It just occurred to me...

[Terror~of~the~seas]

...when thinking of "dates" in history, that this year (late October) should be exactly the 200th aniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. Anybody feel like making a commemorative HMS Victory skin for the `Man-of`-War in POTC? Hehe... cheers! Oh yeah... and, "England expects that every man will do his duty!"

Terror

 

[CaptJackSparrow]

I think that someone already made one...im probably wrong...but i think so...i dunno sorry <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

 

[CatalinaThePirate]

The Victory wasn't that big a ship, anyhow... And I do think someone's done it, but we haven't seen it... Terror, maybe you could try? <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />

 

[Terror~of~the~seas]

I could "try", but first I need to learn "how"... hehe. You are right, however, in that the Victory was not the very "biggest" of sailing vessels (in fact, there were several larger than she even at Trafalgar... even amongst her own British columns). The fact that she was a `first-rate` at all, however, meant that she was "at least" bigger than anything that would be built (in the age so dominated by "ships of the line") in shipyards outside of the three main colonial powers - England, France, and Spain (the Dutch, I tend to think, were more of an "economic" power... preferring to amass their considerable wealth through trade and other, more peaceful means).

At 100 guns, the Victory's power "was" impressive... yet still only marginally superior to that of the larger `second-rate`/`two-deckers` in her own line (some carrying close to 80 guns). The French, in particular, preferred to build such `second-rate` ships on a grand scale... and many of these sleek and ornately decorated juggernaughts (longer, lower to the water, and carrying near equal `gun-power` - perhaps even a greater number of heavy "`ship-killing`" cannon on their longer, lowermost decks) would face off as `near-equals` with the British `first-rates` at Trafalgar (one of the main ships with which the Victory itself came to exchange fire was the French `two-deck` Redoubtable, the ship from which Nelson himself was killed).

The scale of French `second-rates`, of course, meant that their `first-rates` were equally impressive. Some are known to have carried as many as 120 guns (L'Ocean), while I can remember reading of some from the time of Louis XIV carrying as many as 160 (I cannot remember the names, although this figure does stick very firm in my memory - it may, however, count top deck "murderers"/`man-killing` weapons... who knows?). At Trafalgar, it was clearly thus "not" the French ships that failed them, but certainly more their lack of a coherent battle plan... and their vastly inferior crew discipline (at least, in comparison to the British - whose crews could fire three volleys for every French one).

In regards to POTC models, however, I would probably wish to create a fourth or `third-rate` model before I worked on a Trafalgar/authentic `Man-of`-War skin. Simply because, POTC "is" a pirating game... and there is no way that one would "ever" have seen a second or `first-rate` ship in the hands of an "independent" organization (first of all, they were much too slow to catch faster, `narrow-hulled` merchant ships... and secondly, it is inconceivable to me that an undisciplined pirate crew would ever have been large or coordinated enough to sail one).

A fourth or `third-rate` ship, however, is something that I can see an "underestimated" pirate maybe taking, since some of the better pirates did sail in `frigate-class` ships... some mounting enough guns that they could have put up a good show against a `lower-class` `ship-of`-`the-line`. Also, it would be nice to see a `second-rate` down the line, as some of these were "just" fast enough to be employed in `pirate-hunting`, and were in general quite common to the Caribbean where the major powers fought almost continuously for the better part of a century (although they did appear, `first-rates`/`Men-of`-War were not all that common). Anyhow... I had better be cutting myself of now... or else i'll likely ramble on forever (wait, I've done that already!)! Hehe... take care!

P.S.: Check out some of these models! (Not mine... but still pretty cool!)
<a href="http://members.visi.net/~markmcb/" target="_blank">http://members.visi.net/~markmcb/</a>

<img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />

 

[CatalinaThePirate]

Yes, the French had some incredible ships at Trafalgar! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/yes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="yes.gif" /> But it was Nelson and his tactics that won the day. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />

It would have been an amazing thing to witness, to be sure! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/keith.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="keith.gif" />

I prefer, when playing PotC, to having a smaller ship as my warship - something fast and maneuverable. The MOW in the game is very slow to respond & such, which I suppose is proper. Doesn't mean it's not a `great-looking` ship, tho! I particularly like the "Guber" - Silehard's MOW, dark (nearly black) with red and blue trim. Man, that's one beautiful monster of a ship! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/onya.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="onya.gif" />

I REPAINTED a MOW to look like a Voodoo ship (big red eyes, teeth, and all sorts of juju symbols) because I was going to use it in the Fred Bob quest, but I never got that far with the quest and finished it the way it stands now in B12. Here are some pix:

<img src="http://www.ganotherapyusa.com/extras/tribal7.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://www.ganotherapyusa.com/extras/tribal2.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://www.ganotherapyusa.com/extras/tribal3.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

I think I'm going to save this one for a later continuation of this quest, bringing back Armand and Estrella as characters... NO there's nothing definite, but it's been on my mind lately. Too many other things to deal with at the moment.

<img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blush.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="ops" border="0" alt="blush.gif" /> But I digress. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blush.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="ops" border="0" alt="blush.gif" />

There are people putting together some other very nice ships - we haven't had many modelers at PA for quite a while now... I'm sure that anyone who is working on a ship now would love to give you some pointers if you wanted to try your hand at modeling. There are also wonderful tutorials to be had in the PotC Wiki. Just pop into the PotC modding section and open a topic! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/onya.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="onya.gif" />

 

[CapitainDams]

Nice look!! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/onya.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="onya.gif" />

 

[Capn_Enigma]

It's ...errrm! ... very colorful! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_eek.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="icon_eek.gif" />

 

[CatalinaThePirate]

<img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> So am I! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

 

[Mad_Jack]

Cat, that is <i>still</i> one of me `all-time` favorite ship skins. And I'd immediately christen her the "Marie Laveaux", were she to ever come under my command. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" /> <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/onya.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="onya.gif" />

 

[CatalinaThePirate]

Yes, that would be appropriate, Mad Jack! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/yes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="yes.gif" /> <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />