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’

continued....

Hello everyone,  
   
 
A few years ago I made the  fishing and racing schooner Bluenose in the scale of 1:50.  
 
Here I will show you all the phases of making the model.  
 
That ship is the most famous but here are some basic data:  
 
Designed by William Roue and built by Smith and Rhuland, Bluenose was launched at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on August 26, in 1921.  
 
After a season fishing on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland under the command of Angus Walters Bluenose was the next 17 year won in the International Fishermen's Trophy competition.  
 
  In 1942 she was sold to the West Indies Trading Co. Her life ended on a reef off Haiti on January 28, in 1946.  
 
   
 
   
 
Displacement: 258 tonnes  
 
Length: 49 m (160 ft 9 in) o/a  
 
             34 m (111 ft 7 in) LWL  
 
Beam:    8 m (26 ft 3 in)  
 
Draft:     5 m (16 ft 5 in)  
 
Mainmast, height from deck 38 m (124 ft 8 in)  
 
Foremast, height from deck 36 m (118 ft 1 in)  
 
Sail area 1,036 m2 (11,150 sq ft)  
 
Mainsail area 386 m2 (4,150 sq ft  
 
   
 
   
 
Bluenose photo:  
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
my drawings:  
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
Matija  
 
   

Hi All,
 
Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving. Latest status update is that the USS Saginaw project still lives! 
 
I actually finished coppering and painting the rudder a couple days ago and spent much of my free ship modeling time yesterday reviewing what needed to be done. 
 
Today, I actually started working on the paddewheels again and resolved how I will be making the hubs and axels and just finished making notes on the steps to finish their assembly. I think I've got a handle on it finally.
 
As it turns out, as much as I needed to try out the laser cutting, the design I did is off a bit. Looking back at the rims I made from copper, I've had a chance to step back and appreciate them a lot more. I think these will work though they are slightly out of round in spots. With half of the covered by the wheel houses, I don't think the issue will be noticeable, so I started moving forward again.
 
I finally learned how to correctly use the parting tool with turned brass on my Sherline lathe and I was able to quickly fashion the hubs for the paddle wheels. These aren't perfect. I'm going to end up centering the hubs on the axels, where on the actual saginaw, the hubs are actually slightly shifted on the axels. This makes the hubs slightly different in shape, but I wasn't able to work that out, so I'm simplifying here. See the edge view drawing in the center of the following attachment.
 
 

 
 
I'm ready to move forward, but just need a length on #129 K&S 3/16" brass tube. Tomorrow, I'll hit the hardware store for some and hope they've got it in stock.
 
Meanwhile, I'm laying out the steps I'll be taking to mount the rudder and start working on the gun ports. On the latter, I've identified a few reference photos that I'm using, but just need to find more detail on the drop-down ports used by the U.S. Navy around the time of the Civil War.
 
I also went back over some photos that are making me feel more confident on my ideas for the way the bridge area between the wheelhouses was made. It's not shown in any detail in the National Archives plans I'm working from.
 
More soon...
 
Clare

I noted previously that I was dissatisfied with my execution of the thin yellow cove on my.  I'm attaching a photo of the aft port side of the ship showing that wandering yellow cove.  I think many will understand why I need to fix this.  The second photo is of the plan I've embarked upon to remove and repair that wood region.  I'll add another update to show the progress in the near future.
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

I've spent the past few weeks preparing for, and painting, the rails and hull.  For the most part it was turned quite acceptable to me.  There is one glaring exception, and I'll focus on that later.
 
Once the Monkey Rails were completed I proceeded to apply a sealer/primer to the rails, perform a light sanding, and then apply two coats of my white mix.  The only masking done was to protect previously painted deck and bulwarks.
 
A while ago, when planking the hull, I built an inverted stand for Arethusa, one that located the hull by the two mast holes and a number of contact points on the deck.  The stand allowed the inverted hull to located such that the waterline as horizontal, parallel to the surface it was placed upon.  This stand, very crude compared to some of the tools and stand folks here build for their models, came in quite useful a number of times.
 
I used the stand to mark the waterline with a pencil, a light line, on the hull.  I then applied two coats of the anti-fouling red/brown lower hull paint.  I purposefully carried the red paint up above the waterline mark.
 
After painting all of the rails white and the hull red, and allowing a couple of days for full drying, I masked the edges of the rails where the hull black and rail white meet.  I also remarked the waterline with my handy dandy stand, and then masked the edge of the black paint at the waterline.
 
