ClipperFan
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Rick, With Mike's encouragement, I've already prepared a 30+ page in-depth article to be submitted before July 1st to the Nautical Research Journal. It's very image heavy but not because they're extraneous. The pictures included are actually integral to the topics discussed. Since Mike has told me he really enjoyed reading it, I'm confident it will be published. Earliest would be their Winter issue, probably this December. After that, I plan on starting my own topic in research. It will be on the topic of finally realizing authentic looks of Donald McKay's Clippers. -
Rob, Nice pic of one of Donald McKay's fastest Clipper Ships. She was very close in size to Glory of the Seas too.
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Rob, Here's where I'm at with Glory's revised 8.3 degree stem below the waterline. I have to admit that this appears to be much closer to the one scene we have of her in the Spokane Grain Co. dock which shows her somewhat aggressive prow. Both illustrations are to the same 1:96th scale per Mike's request.
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Rob and Vladimir, Please post direct bird's-eye views of your Glory of the Seas forecastle to the front two-thirds of her great house. Here's my conjectural sketch, incorporating Vladimir's two red lines revising Mike's 1992 deck view from his general arrangement. Before sending it to Mike, I want to verify the accuracy of my interpretation.
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Druxey, Considering that her hull was 53 years old by this point, I'm amazed the owners, not to mention dismantling crew, felt sanguine enough to carve so many large holes in her upper superstructure! You would think that they would have been concerned that such reckless activity might cause her to buckle and sink. Remember, she still had all that weighty factory refrigerator processing equipment aboard too. Since obviously that didn't happen, it's a real tribute to the long lasting durability of her design, materials and construction. This also makes me wonder, what if? What if those Boston magnates who held the final fate of Glory of the Seas in their hands had decided "let's go for it!" Let's take on the challenge and tow her home to be restored in Boston! If she makes it, we've saved Donald McKay's last Clipper. If she doesn't, then the seas have taken her to her final grave".... Had they given poor, old faithful Glory her final chance to survive, I for one firmly belive she would have made it.
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Rob, I can't imagine any museum not being truly excited to put your fabulous model on display. I can see her posed direcly in front of that 1877 reference picture you have of Glory docked in San Francisco. Better yet, maybe she can become a traveling exhibit, going from museum to museum. That way, I might finally get to see her in person myself!
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Rob, Part of the oversight is the fact that a lot of American ship modeling seems to have descended from Popular Mechanics style do-it-yourself articles geared towards a general population looking to create an impressive mantle piece object. Topics such as figureheads were as inaccurate as to describe options, such as a fiddlehead or mermaid decoration for McKay's Clipper Sovereign of the Seas! Personally, I owe a great debt of gratitude to Lars Bruzelius. His website is where I have found dozens of great, highly specific documentation of many popular McKay vessels, including lesser known Clippers as Santa Claus, Bald Eagle and Mastiff amongst others. That's where I first learned of such critical nautical devices as naval hoods and cutwaters, which completely alter the appearance of a McKay Clipper bow.
