allanyed

I enlarged it and it indeed looks like another vessel or some such behind it.
Allan

Latest update: decking is completed forward the break in the deck. I couldn't find any examples of partially planked decks online, so I went with what I thought would look good. Full planking to frame 5, but then progressively staggered open deck further aft. The nibbling was time consuming, but very satisfied with the results. Deck furniture installed as well. Finished with tung oil. I need to touch up the paint on the capstan. Aft of the break is next. The first pic  below shows the difference the tung oil makes, compared to the color of unfinished aft section.

 
 
 

I enlarged it and it indeed looks like another vessel or some such behind it.
Allan

I also noticed the disparity mentioned by Craig. However, a closer look revealed a structure beyond the bow of about the same tone. Perhaps the vessel behind her? Certainly an interesting subject, Jond!

1 The beginning   
 
This part of a build tends to take the longest time.  I have been mulling over modeling this schooner for at least 5 years.  Where to begin?   My introduction to her was seeing two pictures at our local Boothbay Region Historical Society. One view was of her launch and a second of an accident later in the same home harbor. 
 
 
 
1      launch day  
2    oops inexperienced crew perhaps better said " from away" anchored over a ledge, and we have 10-foot tide.    
 
The story and other images are in our local newspaper as a history article.   It was January 1919, and she was full of fish.  They pumped her out, took her to town, unloaded the fish, and raised her on the railway.   All was well so then back to work. She was more of a hauler of mackerel than a fisherman in those days. 
 
 
Having recently completed my big Bluenose I moved onto other builds.   Then a few years later I learned about her racing history….wow and from Maine too!
3.     great view as she completed the Lipton Cup race in 1923 with Ben Pine at the wheel. this image came from Facebook site for the Fisherman Festival in Gloucester  
I then fell into an article from NRJ vol 46 starting on page 12.    A member, Daniel Turner, did yeoman’s work to uncover the story of her mysterious length.   Unfortunately, there are no surviving records from the Adams Shipyard here in Boothbay.  Paul Adams, a grandson to the last builder is past 95.   Sharp as a tack, he came to my talk a few years back on the history of the Boothbay Shipyards and sat in the front row.  He corrected a spelling in one of my slides but alas when talking after he had nothing to do with the yards.  As a matter of record, they had closed by 1921.
Back to the story of why this build.   I am trying to build things for each of our yards.  The Adams family shipbuilding started about 1810 and ended 110 years later.   Pinky schooners first and then many schooners, a few brigs, a ship, and other vessels ending with some tugboats and a motor yacht in 1920.  Their last sailing vessel was the 3-masted schooner, Priscilla Alden. launched in 1918.  I started to build a model of that schooner a few years back, but the records here showed a discrepancy in length of the Priscilla Alden, that I documented there and had to make a choice of who to follow. I chose to defer and build another schooner, the Ada Cliff built across town. 
 
Having recently built two steel hulled vessels I felt it time to go back in time a bit and take on another Schooner. I have about 5 of them on my to-build list and the White Ghost looks like a fun place to start.   I highly recommend any schooner lovers out there, especially any Mainers or Bluenose people to chase down the NRJ article The Schooner Elizabeth Howard and enjoyed it. Ten years ago, I built a big Bluenose [ 1:24 scale]. I went to Lunenburg twice over that build and fell in love with the saga of the Fisherman’s Cup Races.
 
In several books they talk about the challenger, but some focus was given to the field of contenders. More so when like the Starling Burgess designed Schooner Mayflower owners tried to enter. What they had built was truly a racing machine that only looked like a fisherman. She was kept out of the races due primarily to the small volume below decks set up to race and not to collect fish. It is interesting to note that one of the schooner Elizabeth Howard’s options was to be sold to the schooner Mayflower owners to use as a match boat if Mayflower ever would be qualified for the Fisherman Cup.
There is a bit of fate to this story too.   The Schooner Elizabeth Howard was bult in 1916 and was quickly followed by her 126-foot sister the Louise Howard in 1917.   To satisfy her owner, Thomas McManus took is 1908 design for the schooner Oriole and extended her bow.   As said above…she had to be fast!  In her early years she was known for speedy long runs full of fish that she typically bought in Nova Scotia to race south. She was reported to do 16 knots in a good blow.  When the Fisherman Cup races became popular in 1920, her owner wanted to get involved.
 
The problem she had at first was that she was not associated with the Gloucester in-crowd.  With a New York owner, and having been built in Maine, she was not accepted to enter the races.   After the 1921 loss to Bluenose the Americans were scrambling for the next year rematch.   The top two schooners to contend amongst four were Henry Ford and Puritan.  The Puritan, designed by Starling Burgess, was launched in March 1922.  As part of her prequalification, she was off to the grand banks to fish.   Disaster struck and she was lost in her first summer. Ben Pine [ future Columbia and Gertrude Theobald skipper] was preparing to race her so now he was looking for help. After Elizabeth made a reported amazing fast sailing return trip to Boston from the banks and the schooner Puritan was lost, Ben Pine, made arrangement to get Elizabeth qualified. He then took her on and in 1922.   In the best 2 of 3 series, she raced but broke a topmast on the first day and was beaten by the schooner Henry Ford in light air on the second day.  The Schooner Henry Ford competed for the Fisherman’s Cup but lost to Bluenose. 
 
