shipmodel

Finishing the hatch covers:
 
Today marks the official end of the 2023 Great Lakes Shipping season.  Vessels arriving at the queue for the  SOO locks by midnight will be locked through in either direction.  After that the locks will close until March 25 isolating Lake Superior from the other lakes.  It has been a good season with the twin ports of Duluth, MN and Superior WI shipping 51 Million tons of pelletized iron ore to American and Canadian steel miles. The ports also handled significant quantities of limestone, cement, coal, and grain.
 
The reason for the lakes’ 10 week closure each winter is not ice. Great Lakes vessels can and do navigate in ice.  The 10 week closure is required to perform maintenance that has been deferred during the shipping season.  Superior, Wisconsin is home to one of three active American drydocks on the lakes.  It can dock vessels up to 800ft long.  This winter will be busy.  Eight vessels are scheduled to lay up in the harbor here.
 
The layup each winter means that Great Lakes ships are and in the past have been well maintained.  That, and the fact that they sail in fresh water means that  weathering of the model will be minimal.  A notable exception is the Noble’s hatch covers.  The few photos that I have found of wooden hatch covers of Great Lakes vessels show a checkerboard of different weathered colors that vary from like new wood to black.
 
The first step in finishing the covers was to drill holes in them for the ringbolts. This was done using the sensitive drilling attachment mounted in the Sherline milling column.  Another of my simple wooden jigs assured correct location.  (First Photo).  Adding the two ringbolts to each cover was then just the matter of pushing the tail through the hole, bending it over and securing it with a dab of lacquer based fingernail polish. (Second photo).
 
To finish the covers I mixed up five different grey and black pigments and diluted them with alcohol.  For a couple of shades I added some granulated grey and black dry dye pigment to add a gritty texture. (Third photo). The different colored hatch covers will be arranged in a random pattern when they are added to the model.
 
Finally, (Forth Photo) two stacks of hatch covers to be fastened near the ship’s open coal bunker.
 

Roger
 

Hi Cisco - 
 
Nice work.  Your skills and attention to details are well on their way up the learning curve.
Looking forward to watching further progress.
 
As for soldering, I have found that for the tiny parts that we work with a torch is just too powerful, as you found out.
A mini soldering iron, like those for the electronics industry and hobby market, works well.
I also like using a resistance soldering iron that has no flame or heat (it is sometimes marketed as Cold Heat).  It is a bit trickier to use, but the lack of open heat more than makes up for it.
 
Best wishes for continued success in your project.
 
Dan

Hi Cisco - 
 
Nice work.  Your skills and attention to details are well on their way up the learning curve.
Looking forward to watching further progress.
 
As for soldering, I have found that for the tiny parts that we work with a torch is just too powerful, as you found out.
A mini soldering iron, like those for the electronics industry and hobby market, works well.
I also like using a resistance soldering iron that has no flame or heat (it is sometimes marketed as Cold Heat).  It is a bit trickier to use, but the lack of open heat more than makes up for it.
 
Best wishes for continued success in your project.
 
Dan

Hi Cisco - 
 
Nice work.  Your skills and attention to details are well on their way up the learning curve.
Looking forward to watching further progress.
 
As for soldering, I have found that for the tiny parts that we work with a torch is just too powerful, as you found out.
A mini soldering iron, like those for the electronics industry and hobby market, works well.
I also like using a resistance soldering iron that has no flame or heat (it is sometimes marketed as Cold Heat).  It is a bit trickier to use, but the lack of open heat more than makes up for it.
 
Best wishes for continued success in your project.
 
Dan

I can’t remember who, exactly, but a while back someone very astute pointed out that a 17th C. lower mast of this time period would not have been equipped with either front or side “fish,” or re-enforcements.  It is a Hellerism for them to be moulded into the fore and main masts:

They are nowhere to be found in the work of leading authorities like Boudriot or Lemineur:

And so, for a long time I debated whether to shave away these details.  My main argument against it was a concern that doing so would make the lower masts appear too spindly - this, especially, because I had raised each mast footing by about 1/2” for better scale.
 
The primary argument FOR doing this was that it would enable me to properly represent the wooldings with their top and bottom retaining mouldings.  To apply these mouldings over and across all three fish would just look completely wrong and weird.
 
Now that at least one big holiday is out of the way, I was looking for something to jumpstart the project again, so I decided this was a good task to finally tackle.  I started with the coarse Dremel drum sander to remove the bulk of the material:

The challenges with this little project are two-fold.  The first is to carve-in the missing segments of the iron bands (between wooldings.  The other is to maintain a smooth continuous mast taper between the bands.  The pictures basically tell the story:



I think this was a success, primarily because the masts do not appear spindly.  Going forward, I will try to be somewhat more present with this project.  Our CYO basketball schedule kicks off this weekend, and there are a lot of games in the first few weeks.  Then, of course, there is Christmas to contend with.  Who was it that said “life is just one G’damn thing after another!”?
 
Anyway, I think that’s me saying that.  Thank you for looking in and for your continued interest in this project.

These days, this is what progress looks like for me:


I added the filling pieces for the middle band of wales, so that I can properly mount the chain preventer plates.
 
My J-O-B has transitioned to full-employment, lately, and I have completely lost the pockets of daytime to get small-work done.  The evenings are mostly consumed with coaching sports teams, and emailing families about said sports teams, and generally being a husband and dad.  All good, just BUSY.
 
I don’t have a lot of modeling mojo left in me, to do good work, so I have mostly been reading.  About rigging and other things ship-related.
 
R.C. Anderson really is the foundational read for this epoch.  As I go through it, I have been re-reading the rigging sequence of several of my favorite builds.  The first is Paul Kattner’s intense kit-bash of the DeAgostini Vasa; as a first-time builder, his approach and technical mastery are just incredible.  His log is extremely well-photographed throughout. Along the same lines is Michael’s (‘72 Nova) Airfix Vasa, which is just exquisitely well-done in an impossibly small scale. The third is Marsalv’s Le Gros Ventre, which is just a model that I love, through-and-through, and the rigging is truly excellent.  Very honorable mention goes to Daniel’s Victory, which like Michael’s build is excellent for the technical tricks of making rigging look truly professional.
 
These are peripheral time periods to my own, with their very specific contributions to the history of rigging, but the sequence of work in these builds is enormously helpful for understanding what is a very complicated process.
 
I am, of course, well acquainted with Archjofo, and all I can say there is - dare to dream.  A true Master Class.
 