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"Her hood ends are bolted alternately from either side, through each other and the stem, so that the loss of her cutwater wouldn't affect her safety or cause a leak." This quote is verbatim from Duncan MacLean's, April 25, 1851 Boston Daily Atlas article with its' usual lengthy description of McKay's most famous Extreme Clipper Flying Cloud. Why is this relevant to your build of the Flying Fish? Because such a successful robust nautical design component, which originated with McKay's inaugural Extreme Clipper Stag Hound wouldn't have been abandoned lightly. However it would have been tightly guarded as a design element by Donald McKay himself. If you harbor any doubts, just look at McKay's Clipper Lightning. Reproductions of her prow mysteriously end in a blank space. This may almost sound heretical but I'm convinced that until the exhaustive, methodical research done on Glory of the Seas uncovered a photographically accurate McKay bow, none of the models of McKay Clippers have been accurate. That includes the spectacular 1930s large Boucher model of Flying Cloud. That's due to none including naval hoods or cutwaters. They all leave just a bare stem, tacking on the figurehead underneath the bowsprit almost as an aforethought. Which is exactly how your Flying Fish model plans appear too. As a visual aid, I've attached a close up image of the bow of Glory. Naval Hoods are the large curving devices just over her figurehead, cutwaters are the ornately carved arch mounted just below her figurehead. The stem is hidden by the cutwater. I've done some proper reconstructions of the real appearance of your clipper, including a more lifelike flying fish figurehead. You can decide how much, if any you want to incorporate
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Rob, Sadly America has never seemed to put much value to what we now consider priceless items. Consider the abysmal fate of the historic Yacht America. Launched in the 1850s, after setting the mark to win the 100 Guineas Cup, which has forever now been known as the America's Cup, she survived being a Confederate Blockade Runner as well as a Union Blockade enforcer during the Civil War. While the US Navy had ultimately planned to restore her, they left her poorly protected. As a result, a damn snowstorm collapsed the shed she was resting in and she became a total loss in the 1940s, when she was 90 years old. This disgraceful history of benign neglect continues to thi day. Back in the 60s, I used to love to watch Hawaii 5-0. Not only did it feature one of my favorite Montague Dawson works of art The Ariel and Taeping very often a wonderful fully restored 4 masted sailing ship the Falls of Clyde featured as a constant backdrop. Fast forward to today and that same magnificent steel ship is so neglected, she's in danger of sinking...
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Rick, Believe it or not, I'm actually relieved to hear you say that. I often feel like it's a thin line to walk between offering historically accurate discoveries and insulting the work of others. My consistent goal is to be an aid in reproducing Clipper Ships, especially those of Donald McKay's as closely to the original as possible. Thanks for the compliment.
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Rob, Mike has come through for us yet again. Per your specific request, here's the image of Glory of the Seas being dismantled in 1922. Mike scans these amazing images and attaches them as e-mails. They arrive with some white space surrounding the image. To maximize the image, white space has been cropped out and the image has been rotated for better viewing. The picture itself is left entirely intact.
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Rick, actually I'm reversing my position. Two out of three of Duncan Maclean's McKay Clipper ship's are specifically referenced as having fished fore and main masts. Stag Hound his first and Flying Fish both omit any mention of a fished mizzen mast. In all cases I read, the mizzen masts were smaller in diameter than their inner bowsprit. This leads me to conclude that it's very likely the mizzens were solid sticks and not built, like I was first convinced they were.
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Rick, you're welcome. I'm constantly in awe of the talent, vision and persistency you ship modelers display in these builds. Having such rare images of an actual McKay Clipper as a reference is a big help in clarifying issues like the configuration of rear coach houses. Since there's no specific mention for dimensions of that particular structure, I would leave 4' on both sides as catwalks. Being a larger ship, Glory of the Seas had 5' catwalks. Also, her rear companion was offset to her port side, not centered like the Flying Fish plans depict, which is also entirely conjectural. There's another photo of the McKay vessel Sovereign of the Seas. Her rear coach house companion is also offset to her port side.
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George, Every time Glory of the Seas had solid lower masts, there were no iron hoops. Out of curiosity, I looked at the recently restored Whale Bark Charles W Morgan. She had all three solid lower masts, again no hoops. There apparently is no enginerring structural need of iron bands on solid masts. Despite the conflicting paintings, from Duncan MacLean's usually reliable description, it appears that Flying Fish at least as originally launched, had a solid mizzen mast.
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George, the last thing I'd want is for you to damage any portion of your model while trying to improve scale accuracy. Looking at how large Glory's lubbers holes are leads me to believe part of the top frames must have been metal to reinforce strength.
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Rick, Thanks for sharing your beautiful construction techniques. I really appreciate seeing the steps illustrated so methodically. I'm actually using pictures of your completed forecastle as a visual aid in revising our Glory of the Seas deck arrangement. Meanwhile I've shared a rare stern image of her so that you can see how the rear coach house section actually curves matching the outer contours of her hull. This allows her catwalks on both sides to remain consistent from bow to sterncm for the working of the ship.
