Elia

continued....

The build log reconstruction begins...
 
It has been a long time since I’ve started a new sailing ship build, with my sailing ship model (Oneida) taking about 4 years to complete.  Ever since building Smuggler, an 1870’s mackerel seiner from Gloucester, I’ve been smitten by 19th and 20th century American fishing schooners.  There are a number builds, both in progress and completed, that have been inspiring to me – Bluenose builds, a couple of Ben Lathams, a scratch build of Columbia, and even a few of the “yachty” Americas.  Jim Lefever, who’s impressive Benjamin Latham build was a great inspiration for me, provided me with a list of great reading references on American fishing schooners.  After receiving a number of them as gifts, and reading through them, I knew my next build would have to be another fishing schooner.  I have to admit right up front that Arethusa, an early 1900s fishing schooner and the topic of this build, was never called the “Goddess of Gloucester”.  She was a goddess in Greek mythology.  The schooner was named after one of Thomas McManus's daughters.  I just thought that 'Goddess of Gloucester' fit to her will and made for a catchy name for this log.  Arethusa, the schooner, was big, beautiful, and had a colorful history – sounds interesting to me.  Enough about my motivations and ramblings….let’s get on with the ship.     Arethusa was designed by Thomas F. McManus in 1907 and built by James and Tarr in Essex, Massachusetts, in 1909.  She was what is termed a knockabout schooner.  Unlike traditional schooners, with bowsprits (and jibbooms, and flying jibbooms), knockabout schooners had an extended bow and no bowsprit.  The extended bow essentially placed the fore topmast stay at the same position as on a traditional schooner.  With that configuration of stay location the crew wouldn’t be required to climb out on the typically poorly maintained footropes aside the bowsprit in order to perform tasks involving the sails and rigging.  This was a Thomas McManus innovation, based on his observations and discussions with fisherman and owners, and was meant to reduce sailing crew injuries and deaths.   I am using Howard I. Chapelle’s lines drawing and sail plan of Arethusa from his “American Fishing Schooners”, plate 120 and figure 30.  “American Fishing Schooners” (AFS) has a great deal of detail in it’s appendix on most of the features of late 19th century and early 20th century schooners, and it is these I will use to build the details of the model.  If anyone knows of more details about Arethusa I would be most grateful to learn of them.  I have contacted Mystic Seaport Museum about their collection but found that while Arethusa is listed in their collection they don’t have any more information than that (little) which is shown in AFS.   Following are some excerpts from “Thomas F. McManus and the American Fishing Schooners”, by W.M.P. Dunne, on Arethusa: James and Tarr “...completed her on 25 September 1907.  Fifteen feet longer than the Pontiac, the Arethusa was, nevertheless, a deep, short ended knockabout, with the typically knuckled straight run of the keel (although with less drag), that Tom favored in this class, and more tumblehome.  Once again he experimented with the rig.  He stepped the foremast farther forward with the masts further apart.  Right from the start, the big fisherman earned a reputation as a speedster.  Captain Clayton Morrisey, the Arethusa’s first skipper waxed poetic: “She’s the slickest bit of wood that ever went down to Bay of Islands.  Nothing can touch her and an eight-year-old girl’s little finger is stout enough to spin the wheel no matter how fresh it breezes.”  “Can she sail?” exclaimed Captain Morrisey, opening his eyes as if he didn’t quite believe his ears.  “Why, when we were coming up from the herring grounds she cut out her 13 knots an hour for six consecutive hours.”     “We’d see a blotch of smoke away ahead on the horizon and in a little while would make out a tramp steamer bound our way.  Pretty soon the Arethusa was kiting alongside the tramp and then we’d lose sight of her astern.  She did that trick a number of times.”     In fact, with Clayt Morrissey at the helm in 1912, the Arethusa would easily outrun the Canadian Dominion fisheries’ patrol steamer Fiona, “whose commander opined the Arethusa was violating the three-mile limit.”           “At the beginning of 1921, soon after the new [prohibition] law was in place, Captain William F. “Bill” McCoy, a sometime Daytona Beach, Florida, boatbuilder, guided his fully-laden McManus schooner, the Henry L. Marshall, past the Tybee Lighthouse and up the river to Savannah, where, in the dark of the night, he discharged not fish, but 1,500 cases of illicit liquor.  With the proceeds, McCoy replaced himself with a new skipper on board the Marshall and went to Gloucester in search of the boat of his dreams, Tom’s speedy Arethusa.  Although McCoy had fished the Marshall legitimately until after the Eighteenth Amendment dried out the country, he had always thirsted for Arethusa.  With Gloucester feeling the effect of postwar economic contraction, the owners of the fourteen-year-old schooner…..sold her to McCoy in April 1921.  The Arethusa became a rum runner, a fast freighter of bootleg spirits.  McCoy renamed her Tomoka, added a bowsprit so she could carry two jibs, jumbo and jib topsail-and a lot of liquor (she had the capacity of 6,000 cases of illegal alcohol).     He brought the Tomoka to anchor just outside the then three mile limit of United States waters, but well within site of the beach.  He soon began a thriving business with New York and New Jersey bootleggers…. “  [this is where the term ‘the real McCoy’ came from]   Arethusa later returned to fishing, and was lost off Halifax in November 1929.  Her particulars are:   Designer                Thomas F. McManus Builder                    Tarr and James Launch date                25 September 1907 Gross tonnage                157 tons Molded length at caprail of        127’ – 3”     Molded beam                25’ – 0” Molded depth                13’ – 2” Registered dimensions        114.0’ x 25.6’ x 12.5’

