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ClipperFan
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Rob, since the outer tip of the flying jibboom is 85'6" (10 & 11/16th" scale) it makes sense to wait until the last minute to install them, just to avoid breaking them while attempting to rig something else. -
Rob, since the jibboom was 16" diameter, maybe the flying jibboom was 14" diameter. Her 60' spanker boom was 12" diameter but that probably didn't need to support sailors. I think I read that Bruce secured Crothers' plans, which maybe illustrated the offset flying jibboom.
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Rob, a thought. Is it possible that the top of the jibboom and base of the flying jibboom might have been flattened to guarantee no possible rotation of the flying jibboom? Just like both inner bowsprit and jibboom were both carved back to rectangles to prevent any chance of rotation.
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Rob, just to clarify how these specs have been written. Dimensions were given before the bowsprit cap: 24' and after it: 18' + 15' +5' end, then there's the wythe, after them (perhaps the 5' end doubled as the spar support for the wythe too): 18' + 4' end. A total of 84' spars + 1'6" for the cap = 85'6". Jibboom passes through the cap but dimensions are given after it, so it has to be added to get precise numbers. Reviewing the small sail plan, the entire bowsprit-jibbooms combo appear to be equal to the height of the foremast up to her crosstrees.
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Rob, I cannot understate the exciting discoveries made unearthing three hugely significant historic items. Cornelius McKay has left us the perfect blueprint to reconstruct his father Donald's "Pioneer craft of the California Clipper Fleet." We have his model, his 4 page letter with exacting specs and now the precise 1850 lines and sail plan of Stag Hound as well. What a gift, literally from 175 years ago! As with McKay's final medium clipper Glory of the Seas where we had such priceless documents and images courtesy of Michael Mjelde, you're now reconstructing his very first extreme clipper Stag Hound. You're literally building the Alpha and Omega of McKay's fabulous clippers!!
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Rob, that's exactly the case. I found a nautical definition and share it here. A wythe is an iron ring through which a spar is mounted. Dimensions remain the same, as the flying jibboom is described as being 18' beyond the wythe, plus a 4' end.
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Rob, I never checked to see if you received your copy of the original 1851 Cornelius McKay Staghound drawing which accompanied his famous model. If you did, then look closely at the small sail plan depiction in the lower right corner. You'll see that her bowsprit, jibboom, flying jibboom is immensely long. Much longer than any other McKay clipper. I've attached an excerpt of his handwritten specs which confirm accuracy of the sail plan with her incredibly long one-piece jib-flying jibboom. Her bowsprit was 24' to the cap, outboard of the cap, jibboom was 18', plus 15' with 5' end and an additional flying jibboom was even 18' beyond that with 4' end. This was a single very long spar. Totaling all specs give us 60' outboard of the cap added to 24' bowsprit with 18" cap puts this out 85'6"! FYI: this is also the source of the fact that her bowsprit steeve was 4.2" not 4.5" and her mainmast was 166' high from deck to truck, incidentally 8' higher than that of the Flying Cloud.
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Rob, your model, your build. I hate to be a royal "PITA" but try as I might, I cannot find any reference to such ventilated top bollards illustrated here. Everything I have read, including searching contemporary patents, refer only to seperate ventilators. Nothing embedded in bitts of any kind.
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@sheepsail Julie, a decade ago the Mariner's Museum and Park, Newport News, VA had a popular exhibit titled "B is for Buttersworth, F is for Forgery" wherein they hid a forgery amidst authentic Buttersworth pieces. They had the exhibit to boost attendance and apparently it worked. As for the few works we discuss, I would be surprised to learn that any we refer to: Staghound, from South Street Seaport, NY, Flying Fish at Vallejo Gallery, Sovereign of the Seas & Great Republic at the Old State House, Boston and Flying Cloud listed by Barron's Auctions could be forgeries. I am curious though, does the book you refer to have color examples of this forger's works? I can tell you that I recently called "fake" for a purported Montague Dawson work. Anybody familiar with his work could tell this piece wasn't his.
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Rob, researching ventilators going back to 1847, I found no ventilated bitts. Emerson describes his pair of ventilators as one which brings fresh air down into the hold or lower decks with a corresponding one that extracts fouled air out. He recommends one be placed at the fore of the ship and the other at the aft of the ship. For larger ships, even a second pair could be used. In this case, the order would be reversed. One injector and one extractor near each other. Stag Hound having been the largest merchant ship in the world at her launch, it makes sense that she would have had additional Emerson's ventilators. Before going with metal bitts, I encourage you to double check with Mike. Whenever I tried to find any type of wooden or metallic ventilated bitts it went to a dead end. This is why I suspect Duncan McLean inadvertently mixed in wooden bitts with cylindrical metallic ventilators installed nearby. Here's Emerson's 1847 patented ventilators.
