ClipperFan
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To all Glory of the Seas build followers, A Fourth of July treat for everyone! Mike sent me some beautiful pictures of a historically important Glory of the Seas model built by Frederick Pease Harlow (sailor who served on the sailing ship Akbar a similar three masted merchant vessel) constructed primarily from a cabin door removed from the actual ship before she was tragically burned for her metal in 1923. While this impressive model is of historic value, it isn't as meticulously accurate as those being currently built by Rob and Vladimir. Her bow isn't as sleek as we've discovered, she sports dual metallic capstans on her f'o'cstle, there's no overhang on the rear coach house and the mizzen mast is way too far forward. This is not meant to disparage the creator of this lovely model who I'm sure had obvious capabilities to create an exact replica given the proper information. All in all though, of all models I've seen of Glory of the Seas, this is definitely one of the nicest I've seen. I only wish there were some overall scenes of this magnificent large model. However, it does highlight the advances in our greater comprehension of every iota of McKay's final glorious Medium Clipper. Such advances in accuracy are based in major part due to the immeasurable contribution of Michael Mjelde's incredibly sharp images, which have guided us in every step of this magnificent project. So, I sincerely hope everyone enjoys these lovely images and to all, Happy 4th of July!
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Rick, George, My apologies for confusion on who's health issues were who's. I was just trying to thank others wishing me well.
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Rob, Yes. You're right that this image alone cannot prove or disprove it came from Glory of the Seas. I only shared it to keep a promise I made to you guys to post it as soon as I received it from Mike. In my reply to his email, I asked for additional documentation, since he referred to this picture as being from 1915. He usually has additional information to support his images. While I revised my sketch to reflect Mike's update, since my deadline was coming up fast, you have no such due date. You can wait until you're fully satisfied with whatever decision you make. As I've always said, it's your model, not mine.
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Rob, You're doing an excellent job on the rebuild of the area under the f'o'cstle with impressive detail work on the bulwarks beneath. It's now far more faithful to the original now. For those who aren't familiar with the source which instigated Rob's courageous decision to completely tear down and rebuild this important section, the exact photo which provoked this action is shared here. Most of our previous focus naturally, has been on the wonderful information in the foreground. All specific details of her coach house railings with attendant turned rail stanchions beneath are clearly visible for anyone wanting to precisely replicate this area. However, once all this information is processed, look towards the very rear of the photo. Follow the large House astern of the foremast. Look at the lower port side corner of this structure. There you'll see the image of a sailor crouching on all fours attending to the ship, probably caulking. Towering behind him are the f'o'cstle walls with their distinctive vertical rectangular moldings. This tiny detail is our discovery that led to Rob's dramatic step to radically reconstruct this area. His resulting reconstruction with interior walls is now far more faithful to Glory of the Seas herself. It also consistently reinforces how roomy and spacious this vessel really was. Great work Rob! My hat's off to you for your insight to correct this area. Another controversial area of discussion has been Mike's insistence of McKay's apparent use of substantial wooden mooring bits instead of more modern typical wrought iron ones. Mike finally followed up with an email with this 1915 image of a guy standing on the f'o'cstle of a large wooden ship, which Mike said is the Glory of the Seas. Knowing Mike's penchant for confirming details, I accept his word that this picture is from the deck of Glory. In the left foreground are the large wooden mooring posts (the stern portion of the 2nd post is just barely visible in the extreme left foreground). Mike described that these peculiar mooring bits had been in use on McKay Clippers going as far back as the famous Extreme Clipper Flying Cloud. My reply email to Mike while accepting the veracity of this photo, asked for additional background information, which Mike typically has. I will follow with an update when I get his response.
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Rob, Here's another puzzle to resolve regarding cathead location relative to Glory's f'o'cstle deck. According to this very clear scene the placement of her starboard cathead is clearly positioned completely below her splash rail and apparently piercing her fancy rail below. Lifting Glory's f'o'cstle deck to the top of her fancy rail now means her catheads would be hidden or mostly buried by this new, higher deck.
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Rob, Thanks! Actually I almost missed the date. A client of mine reminded me.
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Rob, Personally, I agree with you about the well known fact that Donald McKay was an innovator and that it's obvious he spared no expense in his last masterpiece. It flies in the face that he would scrimp on funds for the use of old fashioned wooden bits as opposed to more modern wrought iron bits ones. What would explain their use is if Mr. McKay saw advantages to the use of wood over iron. As for their being 3' tall, that was simply my estimate when comparing their height to what I thought was combined height of fancy rail with splash rail. With a revision to just an 18" splash rail, that reduces their height considerably to maybe 22" as they're just a little higher than the rail. Again, as soon as Mike sends me his photographic proof, I'll immediately share it. I simply made the correction on paper since Mike was so convincing. Besides, you have your hands full with that impressive f'o'csle height revision.
