Small KMH Continued

I managed to open up the sailed Jolly Boat that I bought from Langton miniatures. It is really tiny. Just a little over a centimeter in length with a small mast and a single square sail. I think I know how to get past the issues I am having with the twin masted yawl that I have now. I am having great difficulty gluing the sails in place. For the jolly boat, I will glue the sail to the mast before gluing the mast to the hull. That should allow it to work better. I will also prime everything first instead of assembling then priming. Who knows, I might learn something after all.

The jib sails for the Yawl are daunting at the moment. I have managed to thread them and they are ready to be attached to the foremast and bow spirit. But they are so very small. The sails have to be attached first and I have had no luck in doing so to this point.

I have a fully assembled Sea Dog 10 gun Brigantine that just needs paint. I have no idea what to paint it yet.

I have details for the SC Navy Sloop Defense. It was a two masted ship that was schooner rigged. Pierced for 16 guns yet typically mounted 10 guns of varying calibers. Trying to figure out what to use for her. The ship was 60' in length. In 1:300 scale, it should be just a hair over 6 cm in length. There is a Warartisan 12-gun schooner that could do. Painting it will be tricky as it will be a paper miniature but it should work.

I have purchased some drawing board that I hope is about as thick as 4-ply Bristol board. I will try it out this week. The 1/8th balsa was far to thick for the small schooners.

In working out how to handle the rules, I have ventured down a rabbit hole of making a campaign system out of it. I am trying to research out what typical crews would be for the various vessels. Given the enormous varieties of vessels and how they were manned by various nations, this will largely be made up, I fear.

Here is my starting points. I have information on the HMS Indefatigable. It was a 46-gun frigate of 344 men. 190 were landlubbers and seamen. 54 were marines, 29 were ships boys, 10 were midshipmen, 4 were lieutenants and of course the captain. This leaves us with 56 men that were petty officers of all types. The second ship I am using is the HMS Pickle, the small schooner that delivered the news of the victory at Trafalgar. This was a 10-gun ship of 127 tons. I found the price of the ship at £2,500. While equipped for 10 guns, she was armed with six carronades. From the details offered in the article "http://www.ageofnelson.org/pdf/Lapenotiere.pdf" the small ship had a lieutenant that was replaced later with a master's mate. The whole crew was a mere 35 men. The captain lamented that he was not given his authorized marine compliment. It was an unhappy ship as the article relates as he had senior hands that deserted.

For the purpose of the campaign, I am tracking on each ship: landlubbers, seamen (ordinary and able), marines, officers and value. The seamen are figured at 1/3rd of the number of men (landlubbers plus seamen) that are needed to sail the ship. The marines are the men serving as marines. This could be soldiers aboard as such or actual marines. The officers are not just the commissioned officers but those able to serve as masters for a prize. This would be masters mates, lieutenants and some midshipmen. Figuring out just how the crew breaks down, I am going with the following percentages based off of the Indefatigable's crew breakdown. This is just a first stab at things and will doubtlessly change.

HMS Pickle

Men 55.23%	Marines 15.69%	Ships Boys 8.43%	Midshipmen 2.90%	Lieutenants 1.16%	Petty Officers 16.28%
19 (6 seamen)	6	3	1	0	6

Totaling these gets us our ships compliment of 35. But it was noted that the Pickle didn't have any marines. Those 6 men would get rolled into the total number of men. So there would be 8 seamen and 16 landlubbers. To figure out the number of officers that can be placed into a prize we have to get creative. Add the number of midshipmen and the number of petty officers and take 1.3rd of that number. Then add the number of lieutenants. That gives us 2 officers to use for prize crews. The ship's boys are basically extras that are needed for various tasks but unnecessary for the purpose of the campaign. So our ship would look like this:

Ship Type	Guns	Total Crew	Marines	Landsmen	Seamen	Officers	Value
Schooner	10	35	0	16	8	2	£2500

So for the campaign, the captain of the Pickle is ordered to patrol an area of the Mediterranean coastline near the French Riviera. (I am currently reading Dewey Lambdin's Kings Commander and that is where it takes place.) His ship is shallow drafted enough to work closely inshore but he wants to increase his likelihood of snatching up a prize. He can do several things. Take a small ship to act as a tender. Buy a small ship to act as a tender. Recruit from a friendly or neutral port to increase his crew in the event of taking a prize.

These are just ideas I am batting around. Hopefully it will start to coalesce into something that makes sense.