captainbob

There comes a time when I am building a model that I start thinking about what to build next.  I had been thinking of a schooner so I started a web search and when I saw the HEAR drawings of the Lettie I knew she was my next build.  I plan to build it with the break in the deck as was typical of the Fredonia model schooners.  The HAER drawings do not show the break so more research was needed.
 
If you look at the drawings you will see that the Lettie was warped and one side was lower than the other and the stern was askew.  In redrawing the lines I straightened it out.  Hopefully the way it was when it was first built.
 
 
Here is a brief history.
 
Dimension as built 1893 as “Lettie G. Howard”
Length: 74.6 feet
Beam: 21 feet
Depth: 8.4 feet
Tonnage
Gross: 59.74
Net: 56.76
 
Dimension as rebuilt 1923 as “Mystic C.”
Length: 75.4 feet
Beam: 20.8 feet
Depth: 8.5 feet
Tonnage
Gross: 52.24
Net: 47
 
Designated a National Historic Landmark, the Lettie G. Howard is the last existing clipper-bowed “Fredonia model” inshore fishing schooner. Named for Captain Fred Howard’s daughter, the Lettie G. Howard fished near the coasts of Massachusetts and Maine. Built in 1893 in Essex, Massachusetts by Arthur D. Story, her hull was oak framed, planked with pine held in place by treenails. She originally carried topmasts on both fore and main masts.
 
E.E. Saunders and Co. of Pensacola, Florida purchased her in 1901 and fitted Lettie G. Howard for the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery. She was rebuilt in 1923 in Bay Point, Florida and renamed “Mystic C.” Changes included the removal of the break in the deck, and the addition of eight inches of false keel depth along 36 feet of the keel. Documentation after the rebuild also noted slight changes in overall dimensions. In 1924 she was fitted with a 36 horsepower auxiliary engine, necessitating a new stern post and rudder. Sometime later her topmasts and bowsprit were removed.
 
She was sold to the Historic Ships Associates of Boston, Massachusetts in 1967, who mistakenly renamed her Caviare, believing she was that former Gloucester schooner. The South Street Seaport Museum purchased her a year later and returned her to the original build name “Lettie G. Howard.”
 
Lettie G. Howard was included in the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), which documents historically significant engineering, industrial, and maritime works in the U.S. The project is administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Lettie G. Howard was documented in 1989.  The HAER high resolution drawings are on the Library of Congress web site at 
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Drawing:%20ny1621&fi=number&op=PHRASE&va=exact&co%20=hh&st=gallery&sg%20=%20true.
 
The South Street Seaport Museum completely restored her between 1991 and 1993. Now in her original 1893 appearance, Lettie G. Howard is outfitted to accommodate trainees on educational voyages. In 1994 the U.S. Coast Guard certified her as a Sailing School Vessel, allowing her to carry students of all ages as a training ship.
In January 2012, Lettie G. Howard was dry docked at Mystic Seaport. Subsequent inspections found extensive rot in her keelson and foremast step, and she was put back in the water until enough money can be raised for the necessary repairs.

Thanks for showing your work.  As I said I had never tried it myself but had heard it was good.  And yours looks fine.
 
Bob

Thanks Floyd. It's really fun to do.
 
Nothing really exciting to show all of you. I have cut the wales from cherry and installed them.
Once they are sanded I will be coloring them black with Fiebings leather dye. This will be the
first time I have used it so this might be interesting!  
 
I have depleted most of my ebony and will probably discontinue using it anymore. It’s bad for
you, I’m not religious enough about wearing a mask and it’s just messy.
 

 
As far as the rest of the planking goes I will be using Boxwood. The plans show planking
only above the wales but I may put two or three rows below the wales too.

Hello Dan I have checked the major suppliers and so far the smallest appears to be 3/16 radius.
 
New Cockpit part 3
 
All four corners are now glued and the final shaping is underway on the corners.
 

 
The sharp radius turned out well.
 

 
The oxidation of the fir decking is obvious now that the wide section of the old cockpit has been removed.
 
Michael

Michael,
 
It's been a while since I was last able to check in and wow, phenomenal progress!!
 
Looking at the mk1 & mk2 cockpit coaming, the mk2 looks infinitely better and far more realistic. For finishing, I think a rounded capping piece would really make it. It's worth noting that most production boats (and poor restorations) fit the wrong shape of capping - they tend to be flat topped with radiused edges but should have a slight radius over the top to assist with shedding water. Where the original coaming has been removed I'd be inclined to try re-sanding the deck to colour match before trying any oils.
 
As usual, excellent, nay, stunning work!! I really must make / find more time to keep up with your progress - the same applies to my own build (little or no physical progress but a modicum of thinking about sail winch servo positions).
 
