Roger Pellett

Well, you stumped me! Stowage factors are empirically derived. Although they are related to the density of the material in question, they are also dependent on the amount of air being shipped. For example, cut limestone building blocks that can be stacked edge to edge have a lower stowage factor than crushed limestone for steel making. The tables that I have for stowage factors do not list limestone. They were intended for international shipping and not Great Lakes Cargos. I’ll look through some other references to see what I can find. Unfortunately, load lines (Plimsoll Marks) were not mandated for ships on the Great Lakes until 1936. Loading was left to the master’s discretion sometimes with disastrous consequences. I am actually interested in the Kelly’s Island limestone trade. In his wonderful novel Signature of Time about Kelly’s Island, Walter Havighurst mentions the barge James Pellett loading stone at the quarry. I looked it up and found a picture of the barge; a remarkably ugly vessel. I also found that James Pellett was a Great Lakes ship captain sailing in the Kelly’s Island limestone trade. The Pellett family emigrated to Northeastern Ohio in the early 1800’s from Connecticut, and continued to live in the state until I moved to Minnesota in 1990 and I naturally wondered if I am related. Roger

Many years ago, I built a POF Model of the New York Pilot Boat Anna Maria using the Hahn Method. I used Howard Chapelle’s drawings purchased from the Smithsonian, and lofted the frames. It produced a model that I am pleased with. It can be argued that Hahn himself built a model like you are contemplating. One of his last models, the Ship of Line Alfred, featured the more complex bent frame, filler frame type construction. While you could use the Hahn method to build a model that from outward appearance features correct scantlings is not suited for building the highly detailed POF models that replicate exact Admiralty construction practice as these models require details such as chocks within the frame structure. Keep in mind that when you wander from British or French ships builtin Royal Dockyards, ships were often not built with Hahn Style framing. Many vessels were built with widely spaced heavy frames to define hull shape with lighter frames or frame segments added in between. These lighter frames and segments were fastened to planking but not always to the keel. Roger

One of these sunken vessels, the Schooner Dot, was apparently a “Canaller,” a specialized ship designed to navigate the restricted lock dimensions of the Welland Canal around Niagara Falls. The current issue of the Nautical Research Journal includes the first of a two part article about building a model of one. Roger

It looks like a great deal for someone, but It’s sad that you can’t finish it. Therefore, no “Like” button.

This guy pounces as soon as I come through the door. It doesn’t matter what I’m wearing.

My Lionel train catalog is called Sherline. Every time I think that I’m fully equipped, I find another accessory that I gotta have!

Thanks for all of the Likes and comments. Keith: No, no fruit trees. There is a dedicated green space between our house and those on the next street over. It's swampy and heavily wooded. The trees seen the window are European Buckthorn, an invasive species. Fall comes early here with colors peaking the first week of October. Trees are now bare. Roger

I know that you are enjoying “freelancing” this model, but sooner or later you are faced with mechanical reality- does what you are doing actually make physical sense. Such is the case with the windlass. With two cables wrapped around the windlass barrel, how do you drop just one anchor, and what do you do with the unused cable. Deep sea vessels on long voyages would sail with anchors securely lashed down and cables stored below. The anchor and its cable would only be readied for use when she vessel reached shallow water near its destination. You are building a coasting vessel, that could need its anchors throughout the voyage. It would, therefore, not be unusual to have one anchor set up to be used, with the other on standby as a backup. Windlasses on coasting vessels often were equipped with an arbor or beam extending across the top. This allowed the unused cable to be hung in loose coils encircling the windlass barrel. When the other anchor was dropped the windlass could rotate without engaging the second cable. I also believe that whenever possible, crews avoided rotating the windlass when dropping the anchor. The cable screaming around the windlass barrel propelled by the weight of the anchor must have been dangerous to both ship and crew. They did this by laying out the required amount of cable in large loops on the deck ahead of the windlass; between the anchor and the windlass. Once the anchor hit bottom, the ship was backed and the cable could be paid out gradually. Roger

Our local Ace has a K&S display and a good wire selection. My only gripe is that the overdo the “Helpful Hardware” business. Whenever I go into the store, someone sticks to me like a leech. If they’d just leave me alone they might be surprised what I might buy.

