The bark, barque or barc, is a type of ship with three or more masts with the foremasts equipped with square sails and the sternmast with spanker and peak sail.
The word barque comes from the Latin barca which derives from Spanish or Italian. The Latin word barca may come from Greek "baris" or Celtic "barc", a term used for an Egyptian boat.
Rig of a three-masted barque: By the end of the 18th century, the term barque (sometimes spelled bark) began to refer to any sailing vessel with a particular type of sails, that consists of three (or more) masts, which at the foremast have square sails and at the stern mast have the spanker and the peak sail.
Barques were the cargo ship of the mid-19th century with a smaller crews. The advantage of these rigs was that they took less crews than a comparable full-rigged ship or brig-rigged vessel as they had smaller square sails, which made it cheaper. On the other hand, the ship rigged like this was used for sailors' training, with a small crew and a large number of passengers, therefore, a larger number of trained sailors.
Another advantage was that the barque can be faster than a schooner or barkentine, it is both easier to handle and better to upwind than a full-rigged ship.
While a full-rigged ship is the best runner available, and a four or five-masted schooner is the best at going upwind, the barque is often the best choice, because it was the best combination of the two.
Most of the ocean-going windjammers are four-masted barques, since their rig is considered the most efficient, thanks to the easiness to handle, the small crew, the speed and the good capabilities toward wind.
Usually the main mast is the tallest. The four-masted barque could be handled with a surprisingly small crew (at least ten sailors), while the usual crew is about thirty. Almost half of them could be apprentices.
The Stefano bark's history :
The past of the barque Stefano from Rijeka is closely connected with the family Bacic from Dubrovnik. When the grain merchant and shipowner Nicholas Bacic from Dubrovnik came to Rijeka in 1865, began the history of the family's branch of Rijeka.
Nikola Bacic had several sailing ships for long trips among which the barques Caterina V, Giuseppina Francesca, Giovanna Maria, Due cognato, Nuova fama, Eugenio, Due cognate, Vincenza, risorto, Antal and Stefano dominated.
His son Stefano Bacic, a young captain of long trips, handled the sailingboats Vincenzo and Stefano. The Barque Stefano was named after him.
Unfortunately, Stefano Bacic died young at the age of only 24 years. He was buried in Rijeka.
Barque Stefano was built in 1873 in Rijeka, in the shipyard of Brazzoduro brothers.
During the 1875, the barque Stefano started to sail for Australia. It was her third journey, during which eperienced shipwreck near Cape Cloates on the coast of Australia October 27, 1875. The ship was traveling from Cardiff to Hong Kong.
Among more than 20 crew members survived only two, cadet Miho Bacic and sailor Ivan Juric. Miho Bacic was the nephew of the shipowner Nicholas Bacic.
After returning to his homeland during 1876, the surviving members of the crew told what happened on barque Stefano to Dubrovnik Dominican Stefan Skura. Moreover, Miho Bacic on May 16, 1876 sent a letter to his relatives in Dubrovnik where he described the unfortunate fate of his companions on barque Stefano and the life among Australian aboriginals lasted six months.
Features of this MarisStella Model Ship Kit:
You get a model kit complete and ready to be built.
The project contains
-new designs; 14 sheets measuring 900x1300mm each, 35.43''x51.18''
-thick A4 instruction booklet, 147 pages
-photo-etched brass sheet: 1 sheet, 0.5mm-thick, 20cm x 30cm (7.87” x 11.81”)
-10 types of light and dark rigging threads with all rigging materials; 280 meters of rigging threads, 720 dead-eyes and rigging blocks and the rest of metal and wooden rigging fittings
-4 types of brass chains
-pre-sewn sails, 34 sails
-high quality wood materials
-laser-cut wooden sheets, 12 sheets
The instructions are written in English, Italian and Croatian.
Extras
In addition, we offer additional parts to make a better model. These parts can be purchased with the kit. They are:
Photo etched copper plates placed onto 5 sheets…. 20cm x 30cm (7.87” x 11.81”)
See more about the project and technical solutions in the news section:
Barque Stefano 1/63 scale 44.13`` 121.1cm Model Ship Kits MarisStella
Step above
As a link between easy to build models and more advanced projects, we offer a series of easy to build kits from MarisStella Model Ship Kits and The Old Seller lines. If you have already mastered the basics of model ship building, these kits will guide you into and through more demanding projects, that are not too complex for a careful model builder.
