Roger Pellett

This just keeps getting better and better!

Silverman,

First, I would like to  congratulate you on an absolutely stunning model!  Your clean, precise, workmanship is outstanding.

Re; your post no 45 above concerning the method for working an eye into the end of a rope.  If I correctly understand the method, this same idea has been used in more modern times to make rope grommets.  In this case, the rope is first separated into its three components and then put back together again into a circle.

Roger

A trite expression: “you can’t prove a negative.”

Fundamental geometric relationships have not changed since ancient times.  Venetian shipyards were not outfitted with “Plank-O-Matic” machines that allowed them to defy Euclid’s laws.  If the shape of your hull requires a stealer or drop strake it’s a reasonable assumption that the Venetians required ones too.

Roger

The guy who described the technique for making brass blocks was Gerald Wingrove.

A forgotten book applicable to early small craft is The Fore and Aft Rig In America by E.P. Thomas.  First published in 1927, he rigorously examines available contemporary evidence and draws some interesting conclusions.  He concludes that there were two separate and distinct gaff rigs; a Short Gaff and a Long Gaff.  He concludes that the Long Gaff is actually a further development of the Sprit Rig.  While the Short Gaff is the Shoulder of Mutton Rig of undetermined origin.  In Daniel Defoe’s early Eighteenth Century Book, Robinson Crusoe actually mentions the Shoulder of Mutton sail as it applies to warships boats.  The drawing that you are using is of course the Short Gaff rig while the more famous Medway Longboat is rigged with the Long Gaff rig.

Thomas also draws heavily on William Burgis’s two drawings of New York and Boston published in 1717 and 1725 respectively.  I have included below, a section of the New York drawing showing what appears to be an anchored Longboat.  This boat influenced me in the overall “look” of my model.

Roger

Very nice!

Allan, If you have access to a lathe, a notable British modeler who posted on MSW and sadly recently passed away (sorry, I can’t remember his name) had a system for turning tiny blocks from brass rod. It worked something like this.

Select a brass rod with the diameter equal to the length of the block.

File a flat on two opposing sides of the rod.

Spin the rod in the lathe to round off the edges of the flats.

Cut correctly spaced grooves in the rod.

Part off each block

Solder wire around each block.

I tried to make some blocks using this method a while ago.  Everything worked fine until I tried to solder the wire bails around the blocks.  The solder ran into the grooves in the, blocks.  I now have a very fine tipped soldering iron and some .010” diameter solder that should work well.

If you are willing to use purchased parts, send me a PM.

Roger

Craig,

That’s exactly how I rigged my model.

Roger

Here are some photos of the rigging of the model that I built using the drawing that you posted.  I spent a great deal of time studying the drawing and arriving at my own decisions about the rigging.  As I posted before, I believe that this represents a much earlier boat than you are modeling.  Perhaps a transition from the boomless mainsail rigs of the 1600’s to the later “Medway” Longboat rig.  Conclusions:

 The block at the masthead is a triple.  It handles three lines: 

1.  The topping lift for the mainsail.  This line is secured to the masthead just above the triple block, passes through a single block at the end of the topping lift pendant then through one sheave on the triple and down to a pin on the fixed thwart.

2. The peak halyard.  As I posted above the mainsail on the boat is a “shoulder of mutton” sail, not a true gaff.  The gaff only supports the head of the sail and the peak halyard does not need great mechanical advantage to do this. So it is just a single whip, spliced to a single block at the gaff end, passing through the second sheave on the triple block and down to a pin on the fixed thwart.

3. The throat halyard.  This is spliced to the throat of the triple block, passes down to a single block at the inboard end of the gaff, back up to the third sheave on the triple block and down to a pin on the fixed thwart.

You will also note a cheek block at the masthead.  This handles the jib halyard.  The jib is set flying- there is no fixed stay supporting its luff. There is a famous drawing of New York Harbor from the 1720’s showing the jib hoisted In stops as I show on my model.  The traveler on the bowsprit allows the sail to be brought inboard before it is lowered.  A danger with this flying sail is that the boat can sail over it if it is not brought inboard first.

The mainsheet block moves back and forth OVER the tiller on an iron traveler.

Roger

Very nice carving.

We naturally tend to think today of most items in manufacturing terms so if I say 1965 Ford Mustang, most people know exactly what I am talking about.  As a hand crafted item, there was probably much more variety in ships’ boats of the same type.  Even so, there was an attempt to classify different boat types, so any seaman would know if he was looking at a yawl, a Longboat, or a launch; something much more difficult for us to do today.

As a general rule, I believe that 18th Century Longboats were not fitted with washboards.  On the other hand, washboards were a defining feature of a Cutter.  Longboats, were however, supposed to be capable of offshore service and ships’ carpenters would have been expected to be able increase freeboard of these boats when required.

