G.L.

9.5

The assembly of bunk and provisions locker.

9.4

I make a paper template to determine de shape of the bunk bottom planks.

9.3

In the crew shelter were some bunks and a stove (see part 8 post 8.4). When I measure the space in the model, it is all very tiny, much more than the sketch in part 8/post 8.4 suggests. The headroom is only 120 cm. So there is no space for two bunks in line. I decide to make one bunk and a provisions locker.

9.2

When all the planks are raised, I glue the support slats to the other side.

Part 9: Compartments below deck

9.1

Making the compartments:      
The hull is divided in three main compartments. A crew shelter in the front, in the middle a fish hold and sail/rope/net shed and aft a shrimp cooking store. The bulkheads between the compartments are made from pine planks and do not allways rest against a beam at the top. On the deck and the side face I glue small support slats. A wooden template with the deck beam curve on top indicates the height of the bulk head planks and props them while I glue them. The first plank is erected with the help of a triangle.

8.21

All the deck beams are made and laid in position. They are not glued yet because I want to divide the hull into compartments first and some of the beams must be shortened to make place for the hatch openings.

8.20

On the real ship the beams were fitted with hidden dove tales, but making those is beyond my skills. I will ignore them, they are hidden anyway so it will not be conspicuous.

8.19

Once the deck beams will be fitted in the model, it is important that their upper side is at the correct height. In this case that means one deck plank width below the top of the wale. I check the height with a small plank of 3 mm thickness (thickness of the deck) and mark the size of the notches to be sawn in the deck beams.

8.18

All the deck beams, lined up on the plan.

8.17

Now the beam shelves and the lower beams are laid, I make the deck beams. There are 20 deck beams. I make paper templates of them, glue them on 6 mm thick planks and saw them with the hand fret saw. Afterwards I sand them with the band sander

8.16

Just as so many times this episode ends with putting some hundreds of tree nails in the deck beam shelves and the lower deck.

8.15

Starboard and port deck beam shelf are connected in the bow  with a wooden deck hook.

8.14

Lower deck laid. As you can see, I leave a considerable part of the port side uncovered.

8.13

Now I start to lay the lower deck. I use pine for the deck planks. I start with the midship plank. To obtain a straight line, I lay the first layer along a lath. I put a weight (small tin can filled with lead) on the glued planks to put some pressure on while drying.

8.12

Below the deck beam shelf, There is a thinner lower deck beam shelf.

8.11

Both deck beam shelves, glued in place.

8.10

Each deck beam shelf is made in to pieces with a lap joint in the middle.

8.9

I cut the slots for the frames in the bars and check if they fit into the frames.

8.8

I dry them with a hair dryer and they keep more or less their curved shape. The shelves will be a little bit sunk in the frames, therefore I mark the positions on the frames on the bars (no picture of that).

8.7

I saw the deck beam shelves as straight bars and soak them for a half an hour in water. Then I slowly bend them with the help of clamps to the to the curve of the model in the position where they have to come.

8.6

For the interior work, I start with the deck beam shelves. First I mark the level of their topside by laying a lath from wale to wale. Holding a small piece of wood that has the altitude of a deck beam below the lath, I mark the inner side of each frame with a pencil line.

8.5

I try to redraw the interior arrangement of the boat to a more practicable version which sticks as much as possible to what is drawn on the sketch.

8.4

It is about time to think about the interior of the boat. I have only one contemporary sketch of how the vessel might look like. The sketch is now very precise. For example the crew shelter in the forecastle is not to scale at all. On my model I measure an average headroom of 1.2 meter, but the sketch shows al spacious cabin with two bunks behind each other. If I convert them to the real space I dispose of, I have such a small bunks that if they should lay me in it, I would never get out of them anymore.

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8.3

The finished thick strakes.

8.2

I glue the strakes onto the frames using clamps.