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https://www.facebook.com/1647933428812781/posts/pfbid024CJQYpBcZnHCtJttBJQ4gqYcRquRfq61XHQAu8pfESW3mcSepmdjZm8qEr77HBNKl/ Rob, From Maritime Art Facebook page comes a beautiful piece of work by English artist Derek Gardner "Sunrise: the Glory of the Seas in St George's Channel"
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Rob, Wow! My first glance didn't catch the full extent of your deconstruction work. Getting accurate scale height of the f'o'csle bulwarks will be quite a correction in your replica. If you look closely at the only scene we have of this area, that peculiar pic of the ship's boy on the boy's house appears to show that the bulwarks have the same molding as the front fascia of her rear coach house.
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Rob, I applaud your courageous actions in pursuit of faithful accuracy. If what you're doing is what I think you're doing, then I have more "bad" news for you, unfortunately. The topic being those nagging rectangular mooring bits. From what I understand of my communication with Mike, all of Glory of the Seas mooring bits were of this construct. It would mean removal and replacement of all wrought iron mooring bits with the much higher wooden posts. I could be wrong but I think that would include those surrounding her stern bumpkins too. Another item I corrected on my plan view was removal of the two bits on her main deck, which Mike's plan view lacked. From what I can tell from the profile view of the deck arrangement, these wooden bits were each about 18" square and about 3' high, as they appear to be slightly taller than the 18" fancy rail surmounted by the 1' high splash rail above it. It's hard to see but if you enlarge the plans, it should be more visible. I realize this is a royal pain in the *** to correct but of this I'm sure. I asked Mike directly if these peculiar items were used throughout the ship and he confirmed that fact. Unfortunately I have yet to see the photos but I implicitly trust a man who's dedicated over sixty years of his life to verify every item of one vessel.
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Rick, June 10th was my one year in remission from last years big surgery. I'm fully recovered and thanks for your compassion.
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Rick, Thanks for filling us in on your meticulous construction process. Your antique cathead carving is terrifying and very much reminiscent of the horrifying gargoyles stationed on the corners of medieval cathedrals and castles. Their intent was to scare away evil spirits with their frightening countenances. I'm reminded how sailors too are a very superstitious lot, so too in a weird way, these menacing visages on the end of catheads must have served a similar purpose. Very effective.
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Rob, My instinct about doing a follow up article is to wait to see the editor's response to my initial submission. Then I believe a second article wouldn't be ready for submission until your model is complete. It could also be a way of promoting a possible future museum presentation, like we discussed earlier. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get the San Francisco Maritime Museum to loan their Samuel Walters painting and possibly even the original signboard? Such an article could also hopefully tie into Mike's third publication. Such follow up article would of necessity involve a greater collaboration with you and Vlad if he proceeds with the rigging of his vessel, since I know far less about the actual rigging process.
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Rob, The only publication I've ever seen a full color print of "Conquerors of Cape Horn" is this neat softcover book "The Marine Paintings of Carl G. Evers"
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Rob, The top painting is from Michael Mjelde's 2nd 1997 book Clipper Ship Captain and is featured on the dust jacket. Illustration notes, page 243 provides this description: "Bookjacket. The oil painting "Glory of the Seas on the North Atlantic" was painted by Thomas Wells in 1992 and was commissioned by D. Gene Kennedy, President and CEO of Land Title Company of Kitsap County for presentation to the author to commemorate 20 years of service to the company. " "In a letter to the author dated June 3, 1997 Wells said regarding his painting: "The vessel is in fairly heavy seas. Royals and main skysail furled. She is running before the Westerlies, perhaps Mid-Atlantic, with grain cargo for England." The lower one appears as a black & white print on page 126 of this same book. This description is below: "Water color of Glory of the Seas with Young America in background by Carl G. Evers. Entitled "Conquerors of Cape Horn" it depicts the two ships in 1879. Courtesy Carl G. Evers"
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Rob, no surprise. I'm pretty sure if we compared lists, our nautical libraries would match almost 100%. By the way, the NRJ editor confirmed he received my article submission. Now it's a matter of waiting....
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Rob, Vladimir, Druxey, et all Here's that neat little book from 1930 written by a veteran Clipper Ship "roughneck" sailor with the beautiful Warren Shepherd artwork as its' frontpiece. I had the title slightly off. It's actually Rough and Tumble on Old Clipper Ships. There's also a dust jacket but it covers a brilliant gold image of Glory on the cover set against a lovely blue hardcover book. Ironically, while the McKay Clipper is featured on the cover and opposite the title page, I do not recall Mr. Ramsay mentioning that he ever served on her. Still it's fun read and gives a genuine first hand authentic, unromanized account of serving on the big American Clipper Ships.