Now that I have some rigging vocabulary and understanding of what most of the lines do, it has become much easier to conceive of where my belay points should be.  Just as with anything else, you can’t really build a rig until you can understand it and visualize it.  We are getting there, though.
 
As is my custom, I make frequent visits to The Strand, hunting for obscure, and out-of-print ship books.  Most of the time, I come up empty.  Occasionally, though, I find a gem!  On my most recent trip, there was a veritable treasure trove!
 
Winfield’s First Rate (have it)
Lee’s Masting and Rigging (have it)
An updated and comprehensively illustrated Pepy’s Navy (don’t have it, yet)
 
And, then, these two:

I will likely go back and poach the Pepy’s title on my next paycheck.  The two I did pick up are invaluable for both my current and future projects.
 
The Art of Ship Modeling has a very detailed accounting of the construction of Frolich’s L’Ambiteaux, and all of his subjects are beautifully photographed in hi-res.
 
Lavery’s edition of Dean’s Doctrine is also beautifully illustrated and the math of Dean’s approach is very clearly explained.  It isn’t a guidebook to reconstructing a French First-Rate of 1670, but it is useful for understanding the methods in vogue for that specific time period.  Again, you can’t build it until you understand it.
 
Lastly, John Ott clue’d me-in to the fact that an English only edition of Le Chevalier de Tourville was back in-print by Ancre for a very reasonable sum.  I bought that too!  From what I have gathered, here and there, the rigging and belay plans of this monograph are relatively easy to follow.  Thank you, John!
 
So, I just wanted to say “hello,” and thank you all for visiting.  More to follow!
 
Best,
 
Marc
 
 

Good afternoon all.  Its 40 degrees, overcast, and finally not raining.  A good day to stay inside.
 
The last week has been spent practicing placing the pintles and gudgeons.  And researching soldering, a daunting subject with almost too much information and opinions.  When I build Chuck's 18th century longboat the soldering went poorly, to say the least.  By the end I was melting the brass, and the few intact pieces I didn't melt stubbornly refused to stay stuck together.   Epoxy saved saved my bacon then, but now it is time to revisit and maybe conquer my fear of soldering.
 
The practicum has you do all the pintles and gudgeons much further along; after the deck planking and furniture is finished.  I don't think I can roll the hull around like I want to at that point, so I decided to do it now instead.  I will replace the stock walnut rudder with a multi-plank holly rudder.  But in the meantime the walnut rudder makes a great practice piece.  I read somewhere that the pintles and gudgeons are supposed to be recessed flush into the hull.  I felt they would be more secure regardless.
 
I used my small square to draw a 90 degree line across the rudder, then used the brass strip that came with the kit to mark the width.  I cut the lines with my scalpel freehand.

Then I used a combination of my Veritas and Micromark minichisels to clean out the waste.  Worked very well.  It was easy to go too deep; I wanted the brass strip to be flush, not below the surface level.

That wasn't too bad.  Next up was drilling the bolt holes in the pintle.  I don't have a mill (yet) so I did it by hand  First I dimpled the holes with an awl, then used my dremel set for slow speed and a carbide drill bit to make the holes.  (In the past I found it impossible to drill brass with normal hardware store bits; these are from Drill Bit City and work amazingly.)  The brass strip has to be securely clamped otherwise it likes to move.  I needed both hands to control the dremel (both elbows on the workbench for stability and a light touch).
I was practicing here, but I plan to put a bolt hole in the center of each of the planks that make up the rudder.

And then I was out of excuses and it was time to confront soldering.  I read a lot on MSW.  And re-read the pertinent sections of David Antscherl's FFM.  I boiled my plan down to the following-
 
1) brass.  No silver or copper.
2) silver solder.  many people seemed to feel "regular" soldering is plenty strong enough so I might revisit this.  But the few successful solderings I had in the past pulled apart pretty easily and I don't know if it was poor technique or simple limitations of low temperature solder.
3) so I was set on silver soldering (even more confusing because many low temp solders have silver in them.  I meant the higher temp silver solder).  A post by Greg Herbert from a while ago here on MSW extolled the virtues of Eurotools silver solder paste with flux mixed in, so i ordered some.  I got soft and medium.
4) a lot of what I read said technique and preparation were critical.  I sanded my brass with 320 sandpaper, and after sanding washed all parts in isopropyl alcohol.  From here forward I only handled the pieces with stainless steel, no fingers. 
5) also from what I read silver solder doesn't fill gaps so whatever you're soldering has to touch.  The force of my torch blew some of my previous attempts off the bench, never to be found again.  So the pieces have to be both touching and securely held in place.
6) And finally, I did it outside in the garage.  It made an unholy stink last time.
 
In my previous attempts I used a pen-type torch.  Watching Utube videos made me think a upright torch would be easier to work with so I got one.  It was much easier.
 
My first attempt was to make the gudgeon.  The kit comes with some brass wire but no tubing, so I bough some brass tube 1/16 x 0.014.  After cutting off a tiny piece of the tubing I quickly realized it was a major pain to hold the pieces still.  The only way I could get the tubing to stay in place was by threading the brass wire through the tube and wrapping the brass gudgeon strip around the tube.  I deliberately didn't sand or wash the wire with isopropanol so it wouldn't stick.
 
My ceramic tile for soldering is still in the mail so I used some bricks instead.  Awkward but they worked.
 
Then a dab of solder paste.  It comes with short needle-like screw on cap which look like you can squirt small amounts of the solder but its way too thick.  I ended up using the needle cap as a spoon to deposit the solder.   Below is my setup.

Its hard to see the actual gudgeon its so small.
 
Try #1:  I made sure everything was secure and heated in small circles AROUND the part, not directly on it like I did last time.  After a bit the brass shifted and I was hopeful.
 
But no, the force of the torch had moved it.  Nothing was stuck together and the silver solder paste was still present.  I went and got my granny glasses to see better. 
 
Try #2: I re-washed the parts in isopropanol and re positioned them.  New silver solder paste on top, just a dab.  Heated it in little circles around the piece.  It did nothing for a bit, then suddenly the solder paste liquified and the pieces seemed to pull together.  This seemed more promising.

Success!  sort of.  Even though I didn't sand or wash the brass wire it still was soldered solid to everything else.  In the future I may try soldering the brass strips to the whole brass tubing, then cut the tubing flush.  My previous soldering I am sure the tubing would have broken free but this joint seems very solid.
 
But still, not too bad.  My fear of soldering has lessened.  I need to figure out methods of holding the tiny pieces in position but thats doable.
 
