Elia

Hello again fellow shipwrights.
 
Today I actually started with the conning tower, hurray 
I started with the crew hatch tubes, the AA gun tubes and the periscope tubes and the snorkel exhaust and intake tubes.   At least I still have more access to the bottom part of the boat.  In order to secure the crew hatch tubes I had to cut a hole in the deck structure to get to the pressure hull.  This'll give me more meat" (wood) to cement them securely.  For the AA gun mount tube I had to cut their holes also to the pressure hull but in the center of it I have to install a smaller diameter tube for the retractable gun mount.  I went all the way down to the vertical false keel for this.  This arrangement will act like a hydraulic lift.  Instead of an other brass tube to slide inside I made a wooden dowel instead.  This seemed easier to attach the gun mount platform to then using brass.   
 
I have to wait with completely finishing allthese tubes with the hinges, lids and ladders for the crew hatch tubes and the "hydraulic lift" with gun platform and gun mount, hinges and lid till the framing for the con is done to the point of being ready to receive the deck.  That way I can know with certainty how long these tubes must be and gives me access for the epoxy cementing job.  
 
I'll use the same procedure for the snorkel system exhaust, intake and the periscopes.  They all retract, at least that's the plan.  There is also an antenna mast to consider.  Now I'm coming to a lot of fiddly detail work.  Well, at least it's a start and will be slow going.  I used the detail drawings of the con that Remco send to make the drawings to my scale.  That way I can just measure right from my drawings.  
 
I might as well go on record and tell y'all that I owe Remco and Gino den Ridder a ton of gratitude for their help.  Remco being able and willing to go to the Navy Archive in the Hague and search for drawings I have a need of.  Thank you both gentlemen.
 
I also cemented a small strip of brass behind the anchor cowl.  It was just too delicate end with playing with the anchor it buckled easily.  I also painted the anchor flat black, the pics show some shine on it but in actuality it looks really nice.  Y'all come and visit   
 
Well, here are a few pics of today's work.
 

The completed and now painted anchor being hauled up.
 

The anchor almost ready to slide into it's little "house."
 

Here is the anchor safely stowed away.
 

All three hatch tubes for the con are cut to some oversize and stuck into position.  The tubes for the AA guns is another matter.  They are of a larger diameter and I could try making them myself from some brass sheet or use the 0.7 mm styrene I just received.  The dilemma is how to attach the hinge hardware.  I could solder the hinges to a strip of 0.1 brass shim stock and then cement that to the outside of the styrene tube.  I have to do some thinking about that. 
 
Cheers,

Thanks to the many who visited my shipyard and clicked on "like."
 
@ John (texxn5), Thank you for your appreciation and kind words!  I'm looking forward to seeing your harpoons.  Looks like you are making the shafts from wood, good idea.  yeah, it would be nice to live closer buy.  I would also like to visit so many folks on MSW personally and see their work in reality.
 
@ Remco, thanks my friend, it kinda worked okay after a few tries.  That 0.1 mm brass shim stock is rather flimsy to work with.
 
@ Daniel, Actually, it does have some heft to it.  A chain for the anchor - - - well, actually that black rope is a very strong steel cable  .  This boat has a main anchor that drops down from the forward keel and that sucker is heavy and big, it's called a mushroom anchor.  This side anchor is not meant to secure the boat in heavy weather.  Both anchors had steel cables that wound around a drum under the forward deck structure.  That's why these boats had an upturned forward deck to house the dual winch.  There was really no space for a chain winch and storage for a chain.  
 

This is the anchor winch with two drums, one for the main anchor and one for the side anchor.
 

This is a pic from the KXVIII Dutch sub in build dock.  You can see the anchor on the ground with the cable attached to it.
 
@ Popeye, thank you Popeye for your compliment.  Not only chipping paint but also banging dents in the ballast tank plating.  Yup, I had some very good examples to work with, thanks to Remco sending me some nice pics.
 
