ClipperFan
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Finally our friend Michael Mjelde shared an amazingly sharp image of Glory's Stern which settles forever the question of the full structure of a McKay Rear House. Contrary to the kit's rectangular plan, the actual vessel's house narrowed as it followed the thinning contours of the ship in order to keep the walkways consistent for working of the ship.
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Another divergence with the kit's plans has to do with her large Rear Carriage House. As you can see in these several pictures (all photos courtesy of eminent author Michael Mjelde) Glory's front fascia is far more ornate and incorporates 4 large 2' high by 1 & 1/2' wide windows surrounded by multiple carved arches. Included is author Mjelde's own sketch of this beautiful design. A famous oil of James E Buttersworth, commissioned by Sampson & Tappan of Boston, owners of "Flying Fish" to celebrate her phenomenal first place finish in the 1853 "Great Deep Sea Derby" from New York to San Francisco when she completed the journey in 92 days and 4 hours. She out sailed 14 other crack Extreme Clippers including 3 other McKay Clippers. The front fascia of the vessel in Buttersworth's powerful painting is far more ornate than the plans of the kit. There are 2 large arched windows on either end, elaborate carving and what appears to be twin arched doors with identical pillars as on Glory. Another fascinating feature is a type of "gingerbread" in the form of small spheres completely surrounding the structure. Even the partial wrought iron guard rail is depicted and appears to be painted gold.
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Donald McKay was notoriously secretive about his nautical designs. Case in point: the treatment of his Clipper Ship prows. In the contemporary descriptions by Boston Daily Atlas publicist Duncan MacLean, he goes into great detail to describe the McKay Bow, first introduced on his prototype Extreme Clipper "Staghound." He also comments on the superiority of these rugged nautical devices designed to take on the toughest Seas of the world while rounding Cape Horn. Yet all of today's models don't incorporate them at all. I've included a photo of the Bow of "GLORY of the SEAS" so you can see how her Naval Hoods and Cutwater blend gracefully with her Grecian Goddess 'Athene' figurehead. Unfortunately all of this has to be scratch built since your kit only has the Stem. I've sketched a more accurate, lifelike flying fish figurehead and illustrated how your "Flying Fish" Clipper would have actually appeared with her prow fully reconstructed. This little sketch isn't totally to scale, so I will follow up with one that is.
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campbewj I hope you don't mind some observations I've already shared with others in the process of building this magnificent kit. I'll start with an actual tracing of this vessel's lines, which originates from Bergen Sjofort Museum, Bergen, Norway. This was discovered in a Nautical Research Journal.
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Bradley, another area of dispute I have with the kit plan is a quite plain front fascia of her Rear Carriage House with a sole horizontal port window. Compare it to the far more ornate front fascia with dual arched windows on either side of what appear to be dual doors of the same Carriage House of "Flying Fish" as depicted in the famous painting of her by James E Buttersworth. His stunning oil was commissioned by her owners Sampson & Tappan of Boston in a truly unique celebration. It was done to forever commemorate "Flying Fish" achieving a stunning First Place Finish in the 1853 "Great Deep Sea Derby" wherein she out raced 14 other 'crack' Extreme Clippers including two other McKay vessels! I've included a couple of Michael Mjelde images of the real front fascia of "GLORY of the SEAS" which confirms that these larger arched 2' × 1& 1/2' windows were indeed used on board. Michael Mjelde's own sketch of Glory's front fascia is included to give you an idea of how truly ornate these vessels actually were.
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George who's also building the "Flying Fish" expressed disappointment with the kit supplied figurehead. Here's an alternate, far more realistic Flying Fish figurehead. It has always been a pet peeve of mine that every model I've seen of this vessel only features the bare Stem while omitting substantial Naval Hoods and Cutwater which she would have been equipped with too. Here's how these nautical devices would have mounted to the Stem. This sketch is just to illustrate how these devices would have interacted but isn't truly to scale. I'm printing out Bow close ups and will create a more accurate to scale version. Meanwhile, the highly detailed Bow of Glory, courtesy of Michael Mjelde shows how her prow actually appeared.
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Bradley, probably one of the more significant discoveries about the arrangement of the large rear 'Carriage' house is that, as the Stern of the ship narrows, so too does the shape of the house to configure with it. I've drawn a scale sketch of this area to highlight how the catwalks on both sides remain constant while the house gets narrower. This contradicts the MSW plans.
