ClipperFan

@Rick310 now that makes sense. I've had "the devil's own time" trying to relocate the article I read which said that gooseneck ventilators were rarely installed on clippers. If I remember, it had illustrations of straight tubes with some sort of shielding cover instead. My focus was on Emerson's patent ventilators at the time. So I figured it would be my next topic after sharing the info on Emerson's ventilators. But I agree that while these were wooden ships, they employed a lot of innovative designs too. Preventing an ever present danger of any sort of water penetration would have been a top priority.

@John Ruy I only just discovered you spectacular build now. There's a detail I must share with you. As a Boy Scout in 1968, our troop visited Mystic Seaport and I had my first opportunity to view the newly restored Whaler Charles W Morgan. At that time she was still a full-rigged ship and not the Bark as she's rigged today. She also had the distinctive transom, identical to the one you felt compelled to discard. Here's a fact that for some odd teason the new restorers reversed. She originally had four large windows in her transom! 1967 restorers were shocked to discover boarded up window frames in their tear down process. Before bringing those windows back, they researched the logs and found an entry by the wife of the captain who mentioned that, in a warm summer day in the Antartic waters, she opened up the big windows to let in fresh cooling air. I own a book "The Charles W Morgan, the Last Wooden Whaler" by Edouard A Stackpole about that restoration which covers these facts in great detail with accompanying photos. This not to disparage your meticulously built model. It's just to set tge record straight about the ship herself.

Rob, Thanks! This should make modeling the masts of Stag Hound easier and precisely accurate. Imagine how exciting it would be if I can get more useful images of the model currently in storsge?

Rob, I didn't say that you made no sense. I wouldn't think that of you. I said the concept of leaving areas of the ship open to essentially a form of internal flooding doesn't make sense. It occurs to me that there must have been some sort of anti-flooding valve to prevent such occurrences. Incidentally, just in my brief reading, so far at least, the type of gooseneck ventilators illustrated here don't seem to have appeared much on clipper ships. I'm still researching the topic of ship's ventilators along the planksheer actually installed on clipper ships. As usual, I'll let you know what I find out.

@rwiederrich as part of my research to locate the elusive Stag Hound drawing described by Cornelius McKay I emailed RevolutionarySpaces.org who apparently now run the old Boston Marine Museum collection. Lori replied and confirmed they're still in posession of the rare model! More exciting news. She sent me a copy of the full Cornelius McKay letter to captain Arthur H Clark. She included a couple images of the hull model. While it's beautiful it's not too helpful. She also sent a rare Chinese export painting of Staghound. Such works of art involved a pre-painted background. Ship's captains would select the one that they liked best. The Chinese artist would then paint the vessel in the foreground. It would then occupy a place of prominence. Most likely it would be in the captain's cabin or stateroom aboard ship. That would mean this painting at some point resided in Staghound herself. I've asked for costs associated to get a nice print of this work. I'm now trying to see if it's possible to get the model out of storage and take useful pictures of it. In addition, I've asked Lori if she has any idea where the accompanying drawing might be found. I'll keep you posted on my progress. One salient point I discovered is in the handwritten notes. A single line: "mainmast from deck to truck 166." Since all main mast spars total 210 feet (including 9-foot pole) tells me the main mast is sunk 44 feet below the main deck. Subtracting that same 44-foot figure from a foremast of 190 feet (including 7-foot pole) results in 146 feet and using the same formula for the mizzen results in 129 (including 6-foot pole). We also know that this countersinking only affects lower masts, as the rest of the dimensions are untouched. So, an 88-foot mainmast is 44 feet above deck, an 82-foot foremast is 38 feet above deck and a 78-foot mizzenmast is 34 feet above deck.

@Rick310 Thanks for your compliment of my artwork, I appreciate the encouragement. It consistently amazes me how some of McKay's uniquely different nautical architectural designs, which have been recorded since the first Boston Daily Atlas article of Stag Hound by Duncan McLean in December 1850 have been completely missed. McKay's incredibly rugged navel hood, cutwater design is truly unique. Rob and I have looked extensively and never seen such structures on any other British or American clipper ship. I now think that McLean's description of the McKay bow being plain, lacking head or trail boards confused other maritime researchers who didn't know what to do with these unusual descriptions. Fortunately, with Glory of the Seas we had incontrovertible proof as to the true nature of these ultra-rare structures. Now Rob and I are doing our part to spread the word to the modeling community to set the record straight. As for the challenge of maintaining scale accuracy, all I can say, as an artist working to keep all components scale accurate is to keep referring to actual dimensions of each item you're working on. To me, nothing rapidly ruins the appearance of a model than to lose track of the scale you're working in. For instance, while researching Staghound I read about deck lights (prisms) and side lights (portholes) which were provided for every apartment on her. Here's the thing. Prisms are tiny, 4.5" in diameter hexagons. In 1:96th scale, that's about 1/32nd & 1/2". Rob is going to use little green dots to at least show their existence. We'll see if he actually goes through with it. A more useful fact, which might actually be repetitious, are the long lubber holes on the solid tops. Contrary to plans, lubber holes extend all the way from front to rear, and we have many photos to prove that.