I had previously used a draw plate/template to form the very narrow cove along the edge of the waist plank.  In full scale the cove is something like 3/8” wide, so one can image how narrow it is for a 1/48 scale model.  I was able to carve a fairly narrow cove into the plank, but it wasn’t very even.  In the process of scraping it into the plank I felt it wander, almost catching on the wood grain as it went.  I’ve looked at this detail for quite some time and had mixed feelings about it.  I was proud of having made such a narrow cove, but unhappy that is wasn’t straight and perfectly parallel to the plank edge. Herein lies the problem I encountered.  I painted the yellow of the cove, two coats, extending the paint above and below the cove to ensure the cove was fully painted.  Once that paint had cured I applied masking tape to the cove.  I had found 1/64” wide masking tape from an on-line modeling supplier and purchased it.  This stuff is rather amazing in it’s narrowness.  When I tried to apply the tape to the cove I found it very difficult to get the tape to nest down into the cove - it wanted to wander about in the cove...reminiscent of when I scraped the cove some time ago.  
 
I applied tape edge sealing coats of each of the three paint colors - white along the edge of the rails, red/brown along waterline, and yellow at the cove.  This was done to seal the edge of the tape and not allow the over-coat color to bleed under the tape.
 
Once those had dried I was clear to apply the upper hull black paint.  Two coats were applied.  The white/black edge along the rails worked quite well, as did the red/black edge at the waterline.  There were one or two very minor bleed spots, but all in all I think a good success.
 
Now....back to that yellow cove.  Once the black paint had dried I peeled back that 1/64” tape...and....not good.  The thinness of the yellow was excellent.  But, the masked sections wandered along the wandering cove.  And there was appreciable black paint bleed beneath the tape.  I am very disappointed in this and am stewing over ways to correct it. 
 
Following are a few photos of the painted hull, without and with deck furniture.  The quarterdeck of these schooners had a unique deck planking run - the planks were set parallel to the cabin, as that was a large cutout in the deck (a strength issue), to provide as much continuous planking strength as possible.  Thus, there is some unique nibbing of the outboard planks along the margin plank/waterway.  
 
The fish pens and dory skids are shown also.  The bait gurry isn't located quite properly, either.
 

Cheers,

Sorry, but the like button just doesn't cut it for work like this.  Your updates are highly anticipated by all of us. Take a few days off for Thanksgiving then get back to work!

Now that we've been back from holidays a couple of weeks I thought it was about time I posted an update on the 'Francis'.
 
All the deck beams are now in place , so the next job will be to give the frames a final external fairing and then I can start work on the planking battens.
 
I hope to be getting a bit of extra time at the museum over the next few weeks, so hopefully there'll be a bit more progress before long.
 
John
 

 

 

 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 97 – Planksheer / Main Rail
 
In the first picture the a portion of the port outer planksheer rail is being fitted.
 

  The height gauge is being used here to check the height along the rail before inserting pins to hold the correct line.  This part of the rail needs to be beveled to fit against the flare of the bow.  In the next picture the rail is being glued with the pins holding the line.
 

 
I spent a lot of time checking heights this week.  In the next picture the height of the lower edge of the main rail is being marked out to set the top of the band of planking between the rails.
 

 
The distance between the height of the planksheer and the main rail varies over the length of the hull.  This became apparent when setting these points.  It seemed wrong, but the drawings verified this.  This made me suspect my drawings but the original table of offsets confirmed the variation.  The planking of this band between the two rails is further complicated by the flare out at the bow.   This makes the true projection of the band wider than shown on the vertical section.  These differences are small, but critical if the planking is going to converge at the top of the frames.  I was doing a lot of height checking this week.
 
A part of the inside of the main rail and fillers between frames have been installed in the next picture.
 

 
The “look” of the inside of the bulwarks is starting to emerge.  An outside view of this work at the bow is shown in the next picture.
 

 
The bottom of the inside of the main rail must match the height of the top of the outer band of planking.  The next picture shows why.
 

 
In this picture the outer main rail is being fitted. Its top is flush with the tops of the filling pieces between frames.  All these rails are horizontal.  The last picture shows the inside of the bow at this stage before fitting the main rail in this area.  I say "fitting" because the outer main rail will not be installed until later - for painting reasons.
 

 
The next step is to install the thin planking above the main rail up to the tops of the frames leaving a tight space for the outer main rail.  This will be installed after the surrounding planking and the rail itself are painted - black and white respectively.  It is also time to fit the rails and planking around the elliptical stern.  Can’t wait.
 
Time for a holiday break.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone – well at least everyone in America.  My British friends used to tell me they celebrated thanksgiving on July 4th.
 
Cheers,
 
Ed

Shipwrights,
 
A little more progress on Arethusa - masts and spars.  I've completed the basic shaping of the lower masts, upper masts, and the booms.  In this photo, top to bottom, are the main mast, the fore mast, the main topmast, the fore topmast, the main boom, the fore boom, and the jumbo boom.  Note the scale on the bottom of the green cutting mat in inches.  The grid squares are 0.5 inches per side.  The main and fore masts are just slightly greater in diameter than 3/8 inch.  All were formed from square stock bass wood stock.