ROGER

Bob,  thanks for your post and alternate procedure.  30or so years ago hatch boards like you posted were popular decorator items.  Although I knew what they were, I often wondered where they came from.

I recently reviewed a book on the Ocean Class steamships for the Nautical Research Journal.  The more famous Liberty ships  were modifications of the British designed Oceans.  When modifying the design of the Oceans for the Liberties, it was decided to retain the wooden hatch covers as they could also serve as lifesaving devices.

Roger

Short Answer: I’m cheating!

Actually, I’m still refining the process.  There are 150+ to make. ID of each ring is 1/32”.  Here’s my process:

1.  Make a fixture consisting of a 1/32” diameter aluminum wire embedded in an aluminum block.  There is also a brass ground lug bolted to the block.

2.  Make loops of 30 gage tinned copper wire.  Diameter is unimportant.  Ends of wire are lightly twisted and soldered together.

3.  Place one end of the loop over the aluminum pin in the fixture.  Chuck the other end in an “eggbeater” type hand drill.  Turn the drill until the loop twists and forms an eye around the 1/32” dia Al pin.

4. Solder the twisted tail using my resistance soldering device.

5.  Remove from fixture and round up the eye with a tapered pin.

I have tried steps 1-4 with success.  In use, the rings will lay flat on the hatch board with the tail cemented into a hole in the board.

Roger

I need to make a large quantity of ringbolts for the hatch covers for my current project.  At 1:96 scale they are tiny.  I decided to make them from 30ga (.010” diameter) tinned wire so I ordered a small spool from Amazon.

The wire was supplied by a Company named Remington Industries.  They are a supply house in the Chicago area specializing in wire.  They stock bare copper, tinned copper, nichrome, and stainless steel wires., plus various insulated wires.  There is no minimum order, they do not charge for shipping and service was prompt.

A possible source for specialized needs. Next time I’ll order direct.  Website is Remingtonindustries.com

Roger

Guy, if you have bought your Byrnes saw or (or any other mini saw with a 1/2 in miter gage slot), by all means buy the NRG’s thin rip fixture.  I just finished cutting 70+ hatch boards with my saw using this little fixture.  These boards are only 1/32” thick (1/2 mm?).  It made the job quick and easy.  Buy directly from the, NRG office.

Roger

A major advantage of any compressor/ tank combination is the amount of energy that can be stored.  The compressor that I described in my post  #11 above stores air at 125 psi.  My Badger airbrush requires air at approximately 25psi.  The remaining 100psi x the volume of the tank is stored energy.  The pressure control switch turns the compressor on and off to maintain 125psi in the tank.  This ability to store large amounts of energy in a small volume is what makes compressed air so useful.

Ignoring aerosol type systems, all other systems  for supplying air brushes require the compressor to keep up with demand as without a tank they cannot store energy.  in other words, capacity is dependent on the capacity of the compressor itself.  Compressor capacity will be limited to the volume of the compression chamber x the # of compression cycles/ minute.  This would require the compressor to operate at very high speeds.  The same idea as a Dremel type tools that produce advertised power by speed rather than torque.

It is also possible that these tools might use some type of turbine technology.  This  again would be a low pressure system requiring very high speed operation can producing high frequency noise.  Again without an air tank,  they would probably struggle to keep up with demand.

Roger

If you want to feel that this is really your model, avoid the plastic hull and build a solid hull model with a carved wooden hull.  IMHO carving a wooden hull is enjoyable and will give you a feeling for the “lines” of a real ship.  Solid hull model kits are unusual in today’s POB model world but they do exist.  Bluejacket offers several.

Roger

Bill, 

 have you tried the air tanks used for “portable air” for inflating automobile tires.  You can fill it at any gas station.  

Roger

Eric, even with silk paper your sails will be much thicker than “scale.”  It is, therefore common practice to make the area of the sail smaller so the furl will not look too bulky.

Roger

Having sailed many small boats and capsized a few, the controversy is only on MSW.  No competent sailor would attempt to sail a boat with the tiller fouled by the mainsheet!

Roger

Allan,

I’m looking forward to following this interesting project.  I recently completed a model of the boat on drawing ZAZ 7322 (photos below).

