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,

Shipwrights

 

I’ve been puttering along, stealing a minute here and there to do small modeling tasks.  I painted the deck the darker gray, per the color previous investigated, fabricated some fish pens and dory skids, to be located athwartship the fore hatch, have worked on the rails, and am now in the process of painting the hull.  

 

I used some plans and photos of Arethusa to arrive at the fish pen and dory skid details and geometry.  I don’t have any handy photos of these, but will include them in the near future, once I begin adding deck furniture to the model.

I started on the rails, or more precisely, near the rails at the transom.  The fashion pieces on Arethusa have a peculiar shape to them.  I resorted to gluing extra wood pieces on and sanding them to shape.  It took me a couple of tries before I found them acceptable.  They are small, subtle details and I wanted them to be reasonably representative of those on the real ship.  Not exact, but close enough...

 

The main rail is composed of three strips of basswood on each side.  I learned of doing this from Charlie Cook, the Blue Jacket Shipcrafter’s on-call modeler (for customers).  When building Smuggler years ago I had many questions on modeling and he was quite helpful.  The thin strips allow for a nice continuous curve of the rail.  One of the nice benefits of using the three strips to build up the main rail is that placement of the chainplate holes through the rail is fairly easy, and they can be aligned with the cant of the chainplates readily without having to resort to drilling through the rail after it was complete.  



The transom rail (or taftrail), and stem seat, was shaped from a single piece of 1/16” thick basswood sheet.  For both the stem and transom rail seats I transferred the uppermost bulwark or transom plank edge onto heavy paper stock, then offset the desired amount to provide a slight overhang of the main rail and seats over the waist planks of the bulwark.  I then transferred those templates onto the sheet stock and cut them out.  After gluing them to the bulwark stanchions and planks, and then installing the main rail stripwood, I sanded them all flush to each other and in smooth, continuous curves.  A single edge razor was ground with a Dremel tool into the profile for the main and monkey rail inboard and outboard edges and used to finish the main rail off.  I’ve mentioned this before - I just struggle with this, both the grinding of the profile and getting a good edge on the receiving wood strip.  I’m in awe of modelers here, too many to mention, who do this regularly and whose drawn planks look like they’ve been milled by some miniature woodshop.  At times mine look like an angry beaver has just used my strip stock as a toothpick.

 

I then moved on to the Monkey Rail and Monkey Board.  The Monkey board is the vertical plank or boards (still formed into compound curvature in a plan view)which sits atop the main rail along the quarterdeck.  The Monkey Board around the transom was a challenge.  Instead of piecing it together with  three or more pieces that run along the rail periphery, as was traditionally done in Essex, MA, I made a three layer lamination of 1/16” thick basswood sheet.  I did this so that I could then cut and sand it to a profile while retaining some strength of the piece during handling.  Once the wood lamination was glued and dry I transferred the outboard transom seat edge to it, the scroll saw cut it to it plan view profile, leaving a little extra all around.  I then sanded it to its final shape, checking it constantly to the installed transom seat outer edge.  When that looked satisfactory I offset inner monkey board thickness and repeated the scroll sawing, then sanding, and check-check-checking.  When the monkey board profile was complete I sanded the lower surface of it to the transom seat, which had a slight curvature to it, fore-aft, by putting sanding paper on the seat surface and gently sanding the monkey board to it.  This allowed for a reasonably tight fit, and when glued it didn’t require a great force or preload to get it to bond to the transom seat.



The monkey board forward ends were also challenging due to the way the main mast chainplates were installed through the monkey rail and board on Arethusa.  On other schooners the chain plates pass through the monkey rail, just outboard of the monkey board, and typically the main rail outer edge is cut away to allow the chain plate to pass it.  On Arethusa the chainplates pass through the monkey board, through the main rail, and then exit on the outboard side of the bulwarks.  Here is a picture of Arethusa where the sun reflection and angle of the boat in the photo clearly show the main mast chainplates and how they pass through the monkey board and rail.  Eric Ronnberg Jr.’s model built for Thomas Hoyne also exhibit this detail, as do other photos of the ship.



After a little thought and contemplation on this I decided I would try to install the main mast chainplates in the proper manner for Arethusa. For the monkey board I chose to fabricate it from two strips of wood.  The outer one is 1/16” thick, whereas the inner one is 1/32” thick.  The 1/32” thick stuff is swiss pear I had purchased from the Hobby Mill years ago.  It was perfect for the task - really beautiful wood.  I transferred the chainplate holes in the main rail to the 1/16” monkey rail piece and used a square cross section fine file to “cut” the hole depth.  By doing this I was able to follow the orientation of each of the chainplates (from the plans I used).  I then glued the 1/32” thick piece onto the 1/16” thick piece and voile’ - a monkey board with internal passages for the main mast chainplates.  This ended up thicker than scale Monkey Board, but I’m satisfied that the extra thickness isn’t obvious, and it allowed a sound method of creating the slots for the main mast chainplates.  I’m sure there are other ways to do this, maybe easier, too.  It ‘appears’ to have worked out fine (yeah for small victories).  Time will tell...with the rigging of those chainplates and main mast shrouds.  

 

Here is a photo of the outer of the Monkey Board planks being glued in place atop the main rail.  One can see the thinner, darker Swiss Pear strip on the forward inboard side of the Monkey Board adjacent to the main mast chainplate locations.  I had glued those in place, locally, prior to gluing the Monkey board onto the main rail.



At the forward end of the main rail I’ve added some buffalo chocks and rail fillers at the location of the anchors - additional wooden fillers which were used to strengthen and protect the buffalo chock and main rail, and the thinner waist planks, from the anchor when raised, lowered, and stowed for passage.



