Snug Harbor Johnny

'Had a look at the framing video, and I think its WAY cool. The Khufu boat build from Woody Joe had a novel way to frame and plank ... THIS kit has another ingenious design! Its definitely on my want list in the future.

I'll watch with interest. I built the Revell Arizona as a teen, but my 'fleet' of ships got disposed somehow (as happened to a lot of youthful stuff) when parents 'cleaned house' during college and while I was trying to get established in a career and marriage post graduation. Not long ago I did a build of the Metal-Earth tiny Arizona (cute but basic) - which is in the MSW library of completed builds.

'Found the following on-line: Of the Bismarck's 2,200-man crew, only 115 survived. British ships picked up 110 survivors but left with hundreds of German sailors still in the icy waters after spotting what might have been a U-boat. German vessels later picked up only five more survivors.

'Brings to mind a teenage acquaintance of my brother and I ... the friend's name was Charlie. 'Seems my brother was invited over to Charlie's back yard one summer day while his dad was at work and his mom was out shopping to do a science project he read about (not sure where). In a jug he'd placed shreds of aluminum foil and added granular household lye (sodium hydroxide). Wow, remember when you could buy Red Devil lye at most any food or hardware store? The experiment was set-up under a crabapple tree. Water was added and Charlie tied a small weather balloon (from Edmunds Scientific company ... remember those cool Edmunds catalogs) to the neck of the jug. Very soon a reaction occurred in the jug that had an output of hydrogen gas, and as the water got hotter and hotter - the ballon filled up quicker and grew (as my brother related) to about 3 feet in diameter. The object (from the source) was to have a very buoyant hydrogen-filled balloon, and one was supposed to tie a stamped post card wrapped in plastic for any finder (wherever the wind would take the balloon) to send back saying where the ballon was found. Charlie had other ideas (unbeknownst to my brother). The balloon was tied off (but still attached to the neck of the jug) and Charlie added a fuse (taken off a cherry bomb). Before my brother could say much, Charlie lit the fuse saying, "Run !" He imagined that it would make a loud explosion, but was unaware that oxygen was needed to get the explosion he imagined. Rather, the ballon 'popped' from the heat of the fuse - and that set a ball of pure hydrogen alight without making a 'boom'. My brother described it as sort-of like the Hindinberg disaster (Oh, the humanity !) ... it was a persistent fire and NOT an explosion. However, the burning ball of hydrogen ALSO rose into the air and passed right through a portion of the crabapple tree - singeing all the leaves as it went. And the fuel was consumed just as the fireball cleared the top of the tree. The contents of the jug was poured out in a corner of the yard, and a few days later Charlie's dad noticed that there was a brown 'column' going right up through the crabapple tree - which (as such trees often are) was ordinarily susceptible to a variety of fungal diseases that cause a lot of leaf yellowing, browning and loss. So the man scratched his head (as Charlie would relate) and commented, "I wonder what's wrong with this tree now?"

Sailors before the introduction of foot ropes (as Louie da Fly has illustrated elsewhere) had to set/furl sails astraddle the yard ... or else as pictures in contemporary art - they walked the yard. This is something like 'high steel' workers have done since the invention of skyscrapers built of girders. Design, materials and safety rules/devices have changed in recent decades - but there are b&w movies of ironworkers walking (or sitting having lunch) on steel beams dozens of floors above ground level ... with no net or safety harness. Talk about 'guts' - or nerves of steel. 'Guess its all about what one is used to and has grown up with. Oh yeah, how about the old custom of a 19th c. warship coming into harbor with a good part of the crew all standing on the yards to make a good show !

... But if the gas is on too long before the lad works up enough static charge, there could be quite a flash when the fuel-air mixture ignites - hair singeing, to be sure !

