All at Sea – Fleet Build, Battle of Camperdown

[carojon]

Work has finally commenced with the a project long in the planning and delayed by other stuff, but I have just finished building the four Dutch flagships present at the Battle of Camperdown as part of a plan to build the Dutch and British fleets present at the battle.

The delay has been useful in that it has allowed me to correct some earlier misapprehensions and ideas about how these two forces would look and to allow for the inclusion of the models necessary to complete the two line ups and I take a look at these issues in this post.

If you would like to know more then just follow the link to JJ’s

https://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2023/09/all-at-sea-battle-of-camperdown-project.html

JJ

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

[Darkest Star Games]

They came out very nicely.

Any idea why the ochre color was so popular during that time period?  Was always curious about that.

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[carojon]

Hi DS,

Thank you, and no not really. The natural wood for strakes was popular in the 18th century, giving way to warships becoming the black grey with often coloured strakes moving into the 19th, with the chequerboard becoming a popular option as the century progressed.

I guess the broader strake of any colour differentiated from the bulwarks and lower hull would help to intimidate a likely foe as to the power of a ship’s broadside, only emphasised by the chequerboard ports.

Probably warship colours have always followed a similar trend among maritime powers, even into modern times with the makers of marine grey paint worth an absolute fortune.

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

[Darkest Star Games]

Thanks!  I had forgotten that the checkerboard pattern could be used for intimidation, and that some ships painted more squares than they actually had gunports just to fox their enemies.

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[AdmiralHawke]

carojon wrote:

Work has finally commenced with the a project long in the planning and delayed by other stuff, but I have just finished building the four Dutch flagships present at the Battle of Camperdown as part of a plan to build the Dutch and British fleets present at the battle.

I am loving the way you are steadily working through all the great naval actions of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Bravo!

An interesting and informative post, as always. Thank you. It seems to me that the Dutch fleets always gave as good as they got back to the British fleets, with the Dutch sailors every bit the equal of the British sailors, making the Anglo-Dutch battles particularly bloody affairs.

[carojon]

Hi AH,

Thank you, the 1:700 scale has enthused my projects with age of sail games as the scale offers the opportunity to recreate the look of the great marine artists of the day on the tabletop which for me other scales I had used in previous times never quite lived up to.

I agree, Camperdown proved to be a tough fight for Duncan’s British fleet, and the aggressive tactics used by the British in it helped greatly to overcome a very determined naval force, certainly the best that the British came up against in the French Revolutionary War period, and I’m certainly looking forward to gaming it,

JJ

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

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