Elizabeth won the Lipton Cup races  in 1923 but after that win, Ben Pine moved on to the new Starling Burgess designed Columbia.   There is a large collection of photo images of these races on the Boston Library website.  Elizabeth’s distinct white hull surely makes an impression, and it is easy to see how she got her name…the White Ghost. The unfortunate end of her story connects her fate to the schooner Puritan. It was later in the fall of 1923 when just like Puritan, she was lost off the coast of Nova Scotia. 
 
What was her length?
 
Let’s look at her lines for a moment.   Daniel’s NRJ article touches on the racing and then proposes a solution to the length mystery saga of the Elizabeth Howard.  She was designed by the renown Thomas F. McManus.  Howard Chapelle includes the lines of Elizabeth Howard shown annotated over the lines of an earlier 1908 schooner Oriole.   The schooner Oriole was 127 feet at the rail.  The only change was to push the bow forward [ in scale] 6.5 feet.    The only reason to do this would be for speed. she started as a knockabout [ no bowsprit]. The confusion comes from a note on the Chapelle document stating the length at the rail being 148.  
 
The short version of Daniels work is a follows.
•    A Fisherman Cup racing vessel must be less than 150 feet.
•    The reported bowsprit added to Elizabeth was 14 feet long.
•    If one scaled the Chapelle drawing showing the extension one gets 133’6”
•    Add the bowsprit and you are under 150 at the recorded 148 feet.
Go with the 133’6”.     I think that is more than good enough and it is what I will try to build.  
 
 All for now
 

With the port side also ready, the standards are made to height. A simple way to measure, is to use a wooden plank as a template.

 
A mold for the semi-circular gun ports. This is slightly conical, so up to the arrow and no further, otherwise the hole is too big.

Ready.

This is how far we have come, next is the last piece of planking on the bow.

Thanks for following

I believe the most common species for keels were oak and elm as pine was relatively weak for large vessels.  Regardless you may find all of these are much too grainy for your model.   The below shows these species compared to a couple other choices commonly used on model ships, Alaskan cedar and Castello boxwood.   English/European box is great but costly.   Basswood and poplar is less grainy but you might find them too soft for a keel.
Allan

You mention European built vessels so there would be differences with those built by Spain in Havana and the Philippines.    I have no idea how accurate the following article might be, but it may be a little help. 
https://www.worldhistory.org/Spanish_Galleon/
Allan

Hi Phil
 
Black tea has a slightly low pH so probably not harmful to the wood.    Reading up on its use on wood, I found the following:
 
 Tea can be a safe and natural way to clean wood floors. Black tea contains tannins, which can enhance the wood's color and depth, and add a light, warm "stain" that brings out the wood's natural warm tones. The tannins also naturally clean, enhance, and protect wood
 
Sounds like it might be a good idea but I have no experience with using tea.  Hopefully some other member has some experience with using tea they can share or you can be our pioneer and give it a try😀
Allan

Assuming these materials came in the kit I had no idea Hobbico uses Amati rope in their Revell kits.  Live and learn.  Regarding the tan color for the running rigging, why would you want to stain it as it is already tan?  For the standing rigging I found a color sampling of pine tar that some may find interesting. https://solventfreepaint.com/pine-tar.htm
 
Allan

What color is your rigging line now?   Can you post a photo of all these things?   The reason I ask is that in looking on line at photos of contents of the Revell  Alabama kit, and photos of the actual ship the color of the blocks and deadeyes look good as they are.   The running rigging lines look good on photos of the rigged model, but the standing rigging looks almost black rather than dark brown.  
 
And to add to the fun, I found  photos of Alabama that show what appears to be both rope stropped blocks and internally stropped blocks.
 
Allan
 

I thought contemporary drawings of masts may help, including the shape of the foot or heel  but of the ten high res plans that I have found, to my surprise none of them show the heel itself as the drawings stop at what appears to be where top of the step would be.   Lees does not address the heel of the fore, main, or mizzen mast that I can find in The Masting and Rigging English Ships of War.  Hopefully some member can shed more light on this.  Peter Goodwin does give some detail on the steps in The Construction and Fitting of English Man of War as follows:
In general the step for each mast consisted of a large baulk of timber, usually oak, fashioned in such a manner that it straddled the keelson.  A mortice was cut vertically into the upper surface in which the tenon of the heel of the mast sat....... The mortice and tenon were always made to the following dimension: The tenon at the heel of the mast was half the diameter of the mast in the fore and aft plane, and had a width two thirds of the diameter of the mast athwartships.  The depth of the of the tenon was usually about half the diameter of the mast.
 