@ John (Lad), thanks you John, it worked out okay.
 
Cheers,

Thanks to all who came and visited my dockyard and your "like" votes.
 
Today we reached a milestone of sorts.  The anchor is finished and the cowling is cemented on and primed.  I also painted the inside of the anchor "house" dark grey.
 
It was getting late and to let the primer cure, and it was close to quitting time anyhow, 1700 hours.  So I went inside and had a well deserved brew.  I showed the anchor to the Admiral and she wants one on a necklace - - - hmmmm - - - not    No, she really likes it and that's a good sign 
 
In trying to fit the anchor into it's little house I had to remove some more wood from the inside and  in the process rubbed some of the paint off the hull.  No matter how careful I was, well - - - stuff happens.  This is no problem at all, it's just the paint and that area will be painted green anyhow.  I finally got the anchor to slide in effortlessly, like it knew it knew it  belonged there.  That made me a happy camper.
Can't wait to paint that little sucker flat black - - - tomorrow and stow it out of the way..
 
NOTE, The blank pic locations cannot be reinstalled because somehow I must have forgotten to [ut them into my photo file.  I do have them in my Word doc but they cannot be transferred to this post.  Edited 05/ to/2014. 
 
Now I'm close to painting the green on the topside, whoopee - - -

The completed anchor, unprimed and painted.  Well, okay, it has a little battle damage looks like   
 

The completed anchor, unprimed and painted., from another angle.
file:///Users/PeterV/Desktop/Picture%20clipping.pictClipping
Here we see the anchor stowed in its little "house."  There is just enough room for it and it's deployment.
 

I have cemented the anchor cowling on and applied some epoxy putty to the front for hydrodynamic flow. It's not metal but if yuns don't tell I won't either    Looks okay from ten thousand feet we used to say in the airplane business   
 

 

 

I couldn't resist letting anchor, now primed, hanging down from it's cable.  Ah yes, an unorthodox way but so what     
 
Cheers,

Ed,
 
Love it.  Beautiful work.  I particularly like photo YA016 04 showing the emergence of the outer mold line bevel.
 
And in your intro/history paragraph - that is a great story.  Yes, where is Hollywood?  That sounds like a great period piece with action, drama, and adventure.
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

O.C. - I have Under Siege - that movie was filmed mostly on ALABAMA and a small portion on MISSOURI. NEW JERSEY did not play a part I the movie.
 
Jud - I also was on a Fletcher class can - USS STODDARD (DD-566) - 66-68, Westpac 66-67. We had the single 5"/38 mounts and the 3 open 3"/50 mounts that were replacements for the orig. 40mm mounts. I was 3rd loader and then mount captain on MT. 32 and then 33 before I was transferred to a Sumner class Fram 1 can.
 
Hank

Ready to go??? I won't go into it, but NO, N-O-T quite yet. But, getting all the ducks in a row. Pull up a chair, Aye!!
 
Our one and only WesPac cruise was Sept. 68 - April 69. We were scheduled to depart Long Beach in Sept. 69 but Nixon cut 50 ships in August and we headed the list. It seems the main sticking point at the Paris Peace Talks was one item - NEW JERSEY - the reason being they had absolutely NOTHING that could stop us and it was the deal breaker. So, we didn't return, the talks continued and history took it's course. I know this first hand from Capt. Snyder (later R. Adm. Snyder) our C.O. at the time. He was relieved, and Capt. Penniston took us to Bremerton in Sept. 69-Dec.69 for decomm. End of story. 
 
What you probably heard were the 8" shells from either NEWPORT NEWS or ST PAUL. One of them relieved us and alternated up until one of them had her 8" turret problems. NEW JERSEY was the only battleship reactivated for Vietnam Service.
 
Later,
 
Hank
 

Last night was mainly shop area cleanup, actual modeling was off the table. Tonight (Tues.) I plan to get the bow section assembled to the hull and puttied.
 