October 10, 1848 US patent 5842A granted to Emerson for his new ventilation system. Today, we'd refer to this as an air exchanger: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5842

Rob, Again, from a nautical engineering perspective that simply makes no sense. I'm going to research Emerson's patent ventilators to see how they would have prevented seawater or even rainwater from entering below decks.

Rob, Your logic makes sense. The more McLean articles I read, the greater impression I get that the Boston Daily Atlas publicist concentrated his focus on the wooden structural elements and seaworthy elements of McKay's many vessels. Your logic makes total sense. Another thought that renforces this is the fact that captain Lauchlan McKay was able to restore his badly damaged, huge clipper Sovereign of the Seas while at sea, without cutting a single line. My vote is to add them.

@Rick310 thanks for the highly detailed recitation of the meticulous work necessary to prepare one yardarm. I particularly appreciate your delineation of the different thicknesses of thread being utilized for varying uses. It's also reflective of the construction challenges you faced in formatting your replica fished masts. Thanks for the over all look at your beautiful Flying Fish hull.

Rick, That's why you always have to make use of Spel-Czech...

Rob, "The New Clipper Packet Ship Staffordshire" Boston Daily Atlas July 21, 1851 excerpt: "In addition to those already noticed, she has four bitts, ranged along the deck abaft the main rigging, on each side, and lever winches on each side abaft the fore and main rigging." I reviewed Stag Hound, Flying Cloud, Flying Fish and Mastiff before finding this first mention of lever winches in the highly detailed description of Staffordshire. Perhaps, it's because of the unusual nature of this vessel being modified from two to three decks while on the stocks. I tend to agree with Michael Mjelde. McLean is more attentive to construction details than ornamentation. Chances are if Stag Hound had been equipped with lever winches, I believe he would have mentioned it.

Rob, Then Chappelle's plans have that item backwards. Both fore and main winches are illustrated as being positioned directly above the large knees. So, from your reference, are you saying that, opposite to Michael Mjelde's conclusion that hand winches were most likely not installed, you believe they were? I'm going to review other Boston Daily Atlas articles to see if Duncan McLean made mention of such labor assisting devices on later ships. I'll let you know what I find out.

Rick, Either way, I don't think any "wenches" were allowed on clipper ships! 😉

Rob That brings up another fascinating topic. Ventilators were installed along the line of the planksheer and other places too. I'll have to find those references so we can locate those as well.

Rob, I will do my best. This time with sharper pencils too!

Rob, So winches weren't installed on Stag Hound. That being the case, would those large angled wooden strakes in front of the masts be omitted? Instead, it would be ordinary fife rails, right?

Rob, Here you go! A hectagonal prism, sketched at 1/16th". I tried to get down to 1/32nds & 1/2" but the tip of my lead pencil isn't sharp enough... 🙂 At this scale, like you said, it won't even be noticeable. Still, just including a tiny representation would lend an air of serious authenticity

Rob, To be technically astute, at 1:96th scale 1/16" = 6", 1/32nd" = 3" so actually a "skoch" above 1/32nd" would do the trick 😉 ! Maybe you could use a teeny-tiny phillips head. Just poke a little bitty hole and fill it with green colored ink....

Rob, Meh... bitts, bollards. Neither one is edible. 🙂

Rob, My preliminary Google search for 1900s era sailing ship deck prisms consistently resulted in the hexagonal green version I shared. The round prism you favor appears to me to be more modern.

Rob, This question of winches mounted or not, sounds like a perfect topic to discuss with our author friend Michael Mjelde. If anyone would be most confident in such details, it has got to be him. After all, just like those pesky iron bollards, you wouldn't want to introduce something anachronistic on your replica.

@rwiederrich @Vladimir_Wairoa @Luis Felipe Rob and I discussed deck lights described as being installed on Stag Hound. Actually, besides on the poop deck, these nautical ceiling prisms were also installed on the roof of the long house abaft the foremast. Whether you want to model these or not is up to you. They're not exactly huge. This authentic 1900s deck prism off a sailing ship is 4.5" wide x 4.75 deep. They're 6-sided (hexagonal). I would imagine besides being flush mounted they would probably have had some sort to round wooden moulding surrounding them. I also believe to provide maximum lighting, these little lights would have been centrally mounted for each individual apartment. Of course for the captain's 12' × 18' fore state-room, there could have been more than one, two maybe three.

Rob, I think what's led to this confusion is Duncan McLean's use of terms like "exceedingly plain" and "lacking head boards or trailboards." Such terms, whether intentional or not has most likely led maritime researchers to conclude the absolute plainness of McKay's bows. Who knows how things would have turned out for us if we had no bow pictures for Glory of the Seas? Then again, what did other researchers make of the terms "navel hood" and "cutwater?" Still, it baffles me how for literally 170 years, McKay's uniquely rugged prow treatment has remained a secret. Actually hiding in plain sight.... It's one of the revalations I cover in my second article, referring to our in-depth research into Glory of the Seas. She has proven to be the absolute "Rosetta Sone" of McKay's magnificent clippers.