ClipperFan

@Jared nice detail work on those tiny gin blocks!

@BANYAN Welcome aboard! We're much closer to nailing this vessel's hull down. We have two very talented computer programming artists, @Vladimir_Wairoa and @Luis Felipe working hard to reconcile conflicting body plans. Once that's resolved, Rob will be off to the races! Just remember to bring enough popcorn for everybody.... 😉

@druxey no apology necessary. You're just trying to help out. I take no offense. I am just truly grateful that Cornelius McKay left us exact dimensions.

@rwiederrich Rob, man you work fast! I love the fine details, tiny eyes, ears and open jaw. This is going to look dazzling against a black background embellished with more gold carvings... Suddenly, I'm thinking back to a stunning golden girl, splayed out on bed while Shirley Bassey belts out a powerful tune....

@druxey picky-picky..... Maybe if you stop obsessing with structural minutia like the @#$$ size of the keel... 😉 real progress can be made!

@Snug Harbor Johnny True. But since the dashing dog on the bus line was introduced in 1929 and McKay's clipper Stag Hound launched in 1850, it could be said that they drew their inspiration from the earlier ship. Here is possibly the.earliest depiction of McKay's famous ship, from "Some Ships of the Clipper Ship Era" State Street Trust Co, Boston, MA 1913. Look closely, you'll see a sprinting dog reminiscent of those on modern buses. As you can see from Rob's delicate miniature carving, it's patterned after a real staghound photo. When I came up with my stag hound figurehead, it required more than a few sketches to capture the right feel. That's due to the fact that the figurehead's body needs to correspond with the navel hood it's attached to above. Meanwhile, the dog's head needs to face directly forward. To get this pose requires a pooch that realistically simulates leaping up at an angle. Draw a horizontal line at the base of their paws and you'll see what I'm describing. All this and it needs to look totally natural too. Trickier than it looks.

@druxey the heading of the second two pages, after the title, handwritten refer specifically to the clipper ship Donald McKay. After that, it changes to a spread outline, where it's important to follow the narrative on the top left column. Honestly, this introduces even more confusion. Unless I'm reading it wrong, the sequence goes upper keel, lower keel, shoe. For Stag Hound figures are 20", 12" & 4 & 1/2".... which means beyond her garboards, including shoe, her outer keel would have been 16 & 1/2"... Meanwhile the total of all 3 components are 36 & 1/2" not 46" as recorder and publicized by McLean. To avoid getting even further "in the weeds" my recommendation is stick to Cornelius McKay's 30"....

@druxey Now you have me even more curious. If you don't mind, can you share the source you're getting these figures from? It sounds like you're saying the outer keel was 32" including double false keels of 14" total, making her outer keel 18" (+ 14" double shoes; false keels) for a total 32" beyond garboards and her inner one 14" for a combined total of 46"? Everything I've found refers to a 39" keel beyond garboards, yet still maintains 46" total. That would make the inner one 7" which I find too thin. Handwritten notes by Hall (shared excerpts of; including sobco.com site link) show no such 39" outer keel mentioned. That leads me to conclude the Cornelius McKay stipulation of 30" to be most reasonable. 32" only adds 2" but I'd just like to know the source of those figures.

@rwiederrich Rob, Wow! now THAT'S a Stag Hound!! So, to be 7 scale feet, that's 7/8ths inches long. Amazing carving at such a tiny scale. I can't wait to see her in gilded gold.

@druxey That can't possibly be the 1850 extreme clipper Stag Hound as it's settled fact that her keel was actually moulded 46". The vessel you're reading about is a much smaller ship with a 14" shallower keel. I repeatedly go back to the December 21, 1850 Boston Daily Atlas article, written by publicist Duncan McLean. It's obvious from the wealth of construction specifics that they were supplied to him directly by his close friend Donald McKay and his shipyard. "Her depth of keel is 46 inches, dead rise at half floor 40 inches, rounding of sides 4 inches, and sheer 2 feet 6 inches." Later in the same article, McLean repeats this fact: "Her keel is of rock maple and oak, in two depths, which, combined with the shoe moulds 46 inches and sides 16." Thanks to the Cornelius McKay letter, we know the exterior depth of keel was 30" as he specifically says that's the precise dimension which should be added to his fine model. That leaves 16" for the internal keel. We've determined a 39" keel must be a transcription error as that leaves only an impossible 7" for internal keel.

@Luis Felipe you and @Vladimir_Wairoa are both working on the same project and doing beautiful computer work. I noticed that an overlay of the McKay model is missing. So I've re-posted Vlad's overlay of that Cornelius McKay Stag Hound model bow. We've determined it's the most accurate rendition of this ship. That's due to historic provenance provided by McKay's own son. He confirms that his large 4' 8 & 1/4ths" 1:48th scale hull model was built from his father's mould lines directly off the lofting floor as the ship herself was under construction. Missing on his model is a 30" lower keel and 18" upper monkey rail, as well as an 18" splashrail. While a drawing done by Cornelius also exists, which might have a body plan too, I have yet to find it. Thanks again for your helpful contributions!

