Barnacle Bill Magazine March 2016 issue 3 | Page 27

27 4. Stand the pipe vertically in a soup-tin (with the larger flared end, if there is one, at the bottom) and sitting on a disk of wood. Pour a bit of absolutely dry sand around the outside of the pipe to maybe half its height – enough to hold the pipe in place. (Cook the sand first if necessary to drive out any water it might contain – it can explode otherwise if you spill some molten lead on it.) 5. Melt sufficient lead to fill the pipe, and do just that. I use a cast iron frying-pan with a pouring spout for this, and a second handle fixed opposite the original one to help handle the weight. (It’s better to have a bit too much lead than not enough, as you don’t want a cold joint half-way down. And of course use goggles and thick leather gloves for safety’s sake whilst you are pouring). 6. As soon as you’ve poured the lead and whilst it is still molten, dangle the shackle pin first, into the lead until just the end with the thimble, still loose on the shackle, is above the surface. Hold it steady until the lead solidifies. (If you’re a belt-and-braces type who wants to be doubly certain the shackle won’t pull out, you can dangle a short length of small chain from the shackle pin down the pipe before pouring.) 7. When everything’s cooled, take the new lead out and splice or seize your line round the thimble. (Use braided line for this as it kinks less readily than standard.) Mark the line however you want, but make sure you do it in such a way to avoid any slippage of the mark along the line. I use whippings round the line and stitched through it. The markings can be at any interval you choose, but I’d use 1’ intervals as far as your vessel’s draft-plus-freeboard. You can expect the lead to lie flat on the bottom when cast, so take your measurements from the shackle. (There’s usually no need to use the traditional bits of leather, cloth and so on at various depths unless you particularly want to, because you won’t want more than about 30’ of line at most.) Splice or seize a wrist loop at the bitter end, to saving losing your creation on the first cast! 8. To make the lead even more useful, drill out a shallow recess in the bottom (or cast it with a recess when pouring) so you can arm it with soap, Vaseline, or the traditional tallow before use to bring up a sample of the bottom. Reference to the chart can then help make it easier to see where you are. Left: a young sailor heaves the lead fron H.M.S. Hood in the 1930s. ©David Wills H.M.S. Hood Association The background to this page shows one of his series of Arthur Ransome maps reproduced by hand by Mike Field, you can download Mike’s beautiful maps here: http://www.allthingsransome.net/osmaps/armaps.html Mike also sells professionally printed A3 and A4 copies contact him here; [email protected]