Keep up the amazing craftsmanship,
 
Regards,
 
Row

interesting name choices for  gold,  frankincense,  and Mir.......but no    I just used Moe, Larry, and the Curly names,  just so everyone can tell the hulls apart,  with little confusion.   if you have looked at the M&M build I did.......in the beginning,   it met with a lot of jocularity that I didn't expect.......I was serious in what I was doing.   this time I'm ready for it,  giving them comical names for the time being......the build will start making sense further into the build.   while this an arena that is not really ventured into,  for a person who is just getting into scratch building,  this is perfect.   it would give the person practice on the freehand principles,  and familiarize themselves for more exact modeling as they move on.  scratch building is an old art......done long before the day of the kit.   back then,  scale classification wasn't even a concern......just an ideal to the individual.   model train was perhaps the last to convert over to scale classification......
strange,  because it was the most important aspect for the hobby.  one person build his train to a certain spec.......another person liked a particular piece,  and bought it........later finding that he could not use it on his layout,  because the scale didn't jive.   but I digress.......
 
there are many well known ships that are modeled today.........I'm sure that there are many others that deserve to be examined and explored.  this would be the first step in going off the beaten path......so,  why not go a little further.  plastic modeling has gone a long way in producing model kits that cover a fictitious subject.....I've done  Rommel's Rod......the beer wagon....the Tijuana taxi,  and a bunch of others......I used to be a major plastic builder       if I had the money I spent......I sit and wonder sometimes.   I think the same can apply to wooden ship.   the last three to four years has been an eye opener for me........I used to look at these kits and think they were way over my head.....not to mention the prices of these kits.  
 
car models are about the only aspect in modeling  {in general}  that dared to go out of the box to any degree.....trains are the second,  with their holiday sets and TV series issues.   there are a few plastic ship kits out there.......the S.S. Minnow,  the Miami Vice speedboat, the Bat Boat......I'm sure there are others........but the wooden ship,  however,  has remained within the guidelines of the replica and other well known subject kits.   this isn't a bad thing,  but I find that this hobby is such an open book,  that I want to explore everything about it,  and see just how far I can go with it.

My Internet was down last night, so here is the progress that was made on Keel 4 , all the frames have been Faired and is now ready for planking, On this one I am going to use 1/8" strips for planking ( I used 1/4 " on the previous builds) I am happy with the results thus far on Keel 4. Here are the results

Steve & Stan, thanks for stopping by.  Haven’t had a chance to get to town yet for the wood.  Hopefully tomorrow.
 
Bob

I’ve been busy drawing the lines so I can start building. For those who have looked at the LoC drawings you know the two sides do not match, so I decided to try to average them, figuring that as one side went up the other went down.  I could have started with the table of offsets and averaged the two sides but putting that many numbers into Excel, converting them all to inches and then averaging them to come up with new offsets was a task I did not want to get into.  So I started by redrawing the lines given, averaging them as best as I could. Well I made the drawings and laid them over the inside drawings and they looked good.  Now it’s buy the wood and make sawdust.
 
Pictures soon, I hope.
 
Bob

A little more work this evening rendered a few more clamps the metal bar is 3/32 brazing rod bent and threaded 3 x 48 the brass nut was parted off with a form tool from some 5/16 hex stock.
 

 
By changing springs and being able to change the position of the brass nut makes these more versatile.
 

 

 
Eight more clamps for the collection I hope to use these for the planking of skipjack, when I get to that stage.
 

 

 
Michael

I woke up this morning thinking about Ed Tosti's miniature clamps and one thing led to another.
 
I rummaged through the scrap spring box and made two sizes of clamp. one with a 1/16th steel rod  and one with a 2 inch finishing nail.
 

 

 

 
 
The small wooden block has a clearance hole for the steel rod, depending on the springs one has. the 1/16 rod used some old bic lighter flint springs
 
the bent finishing nail used a tension spring stretched out and then used as a compression spring/ These clamps close to about 1/64 but this design has a lot of possibilities for different openings like miniature bar clamps even
 
The short piece of dowel for the handle is a tight fit
 

 

 
 
I can see that i will be making a few of these using coat hanger wire as well. I made the bend short but I am posotive that a longer bent arm will also work.
 
These will be useful where it is difficult to use a clothes peg type.
 
Michael

Shawn,
 
It is the glass that gives the resin strength.  But I have heard of using nylon stockings instead of glass.  That would also be strong and I would think easier to apply.  I never liked fiber glassing either.
 
Bob

Isopropyl alcohol makes a nice thinner.  I’ve used it many times, of course in those days nobody heard of epoxy thinners. 
 