@rwiederrich to be honest, it was late last night that I decided to pause work and share my progress. As a result. I forgot to include the mizzen fife rail front view. I did mention the sketch was "in progress." My apologies for the confusion

Rob, The front view only shows the rail itself, since the turned rail stanchions are a few feet away, there wasn't enough room to illustrate them. Side view is where you would see them too.

@rwiederrich Rob, what? You've never heard of negative space? As I said, that's the real impression I got from looking a photos of the front fascia. I'll look again. Still, even if they were projections, they would only be slight and wouldn't interfere with anything. As for the figurehead, from memory it's supposed to be 7 feet. There's a scale on my original sketch so you can double check it.

@Luis Felipe that is a great Staghound image. It's exaclty what I see when reading the description in the Boston Daily Atlas. You can see how, unlike a more lithe Greyhound build, the Staghound is stockier and more robust.

@Luis Felipe good catch on those winches. Maybe Rob can let us know if these would have been installed on fore and main masts. That particular item isn't illustrated on the mizzen, so it makes me wonder if it had to do with the smaller yardarms on the mizzen?

@rwiederrich. Rob, where my observation of the coach house front fascia on Glory of the Seas and Michael Mjelde's may differ is in depth perception. Michael's illustration appears to show half pillars which project outward. For some reason, my perception is that they seem to be recessed. That's why I refer to them as "faux" structures. We'll see if you like my results or not. Either way, they won't interfere with safety rails which I see as being inserted into the central sides of the house.

@rwiederrich Rob, i'll continue following Michael Mjelde's excellent front fascia work to add faux columns and complete the image of a Grecian style, small, square portico. As far as a middle front window is concerned, it was for providing light inside. However, if you think rigging might risk damage, a separate panel can easily be substituted.

@rwiederrich as promised earlier, here's my 1:48th scale, in-process conceptual illustration of a one foot smaller square house portico. Details to be added are faux pillars as seen on the front fascia on Glory of the Seas. I added just enough roof molding to match the structure evenly with a 32" high safety rail on turned stanchions. That makes dimensions 7' wide square by 7' 32" high. The same rail surrounds the roof, since falls from five or seven feet could cause severe injuries. Illustrations show starboard side view and this time a fore view too. There would be 3 equally-sized curved arch windows in front, with twin smaller ones in back. I think we've now found our correctly sized portico!

Rick, Boston Daily Atlas, June 19, 1852 http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/News/BDA/BDA(1852-06-19).html "All her lower masts are made from the heads to the steps, each mast in five pieces, bolted and hooped together." Regarding her figurehead: "Her lines forward, as they ascend above the water, become convex, to correspond with her outline on the rail, and her bow is plain, without even trail boards, and terminates with the figure of a sea god, half man half fish, with a conch shell raised to his mouth, as if in the act of blowing it. The figure accords with the sheer of the bow, is well executed, and forms a beautiful finish." "The rest of her hull is painted black, and her figurehead is bronzed sea color " One item Buttersworth captured accurately was her large rear coach house, with upper rails on turned stanchions identical to what's seen on Glory of the Seas. It makes sense too, since Sovereign of the Seas was about the same size. This fallacy of a ridiculously small rear coach house seen on every Sovereign of the Seas model I've ever seen, flies in the face of the actual McLean description: "She has a full topgallant forecastle, a large house amidships, and a spacious trunk cabin, in two divisions, built into a half poop deck, with steerage room abaft." That says clearly the rear trunk cabin took up the entire poop deck with just enough room left alongside for crew to work the ship and astern for steerage. Thanks to the generousity of Michael Mjelde who shared another ultra-rare Glory of the Seas stern photo, we now know for a fact that sides of these trunk cabin-coach houses actually narrow with the hull to provide consistent working area for crew. That and the rear companionway was offset to port, not central mounted. Here's my reconstruction (on back of an envelope) of the Sovereign of the Seas figurehead, half man half fish sea god with a conch shell raised to his lips. Note: navel hoods and cutwater are included, with merman tail incorporated into the cutwater. This still reflects a large figurehead but doesn't compromise her bow. But now, we must get back to Rob's purpose for this build log, that of realizing for the first time ever, an accurate model of Donald McKay's premiere inaugural extreme clipper Stag Hound.

Here's a perfect example of a well established artist who created a stunningly gorgeous ship portrayal that's yet inaccurate. James E Buttersworths Sovereign of the Seas has a notable place of prominence in The Old State House, Boston. Probably my favorite depiction of this huge McKay clipper. He apparently never knew how to properly paint the unique McKay bow. His portrayal of the Neptune figurehead goes impossibly across a good portion of the ship's hull. Still it is a lovely piece.

"Stag Hound" by John Scott, The Sportsman's Repository 1845. Another good source for a naturally realistic Stag Hound figurehead. The more I look at the dogs, they're sort of like scruffy looking greyhounds. 😉