The "Step above" program is the next step for ship modelers who have mastered our beginner's courses at the first, second and third levels, and are prepared to start work on a larger project. The instructions in these projects are like all MarisStella kits, highly detailed, but they still allow independent thinking and planning. All you need is the ability to read blueprints.
The assembly kits that we have included in this program, which connect other programs from our assortment, are:
from the program "Masters of the Adriatic",
Štilac 61 cm, 24.02'', 1:32
from the program "Dalmatian boats",
Trajta – Leudo of the island of Korcula 63,8 cm, 25.12'', 1:20
from the program "Fleet of the Republic of Dubrovnik",
Ragusian Galley 18th c. 78cm, 30.71'' , 1:75
and from the program "Illyrians, Masters of the Eastern Adriatic",
Novilara - Picenian and Liburnian ship 6oo BC 69cm, 27.17'', 1:35
.
Saint Jerome 16th c. 68cm, 26.77'', 1:75
project. It is an exception to the entire MarisStella program and is a model of the famous Hvar galley. This model is a priceless pearl for any modellers collection. It was created decades ago by the old famous master Mr. Verle, a great ship modeler.
Advanced Work
In English we define the qualifications of the ship modeler to enable them to decide on the level of models they want to build in this program. They are:
Intermediate level
. This means a model maker should have built at least three or more models to a reasonably high standard. This level will enable the modelbuilder to choose models from the MarisStella list without any problems. These are all unique works that were presented to the world for the first time through this line of kits.
HMS Ontario 81 cm 1:48, 31.89''
,an 18th-century British Royal Navy Snow Brig that played her part in the defence of Lake Ontario in Canada;
HMS Speedy 93cm 1:48, 36.61''
,another 18th century British Royal Navy beauty. A well-known and attractive brig. One of the sips mentioned in the novels of the author Patrick O'Brian;
Barque 'Stefano' 112,1 cm, 44.13'' 1:63
,a beautiful mercant ship hailing from the port of Dubrovnik. The vessel’s information comes directly from the notes of the captain of the time;
from the program "Masters of the Adriatic" we suggest:
Trabaccolo 80,9 cm, 31.85'' 1:32
, ...
Pielego 87,9 cm, 34.61'' 1:32
... and ...
Brazzera 72 cm, 28.35'' 1:32
;
from the program "Dalmatian Boats" we suggest:
Pasara 44,3 cm, 17.44'' 1:14
, ...
Gaeta 48,0 cm, 18.90'' 1:14
... and...
Gaeta falkusa 70,4 cm, 27.72'' 1:20
;
from the program "Fleet of the Republic of Dubrovnik" we offer:
Ragusian Carrack 16th c. 77,5cm, 30.51'' 1:59
, ...
Argosy – Ragusian Galleon 16th c. 71,7cm, 28.23'' 1:59
... and ...
Ragusian Cog 16th c. 65cm, 25.59'' 1:48
and from the program "Illyrians, Masters of the Eastern Adriatic",
Liburnian ship, monoreme 56,9 cm, 22.40'' 1:63
.
Of course,
Saint Jerome 16th c. 68 cm, 26.77'' 1:75
is a special project that we recommend as a very interesting and beautiful model. It is a model with an artistic flair that is definitely a priceless pearl that was originally created decades ago.
Marisstella product lines, programs and courses
At the moment, MarisStella has three production lines to offer to the model ship builder. These are:
MarisStella Model Ship Kits
,
OldSeller
and
I Start Early
Is a production line that you can find out more about right here.
While the entire offer is divided into seven programs, each of which includes a special group of ship and boat models, we also launched a beginner’s course 1 divided into levels to allow a beginner to practice and build their skills. The beginner's course is divided into three levels:
level 1
,
level 2
and
level 3
.
Seven MarisStella programs You can find at the following links:
Dalmatian boats
…
Masters of the Adriatic
…
Fleet of the Republic of Dubrovnik
…
Saint Jeronim; a special project with an artistic touch
…
Illyrians; masters of the Eastern Adriatic
…
Step above
…
Advanced works
…