This closer in photo shows the peculiar shaping of Gloucester schooner spars.  While circular in cross section, they are decidedly not axisymmetric.  The edge of the spar adjacent the sail is straight.  The opposing side is tapered.  The maximum diameter occurs 2/3 distance from the jaws (at the mast) to the tip.  My spars shown still contain a little excess material at each end of the spar.  They are shown with their jaw ends to the right in the picture.

 
[these were taken with my camera phone - quickie photos on the dining table]
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

It has been some time since my last update and with a little time off of my feet I've been able to do little things here and there on Arethusa.
 
I have begun making masts....first time in oh, about 5 years!  I'm following my method I wrote about in the downloads section some years ago.
 
Here are some photos showing the major steps.  My only process change has been to use a plane to remove material instead of the rasp/file originally shown.




 
On the hull - I touched up the anti-fouling paint and hull sides, made some little scroll art at the bow names, and applied Dullcoat over the outer hull.  It is the first time I've used Dullcoat and I am happy with the results.  The shininess of the acrylic paint is gone and hull details are more clearly visible.  One odd and funny (to me!) aspect of the photos - you may see what looks like scupper run-off 'weathering'.  It isn't.  What you are seeing are reflections from clear, highly glossily packing tape I used to seal the 'work stand' box. 



 
On the deck I finished painting the checker boards.  I've deviated from my 'pristine' modeling approach by applying a semi-transparent paint layer to those details and the deck battens.  I think it gives appearance of worn painted boards and battens.  Also worked on were attached the windlass brakes and connecting links.  Luckily I hadn't glued those down yet - I found one of my soldered joints to have broken.




 
And a final photo showing the two lower masts.  The masts have been tapered and cut to length, only requiring flats and rebates where a host of spar related hardware goes.

 
Cheers,
 
Elia
 

Earlier than my steering wheel endeavor I had fabricated the cat heads and installed the chainplates. All of the deck furniture remains only temporarily placed for context.
 


 


 
Funny thing about the deadeyes - they don't want to stand upright, as in the photos. They lay over, free on their pivot pins...
 
And last, but not least, thank you to all those who've 'liked' my updates!
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

Bob, thanks for tip. Actually I am planning to fully complete sails off the model, incl. attaching Mast hoops on sails.


During construction I already finished display base. I think now is time to permanently mount model on it. Because I didn't install nothing
into the keel for mounting model I came up with next idea.
I place M3 thread rood into the keel (keel thickness is 3,5mm). After that I made M3 thread into M4 bolt. So I can disassemble model of the base if it is needed.

Main mast and fore mast assembly completed. I can still remove Fore (main) mast from fore (main) topmast like seen on 2nd picture.
 
Next task- sewing sails   
 

The parts for jaws were also poor quality, so I made new one from 2mm plywood.
Next task was panting masts, gaffs and booms. I like natural "wallnut" wood finish and I tried several stains and paints . Best result was achieved with highly diluted wallnut brown paint. 2 very thin coats were needed. 
After that all blocks were tied on Bowsprit, masts, booms, and gaffs.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 96 – Planksheer continued
 
In the first picture the starboard planksheer rail is being fitted at the bow.
 

 
Pins were needed here to hold the position when clamping due to the outward flare of the sides.  This part of the rail also had to be beveled on the back side to keep the top face level.
 
In the next picture the inside rail on the port side is being glued.
 

 
While the glue on that rail was drying the starboard outer rail was glued. 
 

 
As you can see it was all hands on deck for the clamps.  Anything that resembled a clamp was drafted into service to keep every part of the rail tight to the side.  The next picture is a close-up of the forward rail on the starboard side.
 

 
In the next picture a dummy bowsprit has been fitted and planking has begun above the rail on this side.
 

 
I am using hard maple for the external planking.  It will be painted.  The last picture shows the port side ready for the outer rail.  The inner rails and spacers between top-timbers are now completely installed on both sides.
 

 
Getting these rails finished – including around the elliptical stern – and planking up to the main rail is the next order of business.
 
Ed

Thanks Ben, Rusty and Mark - here are the updated photos.  I will be adding the channels next in boxwood and dye their inverted knees with Fiebings black leather dye.  I will scratch the deadeye strops and chain plate assemblies (hoping to get a torch for Xmas), then its finishing the head rails and adding the stump masts/anchors and mounting her to a display board.  
 