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Bradley, If you're one of the folks following our exhaustive research into the accurate structure of Donald McKay's final Medium Clipper "GLORY of the SEAS" you'll know we've been given access to some incredibly sharp pics of the ship herself. These amazing photos, shared by eminent author Michael Mjelde have given us some keen insight into these beautiful Clippers. I hope you don't mind my sharing some of these insights with you, in order to assist you in creating a more accurate "Flying Fish" model. The first image is an actual tracing of McKay's own "Flying Fish" lines, believe it or not, residing in a museum in Norway!
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Rob, I hope you find this as fascinating as I do. It's kind of a 6 degrees of separation from "GLORY of the SEAS" involving her intrepid future Captain Josiah Nickerson Knowles. He was the sole Master of the 1854 Maine built Medium Clipper "Wild Wave". In 1858 while cruising at 13 knots, the vessel ran aground on a smooth circular coral reef of Oeno, a small one mile island. Later the Captain discovered that the island was misplaced by 20 miles due to an error in his chart by mapmakers. Captain Knowles wrote quite a fascinating first person account of the determination of the ship's crew to facilitate their escape: "The Crusoes of Pitcairn Island, being an account of the wreck of the "Wild Wave" of Boston, on Oeno Island in the Pacific, and the subsequent adventures of her master and crew on Pitcairn's Island, as related in the diary of Captain Josiah Nickerson Knowles, of Brewster." From the brief summaries I've read, Captain Knowles demonstrated his future inventiveness in designing and building a vessel from scrap wood on Pitcairn's Isle. I came across a beautiful painting of the doomed vessel "Wild Wave" which I thought you might appreciate seeing.
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Rob, I sent Mike your entire series of comparison images of your model to actual scenes of Glory herself. There were so many pics that it required several emails. While his response is very brief, I think you'll be thrilled with it. Here it is verbatim: "He is bringing the ship to life. What add to it is that the images are in full color."
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Rob, While researching Josiah Nickerson Knowles, I came across this beautiful painting of Captain Knowles. While we're most familiar with him for his introduction of the extended, enclosed helmhouse, Captain Knowles had an incredible experience as Captain of the doomed Clipper "Wild Wave." His crew and passengers were marooned on a small island in the Pacific when their vessel ran aground on a hidden coral reef. He and a handful of his crew took a lifeboat to Pitcairn Island 100 miles away. The same isle of the mutineers of HMS Bounty fame. When he arrived the island was deserted so Captain Knowles had to seek help at another island. It's quite a fascinating tale of determination and inventive heroism.
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Rob, Wikipedia has a pretty thorough chart of the Captains and voyages of "GLORY of the SEAS" including exact dates of departure and arrival locales. Elisha Sears departed Saint John, New Brunswick May 14, 1871 & arrived in Liverpool June 8, 1871 a voyage which took 25 days. In all fairness, her journey should have begun a day earlier but she grounded on a sand bar. From his recommendations to Captain Josiah Knowles to add additional back stays in order to run Glory on full sails implies he was hampered in his own attempts and most likely had to sail under less than optimal setting of sails. On August 19, 1871 Captain Josiah Knowles departed from Cardif, Wales and arrived in San Francisco, December 16, 1871 a voyage of 120 days. February 7, 1872 he left for Liverpool arriving there 112 days later on May 28, 1872. He departed from Liverpool July 25, 1872 where he arrived in San Francisco November 25, 1872 . A journey of 119 days. January 25, 1873 he left San Francisco to arrive in Liverpool 128 days later on May 23, 1873. The next voyage is when Glory had a very fast voyage. She departed New York October 13, 1873 and arrived in San Francisco either on January 16 or 18, 1874 a journey of 94 or 96 days. Which leads me to wonder. After four long voyages, had the captain finally sorted out Glory's rigging, including the added two backstays? This would imply that those backstays might have been added in the later months of 1872, possibly in November? Meanwhile, it leaves plenty of time for Samuel Walters to paint his commission after major modifications to Glory's helm as well as the additional catwalk to the ship's boats remounted on the Boy's house.
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Rob, In response to my question about the added backstays, Mike sent the following email: "Please note that I have concluded that the additional backstays were added following the arrival of "Glory" at Liverpool when Josiah Knowles took command. It was most likely following the earlier suggestion of Elisha Sears who conducted the 'delivery' voyage via St John with lumber from Boston to Liverpool and that Sears had concluded that she needed those two additional backstays if she was going to be 'driven' under full sail." This brings up an interesting thought. Samuel Walters was a contemporary English artist of fine repute. Perhaps this was when he was commissioned to do his beautiful oil? He would have been able to see Glory close up while she was anchored in Liverpool.
