shipmodel

Hi all - 
 
I have started a new scratch build log for my next model, the SS Andrea Doria (1952) in 1/16" scale.  I will be setting up a link to it on my Signature page, once Chuck reminds me how to do it, but for now you can get it here:
 
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/10963-ss-andrea-doria-1952-by-shipmodel-116-scale/ 
 
Be well
 
Dan

SS ANDREA DORIA  (1952)  
 
Good day to all, especially those who followed my build log of the Queen Anne's Revenge (1710).  I hope you will enjoy this one as well, and I look forward to your comments and critiques.
 
This project is another large jump across time and techniques.  It is the ocean liner SS Andrea Doria, the pride of the postwar Italian Line. Her likeness will be built to the scale of 1/16” = 1’ and will reflect her appearance at the height of her service life, the fateful night of July 25, 1956.
 

 
This is my fourth liner model and it uses many of the techniques that I have developed for this type of ship.  Some, I hope, can have broader applications, so even if you are only into sailing ships you are most welcome to pull up a chair and grab some popcorn.
 
The essential elements of the model will be scratch built.   This includes the large components such as the hull, decks, superstructures, and funnel, as well as the complex and unique elements such as the cargo cranes and swimming pools.  But for some simple fittings aftermarket castings are acceptable as long as they are accurate or can be made so.  Likewise, photoetched brass pieces such as railings will be used.
 
The ship herself and her tragic story are known to many.  SS Andrea Doria was the pride of the Italian merchant marine in a country struggling to renew its economy and reputation after WW II.  Launched in 1951 she began service in 1953 for the Italian Line (Societa di Navigazione Italia).  For more than three years she led her country’s liners as the largest and fastest ship in the fleet and one of the most elegant, with an outdoor swimming pool for each of the three classes of passenger.
 

 
On the night of July 25, 1956 all that changed.  Sailing towards New York City, eight days out of Genoa, she was running in heavy fog in the Labrador Current just south of Nantucket, Mass.  Coming towards her was the liner SS Stockholm, outbound from New York for home.  She was not in fog but in the dark night could not see either the fog or the Andrea Doria. 
 

 
Although both were spotted on the other’s radar, this was still a somewhat new technology and the positions and speeds of the ships were incorrectly plotted on each bridge.  As a result, the ships turned towards each other rather than away.  At 11:10 pm the icebreaker bow of the Stockholm sliced into the starboard side of the Doria and into dozens of passenger cabins with families asleep in their bunks.  More importantly, it sliced into the engineering spaces below the waterline.
 

 
SOS calls were immediately put out by both ships and soon a number of others were racing to the site of the collision. The Stockholm was still seaworthy, although her bow was completely crushed.
 

 
49 people, many of them children in third class, died immediately aboard the Andrea Doria, and five crewmen aboard the Stockholm.  Yet, miraculously, 14 year old Linda Morgan was lifted from her bed and deposited into the wreckage of the Stockholm’s bow where she was found with only a broken arm and some scrapes.
 

 
 
Andrea Doria soon began to list.  This might not have been fatal because she had been designed with eleven watertight compartments with bulkheads that extended well above the waterline, only one of which had been breached in the initial collision.  But five of the starboard fuel tanks were located there and they quickly filled with water.  On the port side the tanks, which were empty at the end of the crossing, acted like balloons to raise that side.  Even this might have been survivable, but a design flaw in an access tunnel allowed water to blast into one of the lower control rooms, and then into the generator room, cutting off power.  Without power water ballast could not be shifted to port to compensate and the list steadily increased.
 

 
Thirty minutes after the collision Captain Calamai ordered that the ship be abandoned.  The list made it impossible to launch the port side lifeboats, but by reusing the starboard ones all of the passengers and crew were eventually evacuated to the safety of the rescuing ships.  All, that is, but three who were fatally injured or died during the evacuation, bringing the final death toll to 57, the greatest loss of life in American waters in over 40 years.
 
All through the night the list increased, and in the early morning hours she turned over and sank.  The aerial photography of the sinking won a Pulitzer Prize for Harry Trask.
 

 
Now she sits in about 190 feet of water, on her starboard side.  This is too deep for the recreational diver but easily reachable on a mixed gas technical dive.  It used to be a fairly well-visited site, but the deterioration of the wreck is so severe now that only the most experienced should think about trying it.
 

 
The model begins, as all models do, with the plans and research.  I was fortunate that a set of plans was available from Taubman’s Plans Service, a division of Loyalhannah Dockyard.  Expensive, but if they were as advertised, they would be worth it.  While waiting for them to arrive I went on an internet search.
 
I quickly found a poster in quite high resolution on a public site which had been printed as an advertisement for the ship and which showed the cabins on the passenger decks and the layout of the upper decks and deck structures.  Although I did not need to know the cabin locations or layouts, the poster was clearly copied from the engineering plans and was quite exact.  However, the deck plans did not go below “C” deck just above the waterline and had no lengthwise or midships cross-sectional plans, so the shape of the lower hull was still a mystery.   
 
 

 
Also, due to the many times it was reproduced, I guess, the deck plans bent to starboard, a defect that had to be corrected.
 

 
When the Taubman’s plans showed up they were a good news, bad news thing.  They were clearly the engineering drawings, imprinted with the logo of the Bologne Society of Marine Architechts, the name of the builders and the date in 1952 when they were drawn.  They included a longitudinal cross section that showed many of the deck house details including window and doorway locations, mast details and the interior of the large single funnel. 
 

 
An exterior illustration showed the locations of most of the portholes, doors and windows. This was supported by another illustration, this one in color, that was located on the net.
 

 

 
But there was a plan for only one deck below the “C” deck, the “D” deck, although it had some indication of the hull shape of the rudder post below the counter.  There was still no midship section, so the lower hull shape was still questionable.
 

 

 
I did find some section plans on the internet, but they were redrawn for a model kit from Amati, and I had some questions about their accuracy, although they did show the bulb at the bow below the waterline, which did not appear on any of the other plans.
 

 

 
However, when in doubt I always refer to photographs, if available.  Here is one of the ship being launched, which I used to compare and contrast with the plans in hand. 
 

 
This was one of several thousand images that I viewed on the net.  These were culled to about two hundred after eliminating duplicates and those that were of such low resolution to be useless.  Of those, about three dozen were saved as the most relevant, useful, and detailed.  Here are a few, and more will be posted as the areas of detail are built.
 

 

 

 
More posted soon
 
Dan
 
 

Thank you all for the likes and compliments, especially from those who followed the entire oddessy from the beginning.  I am glad if any of the explanations of my own methods and techniques made another modeler's efforts a little easier.
 
Here is a final photo of the model being crated for shipping.
 

 
I hope to get down to the museum for the installation.  If so, I'll post a photo or two.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 
 

SS ANDREA DORIA  (1952)  
 
Good day to all, especially those who followed my build log of the Queen Anne's Revenge (1710).  I hope you will enjoy this one as well, and I look forward to your comments and critiques.
 
This project is another large jump across time and techniques.  It is the ocean liner SS Andrea Doria, the pride of the postwar Italian Line. Her likeness will be built to the scale of 1/16” = 1’ and will reflect her appearance at the height of her service life, the fateful night of July 25, 1956.
 

 
This is my fourth liner model and it uses many of the techniques that I have developed for this type of ship.  Some, I hope, can have broader applications, so even if you are only into sailing ships you are most welcome to pull up a chair and grab some popcorn.
 
The essential elements of the model will be scratch built.   This includes the large components such as the hull, decks, superstructures, and funnel, as well as the complex and unique elements such as the cargo cranes and swimming pools.  But for some simple fittings aftermarket castings are acceptable as long as they are accurate or can be made so.  Likewise, photoetched brass pieces such as railings will be used.
 
The ship herself and her tragic story are known to many.  SS Andrea Doria was the pride of the Italian merchant marine in a country struggling to renew its economy and reputation after WW II.  Launched in 1951 she began service in 1953 for the Italian Line (Societa di Navigazione Italia).  For more than three years she led her country’s liners as the largest and fastest ship in the fleet and one of the most elegant, with an outdoor swimming pool for each of the three classes of passenger.
 

 
On the night of July 25, 1956 all that changed.  Sailing towards New York City, eight days out of Genoa, she was running in heavy fog in the Labrador Current just south of Nantucket, Mass.  Coming towards her was the liner SS Stockholm, outbound from New York for home.  She was not in fog but in the dark night could not see either the fog or the Andrea Doria. 
 

 
Although both were spotted on the other’s radar, this was still a somewhat new technology and the positions and speeds of the ships were incorrectly plotted on each bridge.  As a result, the ships turned towards each other rather than away.  At 11:10 pm the icebreaker bow of the Stockholm sliced into the starboard side of the Doria and into dozens of passenger cabins with families asleep in their bunks.  More importantly, it sliced into the engineering spaces below the waterline.
 

 
SOS calls were immediately put out by both ships and soon a number of others were racing to the site of the collision. The Stockholm was still seaworthy, although her bow was completely crushed.
 

 
49 people, many of them children in third class, died immediately aboard the Andrea Doria, and five crewmen aboard the Stockholm.  Yet, miraculously, 14 year old Linda Morgan was lifted from her bed and deposited into the wreckage of the Stockholm’s bow where she was found with only a broken arm and some scrapes.
 

 
 
Andrea Doria soon began to list.  This might not have been fatal because she had been designed with eleven watertight compartments with bulkheads that extended well above the waterline, only one of which had been breached in the initial collision.  But five of the starboard fuel tanks were located there and they quickly filled with water.  On the port side the tanks, which were empty at the end of the crossing, acted like balloons to raise that side.  Even this might have been survivable, but a design flaw in an access tunnel allowed water to blast into one of the lower control rooms, and then into the generator room, cutting off power.  Without power water ballast could not be shifted to port to compensate and the list steadily increased.
 

 
Thirty minutes after the collision Captain Calamai ordered that the ship be abandoned.  The list made it impossible to launch the port side lifeboats, but by reusing the starboard ones all of the passengers and crew were eventually evacuated to the safety of the rescuing ships.  All, that is, but three who were fatally injured or died during the evacuation, bringing the final death toll to 57, the greatest loss of life in American waters in over 40 years.
 
All through the night the list increased, and in the early morning hours she turned over and sank.  The aerial photography of the sinking won a Pulitzer Prize for Harry Trask.
 

 
Now she sits in about 190 feet of water, on her starboard side.  This is too deep for the recreational diver but easily reachable on a mixed gas technical dive.  It used to be a fairly well-visited site, but the deterioration of the wreck is so severe now that only the most experienced should think about trying it.
 