CHAPTER 8 (continued) The Rabbit hole: in late July my wife and I visited a fellow model builder and NRG member and his wife who live nearby in Wisconsin. I was astonished by his collection of beautiful scratch built models, several of Lake vessels. I was intrigued by the way that he had added interest by giving viewers a peek of the ship’s machinery through an open door, hatch or skylight. Returning home, I decided to add the same feature to my Benjamin Noble model. I will show the engine room skylight open revealing the top of the triple expansion steam engine below. I also decided to show the coal bunker partially filled, visible through the open coal bunker hatch. This all required an examination and reconstruction of the ship’s internal arrangements. I was able to do so with reasonable accuracy from the structural drawings that showed the rectangular trunk passing from the engine room to the deckhouse roof. This same drawing also showed the coal bunker and located the two boilers. I was surprised to discover that the layout of the coal bunker and boilers differed from the usual layout of Great Lakes ships- see drawing below. Instead of locating the coal bunker at the forward end of the deckhouse, the bunker wraps around the boilers with the hatch behind the smokestack. Why did the Noble’s designers do this, and why not use the generally accepted arrangement? Answer: by doing so they increased the volume of the hold by the 7000+ cubic feet that would otherwise be taken up by the bunker. So then, why did the designers of other Great Lakes ships favor the more common arrangement that cost them hold volume? For every cargo that can be conceivably be carried aboard ship there is what’s called a “stowage factor” that lists the volume required by one ton of cargo. The principal American Great Lakes cargo was and still is iron ore. In the early 1900’s, coal was a secondary cargo, loaded when the opportunity presented to avoid returning back up the Lakes in ballast. The stowage factor for iron ore, a very heavy cargo, is about 20 cu ft per ton. When hauling iron ore the ship would be considered to be fully loaded well before her holds were full. Sacrificing hold volume for bunker space, therefore, did not affect the carrying capacity for vessels built to haul iron ore. Why did the Noble’s designers need the extra hold space gained by her unusual and costly bunker arrangement. She was designed to carry a very light cargo: pulpwood with a stowage factor of over 140 cubic feet per ton. When she sank, she was carrying railroad rails, stowage factor 12 cubic feet per ton. There was a lot of empty space in her hold that was subject to flooding if her hatches failed. The subassembly in the second photo below fits into a space chiseled into the poop deck. Parts of it will be visible through the engine room skylight. The other part is the coal bunker. The two boilers would have been underneath.

CHAPTER 8- A Major Milestone and a Rabbit Hole Since my last progress report almost three months ago, I have been working steadily on the model. A couple of weeks ago, I reached a major milestone, I fastened the two hull halves together. Before I could do this, I spent considerable time adding necessary hull openings; hawse pipes, mooring pipes, porthole linings, the propeller shaft tube, and piping inlets and outlets. Once the halves were fastened, I added the keel plating and the propeller boss reinforcement plates. The final keel plate aft awaits installation of the lower rudder support shoe, that first requires installation of the rudder and propeller. The White supports utilize the female threads embedded in the bottom of the hull but the supports themselves are temporary. The grey color is primer. As usual, the digital camera shows areas that need to be cleaned up.

Yeah, Osprey books seem to be an example of “too much of a good thing.” I started buying them many years ago to use their color plates for painting model soldiers. They have now expanded to cover campaigns, military hardware, tactics, and now ships. I have been unimpressed with those books dealing with maritime subjects. Roger

Valeriy, They will just be imitation gears- deck winches, cargo winches, and gears for turning vowel ventilators. That guy’s fixture is really clever. I have a large heavy gauge aluminum angle. I’m going to use it to make a knurling fixture that mounts on the cross slide of my lathe; similar to the one shown in the Sherline catalog.

Thanks Valerie, The project that I am working on will require a lot of gears. I just bought a pair of knurling cutters on eBay. Now I need to build a fixture to hold them. Roger

Beautiful work!