 I did, however, take a few photos of the hull pieces:
 
 

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

Cannons – Blackening
 
Using the process outlined in many places on MSW, I chemically blackened the guns.
 
Maybe some minor variations from what others use for mixture ratios or the duration of each step in the process, but pretty much the same drill:
Silver solder trunnions in place Acetone bath for grease removal (15 – 20 Minutes) Muriatic acid bath for surface etching (15 – 20 Minutes) Thorough rinsing with cold water Blackening bath, 5 parts Birchwood Casey Brass Black, 1 part distilled water (approx. 2 – 4 minutes) Thorough rinsing in cold water Following a few minutes of air drying, buff with a soft cloth The end result, depending on the lighting, looks like a pretty attractive deep, gun metal gray.
 
While I think they look kind of nice as is, the shine is a bit overwhelming for 1:64 scale.  Therefore, the final step will be to seal them with a coat of clear, matte lacquer.
 
The result of the matte finish treatment can be seen on the gun at the far right.  With the reduced light reflection, it now looks more black.
 
Onward to making some carriage bolts, eyebolts, and ringbolts...
 
Robert

Thanks, Daniel, Martin, Albert & Tim
 
Onwards to the waterway, it's typical shape is hard to see in the pictures. 
 

In hindsight it was better to work front to back, now I had a hard time to fit the forward portion of the waterway between the closing part at the stem. btw this part looks a lot like a B-2 stealth bomber, would Northrop have peeked at the 18th century ship design before they drafted this 20th century machine 
 


Using a compass to copy the shape of the waterway to the first plank wasn't possible. The compass was to big, so a simple washer did the trick 
 

 
Remco

John,
 
So true. Excellent detailing and explanation, Ed.
 
Elia

Hallelujah!
 
I think I finally broke the etched brass spell that's been standing in the way of progress on the Saginaw! 
 
I've been kind of down and out of doing a lot of shipmodeling the past couple weeks due to a pinched nerve or something in my neck and shoulder. For a while, I wasn't getting much sleep due to pain and that's left me tired all day – too much so to feel like sitting down and getting any work done with neck and shoulder pain. It's gotten much better since then, and while it's not totally gone, I've been able to get some things done.
 
Being a bit short of project motivation for a while, I decided to do a little technique research and worked a bit on just one aspect of photoetching brass, and just practiced prepping the metal and getting the artwork onto it. I did a bit of experimentation on exposure times under a lamp and took observations. Eventually, I worked my way back up to actually etching the brass and today I made the pieces that would form the basis for the circular skylights on the Saginaw.
 
 
 

Here's the exposed photoresist, all nice and cleanly adhered to the metal. This was the first major victory. I'd had problems with bubbled in the photoresist, what I thought was dirt and such. I found that keeping the metal and the photoresist very wet while sliding it into position made a big difference. Also, in the exposure process, the metal was getting hot and that was affecting the photoresist's adhesion and all. I found that getting the right sized lamp, getting the right distance and exposure time helped. Also, I found it best to let the project cool off after exposing one side, but before exposing the other side.
 
To improve evenness in the exposure, I also found a solar powered display turntable. I set the project on that under the lamp to expose the photoresist and the light powered turntable kept the whole thing slowly rotating and evening out the exposure across the work piece.
 
 

I made sure to warm up the etchant by placing the bottle in a bath of hot water. Even with the very chilly garage, this improves the efficiency of the etchant. I also made sure to start with a fresh bottle of etchant, and I'm very carefully making sure to mark the usage and track it very carefully. The resulting etch took less than 10 minutes. I made sure to remove the work piece at one point and rinse it, removing spent etchant with a brush, before returning it to the etchant bath to resume the process.
 
 

The pieces for the skylight were cut from the sheet and cleaned up. At this point, all the etching work has been done and now it's just a matter of using the parts to assemble them into something useful, and hoping I designed the part correctly.
 