 
The model begins, as all models do, with the plans and research.  I was fortunate that a set of plans was available from Taubman’s Plans Service, a division of Loyalhannah Dockyard.  Expensive, but if they were as advertised, they would be worth it.  While waiting for them to arrive I went on an internet search.
 
I quickly found a poster in quite high resolution on a public site which had been printed as an advertisement for the ship and which showed the cabins on the passenger decks and the layout of the upper decks and deck structures.  Although I did not need to know the cabin locations or layouts, the poster was clearly copied from the engineering plans and was quite exact.  However, the deck plans did not go below “C” deck just above the waterline and had no lengthwise or midships cross-sectional plans, so the shape of the lower hull was still a mystery.   
 
 

 
Also, due to the many times it was reproduced, I guess, the deck plans bent to starboard, a defect that had to be corrected.
 

 
When the Taubman’s plans showed up they were a good news, bad news thing.  They were clearly the engineering drawings, imprinted with the logo of the Bologne Society of Marine Architechts, the name of the builders and the date in 1952 when they were drawn.  They included a longitudinal cross section that showed many of the deck house details including window and doorway locations, mast details and the interior of the large single funnel. 
 

 
An exterior illustration showed the locations of most of the portholes, doors and windows. This was supported by another illustration, this one in color, that was located on the net.
 

 

 
But there was a plan for only one deck below the “C” deck, the “D” deck, although it had some indication of the hull shape of the rudder post below the counter.  There was still no midship section, so the lower hull shape was still questionable.
 

 

 
I did find some section plans on the internet, but they were redrawn for a model kit from Amati, and I had some questions about their accuracy, although they did show the bulb at the bow below the waterline, which did not appear on any of the other plans.
 

 

 
However, when in doubt I always refer to photographs, if available.  Here is one of the ship being launched, which I used to compare and contrast with the plans in hand. 
 

 
This was one of several thousand images that I viewed on the net.  These were culled to about two hundred after eliminating duplicates and those that were of such low resolution to be useless.  Of those, about three dozen were saved as the most relevant, useful, and detailed.  Here are a few, and more will be posted as the areas of detail are built.
 

 

 

 
More posted soon
 
Dan
 
 

SS ANDREA DORIA  (1952)  
 
Good day to all, especially those who followed my build log of the Queen Anne's Revenge (1710).  I hope you will enjoy this one as well, and I look forward to your comments and critiques.
 
This project is another large jump across time and techniques.  It is the ocean liner SS Andrea Doria, the pride of the postwar Italian Line. Her likeness will be built to the scale of 1/16” = 1’ and will reflect her appearance at the height of her service life, the fateful night of July 25, 1956.
 

 
This is my fourth liner model and it uses many of the techniques that I have developed for this type of ship.  Some, I hope, can have broader applications, so even if you are only into sailing ships you are most welcome to pull up a chair and grab some popcorn.
 
The essential elements of the model will be scratch built.   This includes the large components such as the hull, decks, superstructures, and funnel, as well as the complex and unique elements such as the cargo cranes and swimming pools.  But for some simple fittings aftermarket castings are acceptable as long as they are accurate or can be made so.  Likewise, photoetched brass pieces such as railings will be used.
 
The ship herself and her tragic story are known to many.  SS Andrea Doria was the pride of the Italian merchant marine in a country struggling to renew its economy and reputation after WW II.  Launched in 1951 she began service in 1953 for the Italian Line (Societa di Navigazione Italia).  For more than three years she led her country’s liners as the largest and fastest ship in the fleet and one of the most elegant, with an outdoor swimming pool for each of the three classes of passenger.
 

 
On the night of July 25, 1956 all that changed.  Sailing towards New York City, eight days out of Genoa, she was running in heavy fog in the Labrador Current just south of Nantucket, Mass.  Coming towards her was the liner SS Stockholm, outbound from New York for home.  She was not in fog but in the dark night could not see either the fog or the Andrea Doria. 
 

 
Although both were spotted on the other’s radar, this was still a somewhat new technology and the positions and speeds of the ships were incorrectly plotted on each bridge.  As a result, the ships turned towards each other rather than away.  At 11:10 pm the icebreaker bow of the Stockholm sliced into the starboard side of the Doria and into dozens of passenger cabins with families asleep in their bunks.  More importantly, it sliced into the engineering spaces below the waterline.
 

 
SOS calls were immediately put out by both ships and soon a number of others were racing to the site of the collision. The Stockholm was still seaworthy, although her bow was completely crushed.
 

 
49 people, many of them children in third class, died immediately aboard the Andrea Doria, and five crewmen aboard the Stockholm.  Yet, miraculously, 14 year old Linda Morgan was lifted from her bed and deposited into the wreckage of the Stockholm’s bow where she was found with only a broken arm and some scrapes.
 

 
 
Andrea Doria soon began to list.  This might not have been fatal because she had been designed with eleven watertight compartments with bulkheads that extended well above the waterline, only one of which had been breached in the initial collision.  But five of the starboard fuel tanks were located there and they quickly filled with water.  On the port side the tanks, which were empty at the end of the crossing, acted like balloons to raise that side.  Even this might have been survivable, but a design flaw in an access tunnel allowed water to blast into one of the lower control rooms, and then into the generator room, cutting off power.  Without power water ballast could not be shifted to port to compensate and the list steadily increased.
 

 
Thirty minutes after the collision Captain Calamai ordered that the ship be abandoned.  The list made it impossible to launch the port side lifeboats, but by reusing the starboard ones all of the passengers and crew were eventually evacuated to the safety of the rescuing ships.  All, that is, but three who were fatally injured or died during the evacuation, bringing the final death toll to 57, the greatest loss of life in American waters in over 40 years.
 
All through the night the list increased, and in the early morning hours she turned over and sank.  The aerial photography of the sinking won a Pulitzer Prize for Harry Trask.
 

 
Now she sits in about 190 feet of water, on her starboard side.  This is too deep for the recreational diver but easily reachable on a mixed gas technical dive.  It used to be a fairly well-visited site, but the deterioration of the wreck is so severe now that only the most experienced should think about trying it.
 

 
The model begins, as all models do, with the plans and research.  I was fortunate that a set of plans was available from Taubman’s Plans Service, a division of Loyalhannah Dockyard.  Expensive, but if they were as advertised, they would be worth it.  While waiting for them to arrive I went on an internet search.
 
I quickly found a poster in quite high resolution on a public site which had been printed as an advertisement for the ship and which showed the cabins on the passenger decks and the layout of the upper decks and deck structures.  Although I did not need to know the cabin locations or layouts, the poster was clearly copied from the engineering plans and was quite exact.  However, the deck plans did not go below “C” deck just above the waterline and had no lengthwise or midships cross-sectional plans, so the shape of the lower hull was still a mystery.   
 
 

 
Also, due to the many times it was reproduced, I guess, the deck plans bent to starboard, a defect that had to be corrected.
 

 
When the Taubman’s plans showed up they were a good news, bad news thing.  They were clearly the engineering drawings, imprinted with the logo of the Bologne Society of Marine Architechts, the name of the builders and the date in 1952 when they were drawn.  They included a longitudinal cross section that showed many of the deck house details including window and doorway locations, mast details and the interior of the large single funnel. 
 

 
An exterior illustration showed the locations of most of the portholes, doors and windows. This was supported by another illustration, this one in color, that was located on the net.
 

 

 
But there was a plan for only one deck below the “C” deck, the “D” deck, although it had some indication of the hull shape of the rudder post below the counter.  There was still no midship section, so the lower hull shape was still questionable.
 

 

 
I did find some section plans on the internet, but they were redrawn for a model kit from Amati, and I had some questions about their accuracy, although they did show the bulb at the bow below the waterline, which did not appear on any of the other plans.
 

 

 
However, when in doubt I always refer to photographs, if available.  Here is one of the ship being launched, which I used to compare and contrast with the plans in hand. 
 

 
This was one of several thousand images that I viewed on the net.  These were culled to about two hundred after eliminating duplicates and those that were of such low resolution to be useless.  Of those, about three dozen were saved as the most relevant, useful, and detailed.  Here are a few, and more will be posted as the areas of detail are built.
 

 

 

 
More posted soon
 
Dan
 
 

Hi all –
 
Thanks for your comments and suggestions.  I plan to incorporate them into the second iteration of the boat which will be built when the hardwood strips arrive from the supplier.
 
When we left the shipyard the hull of the boat had been fully planked with the shutter planks fitted on both sides.  The hull had been marked out in pencil for the rib locations in preparation for the nails which would have fastened the planks to the ribs.  Here you can see the lines for all of the ribs that sit square to the keel as well as for the two cant ribs, drawn on the port side of the hull.
 

 
For the fasteners I had to find a way to make them look right without devoting an excessive amount of time to the task.  Since there are 11 planks on each side, 25 rib or transom/stem lines that the planks cross, and two fasteners per crossing, the math says that there have to be 1100 fasteners for the exterior of each boat.  Add in some more for the interior work and you can see the magnitude of the problem. 
 
The original boat probably had the planks nailed to the ribs, with the ends peened over to clinch them.  I experimented with a plank/rib mockup and could never get the holes in the planks to come through the ribs in the proper places.  Instead, I decided to drill the holes through only the planks and worry about indicating the nails on the inside of the ribs later.
 
I first drilled all the holes.  Here you can see how there are two in each plank in an offset pattern.  I used a 0.012” drill, which scales up to 1/2”, which would be about right.
 

 
At first I tried inserting pieces of annealed iron wire into the holes, clipping them short, painting them with glue, then filing the tops flush with the face of the planks.  This was incredibly time consuming and fiddly.  I then decided to try the technique of leaving the holes empty, sanding the planks to fill the holes with sawdust, then painting on a finish to hold in the sawdust.  This looked good and I don’t believe that anyone can tell the difference with this short cut.
 
  *   *   *
Aarrrgh, scalawag that ye are!  Ye’ll not be taking any modern short cuts with me boats.  I be Dread Pirate Peter, and I’ll have yer guts fer garters if ye dinna do a manly and proper piece of work. 
 

 
No, no, it will be OK.  Really it will.  Here, this is what the nail holes look like after filling and staining.  I have had several critical people, including my wife, compare them to the ones with the iron nails in them and no one could tell the difference.  In fact, the slightly spread discoloration of the wood grain closely mimics the way old wood stains when a nail rusts into it.
 

 
*   *   *
Tis all very well and comely, but rest ye not on yer laurels, lest ye rest on yer ****.  I be watching ye. . .
 