Ed hopefully the next set of pictures will clarify my description. Mark well it is not a complete machine job there is some soldering however I did not want to anneal the brass that has the bearings braces so opted for soft solder which will be more than adequate for the oil pan.
 
The first picture shows the material being removes that will become the hollow areas'some parts were machined by the numbers and the bulk was just milled away by eyeballing it.
 

 
Next the 1/32 thick sheet was annealed and curved over a steel bar.
 

 
It took a while to get it fitted cleanly, the flat area on the middle bearing wall is to allow the oil to pass through to equalize both chambers.
 

 
The next picture shows the assembled parts cleaned up a bit getting ready to do the soldering.
 

 
Resting the upper part of the crankcase to see the overall scope of the whole engine.
 

 
In the next picture you can see the central cross member.
 

 

 
There is still a fair bit of cleaning up to do but I am generally pleased with the progress.
 
Again thanks to all who have looked in and pressed the like button.
 
Michael
 
 

Set up the table of offsets to machine the curved inner surface of the oil pan, and after two hours of cranking the block back and forth the shape slowly emerged. I lowered the cutter .010" for each pass.  Next I will cut away the negative areas where the cranks will rotate and either side of the bottom of the crankcase then flip it over to finish off the bearing recesses. then a brass shell will get soldered onto the cross members, creating the hollow shape.
 

 
I made it this way because I was stumped as to how to get the inside shapes of the oil pan, I suppose I could have set up a boring bar and scooped out the recesses the only issue with doing it that way was being able to have an opening underneath the central bearing beam to allow the oil to move about in the bottom and equalize rather than being isolated to each recess. the other advantage to making it this way is is that I will be confident that the wall thickness will be consistent.
 
Thanks for the likes.
 
Michael
 
 

Thank you all for the very encouraging comments they are really appreciated., I have been doing a lot of calculating this morning because it looks like the gears for the timing are 64 teeth and 32 teeth respectively. I do not have dividing plates for my rotary table and so it makes sense to use divisions of 360 for making the gears. all the standard gears that are in the ball park for the diameters that I am locked into are not the correct ratio of 2:1. 64DP comes the closest,.
 
I have decided to bite the bullet and make them to a DP of 75 which gives me 60 teeth and 30 teeth for the diameters that I need so now I also need to make the gear cutters for both sizes which means a number 3 cutter and a number 2 cutter. My 48 DP cutters which I made a few years ago are just too big.
 
There is a great article in the Model Engineer October 1 1971 issue by D J Unwin on how to make gear cutters with all the formulas for making them. 
each cutter require a separate tool to make the cutter, They are simple tools but it is an extra step in the chain.
 
Thanks also for all the likes 

Thanks for all the likes and encouraging comments.
 
I had to make another cutter to make the recesses in the main flanges
 

 
I have already drilled the holes to accept the camshaft bearings they are larger because I need to be able to clear the raised cams.
 

 
An overall shot of the progress to date.
 

 
A close up of the new cutter, I needed a long reach with a small diameter cutting edge to fit next to the body of the case. it is hardened drill rod the diameter at the cutting face is .086" The bolt holes are .060 and the case it tapped ready for the 0x80 bolts.
 