 

In this case, the pieces are bent to shape and I cut off some thin rings from a 15/32" brass tube on my Sherline lathe. I glued these into place using a little thick CA in a couple spots to hold the pieces in alignment. I then glued each spoke to the ring using thin CA.
 
 

Finally, I trimmed off the excess lengths of spokes and filed them neatly. These will fit on top of the circular coamings I turned for them long ago.
 
Next step is to paint them and add the clear acetate windows. That will be a bit of a task, but after all the pain I've gone through relearning and redeveloping good technique for the brass etching, this should be a breeze!
 
I'm not sure if I'm going to try to put protective bars over the skylight windows or not. At this scale, they'd probably be around .005" and nearly invisible. If I put them on, I would mount them vertically and there would be maybe 3 per wedge-shaped window. I'm not sure what material I'd have that would be thin enough to work other than nylon fly tying thread.
 
Anyway, it's good to make progress on the Saginaw again. It's been neglected for far too long!
 
Clare

Keith,
My book has the white spine, and blue cloth with a black ship silhouette on the actual hardcover.  
 
 
Dan,
That's a great idea, but, unfortunately, I don't have a table saw, so I'm going to have to do it the hard way!   I appreciate the "beware" caution!
 
 
Robert,
Here's the illustration in Chapelle's book.  (If I am violating copyright I will remove it, but I think this is okay to show--in the manner of a quote.)  It is not printed to scale, in the book--
 

 
 
It's the upper boat I am modeling.   I scanned this image and brought it into a drafting program (AutoCAD, which I have at work).   There I scaled it to actual size, though I could just have easily scaled it to my model scale of 1:48.
 
 
Then, over the body plan--
 

 
 
I traced the section lines, labeled 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, B, D, F, and H, and then mirrored each of them, copying the resulting pair of section lines off to another area of my "drawing", where I completed the outer rectangle of each template. I was careful to indicate (by the "notch" on the templates) the location of the sheer line, so I can transfer that to the plug as well.  
 
I also mirrored the half-breadth plan, to give me the template that I glued on the top of the plug--
 

 
I then printed this out to scale, on card stock.
 
You could do this without drafting software--scale the illustration on a copier, trace and mirror the section lines by hand, etc.
 
Hope this helps. 
 
Ron

A couple of shots of the plug on deck--just to see how the boat will fit in--
 

 

 
 
In between sessions of shaping the plug, I worked on the hawse holes' inner bolster or chock.
 
I cut away a portion of the waterway, because I wasn't confident that the bolster pieces would fit well on top of the waterway, and under the hawse holes--
 

 
 
Here are the two rough pieces in place--
 

 
 
They are complicated to shape.  They are angled at the deck, a compound angle at the stem, a curve has to be sanded into them (I opted not to try and steam bend them), and the hollows have to align with the hawse holes.
 
Here the starboard piece is about halfway through shaping--
 

 
And here both are done--
 

 
 
I was not happy to see the gap at the stem.  It surprised me because the rough pieces fit well.  The gap developed as I sanded the bulwark curve into the bolster pieces, and as they "sat back" into the bulwark curve, it was just enough to cause that gap--I never touched the stem angle, or the aft ends.  The gap will be hidden by the bowsprit, but I may put a little sawdust paste in there anyway. 
 
Ron

New Cockpit Part 2
 
The second cutter was not quite a successful as the first so a bit of handwork was needed to clean up the round, Basically I made it a bit too small.

 
I shaped a piece of .008" shim-stock to the aft curves on the deck hole to act a a platform to lay the boards while they set.
 

 
After they set one edge was trimmed on the disk sander .

 
This method is working well enough so on to the forward curves.
 
