3D 1/700 Scale HMS Captain 1787

 

Geoff Hunt print - HMS Captain

In my last post I talked about the resin 3D ships I received from Henry Turner. I also showed the repairs I made on the damaged models, one of which was this one, the Canada class 74 gun HMS Captain of 1787.

HMS Captain served as part of the port of Toulon occupation fleet during the war with revolutionary France. She then took part in the raid on Genoa. In June 1796, Captain Horatio Nelson was transferred from HMS Agamemnon into HMS Captain. Admiral John Jervis appointed Nelson commodore of a squadron deployed off Livorno to monitor Napoleon's march through northern Italy. In February 1797, Nelson rejoined Jervis's fleet 25 miles west of Cape St. Vincent on the southwest tip of Portugal. On the 14th of February the British intercepted a Spanish fleet and joined battle. Nelson realized that the leading Spanish ships were escaping and wore Captain out of the line of battle to attack the much larger Spanish ships. Captain exchanged fire with the Spanish flagship SantisimaTrinidad, mounting 136 guns on four decks. Later Captain closely engaged the 80-gun San Nicholas, after she was disabled by a broadside from HMS Excellent and ran into another ship, the San Josef of 112-guns. With Captain barely maneuverable, Nelson ran his ship onto San Nicholas and boarded her. After taking this ship, he ordered his men to board San Josef. As this was taking place San Josef signaled her surrender. 

HMS Captain capturing the San Nicolas and the San Josef at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, 14 February

This action was later immortalized as "Nelson's Patent Bridge for Boarding First Rates". For this battle Admiral John Jervis was made Earl St. Vincent, and Nelson was knighted for his initiative and daring.

(The history above is paraphrased from Wikipedia) 

• Length = 170ft (gundeck)
• Beam = 46ft 9in
• Depth of hold = 20ft 6in
• Complement = 560 officers and men

Armament:

• Lower gundeck = 28 x 32 pounder long guns
• Upper gundeck = 28 x 18 pounder long guns
• Quarterdeck = 14 x 9 pounder long guns
• Forecastle = 4 x 9 pounder long guns

I don't believe I mentioned in the previous post that I only received the ship hulls. Henry Turner includes the full sail and mast sets with his ships, but I requested only the hulls as I like to make my own masts, spars and sails. It's part of the fun I have building these guys. 

Masts built

Made these skid plates for the boats to sit on

Once I mounted the skid plates I realized I didn't have any extra boats. So I made a quick mold using Sculpy and some of the Warlord Games boats as templates. Now I can make as many boats as I need.

I made a sculpy mold to make some furled sails. For Captain I used the top two shown here.

Shaping the sails with a bit of PVA

All of the sails and standing rigging done

And here is the finished ship:

Shown with a Warlord Games Black Seas third rate

I am not sure which ship I am going for next. There are so many choices.......