A warning.  If you are not using fiber, (glass, nylon stockings,  . . .) you need to build up the thickness of the epoxy for strength.  I have seen the wood of the hull swell and shrink with moisture and/or weather enough to open the seams between the planks.
 
Bob

Thank you all for your comments.  I did some research on the paint and with some help from a couple guru's on this forum and in the club I found my answer to the color scheme.  I also think it fits the Queen Anne's Revenge rather well.  She took a much darker turn.
 

 

 

 
Ships in this day in age generally came in three colors.  Ocher, red and black.  Usually a mixture of the three.  The colors came from different things mixed in the paint.  Black was created from ash.  Red from oxidization or essentially rust.   I'm not sure about ocher I'd have to ask again.  A very common theme for the day was a black ship with an ocher stripe a long the gun ports and red on the inside of the bulwarks.  This seemed to fit so I went with it.  
 
The masts are in place but I plan on cutting them down and stepping them.  Still more to do.    

Just another 2 1/2 inch boat.  Oh!  Wait!  That's a metric scale.  Well done.  Well done.
 
Bob

Steve & Stan, thanks for stopping by.  Haven’t had a chance to get to town yet for the wood.  Hopefully tomorrow.
 
Bob

Beautiful job, I'm sure she'll love it.
 
Bob

And here is what I have been working on all weekend, the fore sail. I used Tacky Glue to glue the seams all the way around the sail, cutting the corners so the material from two sides did not overlap. I then sewed a bolt rope all the way around the sail, seizing the corners into loops as I got to them. I started at the middle of the head of the sail and worked my way around. I used a very thin needle so the holes in the sail were small, and just went through the sail and the bolt rope at the same time, looping around each time. I finished where I started and trimmed the bolt rope so the ends were flush.
 

 
Here is a close up of one of the loops and the bolt rope on either side.
 

 
I drew the other seam lines onto both sides of the sail using a regular pencil with a light pressure. I added the reef points by knotting a piece of line and threading it through the sail with a needle, then tying another knot on the other side close to the sail. I left these all long until they were all on, then trimmed them all to the same length on both sides. I then used a tiny bit of the Tacky glue to hold the ends of the reef points to the sail, so they look like they are hanging straight down.
 

 
I then sewed the sail to the spar, just wrapping the line around the spar and through the sail. The two loops at the head of the sail are wrapped with this line at the ends of the spar.
 

 
I straightened some of the supplied line for the halyard, sheet and tack. I first ran it through bees wax then over a hot light bulb and through my fingers. This does a nice job for lines that are supplied on cards, which tend to be very kinked. I tied the halyard to the spar with a clove hitch, then ran the other end through the block on the fore mast. I have the spar between the two shrouds. I tied the halyard off to the belaying pin next to the fore mast. I tied the sheet and tack lines to the two loops at the foot of the sail using bowlines, then tied off the other ends to belaying pins. Here is the result:
 

 
Now I just have to repeat all that for the main sail, plus I need to add rope coils for the halyards, sheets and tacks.
 
 
 
 

Hi Rob, Thanks for the screw idea!
 
Mike, As you said it will take a long time I think as some parts require the removal of 1/4"
or more of material. That's a whole lot of sanding and filing.
 
Ok the planking in board is complete. As I mentioned before I used red heart.
I also cut some thin veneers to line the inside of the gun ports. I did not think
far enough ahead for the sweep ports so they will be painted red to match. They
are so small I don't believe anyone will know the difference.
 
That is except for all of you.  
 

 

 
 

Thanks Grant. I'll be tallying up the votes for a while yet. But, things are feeling better on the brass etching at this point...
 
 
 
 
Consistency of work! 
 
The big question of doing this photoetching work is whether or not my success with the skylight parts is repeatable. So, today, I went back and updated the artwork for the paneled doors and also modified the skylight artwork to scale it up for a taller and larger (3/16" scale instead of 1/8" scale) Yacht America skylight. The Saginaw will require 10 paneled doors, so I made artwork with 12 of them, giving me a couple spares.
 
To cut to the chase, I managed to go through the whole process twice today: Once for the paneled doors and once for the America's skylight frame. All seemed to work well, so that's 3 times in a row(!). Looking back, it almost makes me wonder how I could have been having so much trouble. But, I'm just really happy that things are finally going well. We'll see how long it lasts!
 
 

Above are the results of the etchings I did today. The outer edges of the panel doors have been filed smooth. I still have to file inside the openings. After these are cleaned up, I'll glue them to thin wood sheet to complete the doors. The skylight frame on the right is for the Yacht America in 3/16" scale, so I made this 33% larger than the Saginaw's. It will also be taller, so the legs of the frame will be bent to a sharper angle. I'll probably then glue thin wood pieces over it, with this providing the basic structure. You'll have to look at my Yacht America log to see how well that works out.
 