*   *   *
Soooo, with that out of the way, I turned to fitting out the interior.  First the missing ribs were bent and fitted into the interior.  These were the two cant ribs at the bow and the aftmost rib at Station 21 that had been left off to make planking easier. 
 
The first interior piece to be installed was the tapered central plank of the flooring.  It strengthens the keel and is the location for the lifting rings and mast step.
 

 
To each side the rest of the floor planks were installed.  They are not tapered but fit against the tapered center plank due to the curvature of the hull.  They are held in place while the glue dries by inexpensive hair clips from the cosmetics section of the drug store.  They initially look like the one at the lower left, but are easily bent by hand to the shape in the lower right.  This now allows them to reach around the hull to apply pressure at the tips.
 

 
Next to be installed are the sheets, the planked platforms at the bow and stern.  They will appear in later photos, but I did not take pictures as they were being built.  Construction is straightforward.  Planks were glued to a pair of battens underneath to make a flat sheet larger than needed.  A paper pattern is cut to fit the space and the wood sheet is cut to that shape.  The edges are bevelled to match the curve of the hull and it is glued in place to the ribs.
 
Now the thwart stringers are installed.  I first bent one piece of  stripwood to shape and glued it in on the starboard side at the height indicated on the plans.  The matching strip was bent and trimmed for the port side and held in place temporarily while I balanced pieces of stripwood across from side to side and set perpendicular to the keel.  These are known in woodworking as ‘winding sticks’ although I don’t know why.  Looking across their tops you can easily see any variation from side to side and any tipping compared to the centerline and the edge of the sheets.  Once I was satisfied with the levels, the port stringer was glued in place. 
 

 
The plans show square section wood pieces running side to side just under the thwart stringers near the bow and stern.  They have a short section in the center that has a round cross section.  I do not know what they were for, but perhaps the rounded section would have a halyard led around it when the sail was raised, sort of a non-turning sheave.  Whatever they are they were shaped, fitted and glued in.
 
The lifting rings and mast step were located and attached to the central floor plank.  I also drilled the nail holes for the floors and sheets as I did for the hull planks.  My one regret is that I did not do this for the ribs at this point when they were exposed.  It turned out to be too crowded later – a detail that will be corrected on the next boats.
 
The thwarts were cut from 1mm thick stock, with the middle one being wider in the center and having added knees.  It holds and supports the metalwork that acts as the mast partner.  This fitting is made from brass strip which is chemically blackened, then glued and pinned with wire nails to the edge of the thwart.  A decorative beading was scribed into the edges of the thwarts, then they were installed on top of the stringers with spacers between them.
 

 
Unfortunately, once the thwarts were installed it was clear that they were sitting too high in the boat.  No rowers could have sat on them and had their feet reach the floor for leverage.  Here the flexibility of the Lineco glue came to my rescue.  With the tip of a #10 blade I was able to pry up the thwarts from the stringers and then remove the stringers without any damage to the hull or ribs.
 

 
The stringers were lowered 6 scale inches and reinstalled, followed by the thwarts, which looked much better after the adjustment.  I went back to the plans and determined that the problem was there and not in my measuring or building.  Just one of those problems that had to be built to be discovered.
 

 
Fitting out the rest of the interior is self-explanatory.  Working up from the thwarts the stern seats were planked up over battens.  They sit on top of the thwart stringers and the aftmost thwart.  The foremost thwart has a pair of knees set on top.
 
Square section stringers were fitted and glued to the inner sides of the sheer strake so their tops matched, and were strengthened at the bow by a breasthook and at the stern by two transom knees.  Thole blocks were set on top of the sheer strakes and stringers and will be drilled for the thole pins to be added later.  The locations of several of these had to be adjusted from the plans, which did not have them at a consistent distance from the associated thwart.
 

 
The only difficult woodworking came at the bow where the curved and carved fairleads on either side of the stem were joined with a double-dovetailed cross-support.
 


 
With the boat all but complete the rudder was fashioned to match the plans.  Two planks were fitted and tapered, then cut to the proper profile.  The pintle straps were made from brass strip, pinned through with iron wire and chemically blackened.  The tiller is brass bar that was tapered and blackened, with an epoxy bulb at its tip.
 

 
Top and bottom gudgeons were fashioned from blackened brass strip.  The upper one simply slipped into a hole drilled into the aft face of the sternpost, while the lower one had to be bent in several directions before being pinned against the sides of the sternpost.  It only remained for the thole pins to be installed and the boat was complete.
 

 
*    *    *
So ye think ye be quite clever, do ye? Quite the boat builder?  I be the judge of that.  I also bring me great-great-great grandson Peter who says he has worked with ye before.  He be a great galoot of a puppy, but he be useful to judge yer work.  He set up this temporary mast and I grant ye that said boat be mightily even side to side.
 

 
He sits well in the stern and nothing pulls my eye to say that he could not reach and steer the tiller, should he take it into his head to do some work, the lazy lout that he be.
 

 
It shivers me innards to grudge ye my approval, but i’ faith I canna find much to dislike.  But be warned that I will no be put off with such minor success.  Ye must do as well or better, or feel me wrath fall upon ye like to the Trump of Doom.
 


 
Well, there you have it.  The second boat will be made from hardwoods now that most of the construction problems have been identified, although I am sure that new ones will appear and demand solutions.  Those may be harder to find while looking over my shoulder all the time; Dread Pirate Peter seems to have very high standards, and a very short temper.
 
Till then, be well.
 
Dan

Good day to all -
 
This segment will be a bit of a detour from where I left the hull construction last time.  The sheer size of the model means that I have to work on it in the basement of the family’s weekend house near Albany, NY.  There is no way that I can fit it into the shipyard in the Brooklyn apartment, which is a converted walk-in closet.  I haven’t been up to the house in several weeks, so I am working on smaller pieces here in the city that can be added later.  The first of these are the ship’s boats.  As always, there are half a dozen good ways to get the job done.  Here is mine.  The recitation is quite long, so I have broken it up into two parts.  The first will cover the shaping and planking of the hull, and the second will finish with the fitting out of the interior.
 
The Mercure drawings that I am working from include plans and schematics for two boats, a large launch (boat 7) and a sleek pinnace (boat 6).   Here I will be building the launch.  The drawings had been sent to me as .tif files, so it was easy to drop them into Photoshop and start manipulating them.
 
 
 
First I used the rule stick in the hand of the little gnome dancing on the page to scale the drawing to the size of the model.  I cropped and copied the forward and aft station lines portions of the plans and moved them to a new blank image.  Identical square outlines were superimposed around the two drawings to give them the same registration planes and centerlines. 
 
Once I was happy that everything was square and aligned correctly they were copied repeatedly to fill a page sized image and printed out several times to get one image for each of the 21 stations shown on the profile and cross section plans.  These were cut apart and glued with spray mount to squares of 1/8” wood sheet.
 

 
The outline at each station was cut out with a notch for the keel and shoulders at the sheer.  The three in the upper right are standing up because they have already had spacers glued to their back sides like the one in the upper left.  These are used with the building board, which is marked out for the centerline and each numbered station.
 

 
The station formers are glued to the board and to each other one at a time with a top spacer used to keep them at the proper distance and an engineer’s square to see that they are perfectly vertical.  
 


 
While the glue was drying on the developing stack of formers the two strongbacks (stem-keel-sternpost) were cut out.  It is somewhat weaker to do it this way, as you end up with cross-grain on the stem and sternpost, but it is faster, and this boat is something of a test bed for techniques.  For the same reason, the wood used is almost exclusively basswood.  It is easy to work, glues well, and when stained correctly is almost impossible to distinguish from a close-grained hardwood. 
 
The portion of the plans showing the longitudinal cross section was mounted on an 1/8” wood sheet which was then glued to a second sheet, with the glue placed only where the wood would be chucked.  The outline of the strongback was cut out on the band saw, leaving a glued central piece to be cut last.  This yielded two identical pieces that came apart as soon as the last cut was completed. 
 



 
Here is the completed stack of formers on the building board with one of the strongbacks temporarily set up in the notch for the keel.  It goes without saying that once the stack was fully glued it was shaped and faired with sanding rods to get smooth curves from bow to stern.
The strongback is held vertically with small blocks at the bow and stern that sandwich the tops at the centerline.  Two transom pieces were taken from the plans, laid out and cut as before, and each was test fit into the notch cut for it at the base of the sternpost.  The location of the forward edge of the plank rabbet was determined and marked out on the strongback, then the small extensions that had been left above the stem and sternpost were trimmed until it snuggled down into the keel notch at the proper level. 
 

 
The strongback was removed and the rabbet was carved along the line with rotary bitts, then finished with files and rifflers.   The transom was planked on the outside and glued in place against the sternpost.
 


 
Now I fit the ribs to the station formers.  It was a happy fact that Budriot drew the boat with a rib at each station line and a station line at each rib.  To make room for them I had cut out the station formers a little inside the line, and the sanding and fairing had further reduced the breadth of the stack.  The ribs were fairly thin in any case, made from wood strips milled to 1mm x 2mm (about 1.5” x 3” in scale”).  These were soaked in water to soften, then bent around each former and wired in place.  No glue was used.
 

 
All of the ribs were wired in place except the aftmost one at Station 21.  Leaving it off gave me a little more flexibility in fairing the planks to the transom.  The strongback was replaced in the keel notch of the formers and the initial two planks were shaped.   
 
The first was the sheer strake.  From the plans it measured out to exactly ¼” in width and was left full width its entire length.  A strip of basswood that width and 1/16” thick was soaked for a few minutes, then shaped first at the bow, where the tip was cut and angled to fit into the rabbet.  The forward few inches were steam bent using an Amati plank bender (the one that looks like a soldering iron with a nautiloid shaped head).  It is 25 years old and still works a treat.  Using the shoulders cut into the formers at the sheer the plank was edge bent to match the curve before being clamped and glued to each rib and the transom.
 
The garboard strake against the keel was similarly fitted and glued.  However, when I tried to impose the required twists into a basswood plank it repeatedly splintered.  I therefore used pau marfim, a California hardwood.  It is also ¼” wide for most of its length but flares to about twice that at the sternpost.  To accommodate this, a tapered plank was pieced in from Station 15 to the sternpost.  When I was happy with the look of the shape it was clamped and glued to the ribs.  Here is what they looked like with most of the clamps removed.
 



 
A word here about stains and glues.  Before any piece was installed it was given a staining with a mixture of ½  clear Minwax wood stain which they call Natural, ¼ Early American and ¼ Cherry.  I find this combination the best to reduce any splotchiness in the basswood and makes basswood resemble boxwood or one of the lighter cherry varieties, a look that I like a lot.  However, the stain is a bit oily, so the wood has to be well wiped and has to dry for a while before normal PVA glues will hold well. 
 