Up next is blackening.  In my previous attempts the blacking came off with the slightest touch so I ended up painting the brass. 
 
But thats enough for this week.  Thanks for reading
 
Cisco
 

Marc - 
 
Hubac's Humble Historian as always.  Your work is much more than simply 'quite good.'  Impressive, imposing, inspirational, and other words beginning with 'i' are much closer to the incredibly high bar that you have set for yourself and everyone else.   Thank you for sharing it with us.
 
Dan

Nice repair.  Your skills are improving steadily.
Congratulations.
 
Dan

Hi Cisco - 
 
Very nice planking.  Excellent symmetry.
Good choice on the cradle carvings too.  Looking forward to seeing how they come out.
 
Happy Holidays to you and yours as well.
 
Dan

Hi Cisco - 
 
Very nice planking.  Excellent symmetry.
Good choice on the cradle carvings too.  Looking forward to seeing how they come out.
 
Happy Holidays to you and yours as well.
 
Dan

Hi Cisco - 
 
Very nice progress on the hull planking.  You should end up with a nice, well-faired appearance.
 
One small point - you said you had 'messed up' your butt joint spacing and that you took out some planks already applied.  There was no need to do so.
As I understand it, the 4 or 5-step planking patterns ONLY apply to deck planking.  There were so many hull ribs, and so close together, that butt joints could land almost anywhere.  Of course you would not want two butt joints next to each other, but there is not, and cannot be, any strict mathematical stagger to the joints on such a curved surface.  For the deck, the beams were much further apart at a consistent distance and the surface was relatively flat, so a regimented pattern was possible.
 
If you have some time, and can find the books, I highly recommend "Building the Wooden Fighting Ship" by Dodds and Moore, which describes the process with many excellent drawings and illustrations.  Also, an easy, inexpensive, and enjoyable read is "Wooden Boats" by Michael Ruhlman, which is the story of his time at the Benjamin & Gannon shipyard on Martha's Vineyard where they still build wooden boats the old fashioned way. 
 
Best of success.  I am looking forward to seeing your work next April in New London.
 
Dan

Hi Cisco - 
 
Very nice planking.  Excellent symmetry.
Good choice on the cradle carvings too.  Looking forward to seeing how they come out.
 
Happy Holidays to you and yours as well.
 
Dan

Here's another part of my previous post that wouldn't go through.  It seems to be letting me post it in smaller bits so I apologize for the out-of-order chronology.
 
Dan- I was aiming for symmetry so both side's butt joints matched, while following Chuck's Cheerful exterior planking plan.  Someday I'll try to free wheel an exterior planking plan, but not on this model.
I have the Dodds and Moore book, an amazing read, but not the Michael Ruhlman.  One thing I don't ever skimp on is ordering more books, so thank you I'll get it.
 
Aliluke- thanks for the enthusiasm.  If i can get my AVS half as clean as yours I'll be happy.
 
Here's the stem at present:

and the stern:
 

 
 
On the horizon is mounting and basing.  I have spent a lot of time thinking about what would look best.  I have always liked the carved dolphins that were used as bases a lot but felt that level of detail would look unbalanced, as there isn't going to be any carving on the ship.  A while ago while browsing for a future project (I'm planning on a plank on frame) a picture of Rattlesnake by Harold Hahn (I think) on The Lumberyard's website had always stood out to me, both as a beautiful model but especially for the carved cradles.  Nice sweeping c - curves.  Both more appropriate to a simpler model like this than the feral-looking dolphins, and more in reach of my carving skills.

 
 
I'm not sure about the baseboard yet; its going to wait until I'm finished the ship proper, but I want something very traditional.  I personally like the very thin bases with inlaid tops, a strong mitered border, and small turned feet.  So it'll be some version of that.
 
Thanks for reading and to those of you who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving.
 
Cisco
 
 

Here's my finished second planking.  I still have to sand a lot off but I'm pretty happy with it.  This is a test post to see if I can avoid the sql error thats been fighting me posting all day.

Hello again to all –
 
Thanks for all the likes and comments.  Keep them coming.
 
Sorry for the long delay since my last post.  I have been fighting a long covid problem that gives me bronchitis which makes me cough, especially at night, so I am having a lot of trouble sleeping.  Also I have had cataract surgery on both eyes, which has interfered with writing this blog.
 
But enough about me – back to the model.
 
At the end of the last segment I had completed the basic structure of the hull and was proceeding to work out the superstructure.  This began, as with the rest of the model, with a careful examination of the photographs of the ship.  Fortunately there were a few images of high resolution like this one of the entire ship.
 

 
Once enlarged I got a good, if a little fuzzy, picture of the 5 decks and deck houses of the superstructure.  I was able to tease out some sense of the complex shapes of the various decks and overhangs.  Porthole, door, and stairway locations can be seen, as well as the fact that the top deck house is taller than all the others.
 

 
In this slightly clearer image I could start the actual analysis of the dimensions and relationships of the shapes that can be seen.  I started with the assumption that the original superstructure footprint had been retained, which is the lowest deck house with the curved fillets on either side.  Then, when the hull was widened by 8 feet on each side, some changes were made.  The supports for the lifeboat davits had to be built out and supported by pillars reaching to the outer edge of the deck.  There is an overhang to the right of the lifeboat that extends to the new deck edge and is supported by three diagonal braces.  The bridge wings had to be extended, and a number of other small details all had to be changed.
 

 
These images and analysis was integrated with the information from the overhead photos of the ship taken during the incident and rescue, such as this one from just after the recapture.
 

 
The image was enlarged and straightened out to give a top view that could be worked with.  Always being aware that the image is not precisely taken from directly overhead, I could make out many more details, such as the stairways marked with the red arrows.  Hours of staring at these images, individually and collectively, were needed to determine what the various elements and details were.  I am still not 100% sure of all of them, and even where I am sure of the shape of things, I am not sure of their purpose.  But since this is for the US Merchant Marine Academy, it is good enough for government work.
 

 
Other images which were not full pictures of the decks and deck houses also informed a number of details of railings, stairways, overhangs, supports, etc.  Here, for example, is one of the Marines taking control of the ship.  I would not have seen the tall ventilator/filter under the stairs at the side of the bridge except for this picture.
 

 
So, taking all the information in hand, I laid out the shape of the lowest deck house over the top image.
 

 
Using this as my basic starting point I laid on the shapes of the stairway platforms and lifeboat davit supports to the first level.  Then using the relationships seen in the photos, I drew on the shapes of the second and third decks, deck houses, and overhangs in contrasting colors, giving this image.
 