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George, from the many images of Glory I've seen, it appears like these are her original tops. Here's another scene of her in dry dock from a lower starboard bow view. The lubbers holes are more visible in this one. As for the mizzen mast of Flying Fish, I reread the publicist's description and you're right. Only fore and main are described as being fished. Not only that but according to specs included, her mizzen was only 26 1/2" in diameter, slimmer than her 18' 28" bowsprit. Finally, I've included a rare stern scene of Glory docked in Alaska. The large rear coach house actually curves gracefully to accomodate dual catwalks which surround both sides. I estimated they're 5' wide and stay consistent from front to rear of the house. Since your foundation appears to be the sole part of your particular coach house, I felt you might appreciate knowing the actual configuration of this section of McKay's vessels.
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Rob, I've learned from personal experience that it's the truly great artisans and artists who are the hardest on themselves. As for taking shortcuts or even (gasp) omitting entire systems, I know you well enough to know you won't take that route either. Since you're following a specific system, you might want to document your own final belaying points so that you can at least duplicate your own work for all three masts. Regardless, what I really appreciate seeing is the complex latticework of the myriad lines and comprehending the logic behind apparent mayhem. Good luck!
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Rob, At the level of expertise that you clearly are working at, I'm pretty sure the 'errors' you're discovering are only noticeable by one individual. That's you. As for the rest of us, we're just following along in awe as McKay's long lost Clipper comes to life before our wondering eyes.
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Pat, My sense is that, since we're discussing a component that is clearly visible on the latest image of Glory of the Seas supplied by Mike, we're not too far off topic for Rob's tolerance. The sketch you shared is fascinating. I've been on several large three masted sailing ships and have seen something similar but really didn't pay much attention. The illustration shows a substantial metal anchor point in the deck, then two oval-arrow shaped metal devices with a central axis implying a large roller block. My guess is the leather acts like an insulation of sorts to prevent friction chafing. Having the stay line doubled with lacing would greatly reinforce the strength of these critical lines. After all these anchor points are critical to the safety of massive lower masts. Thanks for clarifying this complex structure.
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George, Thanks for your progress report. It must be a little frustrating to run out of paint in the midst of a project. Two observations. The lower mizzen mast appears to be a 'solid stick' compared to the main and fore masts. The Buttersworth piece shows the mizzen built similar to both fore and main. I may be jumping the gun and you might be planning to complete to mizzen. If so, my apologies. Lubbers openings on McKay's vessels were larger than those on your tops. Here's a picture of Glory of the Seas from 1913. If you look closely at her tops, those lubbers holes are about twice the size of your model's.
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Pat, this is fascinating. Would that mean that most likely all 3 of Glory's stays would have been secured like this? The unknown component has an intriguing trapezoidal shape, would that be the stayplate/padeye you're referring to?
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Rob, Mike sent me the same picture this morning. He mentioned Carl Everts made 3 Glory of the Seas paintings. Sea History, Winter 1977 has his 3rd work titled "South Street 1879, 'Glory of the Seas' Picking Up Her Tow in New York Harbor." Here's the magazine cover and page with Evers' entire piece inside
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Rob, I'm working on completing Mike's two requests first. He asked me to do Glory's prow below the waterline using 8.3 degrees and to redraw her forecastle using Vladimir's sharper profile. It's taking me longer than I first anticipated due to the technical challenges of reimagining her upper deck profile. The revised prow is actually slightly more aggressive than the roughly 6 degrees of my large drawing. I have to admit too, that the only actual vents I'm familiar with are the large split-level structure on her wheelhouse. So I'll need a little more direction on this interesting request.
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Rob, From my limited time rigging old plastic Revell & Linberg sailing ship models, I recall that most critical steps are to work inside to outside. One of our proudest accomplishments was improvising all running rigging on the French Frigate La Flore. We came up with a way to have all yardarms fully functional, through the use of blocks and tackles just like on the vessel herself. While this is the most taxing process, the rewards in scale authenticity are immense. Thanks for sharing your process.
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