As for glue, I use a pH neutral white glue made by Lineco which I used to get from an art conservation supply house.  It sets up fast and holds well, yet is still flexible for an extended time, which will come in handy later.  Now I get it through Amazon where it is competitively priced with carpenters’ wood glues.
 
This process was repeated for the second sheer plank and the first broad strake against the garboard, but these had to be tapered to fit at the bow.  I knew from test fittings with strips of paper that there was almost exactly half the space between the garboard and sheer strake at the bow than there was between these planks amidships.  Therefore the next two planks were tapered for their forward three inches to that dimension.  Holding the plank to the formers and letting it find its own best fit, it was evident that the tapering on the second sheer strake should come off the edge that mated with the sheer strake, while the broad strake should taper on the garboard side. 
 
After the bulk of the wood was removed the edge was sanded to a fair curve.  This spiling was all done by eye, with the curve examined from every angle and refined as needed on this and every successive plank.
 
Once acceptably shaped the planks were stained, then caulking was indicated by coloring the uncut edge of the plank with an indelible black marker.  The planks were bent to final shape, fitted, glued and clamped in place.
 

 
With two strakes at the keel and two at the sheer, the cage of ribs had a good deal of strength and rigidity.  Now all of the wires were pulled out and the developing hull was removed from the formers.  I must have done a clean job with the glue because I didn’t have to pry it loose at any point.
 

 
Subsequent strakes were processed in a similar way.  For clamps I used bulldog clips that had a handle piece from a second clip fitted into the top of the clip.  A modified clip was used on every other former to hold the plank to the ribs as the glue dried. 
 

 
Here is what the hull looked like with 8 of the 11 strakes in place.  At this point the remaining space was divided into thirds as you can see from the pencil marks on the ribs.  This would be filled with two standard width planks and one custom fit ‘shutter plank’ that closed in the hull.
 

 
Here is one completed side.  The shutter plank location was selected to lie just under the curve of the chine of the hull, making it less visible than any other spot.  It is the fourth from the keel.  It is slightly wider than the other planks and flares at the stern to fill the larger space.
 

 
While it was on the formers the location of each rib was penciled onto the planks in preparation for the ‘nails’ holding the planks to the ribs.
 

 
Once the other side was closed up the hull was removed from the formers.  I think the method worked quite well and resulted in a hull that is strong, symmetric, and gives a convincing appearance of an actual boat structure.  The white plastic figure in the corner is useful to judge scale appearance and will appear again.
 

 
Spiling the planking by eye in this way is an acquired skill, but not difficult if each plank is critically examined and adjusted as needed.  The final hull has a nice run of planking that tapers smoothly to the stem and matches, port to starboard, and even has the little variations in width that a real boat does.
 


 
In the next installment I use the penciled lines to drill the nail holes for the more than 1100 fasteners used for the hull planks.  Then I fit out the interior and finish the boat.
 
As always, critical review by the eyes of my peers is requested.  This is even more so in this case since the boat is the first generation attempt and, despite the work and time invested, may not make the final cut.
 
Looking forward to hearing from all.
 
Dan
 

SS ANDREA DORIA  (1952)  
 
Good day to all, especially those who followed my build log of the Queen Anne's Revenge (1710).  I hope you will enjoy this one as well, and I look forward to your comments and critiques.
 
This project is another large jump across time and techniques.  It is the ocean liner SS Andrea Doria, the pride of the postwar Italian Line. Her likeness will be built to the scale of 1/16” = 1’ and will reflect her appearance at the height of her service life, the fateful night of July 25, 1956.
 

 
This is my fourth liner model and it uses many of the techniques that I have developed for this type of ship.  Some, I hope, can have broader applications, so even if you are only into sailing ships you are most welcome to pull up a chair and grab some popcorn.
 
The essential elements of the model will be scratch built.   This includes the large components such as the hull, decks, superstructures, and funnel, as well as the complex and unique elements such as the cargo cranes and swimming pools.  But for some simple fittings aftermarket castings are acceptable as long as they are accurate or can be made so.  Likewise, photoetched brass pieces such as railings will be used.
 
The ship herself and her tragic story are known to many.  SS Andrea Doria was the pride of the Italian merchant marine in a country struggling to renew its economy and reputation after WW II.  Launched in 1951 she began service in 1953 for the Italian Line (Societa di Navigazione Italia).  For more than three years she led her country’s liners as the largest and fastest ship in the fleet and one of the most elegant, with an outdoor swimming pool for each of the three classes of passenger.
 

 
On the night of July 25, 1956 all that changed.  Sailing towards New York City, eight days out of Genoa, she was running in heavy fog in the Labrador Current just south of Nantucket, Mass.  Coming towards her was the liner SS Stockholm, outbound from New York for home.  She was not in fog but in the dark night could not see either the fog or the Andrea Doria. 
 

 
Although both were spotted on the other’s radar, this was still a somewhat new technology and the positions and speeds of the ships were incorrectly plotted on each bridge.  As a result, the ships turned towards each other rather than away.  At 11:10 pm the icebreaker bow of the Stockholm sliced into the starboard side of the Doria and into dozens of passenger cabins with families asleep in their bunks.  More importantly, it sliced into the engineering spaces below the waterline.
 

 
SOS calls were immediately put out by both ships and soon a number of others were racing to the site of the collision. The Stockholm was still seaworthy, although her bow was completely crushed.
 

 
49 people, many of them children in third class, died immediately aboard the Andrea Doria, and five crewmen aboard the Stockholm.  Yet, miraculously, 14 year old Linda Morgan was lifted from her bed and deposited into the wreckage of the Stockholm’s bow where she was found with only a broken arm and some scrapes.
 

 
 
Andrea Doria soon began to list.  This might not have been fatal because she had been designed with eleven watertight compartments with bulkheads that extended well above the waterline, only one of which had been breached in the initial collision.  But five of the starboard fuel tanks were located there and they quickly filled with water.  On the port side the tanks, which were empty at the end of the crossing, acted like balloons to raise that side.  Even this might have been survivable, but a design flaw in an access tunnel allowed water to blast into one of the lower control rooms, and then into the generator room, cutting off power.  Without power water ballast could not be shifted to port to compensate and the list steadily increased.
 

 
Thirty minutes after the collision Captain Calamai ordered that the ship be abandoned.  The list made it impossible to launch the port side lifeboats, but by reusing the starboard ones all of the passengers and crew were eventually evacuated to the safety of the rescuing ships.  All, that is, but three who were fatally injured or died during the evacuation, bringing the final death toll to 57, the greatest loss of life in American waters in over 40 years.
 
All through the night the list increased, and in the early morning hours she turned over and sank.  The aerial photography of the sinking won a Pulitzer Prize for Harry Trask.
 

 
Now she sits in about 190 feet of water, on her starboard side.  This is too deep for the recreational diver but easily reachable on a mixed gas technical dive.  It used to be a fairly well-visited site, but the deterioration of the wreck is so severe now that only the most experienced should think about trying it.
 

 
The model begins, as all models do, with the plans and research.  I was fortunate that a set of plans was available from Taubman’s Plans Service, a division of Loyalhannah Dockyard.  Expensive, but if they were as advertised, they would be worth it.  While waiting for them to arrive I went on an internet search.
 
I quickly found a poster in quite high resolution on a public site which had been printed as an advertisement for the ship and which showed the cabins on the passenger decks and the layout of the upper decks and deck structures.  Although I did not need to know the cabin locations or layouts, the poster was clearly copied from the engineering plans and was quite exact.  However, the deck plans did not go below “C” deck just above the waterline and had no lengthwise or midships cross-sectional plans, so the shape of the lower hull was still a mystery.   
 
 

 
Also, due to the many times it was reproduced, I guess, the deck plans bent to starboard, a defect that had to be corrected.
 

 
When the Taubman’s plans showed up they were a good news, bad news thing.  They were clearly the engineering drawings, imprinted with the logo of the Bologne Society of Marine Architechts, the name of the builders and the date in 1952 when they were drawn.  They included a longitudinal cross section that showed many of the deck house details including window and doorway locations, mast details and the interior of the large single funnel. 
 

 
An exterior illustration showed the locations of most of the portholes, doors and windows. This was supported by another illustration, this one in color, that was located on the net.
 

 

 
But there was a plan for only one deck below the “C” deck, the “D” deck, although it had some indication of the hull shape of the rudder post below the counter.  There was still no midship section, so the lower hull shape was still questionable.
 

 

 
I did find some section plans on the internet, but they were redrawn for a model kit from Amati, and I had some questions about their accuracy, although they did show the bulb at the bow below the waterline, which did not appear on any of the other plans.
 

 

 
However, when in doubt I always refer to photographs, if available.  Here is one of the ship being launched, which I used to compare and contrast with the plans in hand. 
 

 
This was one of several thousand images that I viewed on the net.  These were culled to about two hundred after eliminating duplicates and those that were of such low resolution to be useless.  Of those, about three dozen were saved as the most relevant, useful, and detailed.  Here are a few, and more will be posted as the areas of detail are built.
 

 

 

 
More posted soon
 
Dan
 
 

Hello again to all.  
 
Thanks for the likes and comments.  I am glad that I can pass along some of the tips, tricks and techniques from my own teachers and from decades of trials and lots of errors along the way.
 
This will be the final installment of this build log.  The model is done and is waiting to be picked up for crating and delivery.  The final touches include: the stern lantern; mounting the anchors and anchor buoys; fitting the ship's boat and the spare spars.
 
The lantern was done in the round French fashion, rather than the hexagonal English style.  This meant that I had to scratch build it, rather than buying one of the well-designed and detailed ones from Syren Models.  In any event, here is how I went about it:
 
The lantern is not really round so it cannot be simply turned to shape, as you can see from the reproduced sections of the plan it is skewed towards the stern.  The central body was the most difficult to create.  Attempts to carve wood and acrylic were both completely unsatisfactory.  Starting from a cylindrical shape I could not get the proper angle to the lamp body.  Instead, I tried Sculpey, a clay that is hardened by baking in an oven.  After shaping it to the basic form by hand it was hardened according to the package directions.  When cool and hard it was still easily refined and smoothed by sanding.  The brass rod is for convenience in holding and shaping.
 
1
 
Here is a close-up of the body.  Examining the photograph I saw that I still needed to bring down the sharp ridge between the upper and lower portions.
 
