"Calif Bill" wrote in message
hlink.net...

"Mike Harrison" wrote in message
news:TfiXg.129206$R63.43581@pd7urf1no...
I was in a tea shop today where they had a model of the sailing ship "The
Cutty Sark". I was intrigued by the way the masts were spliced. I would
have expected that if a long enough tree trunk was not available, they
would have spliced two pieces together using perhaps a scarf joint with
maybe some metal binding as reinforcement. The actual splices on the
model
were overlapped by a distance approximately equal to 6 mast diameters,
and
adjacent to one another with the upper section towards the front of the
ship. There was a horizontal plate at the top and bottom of the splice.
Can
anyone tell me if this is the type of splice that was actually used and
what special feature about it made it the best splice to use?


It was pointed out to us on the US Constitution tour, that the masts were
not single trees as a single tree could more easily brake across
completely.
Was several trees split lengthwise and fastened together with iron rings.
So you would have long overlaps also, for the same reason.

You can see that on:
http://www.soic.se/engelska/inenglis...680002566.html
third picture down.
/Lars J