ClipperFan
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https://alaskapublic.org/2022/08/09/cargo-ship-snags-very-old-anchor-in-bristol-bay/ Rob, Does this anchor look familiar? It was found in Unalaska, Alaska. Apparently, it dates to the 1850s. My first thought was that could have come from Glory of the Seas.... -
Rob, Agreed. Remarkable indeed.
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Rob, You're welcome, my friend. Actually I respect the trait of being too hard on yourself. To me it's an authentic indicator of a person who has genuinely high standards. As one who has been sadly all too familiar with pain, I sympathize with your bursitis pain. If you haven't already tried it, I suggest using either Aleve or Tylenol, both which are anti-inflammatory. Another med I'm on is Gabapentin which also is an anti-inflammatory. I hope these ideas help.
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Rob, In respects to your self-examining rant, it's my considered opinion that you might be just a little too hard on yourself. I doubt you would be getting as many fine accolades from so many admirers if the results didn't speak very loudly for themselves.
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https://www.vallejogallery.com/2022/item_mobile.php?page=item_page&id=1316 George, It's incredible how lofty the masts were on McKay's Clippers! Your doing a marvelous job capturing that. Meanwhile, I remembered a beautiful 1998 painting by David Thimgan. It depicts Flying Fish entering San Francisco Bay.
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Rob, Since Glen "beat me to the punch" with his 'majestic' comment, I'll just fall back to my handy Thesaurus and say magnificent! It's such a delight to finally see your Glory of the Seas with all three of her masts. Even though her foremast is only temporarily stepped, the impression is glorious in its' effects. I don't know exactly why but a favorite exercise of mine, whenever I trod decks of a Tall Ship is to crane my neck back and just stare at the intricate lattice work of rigging. I just marvel at the inventiveness of the men who created such beautiful yet powerful sailing vessels. Your masterful replica captures this in miniature perfectly!
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Rob, First, it's great to see you back in action on your beautiful Glory of the Seas model. I hope this means temps have moderated enough to allow you to comfortably work. I am still impressed with the amazing organizational skills you display in your disciplined rigging process. Seeing all those loose lines in the before picture and how it all is resolved in the after one drives home the point that such intricate rigging is not for the faint of heart!
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George, thanks for correcting the record. It's been so many years ago, I've forgotten about the noble Spruance class. Thanks for sharing the under sea video.
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George K, thank you for your service too. The USS Peterson looks like it's an Arleigh-Burke class vessel. That Soviet era Mi-24 Hind helicopter always looks wicked. I have no idea how rugged or lethal it is in reality. What's going on in Ukraine is so upsetting. I miss the old Russia, right after the Berlin Wall came down. Now we seem to re-entering another Cold War.
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George K, I call the abilities you display to scratchbuild such beautifully balanced masts a unique form of artisan craftsmanship. The single image of the main mast stepped in your Flying Fish really drives home how incredibly lofty these McKay Clippers really were. I'm looking forward to your further progress.
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Rob, Priority no 1 is to take good care of the shipbuilding crew. After all, nobody else can fill in for you. Even Donald McKay knew that principal, as he treated his workers as extended family. Things have been so warm here in the Litchfield Hills of Western CT that the city has opened up emergency cooling centers. Take good care of yourself.
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Rob, I googled the distance from Würzburg to Wildflecken. 40 miles due north. From what could read your location was right on the East German border. I for one, am grateful the entire structure, all of it is consigned to the dust bowl of History. Thank you for your service, by the way.
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Rob, the magic of cameras is that we see images of your amazing progress instantly. That belies the amount to time and energy you put in, to make these pictures possible. As a teenager, I've done a small amount of plastic sailing ship model rigging (always scratch building, as their accompanying plans were unrealistically simplistic). I know to a degree, that to get the highly accurate results your model displays, involves hours of thoughtful fore planning and careful meticulous work. I just wanted to acknowledge that.
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Druxey, "Sleep-rigging" what a concept! Now, imagine if you could do that and get a good night's rest at the same time..... Actually I think Rob has just about perfected his masting and rigging technique to mastery level while still getting a decent night's sleep. Besides creating a museum masterpiece with an incredible level of detail, his assembly pace is nothing short of amazing.