2
 
When the body was brought to shape it was given several coats of primer, then a final light grey color coat, with light sanding in between.  The cap was carved from pear wood in a floral design.  I tried to get 16 petals around the circumference, but this proved too fiddly, so I have 12.  The finial on the top is turned from pear.  The mullions to hold the glass are cherry veneer cut to 0.030” x 0.015” strips.  Each was wet bent at the top end then glued in between the petals.  When that was dry and hard the rest of the strip was glued down the body of the lantern.  I put in the first four to quarter the body then marked out thirds in each section for the rest.
 
3
 
Here is a composite photo with two views of the lantern with all the vertical mullions installed.
 
4
 
The cross pieces were cut from the veneer strip and individually installed in three bands around the lantern.
 
5
 
A floral base was carved and a round drop at the bottom were made out of pear.  The finished lantern was sanded to remove any sharp corners then finished with a light stain/neutral carrier mix.  I let the stain pool a bit in the corners, which gave the panes some depth and shadow.  Each section was filled with white glue which dried to create a glossy ‘glass’ pane.
 
6
 
Mounting hardware was fashioned from a 0.062” brass rod with two pieces soldered at right angles.  The mount was bent and trimmed to fit a trio of holes in the stern.  After blackening the mount was installed and the lantern fitted to it at an appropriate height.
 
7
 
And here is how the lantern fits in with the look of the rest of the stern.
 
8
 
Next I turned to the anchors.  In an earlier segment I went through how I constructed them.  Here are the two finished sets of four anchors for each model.
 
9
 
To hang them I needed a triple block for each of the largest ones which would be mounted at the catheads, as well as an anchor buoy for each.  The blocks were made from 7mm triple blocks which were detailed by drilling a second set of line holes and rounding the resulting ‘sheave’ in the middle.  The hook was bent up from 0.035” annealed iron wire with the shank wrapped around the block in a deepened strop groove.
 
The buoy bodies were ¾” long, turned from maple.  Two ropes were seized together forming a small loop and spot glued at either end.  The lines were led down the body and under a cinch line about ¼ of the way from either end.  The vertical lines were doubled back on themselves, glued and trimmed. 
 
10
 
Here are the anchors mounted on the starboard side.  They are the two middle sized ones.  They are hung with strong lines from timberheads at the rail as well as the hooked block at the cathead.  A sense of weight is imparted by hanging a weight from the anchor then stiffening the supporting lines with dilute white glue.
 
11
 
Here is the buoy tied to the shrouds with a loop of line that is ultimately secured to the anchor shank.
 
12
 
And here are the two on the port side similarly secured.  These are the largest and smallest of the set.
 
13
 
The final tasks were to secure the ship’s boat in the waist and add two spare topmasts and large spars.  These sit between the gaps in the rails at the edges of the foredeck and quarterdeck.
 
14
 
Various rope coils were added to each belaying point, the model was cleaned and a few spots of paint were touched up. 
 
So here she is, ready for pickup and shipping. 
 
15
16
 
And one final photo of a future crewman, grandson Eli, who is almost four and already very interested in what his Poppy Dan does with his boats. . .
 
17
 
It was an interesting build, and radically increased my appreciation and respect for those modelers who rig sails.  As always, questions, comments, and critiques are very welcome.
 
Back soon with another project, the SS Andrea Doria in 1:200 scale.
 
Till then, be well,
 
Dan
 
 

Hi all and thanks for the likes and comments.
 
At the end of the last segment I had finished and hung the square sails.  Now I turned to the staysails, most of which will be shown furled.
 
The sails were made up much like the square sails, but as triangles rather than trapezoids.  Here are the two from the first set that were made.  They were discarded because the panel lines are wrong.  The pattern with a central seam and angled panels is much more modern than would have been in use in 1710.  I made a hasty assumption before checking my sources.
 
1
 
So here is the redone main staysail.  It is reduced in size for purposes of furling, but is otherwise appropriately rigged.  As explained by R.C. Anderson, the lines and blocks for the foreyard braces would have interfered with the staysail sliding up the stay.  So a false stay was rigged under the mainstay and the sail is spiral laced to it.
 
2
 
The lower end of the false stay is secured to the foremast by a collar that rides just under the thumb cleat for the forestay (indicated by the arrow on the left).  A small deadeye is turned into the collar and a matching one seized into the lower end of the false stay.  The lanyard between them is tightened and the running end is frapped around it (see the arrow on the right).  Lacing this in, around and through the previously rigged lines was one of the most delicate operations I have ever performed in my years of modeling.  Suffice to say that I will pre-rig this next time.
 
3
 
The upper end of the false stay is comparatively easy.  There is an eye splice turned into the end of the line, which is then seized to the mainstay just above the euphroe lashing.  A single block is seized to the stay between the euphroe and the mouse to run the uphaul line for the staysail.
 
4
 
Once the sail was rigged, the lines were loosened, the sail misted with water and drawn down toward the foremast.  It was furled, twisted, and wrapped with one leg of the sheet line, the other was used to secure the furled sail at the deck to one of the deck cleats.  When I was happy with the look it was painted with matte finish to stiffen it.
 
5
 
Similarly, the main topmast staysail was rigged on its false stay.
 
6
 
The mizzen stays do not have any brace blocks rigged to them, so the staysails do not need a false stay.  Here is the mizzen staysail.
 
7
 
And here is the mizzen topmast staysail.
 
8
 
The fore staysail was done in the same way.
 
8a
 
The fore topmast staysail was set and shown billowed, its shape mirroring and complimenting the mizzen lateen sail.  I first ran it down the t’gallant stay, but this did not seem right.  First, it put it too far forward to look good to my eye.  Maybe more important, rigging it that way would have one of the largest sails being run between one of the smallest diameter masts and the end of the jib boom, also not that large a timber. This is a broken masthead waiting to happen.  Instead, I looked at some contemporary French models and usually saw a line running from the topmast head to the end of the jib boom.  This looked much more likely, and gave the sail a nice angle and shape.
 
8b
 
So here is the model with all sails set and rigged.
 
9
 
Next I turned to the flag.  Although no one truly knows what his flag looked like, the Internet has one that is called the Blackbeard flag.  It is a demon holding a glass in one hand and a spear in the other, aimed at a red heart with three red dots in the lower corner.  This was the one selected by the museum.
 
I took the image and imported it into my computer.  Using Photoshop I resized it, then used the skew function to bring down the lower outer corner of the flag.  This helps it to hang more naturally without a buildup of material.  A copy was saved and reversed, then both were combined into one image.
 
10
 
The double image was printed out on a piece of paper.  A piece of thin fabric large enough to cover the image with some excess all around was stiffened, then taped over the upper image and run through the printer.  This put an image on the first side.  The fabric was cut loose, turned over and positioned over the lower image.  Since the fabric was somewhat transparent it was easy to locate it exactly over the previously printed image.  Again it was taped down on all sides and printed again.
 
11
 
After allowing the ink to dry for 48 hours the flag was stiffened to lock in the ink, then cut out, leaving a bit of excess along the fly edge.  The hauling line was set in and the flap glued over it and ironed down.  The ensign staff was built up with a small block at the top and a cleat mounted at easy reaching height for a man.  With the staff mounted the flag was misted and curled.
 
12
 
So here is the model almost done.
 
14
 
The next segment should be the last.  Only the stern lantern to build and the anchors to mount.
 
Back soon.
 
Dan
 
 

Build Log 35 - t'gallant sails, boat, swivel guns
 
Hi again, and welcome to spring - 
 
Back from vacation and back in harness.  This installment finishes the square sails, the two topgallant sails; fits out the ship's boat and installs the swivel guns. 
 
The t'gallant sails were made using the same techniques as those for the larger sails.  The sail was measured to fit the spar and reach the sheet blocks on the topsail spars.  This was laid out on stiffened fabric.
 
1
 
The edges were glued, including the overlaps for the tabling.  The openings for the cringles were cut out and the sail was cut along the outer edges of the tabling.
 
2
 
The bolt rope was installed and the tabling ironed down over it to secure it.
 
3
 
And here is the finished sail with reinforcements added to each corner.
 
4
 
The sails were laced to their spars and mounted to the model with ties and halyards, parrells, lifts, braces, and sheets, all according to Anderson.  Clew blocks and lines were rigged and run, although these sails did not have buntlines or leach lines.  Finally the bowlines and their bridles were rigged and run. 
 
4a
 
These last lines were pretty hard to run.  Not only is it getting pretty crowded at the bases of the masts, but it usually took several attempts before I could make the lines run without fouling any previous lines.  Here is what the foot of the foremast looks like at this stage.
 
4b
 
And here is the model with all square sails set.
 
5
 
6
 
Next the ship's boat was fitted out.  First came the oars.  I made 12 of them to match the number of oarlocks on the sheer. In the photo you can see the four steps in their construction.  The first three on the left are cut out roughly on the table saw.  The next three have been roughly shaped using a sanding drum in the Dremel.  The next three have been smoothed and refined, with a groove which sets off the handle.  The final three have been final sanded, finished, and have had a rope sleeve added which would protect the oar from chafing on the rowlock.  
 
7
 
Once the photo was taken the full set of oars was finished, then tied into bundles of six and lashed to a thwart.
 
8
 
A simple mast was made up to fit in the mast step.  A spar was estimated and a sail made up to fit, then laced to the spar.  The mast and spar were lashed together and to a thwart.  Several belaying points were set into the sheer for stays and sail handling lines.  Here is the finished boat on its cradles, although not permanently secured yet.
 
9
 
The final fittings in this segment are the swivel guns.  It is known that Blackbeard added a number of these useful weapons to the armament of the QAR, and one has been recovered in the excavation of the site.  Taking its measurements, a set of bronze colored barrels were located in the aftermarket that closely matched the size and shape of the artifact.
 
To mount them, a set of simple forked stanchions were made up from brass.  Here are the various pieces and how they go together.  
 
10
 
Once the prototype was acceptable, the pieces were soldered together, the brass blackened, and the barrels mounted.  
 
11
 
There are four on each side on the caprails, and one each in the main and fore tops.
 
12
 
So here is the current status.  
 
13
 
Next, the staysails and maybe the anchors.
 
Be well
 
Dan 

Build log 34 – main, mizzen topsail, bell
 
Hi to all from snowy Brooklyn.  I know that we have not had anything to compare with our daughter in Boston or son in Detroit, much less those of you who live in Canada or the northern tier of the USA, but between Brooklyn and Albany I have had more than enough of this winter !!   So here is a quick update before SWMBO and I leave for a week on a warm island.
 
The last segment ended with hanging and rigging the fore topsail. 
 
#
 
Since then I have made, hung and rigged the main topsail.  Nothing original here, just used the same techniques as on the fore topsail. 
 