 
Based on these drawings I cut ½” planks of basswood to the shapes of the deck houses (less 0.04” all around) and sheathed them with 0.02” styrene (restoring the full sizes).  The decks were cut to the full size of the deck houses and painted grey before being edged with styrene.  This gave a pleasing delineation to the decks, which can be seen in the photos.  The edges extended just a bit above the deck level, making a lip that anchored the photoetched railings when they were added later.  Portholes are the brass dollhouse electric circuit pieces, while the handrails are 0.015” round rod.  Here the superstructure stack is about half done, with all the upper details still to be done.
 

 
Here is an enlarged shot of some of the details.  Notice the diagonal supports for the overhangs of the second deck and bridge wing.  The railings and stairways are photoetched brass from Gold Medal Models’ ocean liner set.  It is expensive, but makes for a very convincing impression when painted, folded and installed.
 

 
The railings come in long frets four scale feet tall (1/4”) with horizontal rails numbering from one to five to be used as needed.  The photos of the ship show that the railings mostly have three rails, so these were the frets that were used.  They were spray painted gloss white before being cut apart.  Unfortunately the paint was a bit brittle, so it chipped off when bent, as can be seen in the last photo, but that was easily touched up later.
 

 
The stairways come as part of a larger fret with hooks, steering wheels, etc.  They have a central length of steps flanked by angled wings for the side railings.  They come in three different lengths.  Mostly the middle length was used, but occasionally the short or long ones were needed for a particular location.  Small adjustments to length were made by trimming the bottom of the stairways.
 

 
The basic stairway is made by bending up the wings of the piece to form the railings at either side of the steps (left image).  But this is meant for use on the ocean liners, so it is wider and less steep than the stairways on merchant ships.  To make them steeper the railings are pressed down towards the steps till the supporting posts are vertical when the stairs are at the steeper angle (middle image).  Where the stairs had to be narrow, one side railing and some of the width of the steps was cut off and the stairs supported by an added strip of styrene (right image).    
 

 
Work continued on the superstructure with detail added as they were identified in the photos.  Note the cross supports between the lower and upper bridge wings and the fact that the front facing of the upper bride wing is taller at the bridge house than it is at the outer end.  The funnel has now been sheathed and is set in place so I could determine the location and size of the many details on the upper decks.
 

 
While this analysis and work on the superstructure continued I was also starting to puzzle out the size and shape of the 96 containers that had to be installed on deck, and how to build them in a reasonably efficient manner.  This will be the topic of the next segment.
 
Till then, may your health be better than mine.
 
Dan

Hi again to all, and thanks as always for the likes and compliments. 
 
This will be the last segment of the build log, although I plan to edit it down a bit and turn it into an article for the Nautical Research Journal.  Although all ships have their own stories, the history of the Mayaguez is more exciting and tragic than most, so I will go into it in a bit more detail than usual for a build log.  Some of it was set out in the first segment of the log, leaving off with the capture of the ship.  Here, as they say, is the rest of the story.
 
Let’s go back to that fateful day of May 12, 1975.  The SS Mayaguez is heading from Hong Kong to Sattahip in Thailand carrying 107 containers of routine commercial items and 77 containers for the US military of non-military supplies such as mail and PX items.  Although in a recognized and heavily travelled sea lane, she was only 6 miles from the small island of Koh Tang, claimed by both Cambodia and Vietnam.  The communist Khmer Rouge government of Cambodia, which had recently captured power, started enforcing a 12 mile limit off the island and had already seized a number of ships from several countries and had fired on several others.  Despite this, the American military command had not issued any warnings to commercial ships to avoid the area.
 
At 2:18 in the afternoon the captain was called to the bridge by the third mate on watch.  A gunboat carrying a red flag was approaching fast.  A few seconds later there was a burst of machine gun fire over the bow.  Captain Miller decided to continue to see what they would do.  A sailor on the gunboat raised an RPG to his shoulder and fired over the forecastle.  Unable to outrun them the captain stopped the ship and it was boarded by more than a dozen soldiers from two small Cambodian armed boats. 

Here is a close up photo of one of the boats which was used to detail these elements on the model.  The text on the side reads in part: “A Cambodian gunboat nestles alongside the American container ship SS. Mayaguez off Koh Tang Island as its Cambodian Khmer Rouge crew take over the U.S. freighter.  This picture was made by one of the crew.

The crew was swiftly taken captive and the ship directed to the nearby Koh Tang Island.  The Captain and radio operator did an extraordinary job of getting off a series of SOS messages with the ship’s status and position.  These were relayed to US military command in the Phillipines and an Orion P-3 reconnaissance aircraft flew over, but was fired on.  Despite the danger, overflights were continuous after that, although repeatedly fired on.

In Washington an emergency meeting of the National Security Agency was taking place between President Gerald Ford and his team of well-known advisors, Henry Kissinger, Nelson Rockefeller, Donald Rumsfeld, Brent Scowcroft, William Colby, James Schlesinger, and the full Joint Chiefs of Staff.  With that lineup it is not surprising that the final decision was to make a “strong statement” that would be recognized by the Koreans, the Chinese, and the American public.  The reaction of the Khmer Rouge was impossible to calculate and that of the ship’s crew was not important.  American naval elements including the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea and the frigate USS Holt were directed to steam to the area and await further orders.     

Over the next two days American jets from nearby bases sank several Cambodian gunboats but failed to prevent the crew being taken off the ship onto a fishing boat and ferried to Koh Tang Island.  The ship itself was not taken into a Cambodian port, but that was mostly because the Captain exaggerated the depth of the hull and said the radar would not work, so the ship would ground.  Meanwhile, Marines and other personnel from several bases were assembled nearby by helicopter and also told to stand by.  Tragically, during the moves a helicopter crashed, taking the lives of these 23 USAF Security Police and the flight crewmen pictured here.  This helicopter crash would not be the last.

Back on the model the ship was complete and had to be set into its seascape.  I will not go into detail here as to my method for sculpting and painting a sea.  I have set it down in my build logs of the USS/SS Leviathan and the whaleboat James B Colgate. In fact, I did not photograph this part of the build of this model.  Here, though, is a photo from the Leviathan build of the Plaster of Paris sea with waves and swells molded in with a damp sponge.

The same method was used, but since photos show a calm sea and the ship was to be pictured at anchor after being captured, the surface was only lightly textured and only very small patches of foam were shown around the hull.