 
Michael

After doing a few experiments with the valve stem springs and keeper, I have increased the diameter of the valve-stem to .060" inches leaving the narrow section for the keeper at .046"
 
This was one of the early tests using the .046 stem the spring is .078 in diameter and the wire is .011. the keeper was a bit fiddly. I can safely increase the stem diameter and still maintain the .078 diameter springs the length of the springs are ..259" presently I am learning how to wind them so that there is a double coil at each end with the wider spaced turns in between. I have found that it is better to make them this way rather than winding a length then stretching it out to form the compression spring.
 

 
The crank case is progressing well at this time also. there is a fair bit of hand filing to finish up the corners because I do not have the requisite end mills to do all this work on the milling machine.
 

 
this next picture shows the flats on the sides of the liners slipped through the top of the upper part of the crankcase.
 

 
that's it for now.
 
Michael

Si, thanks for the kind words, Denis I like your new avatar, The song "Imagine" is my favourite song of the last century.
 
I started working on the crankcase it is cut from a block of brass that a friend gave me, it was given to him by somebody who melted down a bunch of odd bits of brass. it is hard and fine grained. The block was about 5 inches long and 3 wide and about 1 3/8 thick looked like it was cast in a mini bread pan. The brass cut nicely in the cut off saw.
 

 
This is the progress on the flats that will slot unto the crankcase hole. this will ensure that the sleeves remain seated, this is because I am not familiar with the differential expansion of the brass and stainless when the engine warms up. I doubt that there will be any problems so this is just to keep my mind at ease.
 

 
Michael

Thank you all for the likes.
Brian, Jack, Mark  thanks for the kind comments.
Ed the more I think about laminating the ribbands the more I like the idea.
 
I discovered that at this small scale there is little room for error. When I removed the support plugs today after finishing the shaping and a few more holes for the water inlet and inspection hole in the front side, I saw that the port holes had in fact penetrated the wall of the water jacket. the space inside the jacket is large enough that I decided to add a plate that will get sweated in place.
 
the first picture shows the two crescent shaped holes from the port drill breaking through the wall.
 

 
The sleeve insert is machined from some  hard 3/4 brass rod the wall thickness was .020"  I sliced off two rings then cut those further to just fit enough that the curve is slightly greater than half the diameter inside. By doing it this way they are snug enough that they do not fall out.
 

 
The next picture shows the inspection hole which still need cleaning up and the cylinder liner positioned to show the water circulation cavity. I will make the base plate before the liners are finalized. It has occurred to me that I will need a pretty good filter system to keep any debris out of the water system.
 

 
The next photo shows the top of the cylinder with the head removed the holes still need to be reamed 13/32 for the stainless liners. I am still contemplating making these two parts able to be separated I think I have enough space to add some small long bolts up through the water jacked that way they would be hidden.
 

 

 
I think I need a break from metalwork and do a little whittling of the boxwood stem and sternpost.
 
Michael
 
 

Thank you for all the likes, And Bob and Steve for your comments, its been a long couple of days fiddling with some finicky numbers, I had to make a couple of small modifications to my Mill Drill so that I could use some dial verniers as read out dials for the table travel. I had already set up the depth one a few years ago and because I have slip dials on the mill I have been able to manage up until now . However machining these tiny dimensions with a centre Zero was challenging to say the least. so now I can clip in the vernier and use it as a poor mans DRO (digital read out, only this is an Analog read out )
First I cut a piece of 1 inch square brass and then re cut it to 1.375 x 1 x .625 inches the first task was to bore the main holes to form the inside of the water jacket shell these are .625 diameter and almost 5/8 deep. then bored the holes that will mate with the combustion chamber in the top piece. After the big hole were machined I flipped it over to reduce some of the metal and then machines the small holes for the valves and water passages to the top part of the head.
Next I made a couple of support keepers out of some 3/4 diameter brass rod to fill the bore holes and reduced the diameter at the top to use as location stubs for the top part this also allowed me to thread some 10 - 32 cap screws through the spark plug holes  to hold the whole shebang together. after the inlet and exhaust ports were machined which seemed to take forever, I was finally able to get on with some finish filing.
 
 

 
I like to have a ground safe edge on some of the files it really helps to keep things square
 

 
The parts are beginning to look like the top of the engine.
 

 
The valve rods will be fabricated from some largish sewing needles these are .046 inches in diameter which works perfectly, they obviously need some work yet.
 

 
Time for a break.
 
Michael

I have been doing some research into the whole engine building aspect of this little launch. I made the top part of the engine this evening it still need a bit more work to add the top plat to seal in the water cavity the spark plugs will thread through the plate into the main body thereby allowing water to circulate around the part that goes through the cavity.
 
This drawing shows the section through the engine and sections through the cylinder head.
 