Michael
 
 

Just to bring the narrative up to date: Lettie G Howard is back from her four month refit in Main and is tied up once again on pier 17 in lower Manhattan-right by the Brooklyn Bridge- with her spars back in place. in Main a new keelson was built, made of purpleheart. This month the South Street Seaport Museum announced a partnership for the vessel with the New York Harbor School and she is expected to be sailing again in the spring. So things are looking up for Lettie. The museum is still of VERY shaky legs though and things could still get dire, but this time last year the damage from the hurricane made it seam like the whole seaport district could have been bulldozed and today there is a plan for Lettie's future and skilled, tenacious people in place who are determined to make things work down there.

I've been working on the cutter.  I should say, the plug for the cutter, which I'll use to help with planking and forming the frames.
 
I bought a piece of aspen, at a big box hardware store, and, based on an illustration in W.E. May's book, drew some templates which I printed on card stock--
 

 
 
I needed two layers of the aspen to make the necessary thickness.  These were clamped and glued--
 

 
 
At this point, I found a better cutter plan--a 20'-4" cutter illustrated by Chapelle, (described in the previous post), and I drew up a new set of templates--
 

 
 
I glued the plan to the aspen block, and I began cutting the templates out--
 

 
 
After cutting and sanding the block to the outline of the plan, I began shaping the plug.  This was done by scrubbing on sandpaper, using a knife, and mostly with a rounded sanding block--
 

 
 
I should have made some photos between the previous one and these.   I now worked on one template "station" at a time.  I started at the dead flat location, sanding it close to the template, then moving one template at a time forward.  When the forward templates were roughly good, I made my way aft.   After they were all roughed out, I went back to the beginning and fine tuned the shape, again, one template at a time.  After that, I sanded the overall shape, using progressively finer sandpaper.  Here's how it ended up--
 

 

 
The faint markings on the side give an indication of the approximate location of the sheer.  When done, the actual cutter will be substantially shallower than the plug.
 
 
The shape looks good to me.  Now I need to cut a slot in the plug for the keel, (and probably the frames) and then start building the backbone of the cutter.
 
 
Ron

New Cockpit part 1
 
I have begun building the new cockpit, the first task is to prepare the mahogany boards that will form the walls of it.I have chosen 1 1/4 inch as the thickness of the boards and the widths will vary slightly from the corners and the straight sections.
 
The first picture shows the new boards rough cut to double the length of the depth of the cockpit over the tracing of the opening in the deck.
 

 
The second picture shows the first shaping of the corner boards these will be similar to the edge planking that some cedar canoes are made with a matching convex and concave edge to wrap around the curve.
 

 
I turned a convex shape on the end of some 3/8 drill rod then rough ground the cutter edges I made it a four flute then hardened and tempered it, honed the edges with a carbide stone in the Dremel tool.
 
The set up was done with the mill, in order to push the board I used the push board from the table saw by cutting a slot in the push board that was the same set up as the thickness of the boards I slipped a strip of 1/16th styrene into the slot and added a strip of 10 thou sheet to make it tight.
 

 
This allowed me to add good even pressure and keep my fingers away from the cutter and the best thing was only having to make one pass.
 

 
I will cut enough for all the corners then make a corresponding cutter for the convex side of the corner boards.
 
I will tongue and groove the straight boards
 
Michael
 
 
 
 

Francis Pritt has taken another couple of small steps forward.  The basic beam for the stern framing has now been attached with its doublers across the rudder trunking and the first two after frames are ready for shaping.  Now she feels like she's about to become a ship!
 
I won't be in the museum again until New Years Day, but in the meantime I need to construct a building frame and get some more wood cut for the frames.
 
John
 

Another small update.
 
Yesterday I was able to get the planking rabbet cut on both sides plus some shallow grooves forward to locate the cant frames.  Unfortunately our friendly electrician at the museum has done so well in providing extra lighting at the model makers desk that I found it impossible to get good shadow across the model to show up the rabbet line properly, but you can see it at the stern if you look for it.
 
I really must try and find some additional time for the Pritt or it will take the next decade to get anywhere.
 