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Rob, here's Duncan McLean's description of the ventilated bits. He describes them as all being made of choice white oak. My educated guess would be that some form of iron might have been pounded into wooden bitts to provide ventilation. Foretopsail sheet bitts are also ventilated. This reminds me of the composite mizzen mast which was hollow inside to provide ventilation and prevent rot. I'm going to see if I can find some patented examples of ventilated bitts from 1850. It looks like this is another case of Duncan McLean c combining descriptions for brevity. You may already know this but I had to learn it for myself. Ventilators were not inside bitts, they were nearby them. I found 2 patents. Emerson's which was specifically described as being on Flying Cloud and since it was patented in 1848 it's safe to accept they were installed on Stag Hound too. The later Ventilator appears to be bulkhead mounted. The Warren Robinson patented description also includes detailed float valves to prevent water ingestion and draining from wave action, which also confirms these were the ones installed along planksheers.
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Rob, here's Duncan McLean's description of the ventilated bits. He describes them as all being made of choice white oak. My educated guess would be that some form of iron might have been pounded into wooden bitts to provide ventilation. Foretopsail sheet bitts are also ventilated. This reminds me of the composite mizzen mast which was hollow inside to provide ventilation and prevent rot. I'm going to see if I can find some patented examples of ventilated bitts from 1850.
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Rob, your powers of observation still impresses me. I checked and both of Buttersworth’s pieces feature the more modern all iron anchors.
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April 1855, Monthly Nautical Magazine Quarterly Review Stag-Hound article. This article, written 5 years after her launch confirms Hall's notes regarding the 1 & 1/4" per foot rake of her masts. It still has the incorrect 4 & 1/2" per foot bowsprit steeve. Fortunately, Cornelius McKay's letter and drawing shows a less dramatic 4.2" steeve per foot. Valuable documents such as these aid in confirming accuracy.
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@Snug Harbor Johnny that's some amazing statistics for sure. Thanks for doing those calculations.
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@BANYAN Abes Books has nice original 1928, 2nd issue copies listing for $20.00 + postage. 1969 and 1988 are monotone reprints, and usually list for a similar price. Check details to make sure you get an original issue. This lovely painting is clipper Lightning by Anton Otto Fischer. There are 10 full color works and dozens of monotone illustrations.
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Unlike what I call mantlepiece models which may look nice but don't make sense, Rob's replicas authentically represent the workings of a real ship.
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Pat, I learned about existence of these rare drawings from seeing this single page in Richard McKay's encyclopedic book "Some Famous Sailing Sailing Ships and Their Builder Donald McKay." That was at least 20 years or more ago. I found the original 1850 model and shared dozens of images of her about a year ago. The good folks at MIT turned out to have the original 1850 plans in their Captain Arthur H Clark collection. Now that I see them, it's clear that our three main sources: Hall, Chappelle and even Crothers never had access to these plans. That fact astounds me, since Cornelius McKay clearly stated that he drew these plans and crafted his gorgeous model directly from the lines off the molding loft floor as Stag Hound herself was under construction! There are no more highly accurate plans than these. FYI: do yourself a favor, if you don't already have Richard McKay's book in your library, get the earlier version. It is far more beautiful with about a dozen full color paintings that are all monotone in the 1967 reprints.
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Rob, I already made color enhanced copies to make the lines easier to trace. A surprising discovery, there are actually red and black lines which I only discovered by increasing the color.
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@Jared Ah yes..... the wisdom of the ages....
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Just honor the fact that they can't be shared (published) online. I sent you a message.
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@rwiederrich check your messages!
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@rwiederrich **** Eureka!!!! **** I FOUND THE 1850 CORNELIUS McKAY CLIPPER SHIP STAGHOUND LINES PLAN!!!! This is the real deal!!!!! Elias Trout, MIT Museum Collections at first replied that they had no records but then another colleague found the plans. They have McKay's handwritten signature in multiple locations too. There's a 13" ruler in the lower left corner. Based on its size, it looks like the drawing matches the carved model in size. Plans include a starboard sheer, fore and aft body and lower hull profile. There's also a neat sailplan in the lower right corner. I have a watermarked low-rez copy. I have signed a confidentiality form and paid the nominal $15.00 release fee to get a high-rez watermark free version. If given permission, I will share the low-rez version. From my digital merge I can tell that Chappelle and Crothers have her stern too round. She's more similar to that on the Flying Fish.
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@Jared beautiful work, both the starboard broadside photo and your impressive ship.
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@Jared it was my impression that you secured these tiny figures from other 3D print suppliers. I had no idea you made them yourself. They definitely add to your model regardless of barely noticeable "shortcomings."
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