For anyone about to refer to the storm, this is the old style of cargo ship hatch for which battens are required to secure it for sea (regardless of storms). Battens secure the canvas over the hatchboards and are themselves held in place by wedges hammered in behind the cleats. #BattenDownTheHatches - ThreadSky

ninabake2.bsky.social • 39 days ago

For anyone about to refer to the storm, this is the old style of cargo ship hatch for which battens are required to secure it for sea (regardless of storms). Battens secure the canvas over the hatchboards and are themselves held in place by wedges hammered in behind the cleats.
#BattenDownTheHatches

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ninabake2.bsky.social•39 days ago

Directly below THAT hatch is another in the 'Tween deck' which gives access to the lower hold. The Tween deck hatch is constructed on the exact same system of beams and boards as in this lovely photo nicked off Shipsnostalgia.

seanmackey.bsky.social•39 days ago

I first learned about this hatch system from reading C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower books as a kid.

ninabake2.bsky.social•39 days ago

I had to learn about it when I was a cadet in the 1970s even though there were vanishingly few hatches left like that even then.

garycurmudgeon.bsky.social•34 days ago

I believe, that in that period, the hatch covers in a man o' war were actually wooden gratings for ventilation below where the crew slept, and the canvas and battens were only put on for bad weather.

ninabake2.bsky.social•34 days ago

I should mention that the sort of hatch covers I illustrated were still in common use in the merchant navy in the 1970s but were rapidly disappearing, whereas the open grating type vanished with days of sail.

ninabake2.bsky.social•34 days ago

Seems reasonable. But even so, no Captain would leave it until the sea was on deck before covering them up, surely?

garycurmudgeon.bsky.social•34 days ago

Wind sailors keep a sharp eye on the weather and the sea state. If the wind was freshening, they had a large well-trained crew who could cover them in an instant.

franksqrig.bsky.social•39 days ago

Showing my age but this is type of hatch we were taught about at nautical college in the mid 60s - before the box ships!

ninabake2.bsky.social•39 days ago

I had to learn about it as a cadet too, in the early 70s. Never saw one IRL of course, all mechanical hatches on the ships I was on.

ratshag.bsky.social•39 days ago

TIL 👍

ninjafingers.bsky.social•39 days ago

Congratulations for being more of a pedant than I am. You're my kind of person!

ninabake2.bsky.social•39 days ago

Thanks! But this isnt so much pedantry as educating the landlubbers especially the sort who leave their kids trampolines to be blown all over the place EVERY SINGLE time there is even a Force 5.

ninjafingers.bsky.social•39 days ago

I occasionally find interesting things, which do not belong to me, on my balcony after storms.

reetspetit.bsky.social•39 days ago

IIRC that's a view from forward looking aft.

I think wedges were driven in from the forward end so any weather would push them in/tighter.

I'll get my coat.... 🤣

ninabake2.bsky.social•39 days ago

CORRECT!!!
You get a ⭐
Maddeningly I no longer have any of my old seamanship text books so I had to really hunt about on the internet to even find that diagram.

reetspetit.bsky.social•39 days ago

Not got mine either :-)

(Not even the Norries bible.....)

For a long moment after hitting send I thought I'd got it wrong & humiliated myself (not for the first time!)

Thanks. Great diagram.

ninabake2.bsky.social•39 days ago

For unknowable reasons the only text book I still have from those days is a Kemp & Young Ship Stability book - as incomprehensible now as then.

reetspetit.bsky.social•39 days ago

Jeez.

We'll be doing angle of loll next....

At that point it will probably involve M before G, @dreadships.bsky.social, a French battleship and a tale of woe.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

ninabake2.bsky.social•39 days ago

I think the best I can manage at this time of night is the Angle of Repose, which is about all I recall from the bulk cargoes bit of the cargo work book (also K&Y and also gone).

eakmankate.bsky.social•38 days ago

Sorry, total land lubber here... It appears the wedges are hammered in from the deck? So the cargo is safe and dry but the sailors get to hold on for dear life? Or am I displaying my ignorance gloriously? 😁

ninabake2.bsky.social•38 days ago

Yes the wedges are hammered in whilst on deck. But this is done in port where all should be reasonably safe. If bad weather is expected whilst at sea the Mate will get the deckhands to give the wedges a few more taps.
FYI the wedges' wide ends face forward so that the weather cannot force them out.

eakmankate.bsky.social•38 days ago

Thank you for the explanation! I love learning new things.

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