One thing that I have found that increases the realistic look of a model far beyond its small size is the waste water discharge towards the stern of the ship.  I made this by bending a small length of styrene rod over a candle flame.  After trimming to length it was inserted into small holes in the hull and the plaster sea.  The rod was textured with gel cyano dabbed on with a toothpick, heavier at the lower end where the stream would have broken up a bit.  Then it was colored with flat white acrylic paint along with the small disturbance on the ocean’s surface.

 With some additional research it was discovered that the Cambodian gunboats were US made “Patrol Craft Fast” PCFs.  Nicknamed “Swift Boats” they had been used in the rivers and coastal areas of Vietnam and also given to the Cambodians when they were our allies during that fight.

An Internet search turned up a low resolution plan of the boats so I was started planning to carve and detail two of them for the diorama.  This would not have been easy with a scale length just over two inches each.   

I then turned to Shapeways, Inc. to see if their designers had something that could be used as a starting point.  To my happy surprise there was a set of two Fast Boats already in the right scale.  They were molded in fairly smooth frosted plastic with the topsides molded separately from the lower hull.  After cutting away the sprue framework the sections were separated and the interior was found to be filled with unhardened resin powder.  This was removed and the topsides glued down to the hull.

The propellers and rudders were removed as were the stern railings which were too thick.  After sanding the boats were painted light grey before detailing.  The guns on the stern deck and on top of the wheelhouse were painted, as were their mounts.  Life rings were added from my spares box along with hull numbers.  The stern railings were replaced with PE trimmed to size and the boats were finished with small paper flags painted with the flag of communist Kampuchea, a yellow temple on a red field.  Hollows were cut into the plaster sea and the boats set in with a bit of plaster to fill any gaps.   Paint and gloss finish melded them into the diorama.

After a few touch-ups of paint the model was complete and ready for delivery to the museum at the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY.


So here is a side-by-side comparison of the finished model with the photograph that started it all.  I think that I achieved a “compelling evocation of the actual ship.”  Others must think the same, because the model was honored with the Jim Roberts’ Craftsmanship Award at the 2022 Northeast Joint Clubs Show.  My gratitude goes out to all of the judges.

To finish, we return to the tragic and poignant Mayaguez Incident.  By the evening of May 14 the ship had been seized and the crew had been taken off to Koh Tang Island.  President Johnson authorized military action and several Kampuchean gunboats have been sunk.  Naval ships and Marine units were being hurried to the area so a “strong statement” could be made.  By the early morning hours of May 15 the pieces were in place and the order was given to seize back the ship and rescue the crew on Koh Tang Island.  Approaching cautiously, the USS Holt came alongside the Mayaguez.

At 06:13 in the morning, after a bombardment with tear gas, armed Marines in gas masks stormed the ship, only to find that it had been deserted.

With no opposition, the American flag was once again raised above the bridge.

At about the same time a communique from the Kampuchean government was broadcast which blamed the US for the incident and described the Mayaguez as a “CIA spy ship”, but which announced that both the ship and the crew were being released.  This was received in Washington an hour later, but was initially disbelieved.  Nonetheless, it was true and the crew was put on a captured fishing trawler and released.  However, confirmation of this was not established until several hours later.

Without this confirmation the assault on Koh Tang Island went ahead.  Unfortunately, there were two major pieces of information that President Johnson and the Marines did not have.  The first was that during the previous day the crew had all been moved from Koh Tang Island to nearby Koh Rong Sanloem Island.  This was observed by American planes, but it was still believed that some of the crew were on Koh Tang.  The second was that the Khmer Rouge had a much larger and more heavily armed force on Koh Tang which was meant to defend against the Vietnamese who also claimed the island.   
 
In the early morning hours of May 15 eight large helicopters, mostly CH-53 Sea Stallions, with 175 Marines began arriving at Koh Tang.  Of these, three were shot down and two became disabled from mechanical problems.  Nonetheless they landed 109 troops on three landing zones.  This aerial photo shows two of the downed helicopters on East Beach.

A running gun battle across the island continued throughout the day, even after the release of the Mayaquez’ crew was confirmed.  By mid-afternoon the order to withdraw was given and the rest of the day was spent in several attempts to extract the landing force, with additional helicopters shot down and more US troops killed and wounded.  This continued into the night, with confusion abounding amid the increasing fog of war.  Ultimately, the bodies of a number of Marines and four live troops were left behind after all the others were evacuated.  The Khmer Rouge, angered at the deaths aboard the gunboats that had been sunk and the 20 or so troops killed on Koh Tang, ultimately executed all four.
 
The final US death toll for the unnecessary assault on Koh Tang was 18 troops killed and 50 wounded.   Although the Mayaguez Incident did not occur in Vietnam, it is commonly referred to as the last battle of the Vietnam War.  The names of the Marines and other personnel who were killed in combat are inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall.  This does not include the 23 USAF Security Police and flight crew who were killed in the helicopter crash during the troop movements prior to combat.   They were not so honored.

What lessons can be taken away from this poignant tragedy?  Not many, other than that assaults by slow, loud, fragile helicopters are rarely successful – see, e.g., the Iranian hostage rescue mission, ‘Blackhawk Down’ in Mogadishu, and even the successful killing of Osama Bin Laden.
 
Here’s hoping that it may never be necessary to mount another such military action.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Hi again to all, and thanks as always for the likes and compliments. 
 
This will be the last segment of the build log, although I plan to edit it down a bit and turn it into an article for the Nautical Research Journal.  Although all ships have their own stories, the history of the Mayaguez is more exciting and tragic than most, so I will go into it in a bit more detail than usual for a build log.  Some of it was set out in the first segment of the log, leaving off with the capture of the ship.  Here, as they say, is the rest of the story.
 
Let’s go back to that fateful day of May 12, 1975.  The SS Mayaguez is heading from Hong Kong to Sattahip in Thailand carrying 107 containers of routine commercial items and 77 containers for the US military of non-military supplies such as mail and PX items.  Although in a recognized and heavily travelled sea lane, she was only 6 miles from the small island of Koh Tang, claimed by both Cambodia and Vietnam.  The communist Khmer Rouge government of Cambodia, which had recently captured power, started enforcing a 12 mile limit off the island and had already seized a number of ships from several countries and had fired on several others.  Despite this, the American military command had not issued any warnings to commercial ships to avoid the area.
 
