CDR_Ret

Ah, Sea Stories. The things we could tell...

Based on the novel "The Good Shepherd" by C.S. Forester.

Thank you for the detailed response, Jaager. Now that I know what to look for, I went back to the DTM photos and discovered that there indeed appears to be a seam between the inboard waterway and the pieces filling in between the stanchions. That certainly makes a lot of sense. I appreciate your input. Terry

Here is another structural question pertaining to late 19th-century merchant ships. In the 1891 brigantine Galilee, there were massive waterway timbers (11 in. by 15 in.) visible in the photos provided by the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (ignore the albatross). It is apparent that the waterways, or something else, filled in the open space between the stanchions formed by the upper frames. My question is this: Were the waterways notched for each stanchion, or were there filling pieces (or whatever they are called) added to close off the spaces between stanchions? Since the ship's bulwarks are open, there were no covering boards to prevent the entry of seawater between the frames. The following image from my digital model illustrates the question. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

And here is my reconstruction of the capstan and windlass installation in Galilee. Basically, the screw actuators that tensioned the band brakes on the windlass drum were replaced by pry bar-actuated rods that tensioned the band brakes. I'm still not satisfied with the results because the loops which the pry bar fingers engage are much closer to the base of the capstan in my model than shown in the cyanotype photo. So, either the linkage is at a different angle than in the model or there may be a different lever configuration relating to the band brakes themselves. I suspect that windlass installations could be customized as needed to fit the ship. There is one final detail that needs to be created for the forecastle equipment, and that is locating and installing the chain stoppers. Hyde's catalog shows them looking like this:

Hello Lane. Thank you for your efforts and interest. I'm in the process as we speak of changing out the local hand-crank brake actuator to the topside lever device in my digital model. Looking forward to seeing what you have. Thanks again. Terry

For the DELFTship fans out there, I've posted my latest project in my main plans research thread showing some of the things you can do with the program. Terry

Wefalck, Thanks for the information. In the case of Galilee, she was actually conducting geomagnetic research using very sensitive declination, dip, and, intensity instruments, as well as several standard ship's compasses in general use at the time. The ship swings were essential for cancelling the local influences to determine the absolute elements of the earth's magnetic field. As an aside, the Carnegie Institution eventually built a completely non-magnetic research vessel (the Carnegie) and continued Galilee's work into the late 20s. Sadly, the ship was destroyed by a fire caused by, you guessed it, gasoline fumes igniting explosively. The ship's captain, a former coworker and a good friend of my grandfather, was killed in the explosion. An update to this post: I've posted my reconstruction work for Galilee's launch in my research thread here. Terry

Evidently this particular "boat" topic has never been brought up in this forum. Late in the 1800s when builders were toying around with more compact and energetic sources of energy for propulsion, they developed the naphtha engine, which used volatile fuels produced by the distillation of petroleum to either heat water to steam or, eventually, to produce propulsion by internal combustion. It was the precursor to gasoline engines. Between the 1890s and around 1905, small- to medium-sized vessels called naphtha launches were very popular with the boating public, and thousands were built by companies such as the Gas Engine and Power Company for recreational and commercial use. Now to my question: The brigantine Galilee, in which my grandfather sailed, was conducting magnetic surveys of the Pacific Ocean between 1905 and 1908. Because the vessel was not entirely nonmagnetic due to the hundreds of iron fasteners in her hull and some steel and iron rigging components that couldn't be removed, she produced a small by measurable magnetic characteristic that had to be accounted for in the sensitive measurements and calculations of the earth's magnetic field. This was accomplished by measuring the earth's field elements on various courses at sea, and turning the ship in harbors at the ports she visited. The former was done using wind, sails, and rudder. But the latter was very difficult without outside assistance, and very time consuming. To deal with this problem, on her second and third cruises, she was equipped with her very own—naphtha (or more probably, gasoline) launch—carried in beefed up davits off her stern. Sadly, I don't have very many photos of the launch to finalize my reconstruction of the plans for the ship. Courtesy Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution, Washington, DC This is an approximation of what I can see: According to various sources, the boat is described as a plumb-bow fantail launch. My best approximation of its length is about 20–22 feet long. Its depth is about 4 to 5 feet. I have no idea of the beam, since there are no views of this detail. I don't even know if there is a transom or if the stern is elliptical or canoe-shaped, like many of the available plans of this type of vessel show. If anyone knows of sources that show either this particular type of launch or one similar to it, I'd appreciate direction to them. I've already checked out most of the diagrams available on the web, but if there is one that looks close to this boat, and in particular shows the plan and body views, those would be of great help. Terry

A scholarly article on factors aiding transmission of the virus.

With regards to DELFTship, I am using the program to determine the true deck line along the bulwark of Galilee's hull plan reconstruction. I thought it might be useful for those trying to learn the program if I did a mini-tutorial as I worked on the problem. The first post of the tutorial starts here. I'm including lots of discussion on program features that are really glossed over or ignored in the program manual. Please let me know what you think of the presentation and suggest anything that could be improved upon. Thanks! Terry

I have been devoting a lot of time to DELFTship in the past few weeks while "social distancing." This is the hull of the 1891 brigantine Galilee, in which my grandfather sailed between 1906–08. The hull lines are based on the G.C. Berger plans available from the Smithsonian HAAMS program. They need a lot of work to make them usable, which is why I used DELFTship. The interior views of that old ship are really amazing! Terry

Well, I've spent some of my time during the past two weeks self-isolating from coronavirus exposure to sort through the rabbet question. After taking a look at the DELFTship model as I left it last Fall, I realized that there was very poor fidelity between the model and the original Berger lines plan. So I basically decided to work over the model lines again to attempt as much as possible to approach the original lines. After several iterations, I realized that the lines in the halfbreadth, elevation, and body plans simply were not compatible, so I did the best I could to at least approach the hull shape that produced fared station, waterline, and buttock curves. Considering that I basically had to build the aft end and transom from scratch using reference photos and the real ship had a 5-inch hog, the results were pretty gratifying. As a result of this work, I am posting several other new items pertaining to the Galilee plans elsewhere in the forums. All that to say that I needed a fairly stable set of station lines so I could determine the angle of the garboard strake to identify the rabbet lines. The results are shown below. As we discussed, the back rabbet line curves upward along the middle run of the keel and becomes nearly flat at the ends before reaching the stem and sternpost. The thickness of the strake is full thickness at 6 inches while it thins down to 3 inches, which is the hull planking thickness, at the ends of the hull. Terry

Nice looking masks, Bob. My wife says she has enough elastic for the apocalypse, which she has been collecting for decades.

Well, with the coronavirus panic-buying depleting all the dust masks at our local home improvement stores, I was at a standstill with some of my workshop projects. However, my wife has been following some fabric arts forums where they are discussing making masks for hospitals to supplement those needed for non-critical care situations, so they can use the N-95-esq masks for critical care/COVID-19 cases. So, she found the pattern, we selected a fabric, got the elastic bands, and I made a nose-bridge support out of a piece of copper wire. The result looks like it will work fine!