Scottish Maritime Museum

 

On my way to the Castle I passed the Scottish Maritime Museum and noted to visit it on the way back to the rail station.  The Denny Tank was developed by William Denny and his brothers in an innovative way to water test ships hulls in a wave tank.  The public is not allowed to walk along the tank anymore due to  safety regulations.

The long tank in the first photo was able to generate different size waves to understand how a specific hull would handle them.  The waves could be altered as desired.  But the method that made this design so successful was that the hulls were made from wax and could therefore be easily re-sculpted by simply adding or removing wax. Here below are some of the sculpting tools.

Whilst I’m not sure if Denny invented the bulbous nose now so common on the great ships, they certainly learned how to refine them.

Here the hulls were molded.  The form was carved to the draft specs and the wax was poured into the molds.  Weighting several hundred pounds there was a lift/trolley system to carry the finished product to the wave tank. Once the hull was at the point the designers were happy, it was then put down on paper with the proper dimensions by the draftsmen and sent to the shipbuilder.

A bottle of Clyde water was sent to wherever the ship was to be built for good luck at the christening.

This section of wax shows how massive the model was.

Probably the most famous of Denny ship designs was the Cutty Sark, at one time the fastest ship n the world and now on display in Greenwich, England.

A ready supply of pen quills and ink pots

As you carve off the black wax, the shavings are much clearer.  The black is a result of the reuse of wax (something one can not do with a wooden hull).  This wax is well over 100 years old.

This cat’s head is from the original Cutty Shark

 

On the way out I chatted with the staff.  The Visitor Services Mgr., Anne Hoben, asked where I was from. When I said Massachusetts, she asked where?  I told her I had had a business in the fishing port of New Bedford and she remarked that she had visited the city and loved the NB Whaling Museum (with just cause as it is brilliant).  When she told me her son lived in Mattapoisett, I nearly fell over. That is not a town name I had ever expected to hear in Britain and one my business had been for many years prior to the move to New Bedford..  The world is indeed small.

William Denny