Jim Lad

Very impressive, Augie, very impressive. John

Looks great, Alexandru! John

Nicely made ladder - I assume you have a jig for assembling it. John

Ha! Druxey beat me to it with his question on scale. She looks really beautiful! John

I currently still have the ‘Francis Pritt’ in the planning stage – currently working on the hull lines – but she should be ready to start making sawdust in a couple of weeks (says he hopefully). In the meantime, here’s a bit of an introduction. A (very) brief history of the evolution of T.I. luggers The pearling industry at Thursday Island (known almost universally as T.I.) started as far back as 1870 using smallish lug rigged boats that had previously been used in the beche-de-mer fishery. The later type of pretty ketch rigged boats were introduced into the T.I. fishery sometime after 1876, by James Clarke, a local entrepreneur, who is thought to have had the first of these type of boats designed and built in Sydney on the lines of popular pleasure yacht design of the day with a beautiful ‘wine glass’ hull. This type of efficient and seaworthy boat quickly became the standard type at T.I. and many were built by local shipwrights to a slightly simplified design with a plain wooden skeg instead of the shaped ‘wine glass’ type keel. Although the popular ketch rigged boats were then almost universally used, the popular name of ‘lugger’ stuck and is still used today to describe boats of the pearl fishery. By the way, the industry was mainly concerned with collecting the pearl shell, as the mother of pearl was used in all sorts of domestic applications before the invention of plastic. Actual pearls were a bonus, when found. Thursday Island For those not too familiar with remote Australian geography, Thursday Island (T.I.) is a small island lying just to the north of the northern tip of the Cape York Peninsular – that’s the pointy bit of Australia on the top right hand corner that reaches to the north and almost touches New Guinea. Francis Pritt ‘Francis Pritt’ was built in 1901 as the lugger ‘Santa Cruz’ by the famous T.I. builder Tsugitaro Furuta. She was purchased by the Anglican diocese of Northern Australia in 1905 for use as a mission ship and renamed ‘Frances Pritt’ in honour of a former Archdeacon. She was 50.58 feet in length with a breadth of 13.75 feet. She was said to be an especially deep boat with a full load draft of 7.5 feet. She was sold again to a local trader in 1910 and is thought to have been lost on a New Guinea river bar shortly thereafter. Why Francis Pritt? As some of you will know, I usually build models of ships with a personal or family connection, but the ‘Pritt’ is a little different. A friend of ours used to live in the township of Ngukurr, in Arnhem Land, doing bible translation work. Ngukurr had formerly been known as the Roper River Mission and was founded by the Anglican Church in 1908 after the Bishop of Northern Australia, Gilbert White, pleaded for a mission station in the area as a means of protecting the local Aboriginal people, who were being indiscriminately murdered by European settlers. The ‘Pritt’ was the ship that scouted the area in 1907 and then took the first team of missionaries (both European and Aboriginal) to the Roper River in August 1908. After the establishment of the mission, nearly all the surviving local Aboriginal people came to the Roper River and were protected there. That storey, combined with the honest good looks of the T.I. luggers, seemed very good reason for me to depart from my usual approach and build the ‘Francis Pritt’ in memory of that first mission. The Model The model will be built plank on frame at a scale of 1:48, giving an overall hull length of 12 5/8 inches (320mm). I’m building the ‘Pritt’ at this larger scale rather than my usual 1:96 as she will be on public display when completed (final location not yet finalised) and needs to be large enough for people to see properly. There are no plans for the ‘Pritt’ – indeed plans for early luggers are few and far between as the Japanese builders on T.I*. built mainly by eye. There is, however, a lines plan for one of Furuta’s luggers from about the same time as the ‘Pritt’, and there is also a lines plan for a luggere built at the same time by one of Furata’s, Tsurumatsu Shiosaki. Using these lines plans plus the broadside photograph of the ‘Pritt’ on the slip (below), I pretty confident of getting a hull pretty close to the original. The rigging and deck fixtures and fittings will be taken from surviving photographs. John Francis Pritt under sail in 1907 Francis Pritt on an unknown slipway in 1908 Landing supplies from the Francis Pritt at Roper River, August 1908

Jeff - Thanks for the support mate! Augie - Quote, "But, unlike our Dutch friend, I am a patient guy." - You'll need to be! John

Nice work on the lower masts, mate - glad to see that you remembered to fit the mast hoops before you finally fixed the tops! That sea is coming along very nicely, too. John

Hmmm, 0600 MST on Saturday gives me until 11PM tomorrow our time, I think. John

I seem to have missed an update, Piet! Very nice work around the dive planes and props. John

That block moulding looks tricky, Tom. How about a piece of wood cut almost through to form the blocks (cut on your table saw with a spacer jig). If there's only a very thin backing left it should curve around the wheelhouse nicely. John

No elks on this forum, Mark - it should be 'holy moose'! She looks great, Augie. John

Ta, muchly (as they say), Mobbsie and Mark! New log probably starting tomorrow (but she's still in the planning stage! John

Popeye, Good to hear that you're going to have another go at the rail! If you don't, in ten years time you'd be looking at the model in its case and still thinking, "Hmmm, I really should have re-done that rail!" John

Thanks very much, Pat! John

More delightful joinery, Danny! John

Looking good, Tom! She's starting look as though you're almost there. John

Once again, thank you all for your congratulatory comments! To answer specific questions, Meredith - the next one will be at 1:48 (yes, a huge scale, I know) as she's only a very small ship and she needs to be big enough for display. Adeline - Current plan is for her to be displayed in the members lounge at the museum, but that may well change. Tom - Launching party is on as soon as you get here! John

Thanks, Brian - stay tuned, a new log will be starting very shortly. John

Mmmmmm! Nice look, Popeye! John

Crikey! I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by all this. Thank you kindly, one and all. John

Popeye and Augie, thanks very much for your support and encouragement during the build. Note: No moose were injured during the production of this model! John

Thank you Andy, Bob, Rusty and Sherry! I've had a great time sharing her with you. John

Well, she's finished at last! The last couple of details were finished at the museum yesterday. As you can see from the photographs, she still needs a proper stand and case - plus a bit of a clean off of odd dust particles before she's permanently cased - but she is complete at last. I must say I'm quite pleased with the way she's turned out. I think I've got the spars fine enough to look realistic and make her look light and fast rather than just over sparred, but that's just my opinion. The next model is currently in the planning stage and a new building log will appear shortly. John

She grows! She grows! Great stuff, Augie. John

Thanks, Druxey. As I was reading Danny's post I was thinking, "I wonder how it was done on the actual ship! John