Royal Navy Draft Marks

[wlambing]

Brothers from across the Pond, of the Northern Wastes, and The Upside-Down lands, Greetings!!

Several of us in SR4 are in process of building up various vessels in The Queen's service. We need to know what the true height of the Arabic Numeral draft marks is. I have found
reference to the old Roman Numeral system, which were 6 inches high, and 6 inches apart, same as our USN marks. If this were still true, then Trafalgar would have a >60' high rudder, for example. Could you be so kind as to educate us?

Thanks heaps!!

Bill

[wlambing]

Re: Royal Navy Draft Marks

What, no help at all????

B^(

[Guest]

Re: Royal Navy Draft Marks

Bit of an unususual request to be honest. Haven't got a clue to be honest.

[peter w]

Re: Royal Navy Draft Marks

Hello Bill, I will have a go at your question. I will say some of it is going to be educated guesses.

First of all I assume from the wording of your question that you mean modern RN subs, second I would recommend if you can get it a book by Jeremy Flack entitled 100 Years of Royal Navy Submarines, it has more pics of RN subs with draught markings showing than any other book I have.

I believe that the nukes started with an imperial system of draught markings and moved to metric with the advent of the Swiftsure class. From the pics I have especially of the Resolution class I reckon that the markings match your statement of about 6", however from the Swiftsure on the markings being metric the divisions occur in 200mm increments half the distance between numbers being taken up by the number, making the numbers on the metric marked subs to be 4" roughly 100mm. The markings on the metirc subs are usually in red however the markings on the leading edge of the upper rudder are usually blue.

In the book I mentioned above pics of the Resolution class show the top of the upper rudder to be 40' ( in imperial) whereas the metric marked boats for instance the Swiftsure have their rudders marked at roughly 11m ( 36' ish) only seeing pics however will show the way in which they are marked and a reasonable search on google images should bring it up.

I have got a Sheerline Trafalgar and quite a few years ago there used to be a company here in Britain called Subway Designs run by a man called Francis Fearn, he sold a set of draught markings in dry transfer type rub down form for the aforementioned kit. I have done some measuring of my set and they measure about 1.6 ish mm which calculated out at 1/64 scale, the scale of the sub, equals about 4".

I must point out that this is in no way definitive but reflects research I have done in relation to the 1/144 scale HMS Vengeance I am scratchbuilding, research done prior to my knowing of the markings available for my Trafalgar and your question. I hope it helps in some way.

All the best,

Peter.

[wlambing]

Re: Royal Navy Draft Marks

Peter,

Yes, sir, you have been most helpful, indeed!! The 4" inch rule you describe makes a whole bunch of sense, and fits perfectly with my intrepetation of various photos we have
in our research files. Our thanks to you!!!

Take care, and thanks again!

Bill

[peter w]

Re: Royal Navy Draft Marks

Bill,

Glad/hope it helps. Just curious what are you and crew building ?

Peter.

[wlambing]

Re: Royal Navy Draft Marks

Peter,

We've got a long awaited Oberon and an Upholder in major construction and an Upholder and Trafalgar that need to be "dressed up".

Your help is much appreciated!

Take care,

B^)