John
 

Well, only a very small update again.  I seem to have spent most of my day today running around doing almost everything except model making.  However I did manage to get the stem on, so after cleaning up the basic backbone, the next job will be to cut the rabbets and then make the frame extension for the overhanging counter before making a framing jig and starting to give her some bones.
 
John
 

A bit of progress has taken place.  Frames are made and partially faired.  Couple strakes have gone on which has beefed up the rigidity of the framing a lot.  I did not do much fairing inboard down low as the lower hold is filled with cement for a good portion of the hull.   Still debating about putting in the lower deck and cabin details.  If I decide to cut out sections of the framing to expose areas inboard, at least the area where the frames are removed will get some finishing work.   With Effie having gone through several transitions, her inboard layout also change a lot.  I am probably staying with how she orginally came off the ways, so her layout inboard was simpler and certainly more austere than in later modifications.  Keel, stem, deadwood, keelson are Castello box, the frames are poplar.  Poplar is normally a bit soft for my own taste, but as all the frames are doubled, and the grain is running opposite on each pair, I had no breakage and the fairing has shown them to be pretty nice to work with, so far. 
Allan
 
 

I realized that the body plan did not account for the step and deck elevation difference from frame 24 and aft so I modified the body plan and frame drawings.  I also found that the clamp for the weather deck beams on the cross section plans at stations 5 and 9  give dimensions of 3"X9" but the individual cross section drawings show two different sizes.  I do not know if the given dimensions are correct or the drawn dimensions.  To further complicate matters, an expanded view in the cross section plans shows a  strake labeled as a sheer strake fayed to the inside of the frames and a clamp fayed to this sheer strake.  Neither of these is dimensioned individually and the cross sections do not show this lamination.  A drawing of the framing in the forward half the hull does appear to show this lamination.  
 
Several more frames have been raised, so she is starting to take shape.  I printed the frame drawings on pressure sensitive label paper, then cut each frame out and place it on the wood.  It is then a matter of cutting them out and sanding them close to the lines before peeling off the paper.  Brand name  label material is a bit expensive, but store brand is much less costly and works the same. 
 
Allan

I drew the individual frames based on the body plans.  First  I aligned the profile drawing that shows the station lines with the framing drawing.  I could then identify the frame numbers with the station line numbers which otherwise had no correlation.  I had saved the L ofC drawings in TIF so they had decent resolution and could be inserted into a drawing using TurboCad. Once inserted they were checked and adjusted to be sure they were at the proper scale on the drawing.    I used the body plan to draw the frames at the station lines which I assumed are correctly shaped on the drawing.  I then divided the space between station line frames for the appropriate number of frames between stations (usually four or two).  I realize they would probably not  be spaced evenly on the body plan in real life, but at this scale and cutting them a tad heavy, they will fair nicely, using the frames on the station lines as the guides.  Besides,  it was much easier than drafting each frame using the more traditional, and accurate, methods used by many of our friends here.
 
The frames are doubled, each being 6 inches wide (12" total width) and moulded 7 ½  inches.  Other than at the floors, the moulded dimension does not appear to change, just remains 7 ½” for most of its height.   I used   7 ½” circles along the outboard edge of the frame as guide for placing the circles, then drew the inboard edge of the frames "connecting the dots" and maintaining the line parallel to the outboard line.   The frames lie on 24-inch centers, thus there is always 12 inches space between the frames.
 
Rather than building the frames floor and futtock, I used  poplar sheets that I planed to 1/8 inch thick.   These are  glued together with the grain running 90 degrees to each other.  Lots of glue, clamps and weights are used to be sure there were no air pockets.  Total cost for the wood for the frames was about $35.  Had I used Castello boxwood, my favorite, it would have been a much higher cost even if I built the frames futtock by futtock to conserve wood and costs.  The doubled frames are still quite strong, even using the softer wood.  With the grains running opposite to each other, it easy to see that they are doubled as on the actual vessel.   I set the belt sander table to 92 degrees to give the bottom of each frame the angle needed to have them at 90 degrees to the table and account for the 2 degree drag of the keel.
 