 
Buffalo 3HP sheet 1.pdf
 
this is the top part of the head
 

 
Buffalo 3HP sheet 2.pdf
 
And the brass part I made today
 

 

 

 
Michael
 
 

A small update
The concept drawing of the size of the engine and location.
 

 
Michael

Just a little more progress carving the sternpost on the port side, I am taking this very slowly.
 

 
This feels like a tricky detail but to all you full keel three mast shipbuilders it probably looks like child's play. this is much more difficult than the keel on the pilot cutter.
 

 

 
Here is a drawing showing the keel at each of the building stations
 

 
A sincere thank you to all who have pushed the like button, I really appreciate it.
 
Michael

Hi Kees the clamp are these
 

 
They are from Lee Valley the wooden ones I made.
 
Michael

Mark sorry I did not answer your question about the glue, it is LePages Carpenters glue. thanks to all who posted likes .
 
today I joined the keel plate to the keel with some 3 inch screws, first I marked the station positions on the plate and the keel, I don't want to glue them together just yet. I am going to do the rough shaping of the plate and the stern post first.
 

 

 

 

 
The stern post is a little more complex than the stem so I am proceeding very cautiously.
 

 

 
I noticed that whole assembly has straightened out a small amount, about 1/32 or a 1/4 inch scale size. I shall have to make sure when I do the final gluing that the curve is maintained.
 
Michael
 
 
 
 

Thanks Bob, I roughed out the stern today and glued it to the keel.
 
first pic show the patterns on a piece of 1/2 inch thick Castello. The stem was curved enough that I thought it best to scarph a couple of pieces rather than cut it out of one piece.
 

 
Glued to the keel
 

 

 

 

 
Before I finalize the carving of the sternpost I will add the keel plate.
 
Michael

Thanks for all the likes.
Steve Thanks for the kind words, the proof will be in the pudding.
 
I began cutting the keel and stem today
I did not have any paste to glue the paper to the Castello so I did a test with the speedsew and it worked and the stuff works like rubber cement, and rubbed off the wood leaving no residue.
 

 
used the bandsaw to rough cut the keel
 

 
and the jewelers saw to cut the stem
 

 
then used a 3/4 inch paring chisel to rough down the stem before gluing it to the keel for final shaping.
 

 

 

 

 

 
There is still some final paring to do between station 1 and 5 but it is shaping up well. I can see why now the preponderance of Castello used in model boats, this is the first time I have used it and I'm lovin' it, what a joy to carve.
 

 

 
I will leave the stem for now and get the stern fitted, after that I will add the keel plate then shape them together for the garboard, once that is done I will be able to attach the assembly to the station bulkheads on the frame, then the ribbands for the ribs.
 
Michael   

I agree Bob, that is why I cut my teeth on projects like this and this
 
I am up for the challenge I figure it will be about as tricky as building this was.
 

 
When I was 17 I built a working overhead valve internal combustion engine model using off the shelf bits and pieces. it was crude but it ran. I have learned a few things since then though so it should be fun, I am glad that I did not choose one of those large runabout racers with the big engines though, Like the one in the Gar runabout I posted on the other thread.
 
today I finished the molds and mounted them
 

 

 
Two of the cross beams were not exactly extruded square so I had to add some .008 shims to counteract for it, to get the mold to be square with the base.
 

 
Also cut a wider piece of the Castello for the keel, since it is only 17.3 feet long I wanted to make it out of a single timber.

 
Thank you to all who "liked" the last entry.
 
Michael 

Steve, Omega, thanks for your great comments here is a link to an overall shot at the Port Carling boat show where I first saw a picture of Skipjack.
The Port Carling boat site includes a lot of pictures of the classic wooden boats, Skipjack is near the bottom half of the pictures and this Gem near the bottom of the page.
 
It would be fun to visit the show and see some of these boats in person, but i am lucky enough that Roger is being very helpful in sending me pictures and taking measurements of various details for me.
 
This is Skipjack's engine that I also propose to make.
 

 
And an overall of Skipjack in her boatshed.
 

 
Michael

Thanks for looking in Ed, sometimes I wonder how I get anything done because of the clutter. My wife does yoga ,I do my stretching stepping around over and between stuff which amounts to the same thing.
 
Today I made a few changes to the way the cross beam are attached to the frame. I thought it better to make it less cluttered by fixing the beams with some 5x40 allan head cap screws rather than the big wooden clamps. The frame will be easy enough to add new locations for further beams down the road on the next boat to use this frame. the present locations are spaced 4 feet apart (6inches). By bolting them it avoids any possible slippage, and helps to increase the overall rigidity.
 

