How to Build - Ship's Hull

Welcome to the first installment of **SHIPBUILDING GUIDES**! I know at least a few of you out there have probably struggled with ship hulls (myself included), so hopefully seeing my process will make you more confident in your naval design endeavors. Without further ado, let's begin!

## Steps Building a Ship's Hull

Our story begins as all Minecraft builds do - with **the first block** - placed in the very center of whichever drydock you're using. At this point, you should have decided what ship you want to make, and made a note of its dimensions. For this example, I am building a generic cruiser with a length of 201 m, and a width of 21 m. Note that cruisers typically follow a length/width ratio of about 10/1. This ratio will be smaller for battleships, and larger for destroyers. This is also why I have chosen to build a cruiser - they're basically the middle ground between BBs and DDs. Use your W/E wand to select this block as both 'pos 1' and 'pos 2'. Since my ship will be 201 blocks long, I input //stack 100 e, and //stack 100 w. For its 21-block width, I input //stack 10 n, and //stack 10 s.

Now that we've planned out the length and width of the hull, it's time to plan the overall height!

For this step, I've established the ship's draft or depth below the waterline (9 blocks). I've also planned out the height of the hull above the waterline at the **bow** (9 blocks), **amidships** (6 blocks), and **stern** (7 blocks). The variation in these heights is because I want my ship to have a fairly significant slope upward toward the bow, and a very slight slope toward the stern - while being 6 blocks tall in the middle. From the amidships height, I can see how many decks the ship will be able to accommodate.

Now you can sort of 'sculpt' the curvature of the bow, stern, and sides of the hull. (The ship has been suspended above the drydock to make it easier to see). The orange lines are where the height planning lines from the previous step used to be.

Here we have a side view of the **bow** curvature. This can come in many different shapes. For example, the orange lines represent a more extreme flare to the bow, and a bulbous bow below the waterline (think of IJN Yamato), and the green lines represent a less extreme flare, and more of a square shape below the waterline (think of a US heavy cruiser). For the purposes of this tutorial, I have chosen a more generic shape.

Here is the **stern**! The same idea generally applies here with the green and orange lines. HOWEVER, the draught almost always follows that same curve. Note how the angle starts somewhat steep, then shallows out, then gets steep again before reaching the very bottom.

Shown here is the curvature of the **amidships** hull. Above the waterline, I've added an indentation to indicate a bulge similar to the ones seen on the cruisers like the Hipper and Deutschland classes. I end up removing those indentations because I eventually realize it will just make things more complicated later on (whoops). Same scenario with the green and orange lines.

Now this here is the single most important line you’ll make for the hull... the **waterline**! You will begin to see why it is so crucial over the course of the following steps.

In this image, we have a top-down view of the **bow**. This allows you to see the relationship between the waterline and the outline of the freeboard (where the bow overhangs the waterline). To help make this relationship easier to understand, I'll provide a simple illustration.

Note the **bottleneck shape of the waterline**, and how the **freeboard is more broad and rounded**. This is an extremely exaggerated illustration, though. Most ships will have a much more stretched out version of this. The degree to which the waterline has a bottleneck shape also depends on the type of ship. Battleships will typically have a more prominent bottleneck, while destroyers will have little to none at all. The freeboard may also vary in shape significantly.

In this step, I am essentially connecting the tip of the bow to the amidships lines we created earlier. This requires a slope that gradually gets shallower as it goes further back. It is also one of the few cases where using slabs on the hull is permissible (in my opinion). I have left the original outline in place so I don't mess up the curve as seen from the top down.

Repeat the same process with the stern. Generally the waterline will be more rounded out (definitely no bottleneck here). This part should be fairly straightforward compared to the bow. Now... on to everyone's favorite part... **HULL LINES**!!!