1
 
The pair look good, especially when backlit.
 
2
 
And here is the full model with the two large topsails.
 
3
 
One of the few details on deck that I had not done was the ship’s brass bell.  One has been located in the excavation, so I had to include it.  I hunted through all the usual sources, including several that said they had ones the right size.  But when it came time to order them, there were none to be had.  Finally a friend in the NY club and on this list, JerseyCityFrankie, found ones in a jewelry and beading supply house.  Toho Shoji, Inc. has a lot of wire, threads, beads, and other items that can be useful.  Check out their website at tohoshoji-ny.com.  Anyway, here is the 10mm size installed in the belfry at the break of the foredeck.
 
4
 
I made the mizzen topsail, but have only hitched it to the mast with the parrell and the tye/halyard.  I ran out of properly sized blocks from Warner Woods West, but Lloyd is sending me some more.  The break therefore comes at a good time.  So here is the model with the three topsails.
 
5
6
 
Thanks to all for likes and comments.  Stay warm and be well.
 
Back soon
 
Dan

Log 33 – Fore Topsail      
 
Hello again to all.  Since the last entry I have made and hung the fore topsail.  This is the first of the square sails that will be shown set and filling, and took somewhat longer to complete due to my inexperience.  I had to go back a few times to understand all of the lines and to work out some technical problems.
 
Here is the yard, shaped as usual with cleats, stop cleats and blocks.  At this point I still have to add the larger blocks near the center for the topgallant sheets. Also the stirrups and footropes.
 
1
 
The sail itself was laid out, like the lateen, on stiffened cloth.  The panel lines and tabling lines were marked out, then the perimeter was painted with pH neutral white glue.  When the glue was dry the sail was cut out and small triangle openings were cut along what would become the perimeter of the sail for the cringles.  The sail was turned over and panel seams were lined on, offset about 3 scale inches to one side of the first set of seams.
 
2
 
The boltrope was set into the creased sail edge and trapped in place when the tabling was folded over and ironed closed.  As with the lateen, the cringles were made by feeding a bend of the bolt rope through the previously cut openings to form the cringles.  When the tabling was completely closed the various reinforcements were added to the back of the sail.  These were made out of stiffened cloth that was marked with panel seams, if needed, then cut and glued to the main sail as shown on the plans.  They were ironed down to the main sailcloth and should be very stable and secure.  On the front of the sail two bands of reinforcement for the reef points were similarly cut, glued, and ironed.
 
3
 
Here you can see all of the elements of the sail, backlit and translucent.
 
4
 
A series of holes was drilled through the tabling along the top of the sail with about a 3/8” spacing.   A continuous series of loops was sewn through the holes to lace the sail to the spar.  Then it was set into a large plastic tub for stiffening.
 
5
 
The sail was painted with clear matte finish and weighted with about half a cup of rice in a plastic bag.  It was left to dry overnight and, once removed from the jig, had a pleasing catenary curve to the three free sides.
 
6
 
Holes were drilled through the reef bands and the reef points were knotted, glued into the holes, and trimmed.  Matte finish was painted on to hold them down on both sides of the sail.  Clew blocks were tied to the lower corners and the sheets were knotted and laced through the clew cringles.    The sail was hung on the mast and the parrell was strapped around the mast and yard.  In the photo you can see the running ends of the topsail lifts (the heavier light colored lines) are hanging down and have not been belayed.  There are clips on their lower ends to provide some weight and tension on the system to keep things from getting tangled.  The clips also remind me which lines have not been belayed yet.
 
7
 
The tie with its fiddle block already seized in was fed from aft to forward through a sheave hole in the mast under the trestletrees.  It was taken down around the yard and attached with a rolling hitch.  The fiddle block at the running end of the tye is the top of a three part purchase hooked into an eyebolt in the top.  The halyard belays to a cleat on the mast near the deck.
 
8
 
The lifts were laced through the fiddle blocks at the yardarm and led down towards the deck through the lubber holes, but not yet secured until the sheets were led through the sheet blocks on the main yard then down through the sheaves in the bitts forward of the mast.  Then both sets of lines could be tensioned against each other.  The braces were run from the main topmast stay, through several sets of blocks to a timberhead on the edge of the foredeck.  They can be seen in some later photos.  That completed the spar handling lines.  The sail handling lines were then run, which completed the rigging to the topsail.
 
Here is the sail fully rigged as seen from forward.
 
9
 
In this view the lighting was varied so the sail handling lines can be seen a bit clearer.  The fore topsail, like the other square sails, has p/s pairs of clewlines, leachlines, buntlines, and bowlines.  Eight more lines for each sail.  I had never previously fully rigged a ship, and the level of complexity with all these lines is a real eye-opener.
 
The bowlines start as a triple bridle from the cringles on either side of the sail.  They lead to blocks on pendants at the end of the bowsprit, then aft through the gammon blocks and up to cleats on the foredeck.  The buntines lead from cringles at the foot of the sail, through lead blocks on the yard, through blocks strapped to the topmast stay, and then to the deck.  Similarly, the leach lines run from the upper side cringles through lead blocks and down to the deck.
 
10
 
In this closeup of the masthead you can see those lead blocks on the yard and stay.
 
11
 
From aft in these two views you can see the braces and clewlines.
 
12
13
 
Each of the sail handling lines goes down to a tackle hooked to the eyebolts around the base of the mast.  It is starting to get very crowded here.  The halyard is belayed to the mast cleat with several turns of line and a yacht hitch, but no glue.  All of the belaying points will be painted with matte finish only after they are all done.
 
14
 
I try to leave extra line on the belaying point and delay the final securing till very late so that when, not if, I make a mistake I can correct it more easily.  For example, here is the first photo of the halyard tackle on the mast top.  Looking at it I could see that the halyard was running through one of the side lubber holes and made a fairly acute angle as it went through the lubber hole to the deck.  Such a kink is a mistake.
 
15
 
In most cases this would be difficult to correct.  Instead, I just had to untie the halyard from the cleat and re-run it properly, belaying it to the cleat again.  Although it took some finicky work with two tweezers, it only took 15 minutes, not an hour.  A very small point, but one that would have nagged at me at 2 am.
 
16
 
So here is the current overall look. 
 
17
 
Main topmast next.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 

SS ANDREA DORIA  (1952)  
 
Good day to all, especially those who followed my build log of the Queen Anne's Revenge (1710).  I hope you will enjoy this one as well, and I look forward to your comments and critiques.
 
This project is another large jump across time and techniques.  It is the ocean liner SS Andrea Doria, the pride of the postwar Italian Line. Her likeness will be built to the scale of 1/16” = 1’ and will reflect her appearance at the height of her service life, the fateful night of July 25, 1956.
 

 
This is my fourth liner model and it uses many of the techniques that I have developed for this type of ship.  Some, I hope, can have broader applications, so even if you are only into sailing ships you are most welcome to pull up a chair and grab some popcorn.
 
The essential elements of the model will be scratch built.   This includes the large components such as the hull, decks, superstructures, and funnel, as well as the complex and unique elements such as the cargo cranes and swimming pools.  But for some simple fittings aftermarket castings are acceptable as long as they are accurate or can be made so.  Likewise, photoetched brass pieces such as railings will be used.
 
The ship herself and her tragic story are known to many.  SS Andrea Doria was the pride of the Italian merchant marine in a country struggling to renew its economy and reputation after WW II.  Launched in 1951 she began service in 1953 for the Italian Line (Societa di Navigazione Italia).  For more than three years she led her country’s liners as the largest and fastest ship in the fleet and one of the most elegant, with an outdoor swimming pool for each of the three classes of passenger.
 

 
On the night of July 25, 1956 all that changed.  Sailing towards New York City, eight days out of Genoa, she was running in heavy fog in the Labrador Current just south of Nantucket, Mass.  Coming towards her was the liner SS Stockholm, outbound from New York for home.  She was not in fog but in the dark night could not see either the fog or the Andrea Doria. 
 

 
Although both were spotted on the other’s radar, this was still a somewhat new technology and the positions and speeds of the ships were incorrectly plotted on each bridge.  As a result, the ships turned towards each other rather than away.  At 11:10 pm the icebreaker bow of the Stockholm sliced into the starboard side of the Doria and into dozens of passenger cabins with families asleep in their bunks.  More importantly, it sliced into the engineering spaces below the waterline.
 

 
SOS calls were immediately put out by both ships and soon a number of others were racing to the site of the collision. The Stockholm was still seaworthy, although her bow was completely crushed.
 

 
49 people, many of them children in third class, died immediately aboard the Andrea Doria, and five crewmen aboard the Stockholm.  Yet, miraculously, 14 year old Linda Morgan was lifted from her bed and deposited into the wreckage of the Stockholm’s bow where she was found with only a broken arm and some scrapes.
 

 
 
Andrea Doria soon began to list.  This might not have been fatal because she had been designed with eleven watertight compartments with bulkheads that extended well above the waterline, only one of which had been breached in the initial collision.  But five of the starboard fuel tanks were located there and they quickly filled with water.  On the port side the tanks, which were empty at the end of the crossing, acted like balloons to raise that side.  Even this might have been survivable, but a design flaw in an access tunnel allowed water to blast into one of the lower control rooms, and then into the generator room, cutting off power.  Without power water ballast could not be shifted to port to compensate and the list steadily increased.
 

 
Thirty minutes after the collision Captain Calamai ordered that the ship be abandoned.  The list made it impossible to launch the port side lifeboats, but by reusing the starboard ones all of the passengers and crew were eventually evacuated to the safety of the rescuing ships.  All, that is, but three who were fatally injured or died during the evacuation, bringing the final death toll to 57, the greatest loss of life in American waters in over 40 years.
 
All through the night the list increased, and in the early morning hours she turned over and sank.  The aerial photography of the sinking won a Pulitzer Prize for Harry Trask.
 

 
Now she sits in about 190 feet of water, on her starboard side.  This is too deep for the recreational diver but easily reachable on a mixed gas technical dive.  It used to be a fairly well-visited site, but the deterioration of the wreck is so severe now that only the most experienced should think about trying it.
 

 
The model begins, as all models do, with the plans and research.  I was fortunate that a set of plans was available from Taubman’s Plans Service, a division of Loyalhannah Dockyard.  Expensive, but if they were as advertised, they would be worth it.  While waiting for them to arrive I went on an internet search.
 