 

 

 
The new station molds are made from 1/16th inch white plastic that is sold for the sunshine ceilings. It will be easier to tie the ribbands to the thinner sheet. here you can see the first mold with the holes marked before they were drilled for the eight ribbands. the drawing is attached with double sided tape.
here is the mold drawing #1
 

 
bulkhead 1.pdf
 
Now to work on the rest, the plastic cuts very nicely with the jewelers saw and require very little clean up.
 

 
Here is the fine bow on the real boat
 

 
Additional thanks to all who have added the like option, it is very motivating.
 
Michael
 

Thank you for the likes.
 
Earlier today I worked on preparing some of the materials for the building. first I made the decision to use Cedar for the planking, because I don't have any Yellow Cyprus, the piece of Western Red had some very tight grain and the board was big enough to give me 38 boards 32 inches long by 3/4 x 3/64 inches.
 

 

 
I also cut some of the Castello Boxwood 28 inches long and then cut some 3/4 x 1/4 and some 3/4 x 3/32 inches this will be used for the keel and keel plate, I will use the bandsaw to cut the shorter taller pieces for the stem and stern. I really liked the way the Castello cut on both the bandsaw and the tablesaw. I ended up changing the tablesaw blade from a carbide tipped one to the hollow ground steel finishing blade
 

 
The Castello is straight off the tablesaw, the Cedar has been sanded because I used the thin carbide ripping blade.
 

 
Now I need to cut some ribbands, I am leaning towards some tight grained Fir 5/32 x 3/32 32 inches long, I will need to check my stock.
 
Michael

Good evening Mark, my thoughts are to add at least 8 or 10 ribands to each side evenly spaced. My understanding is that the ribs on the full size are 3/4 by 1/2 inch. In rereading Roger's notes there is a plate on top of the keel that is 4 inches by 3/4 inches and tapers toward the bow and stern. this plate forms the upper side of the bearding line for the planking and gives a greater area to attach the garboard strake.
 
I am going to make the keel, keel plate, stem and sternpost out of the Castello Boxwood. I need to make the ribands strong enough to not deform when I set in the frames. something that has crossed my mind is to use some thread to hold the frames (ribs) to the ribbands while they set. The fir test frames were pretty flexible, however I am also going to test the Castello for the frames as well, they will be 3/32 x 1/16th full size on the model.
 
I am planning on following the curve at the extreme ends of the bow and stern this will prevent twisting them too much it is hard to tell a great deal from this picture
 

 
Evidently the ceiling boards which significantly strengthened the hull, they are 1 1/2 by 3/4 bead and cove.
 
have to go guests just arrived
 
Michael

After resizing the drawings I needed to modify the building jig, thinking about the sequence of construction I eliminated the keel support for the moment. The white rails were too short so a new pair were drilled.
I had a scrap of Brazilian Rosewood which was just big enough for the new frame end bars. Some wood inserts were driven into the long tubes before the holes were drilled the frame is now quite rigid.
 

 
I have cut the first three new molds for the ribbands and mounted them on the aluminum cross beams.
The molds were cut from 1/4 MDF and are set aft of the station lines, the last two will be set forward of the station Lines.
The molds will not be faired, this why they are placed the way they are.
 

 

 

 
the next pic shows the frame reversed on the build posts. you can see that they are not yet perfectly centered I will do this when all 5 molds are set on the cross beams before adding the keel. I am much happier with the building frame.
 

 

 
I remembered that I had built and stored away a small Dremel routing/sanding table which was fabricated out of 1/4 inch thick black plexiglass.  I used this table a lot when building Architectural models, I set it up for working on the molds along with some curved shaped sanding sticks.
 

 
Michael
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bob, Tom, Carl, thanks for stopping by, and to those who are watching from the sidelines.
 
I realized the lines drawing in the building jig was the wrong scale it was 1:10 instead of 1:8 which made a pretty big difference so I have been reworking the drawing in my spare time, also a little tweaking of the hull profiles and planking layout and keel sections.
 
this is the progress so far on the changes
 

 
october 6 body profiles.pdf
 
Michael
 
 

I have been slowly working on the drawing for the construction of Skipjack and now I have got the moulds drawn for assembling into the building jig.
 

 
Next task will be to cut out the moulds and the keel and then add the stringers ready for the steam bent frames.
 
Once the frames are formed I will then begin the planking.in Castello boxwood.
 
Michael