EdT

I'd say you are way beyond the apprentice stage, Mark. Glad to see your work progressing again. Ed

Looking as fantastic as always, Mark. Ed

Looks great seeing it all assembled Pat. Again, bravo on a fantastic job. Ed

Bravo, Pat. Right up to your usual standards of research and execution. Nicely done. Ed

Thank you for your comments and for the images, Rick. Having read the books, you will know that deciding on that pin rail was one of the more difficult choices in designing the model. Although there were others, most are well hidden within the ship and not as visible as this one. My only excuse would be that all of those lines had to belay somewhere. For those who don't remember, here's a reminder. Note also the very full rail forward of the poop break. Cheers, Ed

Lovely work, Allan. Hope she's being shipped off to a good home. Ed

Looks beautiful, Randy - and very familiar. Ed

Bravo, Maury! She looks terrific. Beautiful job. Also, love the case - and the mirror. Ed

Extraordinary, Doris. Simply beautiful. Ed

Hello Doris, I have not been following all the work on MSW closely lately and I missed the post where you reported the loss of your husband. Please accept my sincere condolences on your loss. I came across the post while showing your work to someone as I often do to describe the work of an exceptionally talented artist/modeler. You are in a class by yourself, for sure. All the best, Ed

Thank you Randy, for the reference. I am quite familiar with it, though over the past several years I had forgotten the specific passage. I can confirm that at the time Crothers's analysis definitely influenced my decision to use internal strapping on the YA model. I do believe, however, that there is room for doubt. And thank you, GuntherT for the images. I have never seen this photo, but agree that she is indeed Young America and I will be very pleased to add it to my collection - making a total of three. The photo will take some study, but offhand I see nothing that departs from the others in terms of detail. I would love to have had this when designing the model. Thanks again. Ed

Thank you, Randy. Always good to hear reinforcement for ones educated guesses, but sorry to hear of your predicament. No suggestions come immediately to mind. What is your reference on Ocean Monarch? Ed

Beautiful work, Micheal - and I love the photography. Ed

Hello Greg, nice to hear from you. I am indeed too old to be home schooling my own children. Our adventures in "distance learning" are on behalf of my daughter's two girls - kindergarten and 3rd grade. Their mom teaches at the local high school and is either at school or teaching from home all day so we are hosting the girls - 7am to 4. Pretty busy days, but I am enjoying living 3rd grade again - especially relearning math. Actually Charlotte does not need much help, having become quite computer savvy - these use several different applications, take and post photos of their work, etc. However, kindergarten with Georgia is a full time job for my wife Dorothy. Thankfully that is one-half day. The iron strapping - 4" x 1/2"(or 3/4?) if I remember correctly, was bolted at every frame and at every overlap. Frames were mortised so the iron was flush with the frame to allow planking. I installed the strapping on the inside of the hull. The internal vs. external decision was a toss up, since both were used and there is no record for any of Webb's ships, only the Lloyd's register entry which confirmed that she was strapped. It would take a better structural engineer than me to analyze any difference, but I believe it would be a wash. There would be great advantage in installation in favor of internal. Since the straps run from keel to topside the entire height would require scaffolding, unlike a single progressing working level for planking. Cutting slots to fit the straps externally would be more difficult, involving mostly overhead mortise work - likewise for the driving of bolts. Given the very short construction time for the ship and the very urgent demand for these carriers at the time, I decided that these factors would lead to internal strapping. I believe iron bolts would be used because the boltheads would be under the external hull planking. Copper would be very expensive for this and would not be appropriate against the dissimilar iron. I believe these would be the usual malleable iron bolts probably with a head on the iron side, driven through slightly undersized holes and peened over on the outer end. These would be flush like other bolting. The strap and any bolthead projection would have had to be set low enough to allow planking to lay flat on the frames. I do not know how crossing of the straps was handled to accommodate this. A long answer to a short question, but this was one of the more interesting decisions made on the model and lacking real data, assumptions had to be made. The model strapping is thin enough not to require mortising of the frames - thankfully. Ed

Can't help there, Randy. I sized all my own pieces from large stock as described in the book. Ed