I suspect this is generally good information but would be very surprised if were not variations in the dimensions.
 
Allan
 

If the foot of the mast is properly shaped to being square and rests in a square hole in the step it will not rotate and the rigging will hold it down.   If the mast is round at the foot and can twist while rigging is applied it would probably be better being glued in place.   
Allan

This may be a little bit on the edge of the rope coiling topic which has been very informative.    Now I know where the beer logo came from or more likely the other way around and the rope coils are named for the beer logo.  If there is indeed really some connection with the Ballantine name for what looks similar to Borromean rings the connection with the rope coiling name may be related.   Ballantine opened their brewery in 1840 but the logo came about nearly 40 years later.  Legend has it that Peter Ballantine saw three wet rings from bottles on a table that overlapped and came up with the logo from that.
 
Allan

From surfing the net it appear that styrene softens at 212F or a bit higher.   Styrofoam is about the same so does not sound like it would work based on this information.   A wooden plug made of poplar, pine or balsa that would be removed after the hull is formed may be best.   I look forward to seeing the final answer to this one.
Allan

Hi John,
For the plug, have you considered styrofoam as an alternative to wood then heat and form styrene around the plug?  For the area such as at the stern it may be easier to make that area of the plug out of wood to withstand heavier bending.  MAYBE this video will give you some ideas.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxP3vtQxVtw for the shaping of the styrene sheets.  There is at least one MSW member that has made beautiful hulls for "steel" ships using alternative materials.  Hope he sees your post and responds.
    
Allan
 
 

Hi Harry,
Have you looked at the Young America 1853 build log here at MSW and/or Ed's book and plans on her?  Maybe it will be applicable to Flying Cloud.  If you have not already seen it go to post #131 in https://modelshipworld.com/topic/10678-young-america-1853-by-edt-finished-196-pob-extreme-clipper/#comment-322547    It continues for a number of posts on planking the various decks.
 
 
Allan

This was typical for lapstrake boats.   Even those that are not double enders have gain at the bow where the strakes stopped overlapping and butt against each other.  The sketch below was shown to me by MSW member Druxey many years ago.
Allan

Hi Phil
 
Black tea has a slightly low pH so probably not harmful to the wood.    Reading up on its use on wood, I found the following:
 
 Tea can be a safe and natural way to clean wood floors. Black tea contains tannins, which can enhance the wood's color and depth, and add a light, warm "stain" that brings out the wood's natural warm tones. The tannins also naturally clean, enhance, and protect wood
 
Sounds like it might be a good idea but I have no experience with using tea.  Hopefully some other member has some experience with using tea they can share or you can be our pioneer and give it a try😀
Allan

Assuming these materials came in the kit I had no idea Hobbico uses Amati rope in their Revell kits.  Live and learn.  Regarding the tan color for the running rigging, why would you want to stain it as it is already tan?  For the standing rigging I found a color sampling of pine tar that some may find interesting. https://solventfreepaint.com/pine-tar.htm
 
Allan

What color is your rigging line now?   Can you post a photo of all these things?   The reason I ask is that in looking on line at photos of contents of the Revell  Alabama kit, and photos of the actual ship the color of the blocks and deadeyes look good as they are.   The running rigging lines look good on photos of the rigged model, but the standing rigging looks almost black rather than dark brown.  
 
And to add to the fun, I found  photos of Alabama that show what appears to be both rope stropped blocks and internally stropped blocks.
 
Allan
 

Not sure Lees (British ships 1625-1860) will be of a lot of help for an American ship in 1862 but it will be interesting to see what was used nonetheless.   
Allan

Hi Frank,
What ship are the blocks for?  If for an English ship there are hundreds of photos of rigged models at RMG Collections website, the Kriegstein collection, Lees' Masting and Rigging, and other sources that might be of some help. 
Allan

Hello,
the wheels. They kept me busy this week, and other things like my garden. But now they are in the raw ready. I think I must not explain the pictures

 
 
 
 and then that  So, go back to start, and try again
 
This time I made the beads before I cut the rim loose. The shipwright is pleased.
In the foreground you see some of the spokes. They are from mammoth ivory. So, if you hear nothing from me the next weeks, I'm busy or I had thrown it all away. I hope not.

 

The Wood-Database does not have much specific for your part of the world.  I would try to find a local hardwood sawmill and see if they have a local wood that is fine texture, no pores large enough to see, straight grain.  Something that looks like Oak or Elm that has been scaled down 50 times.  If you use actual Oak, the grain, pores, and texture will be 50-100 times too large.
There is no tree species with grain that small.  It could not transport water thru tubes that small.  There are however species that are a whole lot closer to scale than is any nutwood.
 
Basswood and Linden have excellent grain characteristics, but their surface is soooo fuzzy.