At 2:18 in the afternoon the captain was called to the bridge by the third mate on watch.  A gunboat carrying a red flag was approaching fast.  A few seconds later there was a burst of machine gun fire over the bow.  Captain Miller decided to continue to see what they would do.  A sailor on the gunboat raised an RPG to his shoulder and fired over the forecastle.  Unable to outrun them the captain stopped the ship and it was boarded by more than a dozen soldiers from two small Cambodian armed boats. 

Here is a close up photo of one of the boats which was used to detail these elements on the model.  The text on the side reads in part: “A Cambodian gunboat nestles alongside the American container ship SS. Mayaguez off Koh Tang Island as its Cambodian Khmer Rouge crew take over the U.S. freighter.  This picture was made by one of the crew.

The crew was swiftly taken captive and the ship directed to the nearby Koh Tang Island.  The Captain and radio operator did an extraordinary job of getting off a series of SOS messages with the ship’s status and position.  These were relayed to US military command in the Phillipines and an Orion P-3 reconnaissance aircraft flew over, but was fired on.  Despite the danger, overflights were continuous after that, although repeatedly fired on.

In Washington an emergency meeting of the National Security Agency was taking place between President Gerald Ford and his team of well-known advisors, Henry Kissinger, Nelson Rockefeller, Donald Rumsfeld, Brent Scowcroft, William Colby, James Schlesinger, and the full Joint Chiefs of Staff.  With that lineup it is not surprising that the final decision was to make a “strong statement” that would be recognized by the Koreans, the Chinese, and the American public.  The reaction of the Khmer Rouge was impossible to calculate and that of the ship’s crew was not important.  American naval elements including the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea and the frigate USS Holt were directed to steam to the area and await further orders.     

Over the next two days American jets from nearby bases sank several Cambodian gunboats but failed to prevent the crew being taken off the ship onto a fishing boat and ferried to Koh Tang Island.  The ship itself was not taken into a Cambodian port, but that was mostly because the Captain exaggerated the depth of the hull and said the radar would not work, so the ship would ground.  Meanwhile, Marines and other personnel from several bases were assembled nearby by helicopter and also told to stand by.  Tragically, during the moves a helicopter crashed, taking the lives of these 23 USAF Security Police and the flight crewmen pictured here.  This helicopter crash would not be the last.

Back on the model the ship was complete and had to be set into its seascape.  I will not go into detail here as to my method for sculpting and painting a sea.  I have set it down in my build logs of the USS/SS Leviathan and the whaleboat James B Colgate. In fact, I did not photograph this part of the build of this model.  Here, though, is a photo from the Leviathan build of the Plaster of Paris sea with waves and swells molded in with a damp sponge.

The same method was used, but since photos show a calm sea and the ship was to be pictured at anchor after being captured, the surface was only lightly textured and only very small patches of foam were shown around the hull.

One thing that I have found that increases the realistic look of a model far beyond its small size is the waste water discharge towards the stern of the ship.  I made this by bending a small length of styrene rod over a candle flame.  After trimming to length it was inserted into small holes in the hull and the plaster sea.  The rod was textured with gel cyano dabbed on with a toothpick, heavier at the lower end where the stream would have broken up a bit.  Then it was colored with flat white acrylic paint along with the small disturbance on the ocean’s surface.

 With some additional research it was discovered that the Cambodian gunboats were US made “Patrol Craft Fast” PCFs.  Nicknamed “Swift Boats” they had been used in the rivers and coastal areas of Vietnam and also given to the Cambodians when they were our allies during that fight.

An Internet search turned up a low resolution plan of the boats so I was started planning to carve and detail two of them for the diorama.  This would not have been easy with a scale length just over two inches each.   

I then turned to Shapeways, Inc. to see if their designers had something that could be used as a starting point.  To my happy surprise there was a set of two Fast Boats already in the right scale.  They were molded in fairly smooth frosted plastic with the topsides molded separately from the lower hull.  After cutting away the sprue framework the sections were separated and the interior was found to be filled with unhardened resin powder.  This was removed and the topsides glued down to the hull.

The propellers and rudders were removed as were the stern railings which were too thick.  After sanding the boats were painted light grey before detailing.  The guns on the stern deck and on top of the wheelhouse were painted, as were their mounts.  Life rings were added from my spares box along with hull numbers.  The stern railings were replaced with PE trimmed to size and the boats were finished with small paper flags painted with the flag of communist Kampuchea, a yellow temple on a red field.  Hollows were cut into the plaster sea and the boats set in with a bit of plaster to fill any gaps.   Paint and gloss finish melded them into the diorama.

After a few touch-ups of paint the model was complete and ready for delivery to the museum at the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY.


So here is a side-by-side comparison of the finished model with the photograph that started it all.  I think that I achieved a “compelling evocation of the actual ship.”  Others must think the same, because the model was honored with the Jim Roberts’ Craftsmanship Award at the 2022 Northeast Joint Clubs Show.  My gratitude goes out to all of the judges.

To finish, we return to the tragic and poignant Mayaguez Incident.  By the evening of May 14 the ship had been seized and the crew had been taken off to Koh Tang Island.  President Johnson authorized military action and several Kampuchean gunboats have been sunk.  Naval ships and Marine units were being hurried to the area so a “strong statement” could be made.  By the early morning hours of May 15 the pieces were in place and the order was given to seize back the ship and rescue the crew on Koh Tang Island.  Approaching cautiously, the USS Holt came alongside the Mayaguez.

At 06:13 in the morning, after a bombardment with tear gas, armed Marines in gas masks stormed the ship, only to find that it had been deserted.

With no opposition, the American flag was once again raised above the bridge.

At about the same time a communique from the Kampuchean government was broadcast which blamed the US for the incident and described the Mayaguez as a “CIA spy ship”, but which announced that both the ship and the crew were being released.  This was received in Washington an hour later, but was initially disbelieved.  Nonetheless, it was true and the crew was put on a captured fishing trawler and released.  However, confirmation of this was not established until several hours later.

Without this confirmation the assault on Koh Tang Island went ahead.  Unfortunately, there were two major pieces of information that President Johnson and the Marines did not have.  The first was that during the previous day the crew had all been moved from Koh Tang Island to nearby Koh Rong Sanloem Island.  This was observed by American planes, but it was still believed that some of the crew were on Koh Tang.  The second was that the Khmer Rouge had a much larger and more heavily armed force on Koh Tang which was meant to defend against the Vietnamese who also claimed the island.   
 
In the early morning hours of May 15 eight large helicopters, mostly CH-53 Sea Stallions, with 175 Marines began arriving at Koh Tang.  Of these, three were shot down and two became disabled from mechanical problems.  Nonetheless they landed 109 troops on three landing zones.  This aerial photo shows two of the downed helicopters on East Beach.