In his excellent book, Hand, Reef, and Steer, Tom Cunliffe discusses Flax sails and provides instructions for tanning them as Wefalk mentions. He also explains in his droll manner, that waterfront rats consider flax sails to be an important part of their diet so precautions need to be taken to protect them. (The sails, not the rats!) Roger

Very nice work, Rod. She really looks like a steel hulled ship. I particularly like the bottom paint color. Roger

Paul, You’re model is shaping up to be a beauty! Roger

Our men’s book club read Pillars of the Earth several years ago and we all enjoyed it. I remarked that the author cleverly bookended two major events in English history. Our resident English history expert, a retired English teacher, disputed my analysis, saying that the ending had nothing to do with historical fact. As the debate raged on, he finally said, “Oh, I watched the movie!” Roger

Eric, I have been making steady progress but have been waiting for something newsworthy to show. I should have a post in the next couple of days. Roger

Your drawing shows three views: plan view, longitudinal profile, and body plan- sufficient to define the shape of the hull. Hard chine hull forms lend themselves to the POB style of construction described by Richard above. In this case, it would appear that the hull was built with “developable” shapes to allow the use of large panels of flat steel plate. You can imitate this same form of construction with thin model-makers plywood that is readily available. If you decide to carve the hull from a solid, I would use common lumberyard pine. It’s harder than basswood so will better hold crisp edges. Lumberyard lumber is usually designated SPF: spruce, pine, fir. You want pine. Spruce is the lightest of the three and has a distinctive and to me objectionable smell. Pine has a finer grain than either spruce or fir. You may also find a higher grade pine intended for trim work. Here in the Midwest, at least one store is stocking Monterey Pine imported from New Zealand. I don’t understand the logistics but it’s nice stuff. Balsa is much too soft, and basswood marginal. Finding the right piece of wood is part of the fun of scratch building; like a scavenger hunt! You can make life easier by carving two half models to be joined once shaped. I drill matching holes for dowel alignment pins before shaping the hull while the two half hull sections are still square. If you have access to a bandsaw, start by cutting the longitudinal profile with the half hull block laying flat on what will be the finished model’s centerline. Next, fasten each half hull section to something so that the finished model’s centerline is vertical. A piece of aluminum angle works well for this. Now back to the bandsaw to cut the plan view shape. You now should have two wood blocks with the plan view and longitudinal profile view shaped. Now using the longitudinal profile and body plan views, plot the points defining the chine along the hull block. Bend a very thin strip of wood connecting these points and mark out the chine. Using regular woodworking tools, carve the deadrise- the angle that the bottom makes with the sides. Use templates traced from the body plan to guide you. The Mark 1 eyeball is also an excellent tool for finding humps and flat spots in the carved hull. Do as much work as possible before gluing the two half hulls together. Have fun! Roger

Steven, very nice work! 150 or so years earlier than your model but I just read a review of a book about the sinking of the “White Ship,” a disaster that killed the heir to the English throne and over 300 of his courtiers. This resulted in a Civil was between two half siblings, Stephen and Miltilda that lasted until the reign of Henry II. It looks interesting. Roger

My models get built in the shower, while I am drifting off to sleep and while sitting in a comfortable chair waiting for my wife to decide whether the 18th pair of black pants she is trying on really fits. Talbots has the most comfortable chairs. Seriously, this is when I figure out a new approach to remaking the part that I ruined the hour or day before. The worst thing that you can do when you mess up is to keep working to Force a Solution. Much better to stop working, clean up your bench, and start fresh another day after having time to think things through. Roger

If you want to glue brass parts together instead of soldering JB weld epoxy sells a product for gluing metals together that dries dark grey. It works well on brass and copper. I sand the parts first to get rid of oxide and to the mating surfaces some “tooth”. You can find it at any hardware store. Roger

This assumes that you intend to build your Mayflower kit instead of first trying something simpler. There are two Mayflowers, the one that brought the Pilgrims to the New World and the replica built in England in 1957 now docked at Plymouth Plantation. All that is known about the original vessel is her tonnage (an approximate measure of her internal volume). No pictures, drawings, etc. exist. The replica was designed by William A. Baker, a Naval Architect employed by the shipbuilding division of Bethlehem Steel. His avocation was researching ships of the American colonial period and he enjoyed writing about his findings. I would assume that your kit builds a model of Baker’s replica. There are at least two books written by Baker describing his design and the process that he used to design her. These books can be found on used book sites. They will also include Baker’s plans for the ship. Either would be a great supplement to the kit information. Roger