ClipperFan

Rob, As usual your work is clean and impeccable. Stag Hound is such a beautiful clipper.

Rob, Welcome back! It's great to hear that you had an enjoyable vacation. Your little helper really does give a sense of the size of this vessel.

There's a beautifully detailed article in "Sea History" Summer 2023 "Enoch Train - Donald McKay's Best Customer." Courtesy of National Maritime Historical Society issuu.com allows a free pdf download of entire magazines. In the article is a fancy chart which shows McKay built two dozen packets for Enoch Train's service. Another unrelated article covers the late British-American artist John Stobart. One of the paintings featured in the article is the Mystic, CT built clipper David Crockett.

@Snug Harbor Johnny true and that's how Maine Downeasters were designed. There are many photos of her which confirm it. There's an excellent coffee-table style book "Portrait of a Ship" from 2017 which covers this Downeaster in- depth. Our friend author Michael Mjelde wrote a review on it.

The final example is the 1850 Webb built, NY Black Ball Packet ship Isaac Webb (188', 40' beam). Each of the packet lines had a distinctive symbol emblazoned on their fore topsail. As can be seen in the lovely Samuel Walters piece, these ships carried a large black ball on their fore topsails. In the case of Enoch Train's line, they had a large "T" on their fore topsails instead. Incidentally, there's an excellent fairly new publication "Transatlantic Train" which covers the long neglected biography of Enoch who was instrumental in beginning Donald McKay's illustrious career.

I'm intrigued by the beautiful clipper David Crockett who's figurehead still survives. A short research led me to 2 other contemporary works, done later in her career. The earlier color piece has her with Howe's rigs on fore and main masts while her mizzen remained unchanged. The monochrome piece is the later one as now all 3 masts are equipped with Howe's rigs. Both show her prow with a projecting cutwater with an aggressively raked figurehead. We also have the photographic example of the Great Admiral with her projecting prow.

The largest vessel ever launched at Mystic, CT was the 1853 Greenman Brothers medium clipper David Crockett (216' × 40' beam with 3 decks). Another one of my favorite James E Buttersworth oils is the impressive painting which graces the large poster before the wonderfully crafted replica. The replica is wonderfully crafted with one flaw. The prow in the Buttersworth piece shows presence of a graceful cutwater which has her frontiersman figurehead projecting at a more pronounced rake. I will share 2 other contemporary works which both confirm this.

After the plaque tribute to women at sea there was an even larger wall sized billboard dedicated to Mystic, CT Shipyards. Mystic Seaport sometimes gets a bad "rap" as a tourist trap. In reality, it's a 19th century reproduction seaport, combined with museum exhibits, research collections and a fully functional shipyard which still occupies some of the same real estate as bygone shipyards. Various historic vessels are maintained here. Most recently the 1850s Mayflower II replica was restored here. Before that the Whaler Charles W Morgan was readied for sea. Decades ago, I remember seeing the replica topsail brig Amistad built and launched here.

The true heroism of Mary Ann Brown Patten fascinates me. She was so intent on performing her duties of navigating the big ship, being a leader to her crew, policing a mutionous bully First Mate and acting as a nurse to her gravely ill husband that she never even changed her clothes! Not part of the Mystic exhibit but Arader galleries has a beautiful Chinese import piece of Neptune's Car in Hong Kong harbor.

Ed Tosti's 1853 Webb, NY built extreme clipper Young America (243') came immediately after the Downeaster. The layout of this exhibit was set up in a receding timeline. As it was Ed's spectacular build that I came to see, I took 21 pics of her, most of any model. She was mounted with her starboard side against the wall, so only port scenes were available. I appreciated that Mystic included covers of all 3 of Ed's highly informative books on the subject of his build. There was a fascinating tribute to women aboard ship. It featured Mary Ann Brown Patten who at age 19, while pregnant took command of the 1853 Gosport, VA built extreme clipper Neptune's Car (216') when her husband captain Joshua became incapacitated and severely ill. For between 56 to 59 days, she was her captain, suppressing a mutiny, earning the trust of her crew, safely rounding Cape Horn and even piloting her beyond the Golden Gate into San Francisco itself! There's a fascinating connection of this vessel with Donald McKay. Builders copied Flying Fish as their pattern to build Neptune's Car! Her figurehead was quite ornate: King Neptune riding a shell towed by seahorses. Francesca "Ett" Allen wife of captain Zacheus "Tiger" Allen lived her life and raised her son's on board various ships. A routine letter accompanies a photo of her and her son.