I marked the location of each full frame on the keel while laying  the keel on the framing drawing. The drawings give no indication of the use of spacers between the frames at the keel or elsewhere, but I will use them regardless to give support at the keel and a rigid frame work.  These are all 1/4X 1/4X 1/8.  The drawings show that there is a keelson which will add a lot of support as well.   A square is used to be sure the frames are perpendicular to the building board as each is raised.  
 
Hope some of this makes sense.
 
Allan

I have not personally built nor have I seen a fully framed model of a Grand Banks fishing schooner so I thought it would a fun project to try.   There is a lot of information available on the Effie M. Morrissey, including a reasonable set of plans that are available from the Library of Congress, she is available to visit in her modern configuration, and there are folks in Massachusetts that have been more than willing to answer questions,  so she seemed to me to be a good choice.   
 The following is a compilation of her history from the internet, “so it must be true!” 
She was designed by George McClain and was the last fishing schooner built for the Wonson Fish Company.  She was built with white oak and yellow pine and took four months to complete.  She was launched February 1, 1894.  Her hull was painted black and her first skipper was William Edward Morrissey, who named her after his daughter Effie Maude Morrissey.  She fished out of Gloucester for eleven years then began fishing out of Nova Scotia.
 In  1914, ownership moved to Brigus, Newfoundland where Harold Bartlett used her as a fishing and coasting vessel along the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts.
In 1925 Harold Bartlett sold her to his cousin, Captain Bob Bartlett, an Arctic explorer.  Bob Bartlett had an auxiliary engine installed and reinforced the hull for use in the Arctic. In 1926 with  financial help from publisher George Putnam , Bartlett began 20 years of exploration using the Effie.
When Captain Bartlett passed away in 1946, Effie was sold to the Jackson brothers to carry mail and passengers in an inter-island trade in the South Pacific.   On their voyage to the Pacific she developed problems at sea, forcing the crew to return to New York.  On  December 2, 1947, the boat caught fire  while docked at the boat basin in Flushing, New York.
The schooner was repaired and sold to Louisa Mendes in Massachusetts at which time she entered the packet trade  in a trans-Atlantic crossing to Cape Verde. Upon reaching the islands, Captain  Mendes  re-registered the schooner under the name Ernestina, after his own daughter, and used her in inter-island trade. Ernestina made a number of transatlantic voyages and fell into disrepair at Cape Verde, where she remained until the late sixties when there was interest  in the U.S. to save her. In 1977 the people of Cape Verde made a gift of Ernestina to the U. S.
In August 1982 her hull was completely rebuilt and she sailed to the United States. 
In August 1988 the schooner made a return trip to Brigus, Newfoundland, on the 113th anniversary of  Capt. Bob Bartlett’s  birth.
Ernestina was designated as a National Historic Landmark i with restoration being completed in 1994, and in 1996 became a part of the  New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park.  She is currently owned   by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
 Effie  is the oldest surviving  Banks fishing schooner; the only surviving 19th century Gloucester-built fishing schooner; one of two remaining examples of the Fredonia-style schooners (the other being the Lettie G. Howard,) the only offshore example of that type; and one of two sailing Arctic exploration vessels left afloat in the United States.
 
This is the fourth model going onto the building board in the attached photos.  The model will be based on how she looked in 1894.  In the photos you can see that the  keel has a piece temporarily attached so it will sit at about a 2 degree angle to match the "drag" and make it easier to check that the frames are 90 degrees to the water lines (building board plane.)  I am using Castello box for the keel and  deadwood.  The plans do not show a shelf along the bearding line of the fore or aft frames.  Looking at photos of a rebuild of the schooner Virginia, there are no steps nor shelf.  I have no idea if there was one on the original build.  More to come, I hope.
 
Allan