that its, that why the guns are dummys

you could alwas make the grating portable but then how much deck would you see

whooooooooooo back their,willie the middle gun deck is seen through the upper deck,it is the lower gun deck that has the hatches and walkways above.the upper gundeck has a wide walkway all around it,and a big hole in the middle.

from the upper deck you will be able to view through into the next gun deck down onto the top layer of the diorama if fitting it. the large rectangular hole on the upper deck is for storing the ships boats and is not covered at all. these days Victory has a canvas cover but that is a modern feature to keep visitors dry.

What's the difference between the main deck and the quarter deck?

John

So on our Victory it's part of the main deck is it?

John

so there is no main deck

Hi All

The naming of decks can be confusing because different sources will use different naming conventions.

Before the middle of the 18th century, most warships had a raised deck towards the rear of the uppermost deck. The number of decks would depend on how many guns a ship carried. This raised deck was known as the quarterdeck and was the command and control position from where the Captain directed operations aboard the ship. Consequently only officers and other sailors who had to be there (such as guncrews; helmsman etc) were allowed up onto the quarterdeck. Very large ships had an additional poopdeck above part of the quarterdeck.

Towards the end of the 18th century some ships were designed without raising an extra quarterdeck but a command centre was still necessary, so the convention was to refer to the part of the uppermost deck abaft the mainmast (between the mainmast and stern) as the quarterdeck and to maintain limited access as above. This was the case for the frigate HMS Trincomalee which has a flush deck from stem to stern, referred to as the quarterdeck because the ships wheel and binnacle are on it and that is where the Captain would be.

On the 1765 HMS Victory, because she carries so many guns, there are three gun decks. Some sources refer to these as the lower, middle and upper gundecks. The diagram that Tomick has put up refers to the same three decks as the gun deck, middle deck and upper deck respectively.

Above the upper deck, Victory has a raised quarterdeck which is level with the forecastle (focsle) To facilitate movement between the two, there is a broad gangway on each side, so the overall effect is that of a single deck with a large 'hole' in between the two gangways. This opening had skid beams placed across to support the ships boats when they were stowed on board. So when Jase is talking about the upper deck, he is talking about the deck above the upper gun deck which is the quarterdeck, gangways and forecastle deck!

In the case of Victory, the end of the quarterdeck has a partition which divides off the Captain's quarters. This means that when the Captain is called on deck he comes straight out of his quarters into the quarter deck area.

The poop deck is above the Captain's quarters and extends forward over part of the quarter deck and provides some protection for the ships wheel and the binnacle. These are two vitally important parts of the control of the ship and are normally more exposed and hence extremely vunerable.

If you look at Tomick's diagram, hopefully you will be able to relate the above to the diagram. Mckay - The Anatomy of the Ship HMS Victory book has separate diagrams to clearly show each deck.

For the sake of completeness I should also mention the Orlop Deck which is below the lower gun deck and actually below the waterline and therefore is not implemented in the kind of Victory models we are looking at.

Mike T