Roger Pellett

Journal arrived today in good shape. Looks like a good issue. Roger

Ras, About the time that the movie came out, I helped my father build a wooden Thistle Class Sailboat from a kit that we bought from Douglass & McLoud. The same Douglass that designed the boat. The kit included a moulded plywood hull, and bandsawed mahogany parts all requiring final fitting. I did all of the sanding, painting, and varnishing. It was a great boat but challenging to sail. I sailed it for almost 10 years. Roger

Thanks Kurt!

Is it possible that the crane swiveled to lay flat against the hull when not needed to support the boom?

Away all boats is a GREAT movie. The book is too. If you are familiar with the movie, the ship’s captain finds the plans of a sailboat in a magazine and has the ship’s carpenter build him one. He sails the boat around the fleet anchorages between invasions. The back story- The magazine that the captain is reading is a Rudder Magazine and the article describes a boat designed by “Sandy” Douglass who owned a boat building shop in the Portage Lakes area near Akron, Ohio. My father was acquainted with him. The boat in question is a Thistle Class sailboat, as is the boat shown sailing in the movie. Thistles are are still an active racing class and Thistle #1 built of wood in the late 1940’s won the National Championship several years ago competing against newer fiberglass boats. It would, however, been difficult for the ship’s carpenter to have built the Captain a wooden Thistle as their hulls were moulded plywood shells; several plies layed up over a mould, then cured in an Autoclave. Seats, rails, centerboard trunk, and transom were then installed within the shell. Roger

I understand that the June 2022 Journal has been delayed by a problem at the printers. We were earlier advised that they would be mailed out by July 5th. As of yesterday, July 22 my Journal had not arrived. Has it been further delayed or has mine been lost? Since the Pandemic, our mail deliveries seem to be sketchy. Roger

Addition of a keel would have little or no effect on transverse stability. The main purpose of an external keel in a sailing vessel is to resist side forces that cause the hull to slide to leeward; “leeway.” In modern sailing vessels, of course the keel increases the range of stability by drastically lowering the boat’s center of gravity; a totally different proposition. Roger

Can the largest ship be assembled in the second “bubble” and then with long tweezers pushed into the third? You might have to make some sort of homemade tool to reach that far. Roger

This beautiful vessel might have inspired the old song “Sit down, sit down, you’re rock’in the boat!” Actually, the hull form is similar to that of a modern racing shell. Modern day crews are able to manage these craft without capsizing. Without modern technology ancient people seem to have developed physical skills to a high legal to compensate. Roger

I agree with Eberhard. When in port boats were clustered at the vessel’s boat boom where they were available for communication with the shore. At sea, however, at least in the US Navy, one seaworthy boat was designated as a Lifeboat. The lifeboat was to be used for recovering a man overboard so it needed to be launched quickly. If the boat in question was the dedicated lifeboat then the arrangement of the studding sail boom would be problematic. Roger

Jim, Re: The Trunk Ship In 1890, Duluth, MN ship captain Alexander began building ships in the Duluth Harbor to his patented “Whaleback” design. To promote his company he decided to send a Whaleback Steamship with a cargo of grain across the Atlantic Ocean to England. The ship named the Charles W. Wetmore sailed across the Great Lakes through the Saint Lawrence River Rapids and arrived safely in England. This strange looking vessel, seaworthy enough to cross the Atlantic was a sensation with the British Public. Naval Architects, while less impressed examined the ship and the Doxford Shipyard produced an Improved Whaleback Ship that became known as The Turret Ship. Over 170 Turret Ships were eventually built. They were especially popular with ship owners in trades requiring requiring passage through the Suez Canal as their narrow weather decks took advantage of a loophole in the way that the Canal calculated tolls. A year after launch of the first Turret Ship, a competitor named Ropner built a Trunk Ship copying many of the features of the Turret Ship. In fact the designs were so similar that Ropner was sued by Doxford for patent infringement and the register documents for at least one Trunk Ship described her as a Turret Ship. The Turret Ship and the Trunk ship were the first of several designs of “Novel Ships” built by British shipbuilders between the 1890’s and the standardized designs of World War I. This all began with an obscure shipbuilder in Duluth, MN. Roger

The boat below is a 1:96 scale US Navy Cutter that I built for a model of the Civil War Monitor USS Catskill. It was vacuum formed from styrene. It was formed as two half models and glued together along the keel line using plastic model cement. Frames, floorboards, thwarts, etc were made from styrene strip. Vacuum forming is remarkably low tech and easy. A shop vacuum provides plenty of vacuum. Last January I provided a tutorial explaining the process. You can easily find it by typing Vacuum Forming into the Search function on the Forum’s menu bar. Roger

Fly fishing stores offer very thin threads fuzz free.