'Could be that in cases of relatively small mast rake, some of the tops didn't have to be 'dead level' ... and ships do pitch and roll - so the only time a 'level' top would actually BE level would occur when docked or when becalmed. That is, unless one wants to consider the very instant the surface of a top passes through the theoretical 'level' point as the ship rolls and pitches. Check out the Vasa on completed builds - its main mast has what I'd call extreme rake, and the main top is built at a deliberate angle to the mast to be level.

Thanks, Bruce ... Figure 1 of the paper clearly shows a sheet 'sandwiched' between the keel and the false keel - and the edges are indeed turned up to cover where the copper ends on the keel. likely this was to allow nailing on the sides through both lead and copper along the strip. With the use of lead to cover bolt heads, etc. (mentioned elsewhere in the paper), the material between the keel and false keel was likely lead - as specified in the contract language posted earlier in this thread.

Interesting that lead was specified in a contract to go BETWEEN the keel and the false keel. Lead and copper don't appear to have a galvanic action, as lead solders easily onto clean copper - as does tin. The inside of copper cookware were often 'tinned' with tin so acidic and other food ingredients don't corrode the copper or produce verdigris (copper sulfates and such). Ergo, in the first specification in this thread, perhaps the copper to go BETWEEN the keel and false keel was to be tinned (easy to do with copper, and tin-lead alloys often have a lower melting point that either constituent), thus eliminating the need for separate lead sheets. It is unknown why lead sheets were sometimes used (or tinned copper), unless it was to clad the back edge of the false keel (for protection from marine organisms) BEFORE it was tree-nailed to the keel - thereafter sheathed in copper from the join to the cutwater. The second specifications say that the keel is to be coppered before the false keel is added. So if bare wood was put against the copper keel, there might be a 'chink in the armor' so to speak.

OK, I'm trying to give the quoted text (pasted below) a bit of thought, and can think of a couple possible explanations that could encompass a missing punctuation mark - and old pronunciation (dialect?). The text: The Sides and Bottom to be filled or sheathed with Copper and to have thin Copper put between the Main and False Keels all Fore and Aft properly tuned up and fastened, the labour to be done by the contractor. Now there may be TWO tasks or processes described separated by "and" - without a comma after the first Copper. So one application is to sheath the sides and bottom in Copper, ... and (a second specification) to have thin copper (presumably thinner than the copper for the sides and bottom) put between the Main and False Keels (I'm not quite sure what this is, but likely what we take as the 'keel' (made wider at the bow by the presence of the false keel). Now 'tuned up' could mean (in dialect) what we'd pronounce 'turned up' - meaning one or more edges. For instance, tin flashing (formerly lead) has been used for slate roofs - and there is something called a "slaters' edge" on the flashing against the house, where the top edge is folded over to make it harder for water to creep farther than the tops of the overlapping flashing. So perhaps there was a way in treating the copper material that 'wrapped' the keel from stem to stern (just a guess), where (starting astern) - the forward edge of the keel sheathing has the edge folded back a little (1/2" to 1"), so the rear edge of the next piece (having been folded under) engages the last piece and can be tamped down flat with a mallet before nailing. This might explain why a somewhat thinner copper would be used in this application due 4 layers on the leading & trailing edges (after assembly) as well as the sharp bends of the keel itself. Note that the forward piece lays over the one behind it like the scale of a fish, so the join would resist coming apart. The second guess on 'tuned' might be a typo for 'tinned' - which (with often haphazard and variable spelling in ye old days) might have normally been spelled as 'tined'. In the American Colonies, the word 'horse' was often spelled 'hors' - perhaps a comparable analogy to 'tined'. Now "tin" is thought of as thin sheet iron (steel, actually) that has had a surface treatment whereby the strip off a roll is passed (dipped) through a fluxed bath of molten tin. This leaves a very thin plating of solidified tin (actually 95%tin and 5% antimony, so that the tin does not crumble away under very cold conditions - like around zero Fahrenheit). This was made into all kinds of 'tinware', and was very resistant to rust - which otherwise would quickly oxidize through the thin steel. But 'tin' can refer to any thin sheet metal, so after the specification of copper sheets to cover the ENTIRE keel (at & below the waterline) as well as the sides and bottom (the whole labor generically falling under 'tin work'), we could clarify with a dash to punctuate: 'The Sides and Bottom ... the Main and False Keels (-) All (to be) Fore and Aft properly tinned up and fastened ...' In other words, the rectangular sheets are to be oriented fore and aft (as opposed to vertically). I suppose if an apprentice started to do it the wrong way (bass ackwards), an experienced hand might say, "Somewhere a village is being deprived of an idiot."