A running gun battle across the island continued throughout the day, even after the release of the Mayaquez’ crew was confirmed.  By mid-afternoon the order to withdraw was given and the rest of the day was spent in several attempts to extract the landing force, with additional helicopters shot down and more US troops killed and wounded.  This continued into the night, with confusion abounding amid the increasing fog of war.  Ultimately, the bodies of a number of Marines and four live troops were left behind after all the others were evacuated.  The Khmer Rouge, angered at the deaths aboard the gunboats that had been sunk and the 20 or so troops killed on Koh Tang, ultimately executed all four.
 
The final US death toll for the unnecessary assault on Koh Tang was 18 troops killed and 50 wounded.   Although the Mayaguez Incident did not occur in Vietnam, it is commonly referred to as the last battle of the Vietnam War.  The names of the Marines and other personnel who were killed in combat are inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall.  This does not include the 23 USAF Security Police and flight crew who were killed in the helicopter crash during the troop movements prior to combat.   They were not so honored.

What lessons can be taken away from this poignant tragedy?  Not many, other than that assaults by slow, loud, fragile helicopters are rarely successful – see, e.g., the Iranian hostage rescue mission, ‘Blackhawk Down’ in Mogadishu, and even the successful killing of Osama Bin Laden.
 
Here’s hoping that it may never be necessary to mount another such military action.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Hi Cisco - 
 
Very nice progress on the hull planking.  You should end up with a nice, well-faired appearance.
 
One small point - you said you had 'messed up' your butt joint spacing and that you took out some planks already applied.  There was no need to do so.
As I understand it, the 4 or 5-step planking patterns ONLY apply to deck planking.  There were so many hull ribs, and so close together, that butt joints could land almost anywhere.  Of course you would not want two butt joints next to each other, but there is not, and cannot be, any strict mathematical stagger to the joints on such a curved surface.  For the deck, the beams were much further apart at a consistent distance and the surface was relatively flat, so a regimented pattern was possible.
 
If you have some time, and can find the books, I highly recommend "Building the Wooden Fighting Ship" by Dodds and Moore, which describes the process with many excellent drawings and illustrations.  Also, an easy, inexpensive, and enjoyable read is "Wooden Boats" by Michael Ruhlman, which is the story of his time at the Benjamin & Gannon shipyard on Martha's Vineyard where they still build wooden boats the old fashioned way. 
 
Best of success.  I am looking forward to seeing your work next April in New London.
 
Dan

Hi again to all, and thanks as always for the likes and compliments. 
 
This will be the last segment of the build log, although I plan to edit it down a bit and turn it into an article for the Nautical Research Journal.  Although all ships have their own stories, the history of the Mayaguez is more exciting and tragic than most, so I will go into it in a bit more detail than usual for a build log.  Some of it was set out in the first segment of the log, leaving off with the capture of the ship.  Here, as they say, is the rest of the story.
 
Let’s go back to that fateful day of May 12, 1975.  The SS Mayaguez is heading from Hong Kong to Sattahip in Thailand carrying 107 containers of routine commercial items and 77 containers for the US military of non-military supplies such as mail and PX items.  Although in a recognized and heavily travelled sea lane, she was only 6 miles from the small island of Koh Tang, claimed by both Cambodia and Vietnam.  The communist Khmer Rouge government of Cambodia, which had recently captured power, started enforcing a 12 mile limit off the island and had already seized a number of ships from several countries and had fired on several others.  Despite this, the American military command had not issued any warnings to commercial ships to avoid the area.
 
At 2:18 in the afternoon the captain was called to the bridge by the third mate on watch.  A gunboat carrying a red flag was approaching fast.  A few seconds later there was a burst of machine gun fire over the bow.  Captain Miller decided to continue to see what they would do.  A sailor on the gunboat raised an RPG to his shoulder and fired over the forecastle.  Unable to outrun them the captain stopped the ship and it was boarded by more than a dozen soldiers from two small Cambodian armed boats. 

Here is a close up photo of one of the boats which was used to detail these elements on the model.  The text on the side reads in part: “A Cambodian gunboat nestles alongside the American container ship SS. Mayaguez off Koh Tang Island as its Cambodian Khmer Rouge crew take over the U.S. freighter.  This picture was made by one of the crew.

The crew was swiftly taken captive and the ship directed to the nearby Koh Tang Island.  The Captain and radio operator did an extraordinary job of getting off a series of SOS messages with the ship’s status and position.  These were relayed to US military command in the Phillipines and an Orion P-3 reconnaissance aircraft flew over, but was fired on.  Despite the danger, overflights were continuous after that, although repeatedly fired on.

In Washington an emergency meeting of the National Security Agency was taking place between President Gerald Ford and his team of well-known advisors, Henry Kissinger, Nelson Rockefeller, Donald Rumsfeld, Brent Scowcroft, William Colby, James Schlesinger, and the full Joint Chiefs of Staff.  With that lineup it is not surprising that the final decision was to make a “strong statement” that would be recognized by the Koreans, the Chinese, and the American public.  The reaction of the Khmer Rouge was impossible to calculate and that of the ship’s crew was not important.  American naval elements including the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea and the frigate USS Holt were directed to steam to the area and await further orders.     

Over the next two days American jets from nearby bases sank several Cambodian gunboats but failed to prevent the crew being taken off the ship onto a fishing boat and ferried to Koh Tang Island.  The ship itself was not taken into a Cambodian port, but that was mostly because the Captain exaggerated the depth of the hull and said the radar would not work, so the ship would ground.  Meanwhile, Marines and other personnel from several bases were assembled nearby by helicopter and also told to stand by.  Tragically, during the moves a helicopter crashed, taking the lives of these 23 USAF Security Police and the flight crewmen pictured here.  This helicopter crash would not be the last.

Back on the model the ship was complete and had to be set into its seascape.  I will not go into detail here as to my method for sculpting and painting a sea.  I have set it down in my build logs of the USS/SS Leviathan and the whaleboat James B Colgate. In fact, I did not photograph this part of the build of this model.  Here, though, is a photo from the Leviathan build of the Plaster of Paris sea with waves and swells molded in with a damp sponge.

The same method was used, but since photos show a calm sea and the ship was to be pictured at anchor after being captured, the surface was only lightly textured and only very small patches of foam were shown around the hull.