This is a good time to reflect on why you want to build ship models. Are you interested in Naval Architecture or maritime history? Are you inspired by Horacio Hornblower age of fighting sail novels? Or do you just enjoy building kits? Assuming that you want to have a life other than assembling ship model kits then you probably own at least 15-20 years of ship modeling. Your interests are likely to change over this long time period. I also second Jaager’s thoughts that over time you may want to venture into scratch building unique subjects. You have several categories of models each catering to a specific modeling interest Fighting Sail: Armed Virginia Sloop Essex Sultana Fair American Niagara American Workboats: Whaleboat Glad Tiding Ben Latham Emma Berry Clipper Ship: Flying Fish If your interest is in building historically accurate models, I would weed out Essex and Niagara; Essex, because those old European POB kits were really pretty crude, and Niagara because the kit builds a replica, not the actual ship. No one has found any design information drawings or otherwise for the vessel that fought with Perry in 1813. Roger

What material are you using for rigging. It does a good job looking like galvanized wire rope. Roger

I have a set of Stanley chisels inherited from my father. They are “Yellow Handle,” supposedly better than the blue handle homeowner grade. They were new in the 1950’s and hold a sharp edge. Sizes: 1/4,” 3/8,” 1/2,” and 3/4.” The most commonly used is the 3/8.” It seems to give better control than the 1/4.” I suspect that today a used set would sell for next to nothing. I also have an inexpensive sharpening guide that works well. Roger

Sorry, I don’t know how this happened. I’ll delete it

Looking good! An interesting model.

Beautiful Work on the machine gun !

I like JB Weld too. I like a longer pot life than the 5 minute stuff provides. Our local stores carry the Original Formula that works better for me. It hardens overnight.

Like any other aspect of ship modeling there are several aspects to this subject: Learning techniques- Knots, hitches, splices, serving, etc. Understanding the technology- Basic tackles and blocks, deadeyes, spars, etc. Research - Learning how your particular model should be rigged. All of these of these can be learned from books, or today from books posted on the internet. Techniques can also be practiced with various sizes of cordage. Several are much easier to learn with larger diameters of rope. The last two are necessary as some kit manufacturers tend to be somewhat light handed with accuracy. All rigging should be functional in the sense that if it were the real thing it would work- no lines to nowhere. Roger

You might look into buying a copy of Arming The Fleet by Spencer Tucker, a detailed study of US Navy armaments from colonial times through the Civil War. Roger

Brass portholes?? As the photo posted above by Veszett shows, portholes in large steel hulled ships did not have the brass flanges beloved by kit marketers. The air port assembly was a bronze or steel casting affixed to the inside of the hull. The shell plating around the porthole covers the air port casting. The most that would be seen would be a very slight brass covered edge of the air port casting surrounding the air port glass. At 1:200 scale a simple hole in the shell plating should suffice. Roger

I have been pondering the internal construction of smokestacks for a while; not because “I need to get a life” but because I need to have an answer for my current modeling project. So far, I have been unable to find any information. I doubt that they are just empty pipes, as boiler gasses were hot enough to burn off paint. It would seem that some sort of internal liner would be needed to provide an insulating air gap. I believe that recovery of heat from boiler glue gas was also a consideration; to preheat combustion air or feedwater. Roger

Most of my models have carved hulls; either carved from solid blocks or laminated lifts. My standards are using accurate research material, not model makers plans, and making all parts except cordage and chain myself. I do not have access to or interest in using photo-etch or 3D printing. Hand tools: Ordinary woodworking tools including a wood rasp, a selection of files and a set of chisels with sharpening materials. Specialized model making tools: Needle files and miniature rifflers; Archimedes drill and wire size numbered drills, #80- 50; miniature bronze spokeshaves; draw plate for tree nails; plenty of different sized clamps; quality soldering iron, dividers, miniature sliding square, 2-3 engineers squares, metal rule, architects scale. Power tools: Bandsaw, drill press, and table saw. I have built one POF model; A New York Pilot Boat c1815 using Howard Chapelle’s lines drawing. According to the nameplate it was finished in 1982. Materials: boxwood and locally harvested pear and holly. I used the “Hahn Method.” All wood was cut on an ordinary 8 inch Sears Table saw equipped with Sears “Kromedge” hollow ground saw blades. I did not own a Byrnes saw until many years later. While theoretically possible to have built the model without the table saw using commercially purchased strip wood, it would have been difficult. I have built up my shop over the years with additional tools as needed (or wanted 🤤) Roger