Roger Pellett

I just finished reading this book.  Subtitled “Traditional Sailing Skills for Classic Boats,” it is actually an exposition of the author’s experiences sailing gaff rigged boats.  The book is loosely divided into four sections:  a general discussion of the gaff rig, details of the rig, sailing a gaff rigged vessel, and an appendix with useful bits of information and glossary.  To illustrate all of this, the author uses a cutter and in some cases one of the large schooners such as the Altair discussed on the forum’s scratch building section.  The author explains that in the context of the book the term “Cutter” applies to any single masted vessel with gaff main, staysail, and jib set from a movable bowsprit, regardless of hull form.  The book is a high quality paperback profusely illustrated with color sketches and the author’s own color photos.  The writing style is informal and is enhanced by the author’s understated humor.

So what does all of this have to do with ship modelling?  There are now two quality gaff rigged “Cutter” kits on the market and another on the way (Cutter Cheerful, 1:48 Royal Navy Longboat, and 1:24 Royal Navy Longboat).  While Steel has instructions for rigging single masted vessels, there is little or no explanation of why rigging is run the way it was.  Furthermore, few of us will have an opportunity to sail on a gaff rigged boat.  The author’s vast experience fills this gap even though the ships and boats that we are usually interested in building sailed 250 years or so before this book was written.  While today’s sailors have access to different materials, the mechanics of the gaff rig remains unchanged.

While this my not provide the modeler with an exact plan to rig his model it will provide an understanding of how the various lines worked to control the rig, the action and interaction of the various sails, and their contribution to the boat’s performance.

Highly recommended.

Roger

A masterful restoration of a beautiful vessel

Roger

A s common system for passenger vessels involved leading the falls to bollards on deck- a bollard for each davit.  This allowed the line to be snubbed while the boat was being lowered.  

Roger

I would leave the lower dead eyes attached to the hull in place but remove and save the uppers along with the blocks for reuse.

Roger

Doug,

I can’t answer your question as shipbuilding, particularly of small merchant vessels varied by country and locale.  I did find a couple of references that you may find to be of interest.  First is the SL-4 wreck found in the Netherlands but identified as a Mid Nineteenth British Collier brig.  Lodging knees were wood but hanging knees for the upper deck were iron.  The lower deck did not use knees.  Instead, they used U shaped iron straps that ran along each side of each deck beam and around the outside of the frame.  Jonathan Adams describes this setup in “A Maritime Archaeology of Ships.”

Basil Greenhill describes the construction of a three masted Schooner by the residents of the Finnish Island of Aaland. Although,this vessel was built on an unimproved buildingbsite, not a shipyard he points out that one of the vessel’s builders was a skilled blacksmith hand forging ironwork from scrap iron purchased in Sweden.  The book is The Evolution of the Wooden Ship.

Was this vessel classified by a classification society such as Lloyd’s or Det Norske Veritas?  If so the vassel’s rating and the classification Society rules at the time should provide your answer.

Roger

Do you really need plans?  First get your camera out and photograph everything.  You are not building an accurate model of the Morgan.  You are trying to restore your grandfather’s model and to preserve his workmanship. The photos should give you a good idea of what he did.

Used books may be much cheaper than a complete set of Mystic Plans.  Maynard Bray has authored  book describing Mystic’s watercraft collection.  The original edition which should be available  on used book sites includes a copy of at least some of the Morgan’s drawings.  You should also be able to find a book “Whaleships and Whaling” by man named Church that includes many vintage photographs.

If this were my model I would remove all of the rigging so I could clean the hull and deck structures (saliva and lots of Qtips).  I would make new spars as necessary using the old ones as patterns and re-rig.  

Roger

I am fortunate to have space to have two shops, a model building shop and a shop for rough work where I store lumber and use my jointer, table saw and thickness sander.  I have never done a good job of controlling dust.  Our house has had a 1990 vintage forced air heating system with a high efficiency air filter, and last fall we replaced it.  I was surprised how much less dust finds its way upstairs.  I recently bought a Dust Deputy and will rig up a proper system when I finish my current modelling project.

Roger

I have a thickness sander that I built from NRG plans too.  Driven by a 1/2 hp Motor. It works fine, but if this were my lumber I would plane one side of the 3in sides flat and smooth on my jointer, then I would slice off planks to the required thickness on a table or bandsaw.

Roger

Jaager’s excellent advice does not mention a jointer but it can be quite useful when reducing rough stock.  A warped, cupped or twisted board is hard to cut on a table saw or band saw without the blade binding and that is when accidents happen.  With a jointer you can plane one surface.  You then have a flat surface to lay on your band saw or table saw table for ripping stock. They are not easy to use but hollow ground table saw blades will produce smooth surfaces.  Don’t try to use them if dull as they will burn the edges of your planking.  

Roger

When I was 7 years old my mother took me to see a collection of ship models on display at O’Neils Department Store in nearby Akron, Ohio.  It was a life changing event and from that moment I was fascinated by ships in general and ship models in particular.

