TheAuthorsDaughter

From Whaling Ship to Clipper Ship-dust jacket.pdf

Thought some of you might find this of interest 

On 9/4/2022 at 6:35 AM, ClipperFan said:

Rob,

What initially blew my mind was Carl Ever's depiction of the deep red metallic hoops on all three lower masts. Until you described planning to paint the hoops on your replica red, I'd never heard of such a thing before. Then, I took acloser look at the Samuel Walter's piece and sure enough, the hoops on that work were also red.

Now, Mr. Ever's work also reflects the very loft masts of Glory of the Seas which I see replicated in your own work. It's unfortunate that this brilliant piece is too rich for your blood. Maybe it won't be beyond the reach of Michael Mjelde. 

If only dad’s fascination with Glory paid the bills instead of being a labor of love…

On 6/28/2022 at 10:47 PM, ClipperFan said:

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. 

Rich - your fear of not finding enough info is exactly why my dad has the massive stash of info on Glory and keeps writing about her. It’s a dark rabbit hole one jumps down! Over the years people have literally come out of the wood work with never before seen letters or photos, etc. and it takes him to another project. He has  filing cabinets crammed with photos, journals and history for quite a few ships and has written and had published a number of articles  but Glory still pulls him to write more.  Sadly one book that never saw the light of day due to circumstances beyond his control was on the San Francisco waterfront. Before computers and word processors were ever available I used to assist him in typing and rough editing as he used to hand write and then type everything on an old 1952 Underwood typewriter!

It has been fascinating to see the progression of the collective project that’s being undertaken here by your group. 

Arina

On 2/27/2022 at 11:16 AM, ClipperFan said:

Rob, Vladimir courtesy of Richard Alan Wood, Administrator of the Facebook page "The Clipper Ship Era" comes this very rare postcard of an Oct 3rd, 1910 Port Broadside view of Ship "Glory of the Seas" unloading BC coal at Unalaska, Alaska. Photographer was John E Thwaites.

I bid on one of those on eBay a while back and lost out! My dad has seen photos of it but doesn’t have it in his collection LOL

On 10/1/2021 at 6:33 PM, rwiederrich said:

A bit more work. 
 

Rob

Shared your latest photos with my dad, he said “very impressed” with your progress and the fine attention to detail. He truly respects the time and effort you and the others are putting into getting this as accurate as possible  😁

On 9/7/2021 at 6:23 PM, ClipperFan said:

Rob, since this suggestion comes directly from Michael Mjelde himself, who as far as I know was at one point the Editor (?) or possibly even President (?) of the Nautical Research Society which publishes the journal, I believe this is a genuine possibility.

My dad is just a member of the Nautical Research Society (since the early 70’s) and has written articles for their journal. He was at one time the editor and has been a longtime member of the editorial board for Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society and their journal The Sea Chest. 

WOW!! Beautiful work!

Here are a few photos (sorry for the glare) of my dads collection. His new book should hopefully be published later this year or early 2022. Down East Captain will cover Captain Henry  Gillespie (he was captain from 1906-1909). The last photo will be the cover as artist Mark Meyers granted my dad permission to use.

 The jar with the copper sheathing is from the exploratory dig they originally did when they discovered her exact location in West Seattle. So gracious of the property owner to allow the group to traipse around her property. The scaled down name board my late brother did while in wood shop (when they still offered those types of classes!!) He actually had done another one that is unfinished. Next is a door off Glory. The spike was given to him by I believe someone involved in the burning of Glory and the balsa wood hull is the sister to the one we brought over to Robs.

He of course has many more things pertaining to Glory (and quite a few other ships including full size plans, photos, books and data in genera). He has a number of prints/paintings as well. 

9 hours ago, ClipperFan said:

Vladimir,

Excellent work! That's exactly what I see too.

One of the name plates is should still be on display at the Research library situated on the third floor of Building E of the National Park Service complex at San Francisco.  They started exhibiting it in conjunction with publication of Clipper Ship Captain in 1997.  I went to see it when I was a teenager and going in a trip to Disneyland. My brother also did a scaled down replica up that is hanging in my folks living room above one of the paintings of Glory.