I have yet to find a date for this boat but I believe that it’s considerably older than the ZAZ 5814 model that you are building.  The rig is most interesting as unlike Syren’s Medway Longboat with it’s gaff mainsail, the SAZ 7322 model has what I would describe as a Shoulder of Mutton sail; very short gaff and loose footed main.  You will also note that the sail’s boom has a reverse taper. The end at the clew Is considerably heavier than the end attached to the mast.  This is logical in that as a loose footed sail the boom is in compression, except from the sheet attachment point outboard to the sheve that the clue line passes through.  This is under bending loads.  You will also note that the boat weighs in on the MSW mainsheet traveler controversy.   It passes Over the tiller! 😆

When I partitioned off a section in the basement of my house for a workshop. I ran copper tubing through the walls with tees and valves strategically placed for an air system.  I bought one of the portable air tanks that Bob mentioned, a pressure control valve, a moisture trap, and hooked everything up to an old compressor that I inherited from my Dad.  I even ran a line upstairs into the garage.  To my surprise, it worked!

Fast forward 15 or so years and I was encouraging my son to set up a workshop.  For his birthday, I bought him one of the small compressor/ air tank combinations sold by any major hardware or home improvement store in the US.  The whole outfit cost less than $90.00.  After some disparaging remarks by my daughter-in-law; “why would anyone want one of those?” My son was fixing loose trim in the house with an air nailer.  When I got home, I bought one too,  tore out my air system, and have used it (the combination compressor/ tank) ever since.  It does have a drain valve on the tank and a moisture trap. It has standard NPT connections so it is easily connected to quick disconnect fittings and readily available air brush connections. It is noisy but so are my full sized woodworking tools.  

I don’t know what’s available outside the US, but for US members these compressor/ tank combinations are an easy and  inexpensive way to supply compressed air to an air brush.

Roger

Hatch Covers.

Great Lakes bulk cargo vessels have a long tragic history with hatch covers.  From sailing ship days down to and including the 1975 sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald leaking or failing hatch covers have been blamed for their loss.  Great Lakes vessel’s are “low freeboard” ships.There are several reasons for this:  First of all an assumption that Great Lakes vessels sail in “protected waters.” Second, Great Lakes upper lake ports are equipped with huge trestles extending into the harbor.  Cargo is loaded by gravity.  The need to provide adequate slope to the loading spouts limits freeboard. So Great Lakes vessels sailing in heavy weather often have their decks awash.

The original hatch covers were wooden planks.  These were labor intensive and leaked badly without additional covering with tarpaulins.  The last Great Lakes vessel with wooden hatch covers sailed until 1970. In 1904, telescoping steel hatch covers were introduced. These could be opened and closed with the ship’s steam deck winch but were not watertight without tarpaulins.  Telescoping steel hatch covers without waterproofing Tarpaulins were directly responsible for the 1957 sinking on Lake Superior with heavy loss of life of the George Steinbrenner.   In the 1920’s one piece steel hatch covers secured with dozens of cam operated clamps around the hatch periphery were introduced.  These heavy steel plate covers had to be handled with traveling gantry cranes powered by electric motors.  While these would seem to be impregnable, leaking of or collapse of hatch covers caused by waves breaking over the deck were blamed by the USCG for the 1975 loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald; a conclusion still hotly disputed by Great Lakes steamship companies. There has been one American ship built on the Great Lakes since the 1980’s, Interlake’s Kyle Barker.  She was placed in service within the past several years. She appears to be equipped with large hydraulically operated hatch covers. 

Roger

Next:  Benjamin Noble’s hatch covers

Yes, Great Lakes Vessels built in the first quarter of the 20th Century had these same D shaped pilot houses.  The houses were of steel construction but the windows were flat set into wooden frames.  In addition to being easy to build, at least some of the pilot house windows needed to be raised and lowered.

It’s safe to assume that the windows  on these NYC Harbor craft would also be flat for the same reasons.

Roger

Can’t help much with the propeller arrangement except to say it is dependent on hull form.  If your plan view shows a square stern then the simplest and most likely arrangement would be the solution as posted by Jim Lad.

The engine itself:  I believe that a 24ft ships boat c1914 or earlier would have been powered by a petrol (gasoline) engine.  Prewar WW I Diesel engines were big, heavy, and complicated.  The major problem under development in 1914 being the fuel system.  The Diesel cycle, unlike the auto cycle requires injection of fuel to the cylinder at or near peak compression pressure.  To do this, early diesels required a separate compressed air system.

There were also semi- diesels.  These used glow plugs  in the cylinder head heated with a torch to provide ignition heat while starting the engine. Once the engine got going cylinder heat kept the glow plug hot.  Here in the US, these were popular with commercial fishermen.

The spark ignited petrol fueled auto cycle avoided these complications although the volatile fuel was and still can be dangerous aboard a small boat.  There were many different patented varieties of these engines.  Pick a likely one for which you can find drawings.

Roger

I make all of my models as two half models.  Alignment is guaranteed by drilling alignment pin holes before the haves are shaped.

Roger