Maybe they are what they appear top be ... a couple of coils of rope that happen to be tied on to a stay. Why, one wonders? Well, what if a crewman happens to need some rope? Instead of going deckside to get some (or having someone else bring a hank up), there are a couple coils in reserve - just in case. We know that the 'old' way sails were furled involved gathering a bunch in the middle and bunching it at the mast, so they'd need some rope for that. What if some rope was dropped by accident? Having a couple coils handy would do to save time. OK, here's a 'wild' idea of you could do with a coil (if its coiled around the stay and held in place with a skip knot). Say a guy had to get to the deck in a HURRY ... (a call of nature? a sudden incapacity?) Then he could grab the bottom of the coil, free the slip knot and ride the shroud down like a 'zip line' !

You can tune a piano, but you can't tune a fish ...

Congrats - you're the first that I've seen to have a central access under the forecastle. Decks look great !

Ahoy, Simon ! You are drawing me closer to 'the dark side' I've heard of on the forum ... that is, a scratch built hull - from the frames up. As mentioned elsewhere, I've studied the 'big T' with an eye towards busting the Revells 1:96 version ... but her lines are demonstrably different enough from the CS that just changing the bow and stern profiles won't satisfy. Of course I want to use commercially available fittings (like blocks & deadeyes - no way I'm laboring over those bits) like a majority of builders, so the label of 'semi-scratch' would apply. This seems a step up from a 'busted' kit (which is a step up from simply building a kit 'out of the box'). Now my noggin has been turning over the various ways a hull can be designed & constructed with commonly available tools, and I'm forming a novel way to do it. 'Still working out the particulars, so I won't post anything until I've got a good method and photos of a good result. There's a chance I'll fail or encounter too many hitches, so the fall back (plan 2) method will be straightforward bulkheads slotted to a keel - that will always work. If later I'm of a mind that I like woodworking much more than rigging, there is a concept to build clipper hulls with accurate lines (and essential part of a ship's beauty) and the deck houses, etc. - but only mast stubs. These would not require a case since an occasional cleaning with pressurized air (Dust-Off) will tidy them up. Or if cased, much smaller and transportable ones can be built. I'm absolutely loving all the clipper builds - past and present - on MSW. Johnny

Flags are 'funny' things - the wind can whip them around all kinds of ways, and the presence of sails forces air outward and upward due to to the increased pressure. My guess is that the shutter snapped at the instant the flag was in a position other than the direction of the prevailing breeze - or that it is actually angled a bit towards us (versus away), or a combination of both effects. BTW I can only 'dream' about building a clipper model as fine as Mike R's ... and eventually I'm likely to give it the college try, you know, 'Win one for the skipper'. 😉

Great job, all around ... I'll have to try your soldering technique when the time comes. You've gone with the straight (pre 1812) rudder, so is the slight gap between the top part of the rudder (blackened) and the stern where the 'spade-like' later rudder would have conformed to? Small matter, but one could still affix a tapered sliver to the hull at that point and paint it black to blend.

Now here's a beautiful example of what you're talking about ... 'Looks like she's running nearly before the wind, and studding sails are set on the fore and mizzen masts on opposite sides (so not to break the airflow ?).