I quickly found a poster in quite high resolution on a public site which had been printed as an advertisement for the ship and which showed the cabins on the passenger decks and the layout of the upper decks and deck structures.  Although I did not need to know the cabin locations or layouts, the poster was clearly copied from the engineering plans and was quite exact.  However, the deck plans did not go below “C” deck just above the waterline and had no lengthwise or midships cross-sectional plans, so the shape of the lower hull was still a mystery.   
 
 

 
Also, due to the many times it was reproduced, I guess, the deck plans bent to starboard, a defect that had to be corrected.
 

 
When the Taubman’s plans showed up they were a good news, bad news thing.  They were clearly the engineering drawings, imprinted with the logo of the Bologne Society of Marine Architechts, the name of the builders and the date in 1952 when they were drawn.  They included a longitudinal cross section that showed many of the deck house details including window and doorway locations, mast details and the interior of the large single funnel. 
 

 
An exterior illustration showed the locations of most of the portholes, doors and windows. This was supported by another illustration, this one in color, that was located on the net.
 

 

 
But there was a plan for only one deck below the “C” deck, the “D” deck, although it had some indication of the hull shape of the rudder post below the counter.  There was still no midship section, so the lower hull shape was still questionable.
 

 

 
I did find some section plans on the internet, but they were redrawn for a model kit from Amati, and I had some questions about their accuracy, although they did show the bulb at the bow below the waterline, which did not appear on any of the other plans.
 

 

 
However, when in doubt I always refer to photographs, if available.  Here is one of the ship being launched, which I used to compare and contrast with the plans in hand. 
 

 
This was one of several thousand images that I viewed on the net.  These were culled to about two hundred after eliminating duplicates and those that were of such low resolution to be useless.  Of those, about three dozen were saved as the most relevant, useful, and detailed.  Here are a few, and more will be posted as the areas of detail are built.
 

 

 

 
More posted soon
 
Dan
 
 

Build Log 32 – crojack and lateen sail
 
Hi again.  Being snowed in here in NYC had the silver lining of giving me some extra time to work on the model, so here is the next installment.
 
The next spar to be tackled was the crojack yard on the mizzen.  Even as far back as 1710 it did not carry a sail, but was there to spread the foot of the mizzen topsail.  It was shaped in the usual manner to the Budriot plans.  Since it does not carry a sail the number of blocks stropped to it is reduced.  There are sister blocks at the yardarms for the lifts and mizzen topsail sheets, pendant blocks for the braces and sheet blocks under the yard near the center.  Since the yard is not lowered with any frequency, the parrell is replaced by a static collar, with the yard having a single large block in the center that will hold a sling that circles the masthead and supports the spar.
 
Here is the spar ready for mounting.  The sling has been turned round the spar on one side and sized to the mast, leaving two long legs to be hitched round the spar and trimmed.
 
1
 
Here is the crojack yard mounted.  In the enlarged portion you can see the collar hitched around the mast and spar and the sling running through the center block.  According to Anderson (who I mistakenly referred to last time as Andersen) the French used the same lifts here as on the forward masts, while the English had already turned them into non-moving standing lifts since the yard did not move up or down.
 
14
 
In the above photo you might notice that there is now a railing around the poop deck/roof of the captain’s cabin.  In testing the fit and location of the lateen sail I realized that there were no belaying points anywhere at the stern of the ship.  Some belaying pins will be added to these rails, and other lighter lines can be hitched to the rails without pins.  The posts will also give me some future locations for swivel gun mountings.  They are 3 feet high in scale and made from steam bent pear, like the caprails.
 
15
 
The lateen spar is the simplest on the ship, even more so than the crojack yard.  It tapers to both ends, but without a center octagonal section.  There is a metal reinforcement and eyebolt at the lower end, but I never did discover the use for that fitting.  A halyard line hitches to a point near the center of the spar, but a little towards the upper end.  I left it loose until the yard was finally mounted.
 
Along the length of the spar are six small blocks.  They are for the brailing lines that furl the sail and take the place of the clew, bunt and leach lines.  They alternate single and double blocks, which will be made clear later.
 
16
 
The parrell is made up of “B” shaped spacers and black beads.  The final piece is a small deadeye with only two holes.
 
17
 
Here is how it goes together.  The deadeye is seized into the parrell line which doubles and laces through the spacers and beads.  The lines are seized together again, although I took a shortcut and knotted them so I could adjust the placement later.  The knot will be invisible in the final mounting.  The lines then loop around the mast and the base of the halyard before threading through the deadeye.  The parrell does not go around the lateen spar, but holds the halyard close to the mast instead.  I read Anderson’s description of this many times before I began to understand it, and I am not really sure that I fully get it even now.
 
18
 
The lateen sail started by being laid out on the prepared sailcloth.  All of the panel lines are parallel to the cloth threads, although the lower corner is not precisely a right angle.
 
19
 
Since the sail will be set with all its lines, I had to develop cringles at the edge of the sail as attachment points for the brailing lines.  For my first attempt I cut small openings in the fold of the tabling, then laid the bolt rope into the fold and glued it as before.  With a pin I reached in and pulled the bolt rope out of the opening.  This did not work too well.  The rope was fixed in place, so pulling it out made a visible kink in the edge of the sail. 
 
20
 
For the next effort I worked the bolt rope into the cringle openings as I ironed down the tabling.  This was a much more successful effort, although it took a significantly longer time.
 
21
 
Once the tabling was all down I turned the sail over and marked the panel seams.  I found that the cloth was thin enough that a piece of white paper placed under the sail allowed me to see the panel seams through the cloth.  Then the second seam was drawn on next to the first, but offset about 1/16”.   When light shines through the cloth this double seam can be seen, but it is a subtle effect and may not be worth the effort.
 
22
 
Reinforcement panels were added to the back side of the sail, as indicated on the plans, then the sail was laced to the spar.  I wanted to show a small aerodynamic curve to the sail, so I mounted it to a scrap cardboard box with tape at the corners of the spar and a line at the clew of the sail that was held with a clip so the curve could be adjusted.
 
23
 
I painted the sail with matte finish to stiffen it and laid in a folded plastic bag of rice to hold the curve as the finish dried.
 
24
 
As it turned out, this was not a successful effort.  There is too much rice in the bag and the excess weight deformed the sail too much.  I might have been able to live with this, but at this point I realized that the entire sail was too small.  I had taken the dimensions of the spar from a digitized scan of the rigging plans that I had not double checked.  It was two inches short.  Even that I might have lived with, but coupled with the ragged cringles and the excess curve, I decided to scrap the sail and start again.
 
I saved the stropped brail blocks and the metal end fittings, but made a new spar and sail, which came out satisfactory.  Here it is being curved and stiffened.  Note how little rice it took to give the sail the curve that I wanted.
 
25
 
Once stiffened the sail was suspended by its upper corner and the reefing points were laced through holes in the reef band.  There are knots on the back side which were glued into the holes, then the points were painted with matte finish and draped down on both sides.
 
26
 
The brailing lines were attached to the cringles then run up, diagonally, to the brail blocks.  The first line, at the top, goes through a single block, then through the inside hole of the second, double block.  The second line goes through the other hole of the double block, then both lines go together to a belaying point.  Here they are coiled and taped together with a small clip to keep them from tangling until needed.  The remaining brail lines are set up in similar pairs.
 
27
 
This photo was taken without a flash as it will normally be seen, with the light shining through the sail, making visible the doubled panel lines, reef points, and sail reinforcements.
 
28
 
A large single block was attached to the clew and a pair of single blocks on a short pendant to the lower end of the spar.  Here it is, mounted.  At the upper end of the spar a set of blocks on bridles leads the mizzen lift to a block at the masthead, then down to a belaying point on the rail.
 
29
 
Here it is from the windward side.  I am not really happy with the look of the lift bridles.  They are attached to the spar where both Anderson and Budriot indicate, but once tension was put on them they took on this pattern, not the more symmetrical one from the drawings. 
 
30
 
Here is how the halyard and parrell came out, as seen from forward and aft.  I am not happy with the bend in the halyard as is goes behind the crojack, but putting it in front results in an even bigger bend. 
 
31
32
 
The final bit of rigging are the lines at the fore lower corner.  Although they work like the braces of the square sails they are known, a bit confusingly, as the bowlines.
 
33
 
Here is the current status.  The main topsail yard is clipped in place to get a sense of the size and shape of the sail.  I can already see that the crowsfoot is going to be a problem.
 
34
 
Next, ad topsails per aspera . . .
 
Be well
 
Dan
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

SS ANDREA DORIA  (1952)  
 
Good day to all, especially those who followed my build log of the Queen Anne's Revenge (1710).  I hope you will enjoy this one as well, and I look forward to your comments and critiques.
 
This project is another large jump across time and techniques.  It is the ocean liner SS Andrea Doria, the pride of the postwar Italian Line. Her likeness will be built to the scale of 1/16” = 1’ and will reflect her appearance at the height of her service life, the fateful night of July 25, 1956.
 

 
This is my fourth liner model and it uses many of the techniques that I have developed for this type of ship.  Some, I hope, can have broader applications, so even if you are only into sailing ships you are most welcome to pull up a chair and grab some popcorn.
 
The essential elements of the model will be scratch built.   This includes the large components such as the hull, decks, superstructures, and funnel, as well as the complex and unique elements such as the cargo cranes and swimming pools.  But for some simple fittings aftermarket castings are acceptable as long as they are accurate or can be made so.  Likewise, photoetched brass pieces such as railings will be used.
 
The ship herself and her tragic story are known to many.  SS Andrea Doria was the pride of the Italian merchant marine in a country struggling to renew its economy and reputation after WW II.  Launched in 1951 she began service in 1953 for the Italian Line (Societa di Navigazione Italia).  For more than three years she led her country’s liners as the largest and fastest ship in the fleet and one of the most elegant, with an outdoor swimming pool for each of the three classes of passenger.
 

 
On the night of July 25, 1956 all that changed.  Sailing towards New York City, eight days out of Genoa, she was running in heavy fog in the Labrador Current just south of Nantucket, Mass.  Coming towards her was the liner SS Stockholm, outbound from New York for home.  She was not in fog but in the dark night could not see either the fog or the Andrea Doria. 
 

 
Although both were spotted on the other’s radar, this was still a somewhat new technology and the positions and speeds of the ships were incorrectly plotted on each bridge.  As a result, the ships turned towards each other rather than away.  At 11:10 pm the icebreaker bow of the Stockholm sliced into the starboard side of the Doria and into dozens of passenger cabins with families asleep in their bunks.  More importantly, it sliced into the engineering spaces below the waterline.
 

 
SOS calls were immediately put out by both ships and soon a number of others were racing to the site of the collision. The Stockholm was still seaworthy, although her bow was completely crushed.
 