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George, I Googled these dates, even though I lived them all. I was terrified by the first and elated to tears at the second. President Kenney's June 26th, 1963 "Nun, Ich bin ein Berliner!" speech electrified me and President Reagan's June 12th, 1987 challenge to Gorbachev to "Tear down this Wall!" signified thawing of the Cold War. To be honest, I never thought it would happen. Nov 9th, 2022 will mark the 33rd anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall which had been erected by East Germany Aug 13th, 1961. For damn near 28 years that thing stood, symbolically immobile. Hard to believe that was so long ago. It's literally a generation that hasn't lived with a divided Germany, the reality of the scary Cold War and seeing the brutal edifice that the Wall represented...... While the Wall put shivers down my spine, I was given an even greater shock a few years later when, for a few months our family lived in Würzburg, West Germany. The location was 3 miles from East Germany. Our dad wanted us to experience the reality of the East German frontier, so he took us to their border. I was shocked to discover an 18 foot stockade chain link fence, topped with nasty, viscious looking cantinas wire wrapped in intimidating spirals on top. Every few meters, there were posts with ominous blinking red lights. Dad told us that meant the entire wall was electrified ... We cautiously watched armed East German soldatan manning a tall guard tower. Apparently we got a little too close as they were staring at us through binoculars. I saw them through my own pair of binoculars. When they suddenly burst out of their enclosure and went to man a 50 cal machine gun mounted on a corner racing us, I told Dad. He said, "oops, we've worn out our welcome! Time to go boys!" We all piled into our little Opel wagon and Dad left a cloud of dust and gravel as he put the pedal to the metal!
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Rob, I originally thought when you said you were going to rig her with sails, that only the lower ones would be furled. Not until you referred to your intention to duplicate the appearance of the ship docked in S.F. 1877 that I took another look at that image and then voila! there they were all along.
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Rob, How it didn't register that those white objects on the yardarms were sails is beyond me. Not until you referred to them did it dawn on me that, it's precisely what you identified. Duh...
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Rob, Honestly, I don't recall seeing a model of a vessel with such consistently, tightly furled sails. Usually yardarms are either completely empty or feature loosely draped sails instead. Having actually had the distinct pleasure of rolling up genuine thick canvas duct tents with the Boy Scouts in the mid 60s, I can say with some authority that it's no easy task to accomplish. Those iron men on wooden ships knew their stuff.
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Rob, Either you have excellent eyes or a more refined printer to be able and pick out such specific details. I look forward to seeing what you discovered.
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Vladimir, Rob raising his fo'c'sle (forecastle as spelled by Mike) was not based on this latest scene of Glory at Fauntleroy. It was decided by the scene of her Cabin Boy facing forward. That's important due to the fact that the Cabin Boy pic was while Glory of the Seas was still a fully rigged sailing vessel. Later documentation from Mike shows her forward bulkhead height was precisely measured as being 5'9". I particularly appreciate how Rob also incorporated her interior forward bulkhead walls as well.
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Rob, This is perfect. While it's appreciated personally, should a second article continuing on the rigging of your glorious model, such complete images will be enjoyed by magazine readers as well.
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Rob, Honestly, I never tire of seeing your beautiful model, especially the overall shots. Your second attempt at capturing your model in a similar pose as Mike's latest image is quite close. Just take another from a slightly higher angle and you'll get it exactly. What's really thrilling though, is how closely your model consistently is to Glory of the Seas herself. One request I make. When you do these lovely overall shots, can you please include the entire vessel? Thanks!
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Pat, Looking at Glory's fo'c'sle in the latest image shared by Mike, it appears that the ladders were repositioned so that they now both face inward from the bulkheads.
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Rob, since you've decided to take a leap of faith on those annoying cavils, if you like I can share images from deck scenes of Benj. F. Packard, a Maine Downeaster built in the 1880s which still mounted them. You cite William Webb's Extreme Clipper Young America as an example of a vessel from a decade earlier that dispensed with them, as a reason to be concerned that it would be historically inaccurate to include such potentially anachronistic devices on a vessel launched years later. I have a theory about that... Webb was from New York city. Meanwhile, McKay who settled in Boston, originally emigrated from Nova Scotia, a locale famous for their seafaring fishing boats. McKay strikes me as a "traditionalist" who doggedly pursued purely sail powered vessels long after Webb had moved onto steam powered ships. Knowing that fact and the simple practicality of traditional cavils, I'm very confident they were installed on Glory of the Seas.
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