cordage Company provides a lot of information about rope in plain language.

You can download copies of some of Fredrik Henrik af Chapman's plans from Architectura Navalis Mercatoria, 1768) here.
(these are good .gif images, but are downloaded as compressed files that must be executed in order to be displayed. As for all such downloaded executable files, it is a good idea to virus-check the file before opening it.)

Shipmodelers might want to take a look at The Ship Modeling Forum.

Wooden Ship Modeling for Dummies -or- Learning from Pictures consists of "Wooden Ship Modeling: FAQ. Videos, Glossaries, Technical Notes, Practicums and Tips and Tricks for Building and Improving your Wooden Boat Model".

It is obvious that the author suffers from trembling hands and as such has built jigs and found other process to help him in his modeling career. I've subscribed to his web site and have built some of his jigs and find them extremely useful. {Steve Parker}

The Real Paint & Varnish Company Limited has a page of "History of Paint and Colour" - this is useful in showing at what dates various colors became available (e.g., Prussian Blue became readily available after 1724).

THE SEAMANS Grammar and Dictionary (1691) (Explaining all the difficult TERMS in NAVIGATION AND THE PRACTICAL Navigator and Gunner In Two Parts By Captain JOHN SMITH, Sometimes Governour of Virginia, and Admiral of New England) is available for downloading, as a PDF file.

At the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program site, you can download a report: "2002 The Development and Design of Bronze Ordnance, Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries", as a (7.16 Mb) PDF file. A useful survey of the topic.

Raul Guzman Jr. Has created a wonderful diorama, "Decision of the Admiralty Board." Go here and then click on "36 photos: "Decision of the Admiralty Board". This is the ultimate in nautical-related doll house dioramas!

AeroHydor, Inc. Has a CAD program called SurfaceWorks Marine, as well as other marine design tools. SurfaceWorks Marine "has all the functionality of MultiSurf LT with some added features. The number of surfaces is no longer limited, and a number of curve and surface entities have been added. We believe that the new interface will facilitate aster modeling and a more productive marine design experience". While expensive, older (obsolete) versions may be available at reasonable costs.)

How to Carve Netsuke and Miniature Sculpture, has a free download .PDF file that shows how to do minature carvings.

Henry Rodgers Ship Model Collection - U.S. Naval Academy Museum is a free video ou cvan download that shows ship models in this collection.

There's a documentary film you can watch for free - GHOSTS OF CAPE HORN. This nautical documentary uses rare footage to follow the boats and crews of the late 19th and early 20th enturies who dared the 18,000 mile voyage from New York to San Francisco, including passage around the infamous Cape Horn. Narrated by Jason Robards.

There's a new site for Navy Board Models. The site, which is owned and operated by Winston Scoville, the editor of the MSB Journal, will be devoted exclusively to plank-on-frame and admiralty-style ships built from scratch. For starters, the site will offer a step-by-step tutorial led by Gene Bodnar, called "How to Convert a Set of Plans to Plank-on-Frame Construction." In addition, a practicum will be conducted for building the U. S. Brig Eagle (1814) in the admiralty style. More projects will be offered in the future. {Winston Scoville, Gene Bodnar}

Mike Ellison has set up Model Shipbuilders - The Shipmodeler's Online Community, "an online community for ship modelers. ..., I thought a website that allows people to invite friends, create their own pages, web logs, upload videos, create groups and so forth might be a good way to build the community. And, hopefully, it can help us attract younger modelers to the hobby."

A new World War II archive is available. {David N. Lombard}

A couple of videos on the effects of cannon-fire abouard ships are available at: Fighting Sail Deck and: USS Niagara Live Fire Demonstration.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) On-line

Almost all FAQ's can be accessed via the WWW. See the main Internet FAQ Archives

Lists of Links to Other Sites

Model Boating & Clubs

R/C Boating.

Ship Model Dealers and Suppliers

Cottage-Industries has "Unique Model Kits Of The American Civil War: Ironclads, Submarines, Siege, Seacoast, & Naval Guns, Field Artillery, Collectible Figures; Model Kits From Old Steam Navy"

Books and Book Shops

However, if you are looking for an out of print book, you're better off going to Advanced Book Exchange (Abebooks), which is a site run by a group of book dealers; allowing you to search more than one company's inventory. (This is one of the places Amazon searches for a book you ask them to find - you'll end up paying Amazon's commission on top of the price you'll find here.)
Abebooks is - like Alibris, Biblio, Bookfinder, and others - a kind of meta-site, a central point for finding the title you want from the combined listings of hundreds or thousands of independent shops.

A couple of other sites are: Bookfinder and AddALL; these have both been recommended.

Another site is AddALL- they are a sort of meta-meta-site, which combines the results of Abebooks, Alibris, etc, and list the results in order of price or several other criteria. Click on the one you want and you are taken to that meta-site. I also like their simple interface, and ability to search on keyword (eg, title: armada, keyword: navy records). {Gordon Marriott}

Miscellaneous

Sailing Ships

"Steam" Ships

On the west coast, Jeremiah O'Brien.

Maritime Museums and Research Projects (including Nautical Archaeology)

Marine Art Information Center (American Society of Marine Artists).

Here's a Viking Ship site:
The Viking Ship Replica Krampmacken (Gotland, Sweden).

The Townsville Maritime Museum provides a fascinating insight into the naval and maritime history of Townsville (Australia).

The Ship Index page contains index entries of over 85,000 ship names contained in numerous books and periodicals. {Paul Mitchell}

TEXT-BOOK of Seamanship, USNA, 1891 A copy of this book - USEFUL (a naval officer of 1891 might serve on anything from a Dreadnought Battleship to the USS Constitution, and know how everything worked!)

Research Ships

Research Ships Database and Schedules - Info on Ships and Future Sailings.

Government / Military

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) .

Official Inventory of U.S. Naval Ships and Service Craft; at: Naval Vessel Register (U.S Navy) .
also see: decommissioned ships of the USN .

U.S. Naval Sea Cadets Corps .

The Royal Australian Navy has virtual tours of their ships available - engine rooms, etc.

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