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Rob, high praise indeed! I am honored. My apologies too for the sometimes "gadfly" approach I took in the pursuit of meticulous accuracy. Without doubt, we can all be proud of the results we have attained. This has been quite an amazing journey in our mutual attempts to be true to McKay's final masterpiece. Vlad's brilliant computer and bulkhead work certainly helped in accellerating your projects.
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Rob, I have a feeling that Mike will be blown away with this series, as am I. This is total vindication of the many, many months long (well actually over a year) painstakingly accurate research we all did to develop the most accurate "GLORY of the SEAS" plans to date. As impressive as she is in images, she must make an even bigger impact in person. I'm so anticipating her loft masts and massive yard arms being rigged.
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George, it will be so nice when we can all get beyond this pandemic and see a return to normalcy.
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George, that is simply a wonderful model of the War of 1812 Lake Erie Brig "Niagara!" Beautifully done.
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Rob, if only someone had painstakingly documented all of these revisions to Glory's appearance and had the forethought to write it all down in some sort of manuscript that could be easily researched.... 🙂
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https://www.homedepot.com/p/Dremel-High-Performance-Metal-Cutting-Wheel-EZ506HP/313352331?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&&mtc=Shopping-VF-F_D25T-G-D25T-025_009_PORT_POWER-DREMEL-NA-NA-SMART-2231655-WF-SMARTSHOPPING_Q1Q2PLUSUP_PL3&cm_mmc=Shopping-VF-F_D25T-G-D25T-025_009_PORT_POWER-DREMEL-NA-NA-SMART-2231655-WF-SMARTSHOPPING_Q1Q2PLUSUP_PL3-71700000083187718-58700007049582703-92700063451361494&gclid=CjwKCAiA7dKMBhBCEiwAO_crFJOcGmq5QrJCkdT4Ga3pT-idJmnBybN3I7gZvONZwgjXZ0Teseul3xoCB04QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds#overlay George I believe the nautical term you're looking for, as used by sailors to access their quarters below is companion. As for your concern about the gap between your model's keel and the beautiful brass pedastals, Dremel makes an accessory to cut brass. I've included a link that describes this cut off wheel in great detail. Nice work on the companion and half moon water closet. While apparently silly, it would also have a logical use. It sure would be awkward to think you're entering a ladder to the lower level only to discover you chose the wrong door!
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Rob, I tried to find the date Samuel Walters completed his beautiful oil without success. The one conclusion I would leave open is the gaff spar missing on the mainmast. That's because the huge flapping main course being retracted can easily hide it. It's also likely that old wooden stock anchors can be replaced by more modern ones and back and forth based on availability at certain locales. I can tell from the early model red funneled Steamer to the stern of Glory that this is right around the conversion from sail to steam, as the vessel still sports two full sets of auxiliary square sailed masts. Since you correctly identified no installed extra backstays, we know the painting had to be done before that. We also know Glory is depicted with her extended wheelhouse, walkway to the boy's house and upper mizzenmast gaff. My educated guess is that this glorious piece of art was quite likely commissioned by the current Captain (Josiah Knowles, perhaps?) immediately after the inspired extension of Glory's wheelhouse. It would make sense, since very often Ship's Captains wanted a large oil to commemorate the vessel they were in charge of to grace their personal dwellings.
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Rob, Besides "Dreadnought" another McKay designed Massachusetts Clipper Packet built in Newburyport, one of my other favorites is "Galatea" which had a bronze painted hull and an enormous thoroughbred racehorse painted on her topsail.
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Rob, in the various descriptions you read of Ship captains intentionally painting their iron bands bright red, do you think it might have been to enhance visibility at sea, possibly in fog or low visibility weather conditions? I rather like the more subdued red, which is probably more like the shade bright red would turn to after many months at sea...
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George, sometimes these calculations can get real "wonky". I really doubt these nautical elements were down to 1/2"s, I'm just trying to keep the ratio as close as realistically possible. To answer your concern about possible gaps in the prow construction, I can assure you that there aren't any. While the Naval Hoods look imposing, they're actually almost an extension of the ship's Hull and they follow the contours precisely. Meanwhile the Cutwater is sandwiched between both Naval Hoods and attaches to the Stem as an extension. You can see that while the ornamental components have almost all washed away, the component itself is completely intact. Rob said he used very thin metal to fabricate the Naval Hoods on his Glory model. I'm sure he'll be glad to give you more details on his process.
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