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Rob, Another confusing factor is the f'o'csle height. Both of your models appear to show a 5' height, yet the image of the cabin boy astride Glory's boy's house looking forward seemingly reveals a more comfortable height. Look closely at the base between the fore cabin port side and her port inner bulwark and you'll see a sailor on his hands and knees attending to the ship. The f'o'csle bulwark seems to tower above him. Maybe it's an effect of the man being prone. Regardless, in Duncan MacLean's description of the roomy fore quarters of the Flying Fish, he describes an entrance below deck with the use of a companion. It wouldn't take much, a 3' drop would provide 8' clearance in a 35' space. As for the wooden, rectangular mooring bits, Mike was also emphatic that McKay's second Extreme Clipper Flying Cloud was similarly equipped. That would mean most likely Donald McKay kept his practice of utilizing wooden rectangular mooring bits consistently for at least 18 years. It would be interesting to see if we could find photos of the USS Essex to see what type of mooring bits she had. When it comes to your foremast rigging procedure. I wouldn't have a clue. However, knowing the critical nature of those lines, I would firmly believe that if a relatively smaller mast like the mizzen had doubled lines, than a substantially larger mast like a foremast would have such rigging too.
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Druxey, And now we wait.... As Tom Petty famously sang "the waiting is the hardest part".... As for acknowledging your input, I firmly believe in giving credit where credit is due. You most certainly deserve it and of course, you're welcome!
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Glen McGuire, Thanks for the generous compliment. I'm glad you enjoyed reading the manuscript. And to think my initial fear was finding enough information to support enough pages for an article. In hindsight, what I still find personally fascinating is how those concerns about how to describe our journey of discovery were entirely unfounded. Once I got out of my own way, the article literally wrote itself. It's particularly gratifying that you appreciated the exacting details our research took us into, such that even examining Glory's Grecian Goddess Athena figurehead led to our amazing discoveries. In addition, while Rob, Vlad and I were committed to realizing Glory of the Seas in as precise details possible, the granularity of our research wouldn't have been possible without the intercession of Arina "theauthorsdaughter" who directly involved her famous dad Michael Mjelde. His personal involvement, encouragement and generous collaboration in making his vault of amazing photos available to us, allowed our group to take the research to a whole new level.
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Rob, While I too want to see the rectangular, wooden mooring bits, I have full confidence in the word of Michael Mjelde. If he said he's seen those items, his statement is good enough for me. I took another look at his page 215 Appendix B: Main Deck Plan from the 1997 book Clipper Ship Captain. They're a little hard to see but just abaft the capstan are two tall rectangular mooring bits, which align precisely with the Plan View immediately above. What I find even more fascinating is that Mike says the Flying Cloud was similarly equipped. How he knows that is quite interesting.
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Rob, Vladimir, Druxey, Banyan, et all, Here for everyone to read is my manuscript and Appendix I as submitted today to Paul E. Fontenoy, Editor of the Nautical Research Journal. How or if it will be published in the Winter 2022 issue is yet to be decided. However, having never attempted anything like this before, it's thrilling just to have gotten this far. I want to publicly acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Druxey my silent, behind the scenes editor. He very patiently waded through my raw manuscript and especially when it came to my notorious penchant for "run-on" sentences, expertly guided me through the process of wrestling them under control. Anyone familiar with the brilliant tv show CSI will recognize this analogy. When I first received the initial revised manuscript back, there were so many red lines, it immediately reminded me of a bloody scene from that investigative procedural. Ha, ha! Unfortunately, time ran out before I could implement every single one of Druxey's insightful recommendations. However, meeting the July 1st deadline was of paramount importance and I felt that as written and illustrated, it was sufficiently ready to send it in. Anyways, knowing to some degree the restrictive nature of publications, I felt this group would appreciate seeing the entire manuscript, as submitted. 05-06-22 Reconstructing McKay Clipper 'Glory of the Seas' - Appendix I final.docx Reconstructing McKay Clipper 'Glory of the Seas' REV DA5 REV.docx
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Rob, Vladimir, Druxey, et all, It's done! I just emailed the article and appendix to Paul E. Fortenoy, Editor Nautical Research Journal. I'll give updates as I get a response from him. Meanwhile, trusting Mike's last email, I revised the Glory of the Seas plan view to reflect that her mooring bits were actually wooden rectangles and not standard wrought iron as we first thought. Here's that revised illustration.
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