Hey all -

We’ve  set  up a new email address for my father - easier to keep everything in the proper compartments for his various projects, etc. As my folks own the rights to numerous articles, photos and his books this is just a natural progression -  Pacific Maritime Publishing Foundation.  In my spare time I’ll eventually do more with a website I’m sure (you can’t see me but I’m laughing hysterically becasue I don’t have any spare time!!)

PacMaritimePubFdn@gmail.com

19 minutes ago, ClipperFan said:

TheAuthorsDaughter

Arina please thank your dad for me, on his gracious willingness to share his contact info with us. 

FYI since to me at least this is the best broadside view of her intact Hull, today I emailed the research team at Puget Sound Maritime Hstorical Society to get specifics on how to secure a better copy of "Glory of the Seas" at San Pedro, 1907, PSMHS No 1028-5

He could’ve probably answered that for you as well - he’s part of the editorial board (or at least I think he still is LoL)

4 hours ago, ClipperFan said:

TheAuthorsDaughter

Arina, it occured to me that the sole image of Glory's Starboard Broadside on  level viewpoint "Glory of the Seas at San Pedro dock 1907" is from 'Tall Ships on Puget Sound' published Nov 7, 2007. 

I made a copy of the page from the book I bought years ago and shared in on this site for personal research only, not to make a profit. What I don't know is this. Since your dad is a published author, is it a copyright infringement to share this with our friend in Australia? If so, there are lots of copies of this book available for roughly $5.00. One could be bought and sent to him.

My father said he’d be happy to answer that and explain to you the ins and outs of said issue - feel free to email him. He is pretty good about answering emails. He generally checks them at least twice a day and it’s a great way to communicate with him (he and I email back and forth as it’s also an efficient way sometimes to communicate LOL)!

mjmjelde38@cs.com

On 2/5/2021 at 7:12 PM, ClipperFan said:

Rob,

I almost forgot, you're welcome. I love finding these really neat publications. Often, especially in the 50s & 60s books geared towards younger audiences have some surprisingly rare photos, paintings and ship's blueprints.

I don't know if you've ever heard of this but I just ordered it. "Around in the Glory: Chronicle of the 42nd Voyage of 'Glory of the Seas' around Cape Horn" by the ship's captain Daniel McLaughlin. Description says it's illustrated. If it contains any new images, I will certainly share them.

If you have the second book written by my father you will find much of the above book referenced, the  family gave my father an original typed copy of it and their permission and blessing to expound further on his  journeys aboard Glory along with far more information than could be put into one book. He has been collecting/compiling information for years and I’m hoping he’s been spurred to finish getting everything catalogued - his index between books, various ship plans, charts and  photos is getting close to 400 pages and covers an extremely wide variety of maritime history (and is not just on Glory). He’s also assisted other writers with their endeavors usually as he as information due to  a parallel project that necessitated research. Occasionally new data shows up that corroborates a sliver of data he had but couldn’t verify so a new file gets started for possible future use. The Glory hull is one of those items however that has been a challenge!!

12 hours ago, ClipperFan said:

Rob,

What a great catch on the arc of the Cutwater being a section of a circle! I always sensed it was something like that but just couldn't quite see it so clearly until you highlighted it just now. It's also clear that her prow below the waterline isn't verticle but more of a slight incline back. It should be possible to extrapolate that precise degree on a compass setting. Any idea what that is? In his day, Donald McKay was reverently referred to as a Marine Mechanic by Duncan McLean of the Boston Daily Atlas. All of his vessels were scientifically laid out according to the latest hydrodynamic principles available and Donald was famous as an innovator. For example, British Ship builders were so uncomfortable with the radical Bow of the "Lightning" that they tacked on additional cladding to fix what they considered to be a flaw in his design! This obviously infuriated Mr. McKay. Fortunately, their awkward addition couldn't last long, as waves washed it all off. "Lightning" then proceeded to shatter records on her journeys from England to Australia. She became famous as one of the fastest vessels on that route.

As for our desire to complete this project correctly, after a decades long "relentless pursuit of perfection" I know we all can afford to be patient.

However, there's Mr. Mjelde's looming deadline to consider. From your meeting that sounds like it's coming up fairly soon. Didn't you say that the manuscript for his third publication is already complete? So, I'm going to redouble my efforts to get this done at the full scale we originally discussed. Meanwhile, I don't suppose Mr. Mjelde or Arina TheAuthorsDaughter gave you any idea when the final publishing deadline for his third book would be?

