The Paper Anniversary

One year ago today,  I uploaded the first post to this blog.  Hard to believe that it's been a year since I first welcomed people aboard this little bragfest about my hobby.  It's perhaps even harder to believe that people keep coming back, and some have even signed on to follow my ramblings about toy sailing ships.  A tip of the bicorne  to all of you who come by, even if you don't leave comments.  I assure you, all of your visits are appreciated.

There have been a few visitors, to be sure.  As of 3/06/2018, there have been 8,483 visitors to the blog.  Unfortunately, the Blogger statistics do not separate out my views from everyone else, so I know some of those are mine but not how many.  What the Blogger stats do tell me is where the visitors come from, and that is quite interesting.  Most pageviews come from the US, as you might expect, followed by the UK and Belgium respectively, with Australia coming in fourth place and Ireland at fifth.  Interestingly enough, the audience is evenly split between English speaking countries and other ones.  Poland is sixth on overall pageviews, Spain is seventh, Germany is eighth and France comes in at tenth place.  If you look at the monthly or weekly breakdowns, then things get really interesting.  For the month of February 5 to March 6 2018,  I had 20 pageviews from Switzerland.  That is probably the one I least expected, as even the 19 visits from Russia could be because I posted photos of my Russian ships.

Another thing the stats let me see is which posts are the most popular for a given period. As of 3/06/2018, the most popular post contains the photos of my French fleet, with 245 views.  What's interesting though, is that the second most popular post are my thoughts about getting into ACW ironclads.  That one has 220 views.  Of the other posts in the top 10, 4 of them are from the "What Is My Time Worth?" series that I did about how long it takes to build a ship.  In terms of popularity, those are ranked below:

  4) Part 7: Final Thoughts
  5) Part 5: Standing Rigging
  9) Part 4: Painting and Installing the Masts
10) Part 2: Fitting and Filing

I'm not too sure why those entries out of the seven made the top ten, and so will just leave it right there.  I'd certainly appreciate any opinions in the comments.

While I appreciate everyone who visits the blog (as I said earlier), there are some people out there that I owe an extra thanks to.  At the time of this posting, I have a total of 5 followers.  Now, I know that's not a lot compared to other people.  However, I'm impressed that there are 5 people out there who enjoy my scribbling enough to actually sign up for them, as opposed to just dropping by now and again.  I would name them, but I think there might be 1 or 2 that wouldn't appreciate it.  So, let me raise a toast to my 5 followers:   .  You really are appreciated more than you can imagine.

For this coming year, I will be adding a page with reviews of books that I think are useful for Age of Sail gamers.  There will also be a page on how squadrons maneuver, using the Post Captain rules as a basis.  I also need to finally get pictures of the British fleet up, while playing more games and taking photos of them.  Of course, pictures of my new ships as they are built are just a given.

I hope that everyone has enjoyed this brief peek under the hood of how the blog has done this last year.  If anyone has questions that I didn't answer or touch on, feel free to ask me in the comments and I will do my best to answer them.

2017 Shipyard report

With the end of 2017 upon us, it's time to take a look back at what was built this year.  This report only applies to the sailing ships, as I don't keep detailed records about my other projects.  My sailing ships, however, I keep in a spreadsheet.  I've done this since 2014, and consistently since 2015.  No, it's not a mental disorder.  This is how I can tell where I am  regarding the Trafalgar Project, and what I need to buy next.  (That's MY story anyway, and I'm sticking with it.)

At the beginning of the year, there were 94 ships in the collection, and they broke down as follows:

• 21 x British
• 21 x French
•   9 x Spanish
•   4 x Russian
•   4 x US
•   2 x Dutch
• 18 x minor warships (brigs, schooners, gunboats, etc.), and
• 15 x merchantmen

As 2017 ends, there are now 101 ships in the fleet, and they are:

• 24 x British
• 21 x French
• 12 x Spanish
•   4 x Russian
•   4 x US
•   2 x Dutch
• 19 x minor warships, and 
• 15 x merchantmen

At this point, I can see the end of the Trafalgar Project.  I need to assemble 10 more British ships, 8 French and 4 more Spanish ships, for a total of 22.  It sounds like a lot, but that includes every frigate and unrated vessel present at the battle.  If I focus on just ships of the line, then that cuts it down to 9 British, 5 French and 4 Spanish ships, for a total of 18 ships.   Hmmmm, maybe the end isn't as close as I first thought....

"But wait!" I hear you saying.  "Couldn't you use those other country's ships you have to make up some of the numbers?"  My response to that is, "Eh, not really."  The whole idea behind the Trafalgar Project was to refight the battle with the correct models of the ships involved.  The other nation's warships I have won't really do much to fill in for the ships I need.  It's a good idea, but one that has already been looked at and passed over.

But this post is about the past, not what's coming up in the future.  So, let's take a last look at what joined the fleet in 2017

A Spanish Montañés  class 74 with her teeth bared. Built between 10/02/16 and 2/23/17,
so before the blog was started.

A small galley, built for a possible Barbary Pirates campaign.  Also built before the
blog was started.

Another Montañés class 74, but in a bit more of
a hurry than the other one. Built in March of 2017.

A generic Spanish 74, but painted after Pocock's painting of San Nicolas at
Cape Saint Vincent in 1797. Built between March and May, 2017.

HMS Agamemnon, Nelson's favorite ship.  Built between May and July of 2017.

HMS Britannia, one of the three 100 gun ships at Trafalgar.  Built between July and August, 2017.

Finally, the British 36 gun frigate that starred in the "What Is My Time Worth" series of blog posts. Built (slowly)
between August and December 2017.