68 years later I still remember some of those models and have visited them several times at the Mariners Museum in Newport News, VA.  The models that I saw were the magnificent ones built by August Crabtree.  It’s too bad that this inspiration is not available to more kids today.

Roger

Dick,

If I understand your plan correctly, the word “cunning” does not do it justice.  You are in fact replicating in miniature a process that could have been used 700 or so years ago to build the real thing.  Although the original builders would not have had a jig like you show assembling frames from segments calculated from your half lune is a plasuable scenario.

Too few people today realize that even after the invention of the practice of lofting from a formal lines drawing c 1600’s most ships were built using some sort of rule of thumb system much of which has been lost to history.

Roger

I just dug out my copy of the book, and table 9.1 is printed correctly.  Send me a P M and I will mail you a copy.  My ability to produce this electronically is limited.

Roger

It will be interesting to see how well the hull fairs up using this technique.

Roger

Today I finished my block polishing machine, crude but it works. Made entirely of on hand scrap so it cost nothing.  It is powered by my Sherline lathe on a slow setting.  The tin can is lined with 800 grit wet dry and the flappers are made from the same.  I may experiment with more aggressive paper down the road.

Roger

The term “fast” with regard to sailing ships is complicated and depended on the situation.  In light air it could relate to a vessel’s ability to ghost along.  In this case, a light small vessel with minimal wetted surface area could have an advantage over a large heavy frigate.  In heavy air the frigate with its much longer waterline length and greater stiffness allowing it to carry sail would give it an advantage.

Point of sail was also important. Small sloops and schooners could often sail closer to the wind than square riggers, so they were hard to catch if upwind of their larger prey.  On the other hand a small sloop chased off the wind in heavy air by a frigate would be in a dangerous situation.

Roger

The reason for staggering joints in planking was of course to avoid a weak spot in the hull girder.  In this case the guards are not longitudinally continuous so do not contribute to the longitudinal hull strength.  Furthermore, the major longitudinal strength member for these river craft were the hogging chains.  I therefore see no reason why joints in the guard planking need to be staggered.  The hull itself is of course a different matter.

Roger

In “Vasa, A Swedish Warship”, Fred Hocker discusses the colors found on Vasa, and they are much brighter than obe would expect.  He also points out that Vasa is an exception, a warship specifically designed and built to emphasize the prestige and status of the Royal house of Vasa. These bright colors, many using pigments of ground semi precious metals would not be found on more humble ships.

i believe that the best work on colors for US vessels built in the 1800’s is Eric Ronnberg’s article published in the Nautical Research Journal.  Abridged versions are to be found in the NRG’s shop notes and on their website.

Michael,

Great to see that you are now again working on this wonderful model.  Another Michael (MikeB4) recently included a post about a model of the US flagged passenger ship African Enterprise c1950 that he found in a flea market.  He said that it is kind of rough and you immediately came to mind as the guy who could return it to its former glory.

Roger

The fictitious tackle above is an example of relying too heavily on old models as primary evidence for constructing historically accurate models.  This is especially true of rigging which being fragile is often repaired or completely replaced.  The book from which the drawing was taken documents the models of three vessels in the Statens Sjohistoriska Museet in Sweden.  The author makes no attempt to note anachronisms or physically impossible arrangements limiting the book’s usefulness.

Roger

Very nice!  Unlike many small boats built from kits, this actually looks like a ship’s boat of the period.  Nice workmanship too.

Roger

Perhaps not 4in x 4in but Steele says that floor timbers for a 32ft longboat are sided 3in, moulded 5-1/4 in at the throat and 3in at the head.  Futtocks were sided 3in, moulded 3in at the heel x 2-3/4in at the head.  These were heavily built boats intended for hard use.

Roger

Since you have an owners manual, presumably you have scale drawings.  Xerox to the correct scale, get a block of close grained hard wood and srart cutting away everything that does not look like a Hercules engine!  Kidding aside, there is an NRJ article, I think 2001 written by a guy who built a 1:12 Buda Diesel engine for a US Navy 1940 admiral’s launch. He started with a block of casting resin.  A straight six engine should not be difficult to carve.

Roger

If you go to the beginning of Ed Tosi’s series of posts in Scratch built models above you will find an extensive discussion regarding Young America’s hull lines.

Roger

Mast rake is also used to adjust the “balance” of a sailing vessel. If the vessel under sail tries to head up into the wind it is said to have a weather helm.  The opposite, where the boat heads downwind is called a lee helm.  Raking the masts changes the geometric center upon which the wind forces act thus correcting the lee or weather helm.

There are accounts during the age of sail where Captains changed mast rake or even mast position to improve their ship’s performance.

Roget

Today I finished my serving machine.  The only specially purchased parts were the two alligator clips.  Everything else came from the scrap box. I picked the gears up as samples at a trade show many years ago, but never found a use for them.  Much to my surprise the thing actually works,  Now I can get busy and rig my longboat.

Roger