My other concern is not wanting to insult Ron Haug's work. But if it comes to a choice between that and seeing yet another inaccurate lines plan, what else do you think we should do? Do you think there's enough time to collaborate with Ron, to show him our research? I've got to believe that everyone wants to be faithful to Mr. McKay's genuine article.

To all of us who love Donald's Clipper Ships, even Medium Clippers, it's important to get it right. My sense is, just like the "Great Republic" was a pioneer of the great four masted Barks which followed years later, "Glory of the Seas" wasn't quite a 'Down Easter' but was a definite precursor to them. We have to continue to make as strong as possible a case in defense of Donald McKay's unique creation. Don't we owe it to his memory? After all this time, it would be a shame to see yet another flawed lines plan published, when there now appears to be plenty of visible evidence to contradict it.

Dad actually has two books that have been submitted for publishing (not approved yet and a daunting process unless someone has a benefactor). They’re both on different time periods of Glory and more  on particular voyage or people vs the vessel itself. He has enough file folders of photos and data on her (a few file cabinet drawers) for a few books! Over the years he’s become more of a generalist in maritime matters (not solely focused on clipper ships) so Glory hasn’t been only focus but fortunately with time more info has come forward and more of her history has been unearthed. Sadly the most important and pertinent was destroyed by fire back East or hasn’t come to light.

He doesn’t appear to have any more photos of her however he did send off an email to India House and we will have to wait and see if they respond. The published photos of her are few and far between and all seem to be the same angle or too grainy when enlarged!

Honestly I have no idea but wouldn’t hurt to ask, the bow we all know has to be altered and it’s also balsa wood - not sure if there were any differences between the two or not. The first one is long gone, apparently got damaged and the person he had sold it to has since passed away so no telling where it ended up.

My father has actually been to see Glory’s figurehead at India House, I’ll have to see if he has any better photos (message me and I can pass on info) as for the model, he originally commissioned three. One was completed and sold many years ago when my youngest sister needed multiple heart surgeries (she survived thankfully),  the one we brought on the visit with Rob and there is actually  a third one, pretty bare bones hull only if I recall. 

Pat - Ron Haug is who my father has been working with down your way - via snail mail. He is a retired shipwright and he lives in S. Maroubra, New South Wales. He was also an excellent modelmaker.

You are very welcome, growing up it was just normal for us kids to meet other “ship” people, like Frank Prothero that built the other Glory that was being worked on in PT and had history on the  Glory as well as others that became  friends with my dad. We have a rich maritime history here in the PNW. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized there  was a bunch of “Glory  Groupies” with my dad being one of the bigger ones 😁 and he has kept researching her and compiling more info on her and her captains and crew!

You’re welcome 😉 

Hi - my dad is doing ok. He’s actually been going to work this entire time as he’s deemed essential. Fortunately the office where he works was able to have half their staff work from home but his job not so easy.  They are practicing the social distancing as my mother is medically vulnerable. We are even socially distancing within the family so as to protect the various family members. Thank goodness for zoom, FaceTime, email and the phone! 

I will I’ll let him know that you’d still like to meet up. He does enjoy anything to do with The Glory 😊

Hi Rob - I’ll let him know and remind him to check their messages.  

Arina 

He is truly a Renaissance man and in fact is working on ANOTHER book about Glory.

Stumbled upon this group and appreciate the amount of detail and accuracy that you all so carefully try to follow. My name is Arina and I am one of  Michael Mjelde’s daughters and while doing some research for him on Glory found myself scrolling thru and enjoying the photos of everyone’s work!

Chris,

Depends on how accurate model is and which year it’s depicting as she underwent numerous reconfigurations over her life time.  William Joseph built a model that was on display in California that was very accurate as he had sailed on her ( The JFK Library model is not as accurate).The bells (two) would’ve been mounted forward and aft.  First one would’ve been forward of forward mast aft of focsle head.  Other was mounted aft. If you contact Michael Mjelde in Bremerton, WA, he is always glad to answer any questions about her. 

Regards,

Arina (Literally the authors daughter, Mike is my dad)