This is where things really start to take shape. For this part, I am essentially focusing on each individual layer of the hull, and **connecting the dots**. Notice how each block that starts a new layer going further toward the sides is marked with a dot. The dots have been color coded (in a pretty rainbow pattern) so they indicate which dots to connect to each other. Connect the red dot on the waterline with the red dot at the top of the hull, then connect the orange dots, yellow, etc. It's actually kind of fun once you get the hang of it. If you'll notice, though, I'm not just making a straight line in between each dot. Folks, here's where things get difficult to explain, but I will try my best.

If I may direct your attention to the flawless MS Paint drawing above, this shows you the general curvature pattern you should follow with each hull line. Notice how the red line at the very front is fairly steep and has a rather significant curve to it. As you move on to next hull line, it is even more stretched out and the curve is still very noticeable. The next line is also quite stretched out, but the curve gets less prominent. This trend continues, and by the time you get to the purple line, there is almost no curve at all. For any point beyond that (like the pink line), the curve starts to go in the opposite direction!

Like almost every single aspect of a ship, the degree to which these lines are curved and stretched out will vary significantly depending on what it is you're building. Obviously, you're free to shape it however you like with fictional ships. However, if you're building a replica of an actual ship, you'll probably want to follow its shape as closely as possible. For example, my drawing probably would best represent a US heavy cruiser, but that drawing would look drastically different if I wanted to depict... say... a German battleship (especially Bismarck). With that kind of ship, the hull lines will be much more stretched out - resulting in a much more dramatic flaring of the freeboard from the waterline. I apologize if this isn't making any sense to you... I'm doing my best here. Now we will revisit the stern!

As you have probably guessed, despite the shape being vastly different, the process by which you make the hull lines here is exactly the same. Just know that sterns also vary significantly in shape, but the general shape is very much like the lines seen above. This time I'm challenging *YOU* to spot the trend that the hull lines follow as they go further forward. The reason I say "as they go forward" is because you typically want to build the stern starting from the very back. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to go below the waterline to the **draft**!

Again, I will be focusing on the bow and stern separately. Unfortunately, this is where things get extremely tedious and convoluted, and I honestly don't have the time to explain it in detail. Just know that I'm basically doing an inverted version of the process for the part above the waterline. With each draft line, I start at the waterline, and curve my way to the bottom of the ship. Notice how each curve gets increasingly shallow as I go further back. It will look different depending on whether or not you have a bulbous bow, torpedo bulge, armor belt, etc. That is why I have chosen the most basic shape. And finally, we have reached the last quadrant of the ship: the **stern draft**!

This part of the hull continues to stump me on occasion. I always seem to go about it a different way each time. I think it would be rather difficult to explain the hull lines here, so it might be best just to show what it is supposed to look like and have you try to figure it out. There is, however, a certain shape found at the very bottom of the hull that I would like to point out. Refer to the following illustration:

Again, it's a bit of an exaggerated interpretation of what it is supposed to look like, but many ships seem to have this shape at the stern section of the draft. If you look back at the previous two screenshots, this may make more sense. I also do a bit of a 'connect the dots' thing here - from the waterline to the very bottom layer of the hull.

SIDE NOTE As you are probably aware by now, a hull is basically a bunch of curves. From what I've seen, many builders struggle with making smooth curvy lines. I get it... how the heck are you supposed to make a dang circle out of a bunch of blocks?!?! Well, it's a lot simpler than it may seem, and you really just have a basic understanding of exponential functions.

*CONGRATULATIONS!!!* The worst is now behind you! All that is left is to **fill in the gaps**! And...

*VOILA!!!* You've built yourself a hull!

If you've actually hunkered down and read through all of this, thank you very much! I understand that a lot of it may seem confusing and convoluted, so if you have any questions or want me to elaborate on anything, hit me up! Keep in mind this is my process, and it is not a requirement to build hulls this way. I just thought I'd actually do my job and help out the server for once! If you've struggled with hulls in the past, maybe this tutorial will help you score higher in the "aesthetics" category for the next competition! Again, thank you for your time. **Dismissed!**

## Video Tutorial

The following is a Video regarding Armor and Armor schemes related to building a ship.