 
49 people, many of them children in third class, died immediately aboard the Andrea Doria, and five crewmen aboard the Stockholm.  Yet, miraculously, 14 year old Linda Morgan was lifted from her bed and deposited into the wreckage of the Stockholm’s bow where she was found with only a broken arm and some scrapes.
 

 
 
Andrea Doria soon began to list.  This might not have been fatal because she had been designed with eleven watertight compartments with bulkheads that extended well above the waterline, only one of which had been breached in the initial collision.  But five of the starboard fuel tanks were located there and they quickly filled with water.  On the port side the tanks, which were empty at the end of the crossing, acted like balloons to raise that side.  Even this might have been survivable, but a design flaw in an access tunnel allowed water to blast into one of the lower control rooms, and then into the generator room, cutting off power.  Without power water ballast could not be shifted to port to compensate and the list steadily increased.
 

 
Thirty minutes after the collision Captain Calamai ordered that the ship be abandoned.  The list made it impossible to launch the port side lifeboats, but by reusing the starboard ones all of the passengers and crew were eventually evacuated to the safety of the rescuing ships.  All, that is, but three who were fatally injured or died during the evacuation, bringing the final death toll to 57, the greatest loss of life in American waters in over 40 years.
 
All through the night the list increased, and in the early morning hours she turned over and sank.  The aerial photography of the sinking won a Pulitzer Prize for Harry Trask.
 

 
Now she sits in about 190 feet of water, on her starboard side.  This is too deep for the recreational diver but easily reachable on a mixed gas technical dive.  It used to be a fairly well-visited site, but the deterioration of the wreck is so severe now that only the most experienced should think about trying it.
 

 
The model begins, as all models do, with the plans and research.  I was fortunate that a set of plans was available from Taubman’s Plans Service, a division of Loyalhannah Dockyard.  Expensive, but if they were as advertised, they would be worth it.  While waiting for them to arrive I went on an internet search.
 
I quickly found a poster in quite high resolution on a public site which had been printed as an advertisement for the ship and which showed the cabins on the passenger decks and the layout of the upper decks and deck structures.  Although I did not need to know the cabin locations or layouts, the poster was clearly copied from the engineering plans and was quite exact.  However, the deck plans did not go below “C” deck just above the waterline and had no lengthwise or midships cross-sectional plans, so the shape of the lower hull was still a mystery.   
 
 

 
Also, due to the many times it was reproduced, I guess, the deck plans bent to starboard, a defect that had to be corrected.
 

 
When the Taubman’s plans showed up they were a good news, bad news thing.  They were clearly the engineering drawings, imprinted with the logo of the Bologne Society of Marine Architechts, the name of the builders and the date in 1952 when they were drawn.  They included a longitudinal cross section that showed many of the deck house details including window and doorway locations, mast details and the interior of the large single funnel. 
 

 
An exterior illustration showed the locations of most of the portholes, doors and windows. This was supported by another illustration, this one in color, that was located on the net.
 

 

 
But there was a plan for only one deck below the “C” deck, the “D” deck, although it had some indication of the hull shape of the rudder post below the counter.  There was still no midship section, so the lower hull shape was still questionable.
 

 

 
I did find some section plans on the internet, but they were redrawn for a model kit from Amati, and I had some questions about their accuracy, although they did show the bulb at the bow below the waterline, which did not appear on any of the other plans.
 

 

 
However, when in doubt I always refer to photographs, if available.  Here is one of the ship being launched, which I used to compare and contrast with the plans in hand. 
 

 
This was one of several thousand images that I viewed on the net.  These were culled to about two hundred after eliminating duplicates and those that were of such low resolution to be useless.  Of those, about three dozen were saved as the most relevant, useful, and detailed.  Here are a few, and more will be posted as the areas of detail are built.
 

 

 

 
More posted soon
 
Dan
 
 

Frankie -
 
Nice look to the water.  The waves and whitecaps bring out some of the violence of the scene.  I also like the contrast with the color of the Kraken's body - a nice angry octopussy sort of color.
 
Dan

A side update... I'm doing the drawings for the ship's boats and I'll be putting one together while waiting for glue to dry on the main hull.    So as not to "interrupt the flow of things", I'll either make them a separate log like Danny did for his, or just hold off until the planking is done.  Here's a bit of where I am on these. 
 
The longboat drawings are done but still need some tweaking.  Seems that I didn't always account for kerf which I finally managed to get down to 0.015" (0.381mm).  And man, these things are tiny.  Might just be the end of me....
 
Here's two pics of the parts being cut, which is something I couldn't do on a scrollsaw to save my soul.   I tried and failed several times.

 
 
And here's the resulting parts.... the keel is 5" or 125mm long.  The keel and assorted structural members are 1/16" (1.5mm) thick cherry.  The frames (which look like bulkheads are 1/32" (0.79mm)) cherry and the other parts (knees, seats, thwarts on the upper left and upper right) are 1/32" from scrap holly but I'll have to redo them in boxwood as soon I as get some milled down.  I'm planning on using Chuck's method but gluing the bulkheads upside down into a basswood jig for handling and planking.
 
There (hopefully) will be two more boats.  A barge and cutter and all will be nested into the longboat.
 

Hi Mark - 
 
Yes, 100% better, but not quite there yet, to my eye.  Go back to the photos of the model that Druxey sent you and compare the turn of the planks there to yours.  I believe that the curve is less acute.  
 
You can see the sense in having a shallow curve for two reasons.  First, a sharp curve here will create an eddy behind itself which increases drag. Those old shipwrights may not have had the mathematics to describe the exact drag force, but they sure could observe the effect and take it into account. Those old shipyard workers would also have been much happier with less of a struggle to bend 3 or 4 inch thick planks around a tight curve.
 
Don't worry about removing too much wood since you will be planking over your frames.  You can even put in a filler piece if you need to.  Getting the curve right on this model will guide you on the next one where you could leave the frames exposed.
 
But you are clearly headed in the right direction on the learning curve and on the model.  Well done.
 
Dan

Hi Mark -
 
Yes, much much improved.  You can't go far wrong if you follow Druxey's suggestions.  Your progress up the learning curve is well underway and you are going to be very happy that you took the step back before you took the next step forward.
 
And a belated Happy Birthday.
 
Dan

Tom,
Those are the planks,  not battens.. just not 100% fitted and sanded.  The darker one was still wet.   As for tapering, only at the bow are they tapered as such.  The French planking is a bit different for frigates of this era than the British or Americans used.  They used use 8-12 strakes of thick and wide planking and then went to "normal" (for some value of "normal") planking.   The hull is very smooth and unbroken without the obvious wales of the Engish/American ships.   Footnote.. the wales are 1 foot wide, for 9 strakes on the 8-pdr frigate.  The "normal" planks are 8" wide.
 
 
Thanks Dan.  You're probably right.  I've pulled off the three planks landing on the tuck and will sand a bit more.  While I agree about the eddys I'm not sure they apply on this ship (I could be wrong) as the waterline is between the lowest full transom and that small transom above the filler block. 
 
 
 
Hmm... she drew 17 feet with the lowest gun port sitting 4 feet out of the water.  The stern windows lower end is at the top of the aft most gunport.   They really did play on perception to make this ship look bigger than she really was.    I note that the British did a similar deception with the Roebuck by putting an upper row of dummy stern windows on a 44 gun frigate to make it appear to be a 64 or 74 from astern.

Hi Mark - 
 
Yes, 100% better, but not quite there yet, to my eye.  Go back to the photos of the model that Druxey sent you and compare the turn of the planks there to yours.  I believe that the curve is less acute.  
 
You can see the sense in having a shallow curve for two reasons.  First, a sharp curve here will create an eddy behind itself which increases drag. Those old shipwrights may not have had the mathematics to describe the exact drag force, but they sure could observe the effect and take it into account. Those old shipyard workers would also have been much happier with less of a struggle to bend 3 or 4 inch thick planks around a tight curve.
 
Don't worry about removing too much wood since you will be planking over your frames.  You can even put in a filler piece if you need to.  Getting the curve right on this model will guide you on the next one where you could leave the frames exposed.
 
But you are clearly headed in the right direction on the learning curve and on the model.  Well done.
 
Dan

Hi Mark - 
 
Yes, 100% better, but not quite there yet, to my eye.  Go back to the photos of the model that Druxey sent you and compare the turn of the planks there to yours.  I believe that the curve is less acute.  
 
You can see the sense in having a shallow curve for two reasons.  First, a sharp curve here will create an eddy behind itself which increases drag. Those old shipwrights may not have had the mathematics to describe the exact drag force, but they sure could observe the effect and take it into account. Those old shipyard workers would also have been much happier with less of a struggle to bend 3 or 4 inch thick planks around a tight curve.
 
Don't worry about removing too much wood since you will be planking over your frames.  You can even put in a filler piece if you need to.  Getting the curve right on this model will guide you on the next one where you could leave the frames exposed.
 
But you are clearly headed in the right direction on the learning curve and on the model.  Well done.
 
Dan

Hi Mark - 
 
Yes, 100% better, but not quite there yet, to my eye.  Go back to the photos of the model that Druxey sent you and compare the turn of the planks there to yours.  I believe that the curve is less acute.  
 
You can see the sense in having a shallow curve for two reasons.  First, a sharp curve here will create an eddy behind itself which increases drag. Those old shipwrights may not have had the mathematics to describe the exact drag force, but they sure could observe the effect and take it into account. Those old shipyard workers would also have been much happier with less of a struggle to bend 3 or 4 inch thick planks around a tight curve.
 
Don't worry about removing too much wood since you will be planking over your frames.  You can even put in a filler piece if you need to.  Getting the curve right on this model will guide you on the next one where you could leave the frames exposed.
 
But you are clearly headed in the right direction on the learning curve and on the model.  Well done.
 
Dan

Hi Mark - 
 
Yes, 100% better, but not quite there yet, to my eye.  Go back to the photos of the model that Druxey sent you and compare the turn of the planks there to yours.  I believe that the curve is less acute.  
 
You can see the sense in having a shallow curve for two reasons.  First, a sharp curve here will create an eddy behind itself which increases drag. Those old shipwrights may not have had the mathematics to describe the exact drag force, but they sure could observe the effect and take it into account. Those old shipyard workers would also have been much happier with less of a struggle to bend 3 or 4 inch thick planks around a tight curve.
 
Don't worry about removing too much wood since you will be planking over your frames.  You can even put in a filler piece if you need to.  Getting the curve right on this model will guide you on the next one where you could leave the frames exposed.
 
But you are clearly headed in the right direction on the learning curve and on the model.  Well done.
 
Dan