I have a more recent upgraded lit with the laser-cut wood. Yet my plan is (with miniature decoy carving tools and a head-mounted magnifier) to undercut the high areas as needed to enhance the 3-D of those areas, as well as to clean-up or sharpen the lines and overlaps ... a time consuming process as I don't want to over-cut (or slip). So you might consider scaling the image from your photo to the exact size needed, then transfer the lines with carbon paper and a fine stylus on to whatever wood sheet you choose for the project. Then carve away as much as you care to, and you'll have at least as good a piece without much outlay of funds.

There is also Cutty Sark by Noel C.L. Hackney - #3 in the Classic Ships, their history and how to rig them (series) 1974 Patrick Stephens, Cambridge (England) in association with Airfix Products Ltd., London They come up from time to time through Amazon (although sometimes listed as unavailable ... until another comes up). One must can get past the "compressed" logic of the book's format (done to lower page count , thus printing cost) - as it was originally made to super-enhance rigging a CS plastic model originally released in 1:130 scale, and there are optional enhancement to various aspects of that version - and also the difference between 'harbor rigged' and rigged with sails. Although there is a bit of back-and-forth to get the big picture, there is a vast amount of info on rigging the CS (darn near every line you can imagine, how to route it and where to belay it) - a lot of which may be applicable to other clippers of that era.

I'm fascinated by the low-angle shot of the deck of the Galilee, in that there is clearly a slight depression along the caulking seams - with the plank edges along side of the caulking in the groove slightly rounded from wear - and sharp edges of wood would have been avoided (danger of splinters) when installing, so I imagine a square stone was passed over mating planks a couple times to "break" two corners at once. Now about that 'low angle' ... Light has a high percentage of reflectivity at low angles to a plane (wet or dry, but even more so wet), and with a freshly caught shark flopped down ahead of the camera I take the deck to be somewhat sold from 15 years of use as well as recently moistened.

Your post has a fascinating 'quick-build' video of AL's San Francisco. There is a similar AL kit named San Juan, and the video would be just as helpful for that. Either could be built into a Golden Hind (ex Pelican) with a few modifications: omitting the lower gun deck and the vertical wood strips on the sides; possibly razing (as in race-built) or reducing the highest stern deck; omitting the 'Captain's walk' (neither contemporary drawing of Drake's Caribbean fleet show any exterior 'walks', nor the 3-D miniature GH atop the 'Drake cup' presented to him by the Queen); and mounting 2 guns somewhere forward - either on the forecastle deck or perhaps at 45 degrees on the weather deck under the forecastle where the planking curves significantly. Portuguese navigator da Silva had a lot to say about the GH (and Drake as well) as he had the run of the ship (likely advising Drake, the first English captain to venture into South American waters) until Drake 'dumped' da Silva on the west coast of Mexico (likely being thought of no further use and therefore a liability). Translations of daSilva's deposition to both the Spanish authorities (who may have hoped to find any weakness or inconsistency in his story, so he could be accused of collaboration) AND the Spanish Inquisition ... so his soul might have been in as much trouble as his body had he not held up under close questioning with accurate and consistent testimony. Good reading there.

Well done, Simon. The copy I bought off Amazon is from 1969. The dust jacket is taped (no big deal since I'm not a book collector - and the content is where the value for a modeler is), and the exterior cloth of the book is green.

If there are photos of details/techniques that I want to save for future reference, I'll just use a partial screen capture option (differs by computer type and system) to 'grab' the area of interest and it appears on my desktop as a 'screen shot' - which is dragged into the applicable sub folder in my photo file.

Chuck also sells the "Rope Rocket" in easy-to-build kit form. That plus an electric drill, and you can make just about any type, scale and color rope you need ... for this and any future project. EDIT: oops, 'didn't figure the small scale of the present concern - so 'spun' rope that will be the correct size may not be available or able to be made on a rope making jig. Fine silk thread may work for the smallest. Specialty sewing stores or quilt shops sometimes have the finest size commercially available, and the weights go up from there.