Yancovitch - I did not simulate caulking on the hull planking - not really a fan of that look - and most museum models do not show this detail.  You can see from the photos that the Tung Oil finish I used did accentuate the lines of the planking slightly - which was the effect I wanted. I  used a number 2 pencil to simulate caulking for the deck planking.  As far as treenailing - at this scale i didn't want to bother with it - I do think think the drilling and saw dust method would work well though if you want to go for it.  All planks were glued to each other and the bulkheads to try to get as tight of a result as possible.  Hope that helps - and thanks for the kind words!
 
Happy Thanksgiving !
Chris

Hey Group,
 
Still plugging away on the fenders and I'm about finished with them - photos soon.  
 
I'm considering finishing the WVH - she has sentimental value to me.  The first step would be to sand off the wipe on poly - paint the hull tallow below the waterline, and apply my tung oil/ bitumen mix to age the planking that will be not painted. 
 
I've changed my mind so many times about my next project - so who knows (smile). 
 
Chris

An update !  Ive committed to setting aside an hour a night 5 days a week - and Ive added the fenders and ships ladder. The fenders were tricky to get right - I used an old planking iron to get the correct bend to fit flush with the hull.  
 
After i add the channels, I suppose i need to start thinking about some sort of stand - open to suggestions - Im bummed i didn't predrill the keel to accept rods so i can use brass pedestals. 
 
 

Well at last made a few hours of modeling happen this weekend - boarding ladders completed and ready to be mounted on the hull.  Baby steps - feeling re energized to wrap this one up.

Sorry it’s been so long since my last pictures.  It’s been one of those times when everything that could go wrong did.  Let’s leave it at that.  I have however finished the Lettie to the admiral’s delight.  She is now dressed in all her sails and rigging.  So here she is in all her finery.
 
 

 

 

 
 
Don't know what is next.  The admiral likes to see sails but I'm leaning towards a launch.  We'll see.
 
Bob

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 95 – Main Deck Ledges, Planksheer
 
The first picture shows the last of the work on the main deck ledges.
 

 
The seats for the last row of ledges have been cut into the carlings and outside lodging knees.  The next picture shows the completed main deck framing.
 
 

 
The planksheer was the next order of business.  This rail caps and seals off the tops of the frames at the weather deck - the main deck.  On the outside it defines the sheer line of the ship.  Internally it rests on the 11” deep main deck waterway.  It would seem to make sense to install the waterways first, but to facilitate painting I decided to install the planksheer then slip the waterway underneath it later.  In the next picture a strip of pine representing the waterway is being used to check the height of the upper futtocks prior to setting the planksheer.
 

 
The cutoff heights of the upper futtocks were checked earlier and trimmed to match the lower edge of the planksheer rail.  However, since the heights of the deck beams at the side evolved somewhat independently when the deck clamps were set, there was certainly room for discrepancies.  After a fair amount of measuring, remeasuring and some adjustments, the first section of rail was ready to be installed.  This is shown below.
 

 
The 6" rail is a molded section with three beads.  The lower two are half the diameter of the upper.  The rail was formed with a simple scraper.  The real planksheer was installed in one of two ways.  It could be mortised to fit over the toptimbers or it could be made in two halves each notched to fit around the toptimbers from either side.  To avoid all of this precision notching or mortising, I install the rail on one side, then fit blocks between the timbers, and then fit the opposite side – trying to make the joints relatively invisible.  This will all be painted so there is no issue in this case.  The next picture shows some blocks installed between frames.
 

 
These also strengthen the joint between the frames and the inner rail.  After the glue had dried these were sanded flush to the side.  The tops were filed off horizontal and flush with the top of the inside rail. 
The next picture shows part of the starboard planksheer at this stage.
 

 
The last step is to install and finish off the exterior rail as shown in the next picture.
 

 
There is a similar rail a few feet up – the main rail – and then another capping rail – the fancy rail – fitted to the tops of the toptimbers.
 
 
Ed

Thanks Dave, make sure you wipe your screen and keyboard every now and then .
 
Main Preventer Stay
 
The Main Preventer Stay is smaller than the main stay (1.0mm diameter) and fits around the mast head above the main stay. It's lower end lashes to the preventer stay collar on the foremast :
 

 

 
  Danny

Thank you mhegazi and Nils (I'm still not sure about how many sails I'll be fitting, if any).
 
Main Stay
 
Apart from the Anchor Hawse the Main Stay is the largest rope on the ship at 1.4mm diameter. It fits to the mast top in similar fashion to the mizzen stay, and is lashed to the stay collar at it's lower end. The upper end is served to a few scale feet below the mouse :
 

 

 

 
I'd forgotten to fit the Main Preventer Stay Collar before I'd permanently fitted the foremast. It made the job slightly more difficult. To prevent the collar from shifting upward two cleats are glued to the sides of the foremast :
 

 
  Danny