 

Above are the Saginaw's skylights test fit into place. I still have to decide how I want to handle the windows and the protective bars. I painted the insides of these white, but they look awfully bright with the black exterior. Though I've painted all the coamings on the model black, I suppose I could re-paint the skylight frames white instead. Either that or "fancy them up" with a simulated wood color. Of course, with windows in place, the inside color probably won't be so prominent.
 
 

Here's a closeup of one of the painted skylights.
 
 
In any case, it sure feels good to have the skylight structures behind me now. This takes a load off. The only other difficult structure is probably the paddle wheels. More on that next time.
 
Clare

Keel #1 is now complete. My daughter came over this morning, as I was getting ready to install the Fish Well covers . And she said that she liked it better without the covers as they cover up to much of the deck. (its going to be her's she does not know it yet ) so they have been left off. this is about the end of this build log . Just some comparisons between the Kit and scratch (Keel 1 ) are left . Here are the results

There comes a time when I am building a model that I start thinking about what to build next.  I had been thinking of a schooner so I started a web search and when I saw the HEAR drawings of the Lettie I knew she was my next build.  I plan to build it with the break in the deck as was typical of the Fredonia model schooners.  The HAER drawings do not show the break so more research was needed.
 
If you look at the drawings you will see that the Lettie was warped and one side was lower than the other and the stern was askew.  In redrawing the lines I straightened it out.  Hopefully the way it was when it was first built.
 
 
Here is a brief history.
 
Dimension as built 1893 as “Lettie G. Howard”
Length: 74.6 feet
Beam: 21 feet
Depth: 8.4 feet
Tonnage
Gross: 59.74
Net: 56.76
 
Dimension as rebuilt 1923 as “Mystic C.”
Length: 75.4 feet
Beam: 20.8 feet
Depth: 8.5 feet
Tonnage
Gross: 52.24
Net: 47
 
Designated a National Historic Landmark, the Lettie G. Howard is the last existing clipper-bowed “Fredonia model” inshore fishing schooner. Named for Captain Fred Howard’s daughter, the Lettie G. Howard fished near the coasts of Massachusetts and Maine. Built in 1893 in Essex, Massachusetts by Arthur D. Story, her hull was oak framed, planked with pine held in place by treenails. She originally carried topmasts on both fore and main masts.
 
E.E. Saunders and Co. of Pensacola, Florida purchased her in 1901 and fitted Lettie G. Howard for the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery. She was rebuilt in 1923 in Bay Point, Florida and renamed “Mystic C.” Changes included the removal of the break in the deck, and the addition of eight inches of false keel depth along 36 feet of the keel. Documentation after the rebuild also noted slight changes in overall dimensions. In 1924 she was fitted with a 36 horsepower auxiliary engine, necessitating a new stern post and rudder. Sometime later her topmasts and bowsprit were removed.
 
She was sold to the Historic Ships Associates of Boston, Massachusetts in 1967, who mistakenly renamed her Caviare, believing she was that former Gloucester schooner. The South Street Seaport Museum purchased her a year later and returned her to the original build name “Lettie G. Howard.”
 
Lettie G. Howard was included in the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), which documents historically significant engineering, industrial, and maritime works in the U.S. The project is administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Lettie G. Howard was documented in 1989.  The HAER high resolution drawings are on the Library of Congress web site at 
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Drawing:%20ny1621&fi=number&op=PHRASE&va=exact&co%20=hh&st=gallery&sg%20=%20true.
 
The South Street Seaport Museum completely restored her between 1991 and 1993. Now in her original 1893 appearance, Lettie G. Howard is outfitted to accommodate trainees on educational voyages. In 1994 the U.S. Coast Guard certified her as a Sailing School Vessel, allowing her to carry students of all ages as a training ship.
In January 2012, Lettie G. Howard was dry docked at Mystic Seaport. Subsequent inspections found extensive rot in her keelson and foremast step, and she was put back in the water until enough money can be raised for the necessary repairs.

I bet you sleep at night, “while visions of holiday boats dance in your head”.  

John, It's not that hard.
 
Popeye & Wayne,  Your comments remind me of the man who was driving through the country and saw a chair for sale.  He asked the owner where it came from and how much.  The owner said he had made it and it was $25.00.  The man thought it would make nice dinning room chairs and ordered six.  The owner said that would cost $600.00.  The man asked, "Why so much" ?   The owner said, "Well the first one was fun".
 
Bob

I bet you sleep at night, “while visions of holiday boats dance in your head”.