Thanks for all the information on this, it's all an interesting read.
This quote makes perfect sense to me; I've seen quite a few drawings and also pictures of a modern "replica" of the ship, and honestly, they all look slightly different, especially in the stern area. I think since this is my first ship build and is mostly just to get my feet wet for the later builds to come (seven in the queue so far...!), I'm going to take the easy way out and follow the deck sheer with the wales and just recognize that's probably not the way it was done.
But now I know to watch out for it when fairing the hulls. You guys are awesome!