One thing that I have found that increases the realistic look of a model far beyond its small size is the waste water discharge towards the stern of the ship.  I made this by bending a small length of styrene rod over a candle flame.  After trimming to length it was inserted into small holes in the hull and the plaster sea.  The rod was textured with gel cyano dabbed on with a toothpick, heavier at the lower end where the stream would have broken up a bit.  Then it was colored with flat white acrylic paint along with the small disturbance on the ocean’s surface.

 With some additional research it was discovered that the Cambodian gunboats were US made “Patrol Craft Fast” PCFs.  Nicknamed “Swift Boats” they had been used in the rivers and coastal areas of Vietnam and also given to the Cambodians when they were our allies during that fight.

An Internet search turned up a low resolution plan of the boats so I was started planning to carve and detail two of them for the diorama.  This would not have been easy with a scale length just over two inches each.   

I then turned to Shapeways, Inc. to see if their designers had something that could be used as a starting point.  To my happy surprise there was a set of two Fast Boats already in the right scale.  They were molded in fairly smooth frosted plastic with the topsides molded separately from the lower hull.  After cutting away the sprue framework the sections were separated and the interior was found to be filled with unhardened resin powder.  This was removed and the topsides glued down to the hull.

The propellers and rudders were removed as were the stern railings which were too thick.  After sanding the boats were painted light grey before detailing.  The guns on the stern deck and on top of the wheelhouse were painted, as were their mounts.  Life rings were added from my spares box along with hull numbers.  The stern railings were replaced with PE trimmed to size and the boats were finished with small paper flags painted with the flag of communist Kampuchea, a yellow temple on a red field.  Hollows were cut into the plaster sea and the boats set in with a bit of plaster to fill any gaps.   Paint and gloss finish melded them into the diorama.

After a few touch-ups of paint the model was complete and ready for delivery to the museum at the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY.


So here is a side-by-side comparison of the finished model with the photograph that started it all.  I think that I achieved a “compelling evocation of the actual ship.”  Others must think the same, because the model was honored with the Jim Roberts’ Craftsmanship Award at the 2022 Northeast Joint Clubs Show.  My gratitude goes out to all of the judges.

To finish, we return to the tragic and poignant Mayaguez Incident.  By the evening of May 14 the ship had been seized and the crew had been taken off to Koh Tang Island.  President Johnson authorized military action and several Kampuchean gunboats have been sunk.  Naval ships and Marine units were being hurried to the area so a “strong statement” could be made.  By the early morning hours of May 15 the pieces were in place and the order was given to seize back the ship and rescue the crew on Koh Tang Island.  Approaching cautiously, the USS Holt came alongside the Mayaguez.

At 06:13 in the morning, after a bombardment with tear gas, armed Marines in gas masks stormed the ship, only to find that it had been deserted.

With no opposition, the American flag was once again raised above the bridge.

At about the same time a communique from the Kampuchean government was broadcast which blamed the US for the incident and described the Mayaguez as a “CIA spy ship”, but which announced that both the ship and the crew were being released.  This was received in Washington an hour later, but was initially disbelieved.  Nonetheless, it was true and the crew was put on a captured fishing trawler and released.  However, confirmation of this was not established until several hours later.

Without this confirmation the assault on Koh Tang Island went ahead.  Unfortunately, there were two major pieces of information that President Johnson and the Marines did not have.  The first was that during the previous day the crew had all been moved from Koh Tang Island to nearby Koh Rong Sanloem Island.  This was observed by American planes, but it was still believed that some of the crew were on Koh Tang.  The second was that the Khmer Rouge had a much larger and more heavily armed force on Koh Tang which was meant to defend against the Vietnamese who also claimed the island.   
 
In the early morning hours of May 15 eight large helicopters, mostly CH-53 Sea Stallions, with 175 Marines began arriving at Koh Tang.  Of these, three were shot down and two became disabled from mechanical problems.  Nonetheless they landed 109 troops on three landing zones.  This aerial photo shows two of the downed helicopters on East Beach.

A running gun battle across the island continued throughout the day, even after the release of the Mayaquez’ crew was confirmed.  By mid-afternoon the order to withdraw was given and the rest of the day was spent in several attempts to extract the landing force, with additional helicopters shot down and more US troops killed and wounded.  This continued into the night, with confusion abounding amid the increasing fog of war.  Ultimately, the bodies of a number of Marines and four live troops were left behind after all the others were evacuated.  The Khmer Rouge, angered at the deaths aboard the gunboats that had been sunk and the 20 or so troops killed on Koh Tang, ultimately executed all four.
 
The final US death toll for the unnecessary assault on Koh Tang was 18 troops killed and 50 wounded.   Although the Mayaguez Incident did not occur in Vietnam, it is commonly referred to as the last battle of the Vietnam War.  The names of the Marines and other personnel who were killed in combat are inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall.  This does not include the 23 USAF Security Police and flight crew who were killed in the helicopter crash during the troop movements prior to combat.   They were not so honored.

What lessons can be taken away from this poignant tragedy?  Not many, other than that assaults by slow, loud, fragile helicopters are rarely successful – see, e.g., the Iranian hostage rescue mission, ‘Blackhawk Down’ in Mogadishu, and even the successful killing of Osama Bin Laden.
 
Here’s hoping that it may never be necessary to mount another such military action.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Hi Cisco - 
 
Very nice progress on the hull planking.  You should end up with a nice, well-faired appearance.
 
One small point - you said you had 'messed up' your butt joint spacing and that you took out some planks already applied.  There was no need to do so.
As I understand it, the 4 or 5-step planking patterns ONLY apply to deck planking.  There were so many hull ribs, and so close together, that butt joints could land almost anywhere.  Of course you would not want two butt joints next to each other, but there is not, and cannot be, any strict mathematical stagger to the joints on such a curved surface.  For the deck, the beams were much further apart at a consistent distance and the surface was relatively flat, so a regimented pattern was possible.
 
If you have some time, and can find the books, I highly recommend "Building the Wooden Fighting Ship" by Dodds and Moore, which describes the process with many excellent drawings and illustrations.  Also, an easy, inexpensive, and enjoyable read is "Wooden Boats" by Michael Ruhlman, which is the story of his time at the Benjamin & Gannon shipyard on Martha's Vineyard where they still build wooden boats the old fashioned way. 
 
Best of success.  I am looking forward to seeing your work next April in New London.
 
Dan

Great work, Dan!

A sad tale with many misteps.  It's a great build Dan. Congratulations.   And also thanks for filing in the story that too many don't know.

Dan, congratulations! Nicely done. 

Well done, Dan!
 
Roger