Allege d‘Arles - the French merchant ship

The Rhone River, despite its difficult navigation, has been a very important trade route since ancient times, connecting the Mediterranean with eastern and central Gaul, then with southeastern France via Lyon and even as far, as Geneva. The 30-meter barges used in the highlands, which were connected in 5-7 units, were pulled by 50, sometimes even 80 horses. In the lower Rhône, in the vicinity of Arles, the goods were transshipped to sailships, called Allege d'Arles, which transported them to the ports of the Mediterranean coast, reaching even Toulon and Marseille. Stones, wood, and grain were mostly transported with them. In the period of the greatest prosperity, there were about 150 units of them. They were not displaced by steamships, but by the development of the railways. The Allege d'Arles were about 25-30 meters long flat-bottomed boats (very close in construction to tartans), the sailing equipment consisted of a large Latin sail and also a large stagsel. The largest ships still had a four-cornered mainsail on the mast, some had a second mast.

The model is well designed and detailed, not too complicated, so we recommend it for modelers of all experience, but for advanced beginners and modelers with little experience, we recommend working under the supervision of a more experienced colleague. And this model can be one of the first models of Your sailing ship. The sails are double-sided printed on thin paper.