While Rob is away on vacation, I'm sharing my visit June 2nd to the Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, CT. It was the final day of our 40th Anniversary stay at the Inn at Stonington, CT and we were on the way home. The exhibit "From Clippers to Containers" is located on the 2nd floor of the Stillman building a three story brick structure on the South courtyard accessed from the museum's main southern entrance. Since my wife Peggy was patiently waiting in our car, I was very aware of the time to not make her wait a moment longer than necessary. So, I totally skipped over modern Container ships. This is where Ed Tosti's magnificent extreme Webb, NY clipper Young America is featured. As I entered the exhibit, across the room was the massive ship's wheel of the Benjamin F Packard. First up after a few modern ships was an entire wall dedicated to the 1883 Bath, Maine Downeaster Benjamin F Packard (244'). There wasn't enough room to get decent photos of the huge wall mural but I did my best and then edited sections. Other items were easier to get pics of. Her gold-leaf embellished billethead was large, impressived and gorgeous. Each model was preceeded by a billboard describing her and another afterwards covering their class. At the aft port end of the Downeaster is another tan ship's silhouette. That is the 1841 New Bedford, Massachusetts, Whaler Charles W Morgan (113'). After exiting the exhibit, I took a couple quick snaps of the restored Whaler herself as a means of comparison. The size difference of the two vessels is staggering. I've walked the decks of the Whaler often and she's never felt small to me. Following the Downeaster was Ed Tosti's clipper, which I took the most pictures of. Let's just say that she is a work of art. I will cover her next.

@Jared I know exactly what you mean. I've been on the decks of the Frigate USS Constitution "Old Ironsides", the whaler Charles W. Morgan when she was still a full-rigged ship as she was launched and the barque USCGS Eagle. Each time it was a dizzying experience to comprehend the gossamer webbing of lines, blocks and tackles.

@Jared It constantly amazes me how much complex rigging is involved in these beautifully designed clipper ships. Painstaking doesn't even come close to describing the immense patience required to successfully duplicate this in scale.

@druxey it's those waterline grids, buttock lines and diagonals that were key in achieving the progress I've made so far. Getting everything aligned properly is the tricky part but it also practically guarantees results will be accurate once done correctly. When I sketch out these plans, all grids will be precisely parallel and 90° perpendicular to each other. I will also precisely measure out each distance to match all specs supplied in the Boston Daily Atlas. This is the only way to accurately recreate Stag Hound.

@Jared she's shaping up to be a very impressive vessel.

@druxey to give you an idea of where this began, here's the original image. It looks like I've taken this as far as possible with a limited cell phone app....

@druxey thanks for challenging me to improve the body plans. I took a closer look at the original source and did the following revisions. Not perfect but I think you'll agree these are improvements. The bow looks damn near perfect, based upon the straight alignment of the lower scale. The stern is very close but still has slight curling at the ends of the scale. However, the pronounced "v" is gone. None of these preliminary plans are to be considered finished products. They're merely guidelines which I intend to use to create more accurate illustrations.

While we're waiting for Rob's return, I figured this would be a good time to update my progress on illustrating Stag Hound plans. Anyone who's been following Rob's build by now knows I'm working on developing the most accurate Stag Hound deck and sheer plans possible. Focusing on Chappelle plans from the 1967 "The Search for Speed Under Sail" I now have five digitally virtually identical sections combined into coherent units. I will reconcile sheer and body plans with Vladimir's cgi work based on the Cornelius McKay hull model. Next, in this process is to trace these patterns with specific emphasis on maintaining accurate specifications. Then I will recreate all deck furnishings based on the McLean descriptions in the Boston Daily Atlas article.

@rwiederrich Enjoy the wedding, have a great vacation. Stag Hound is proceeding beautifully.

More examples of American clippers which all had double rigged shrouds irons. Earliest known pre-clipper, the Baltimore, MD built Ann McKimm, a Mystic, CT built clipper, Galatea, Massachusetts and David Crockett, Mystic, CT.

Daniel, Everything we do is based on following accurate historic images and documentation. Here's two such images confirming that McKay had always installed double channels on his vessels. First is an 1854 daguerrotype of the clipper Champion of the Seas. Second is of the 1869 clipper Glory of the Seas, taken in 1911. Both have double channels installed.

@Jared Stuns'l booms definitely add color contrast and interest to your yards. Mentioning incense sticks, besides being an innovative idea brings me right back to the 70's when everyone who was anyone had sandalwood punks burning in their homes....;-)

@Rick310 perhaps that's why the stuns'l booms were hung below yards as well. That way the booms wouldn't interfere with crew working the sails.

Rob, Using genuine old-fashioned paper "cut & paste" I finally combined all 4 Chappelle clipper Stag Hound hull & deck profiles to create one full image. Each section is correct but wrinkles in paper make it appear distorted. The stern still appears to be too small in comparison. I also used the same procedure on the 1881 Hall clipper Flying Cloud which was cleaner as it was just 2 halves. Next step is to trace these prints to generate a more accurate plan.

@Jared I hope you don't mind but I realigned both images and took some of the graininess out of your enlargement. No surprise, I agree with Rob. Stowing stuns'l booms in a traiangular criss-cross setup must have only been employed while a clipper was docked for an extended period of time. At sea, it would make sense that these same booms would be rigged for most immediate deployment as circumstances demanded.