I’ve also added small amidship waist plank reinforcements.  These were placed along the thinner bulwark planks in the region where the dories were onloaded and offloaded from the schooner.



Similarly I added strips just below the main rail just aft of the main mast chainplates...I assume to protect the main rail from damage during hauling fish and equipment up from the dories.



Once all of the rails and things were shaped and installed I applied a white sealer/filler, sanded the roughness smooth, and applied the white rail finish paint.  As noted earlier I’m now painting the hull - bulwark white is complete, the anti-fouling red/brown is on, the thin yellow cove has been initially painted, and following some masking, the hull black goes on.  Then she’ll really resemble a proper Gloucester fishing schooner and I’ll post more photos.

 

[folks - this method of weaving in pictures is new to me...it doesn't look right in the editor/preview...so my fingers are crossed that it looks OK posted]...{I've tried Padeen's suggestion and it appears to have been just the ticket - thank you Padeen}

Cheers!

Rusty, Robert, Druxey, Mark,
 
Many thanks for popping in here and for the kind words.
 
Dick (rhcronan),
 
While I've been puttering along with my rails I took a little side excursion and snapped some pictures of (a) Eric Ronnberg Jr.'s Arethusa model photo reproductions he had provided to me, and (b )some of the sketches I had made early one in my Arethusa build.  Here are forum sized images of them.  I think they should help illustrate the stem ironwork on a knockabout...at least Arethusa.  I did the sketches based on H.I. Chapelle's book appendix of American Fishing Schooners, and much of those sketches agree with Eric Ronnberg Jr.'s model quite well.  I've included the sketches for both the standing and rugging rigging at the stem (along with the jumbo stay on a post forward of the Samson post).  I hope these help you on your Helen B. Thomas model.  If you are so interested PM me and we can arrange for my sending you higher resolution images.
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

...more....

the saga continues...

continued...first with a size comparison to Blue Jacket Shipcrafter's Smuggler....

continued...

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
 
Below are a couple of pics of the completed Standing Rigging :
 

 

 
The start of the Bowsprit rigging :
 

 
About now I realized my camera battery was running low, so not many progress pics were able to be taken. Here all the Yards have been attached and the Running Rigging is complete :
 

 

 
I'll take some more closeup pics of the rigging next trip. Bear in mind that I've done a VERY simplified rigging - virtually only the Lifts and Braces for each Yard. I might add the Sheets and Tacks for the lower yards - that area looks a bit bare.
 
Last pic is of the port anchor :
 

 
Apart from painting and fitting the ship's boats the build is now complete. The remaining work will take me a couple of hours, but that will be next week. Then I can deliver the ship to the owner .
 
  Danny

Thank you David, Ben and John .
 
This time I only had a six day stint at my van, so I thought I'd spend as much time as possible on this build. I managed six hours per day .
 
The kit instructions had me glue a stopper block under the Boom and Gaff and then glue them both to the mizzen mast - YUCKO . I made up two yokes from scrap ply :
 

 

 

 

 
Continued next post ......

..... continued.
 
The Lower Forestays were fitted in a day and a half, starting with the Mizzen Mast and working forward. This is back-to-front to the way I would normally do it, but the work environment dictated it to be the better way as I didn't have a great lot of space to turn the model on my bench :
 

 
The attachment around the mast top is a reasonable facsimile of the real thing, using a "mouse" made simply by tying a double knot around the stay :
 

 

 
I had to use Deadeyes for the lower ends of the stays, as no Heart Blocks were supplied in the kit :
 

 

 
Continued next Post .....
 
  Danny

...... continued.
 
Four days later and the Upper Shrouds are completed, including their Ratlines :
 

 

 
The futtock shroud ratlines took a couple of hours :
 

 
The Topmast Forestays were all fitted :
 

 
Finally I added two Bowsprit Shrouds. The kit instructions didn't show ANY   . I had to use four modified blocks, as there were only two deadeyes left and they were both damaged beyond repair :
 

 

 
More work will come in a week.
 
  Danny

Thank you dragzz .
 
I finally feel well enough to make a return to my van and therefore this Build .
 
In three days I managed to fit the rest of the deadeyes and chains, and made a start on the Shrouds. The lower Foremast ones and half the lower Mainmast ones are now fitted. I'm not totally happy about the varying heights of the upper deadeyes, but they look in keeping with the rest of the ship   .
 

 

 

 

 
More work will be done in the coming couple of weeks, as I'll be returning to the van over Easter and the Anzac Day long weekend.
 
  Danny

First, a pic from BEFORE :
 

 
Some progress pics of the hatch coamings and deck furniture. I re-made all the coamings from new stock. I'll fit some aftermarket wooden Gratings to several of the hatches later on (naturally, the local Hobby Shop doesn't carry them - they mostly do all R/C stuff) :
 

 

 

 

 

 
Continued in next Post

The last BEFORE pic :
 

 
This is almost where I am up to (a couple of pics still to come on my next visit to my van). All the hull is finished except for the Stanchion rigging and Gratings, and the next job will be the masts (a total re-make).
 
Not having any stock of sufficient thickness, I laminated some pieces together to make the Cathead Knees :
 

 

 

 

 
This concludes my Update for now.
 
  Danny

I made all new Timberheads. I used 0.5mm brass wire to ensure a good bond. Yeah, I KNOW they aren't accurate :
 

 

 

 
Continued in next Post .....

The first part of the model I tore out and replaced were the Decks - the hull actually came after when I saw that I'd done TOO good a job on them . Here are a couple of pics from BEFORE :
 

 

 
The decks were ripped out using a flat chisel-point Xacto. I removed the whole quarterdeck as it was badly out of position :
 

 

 

 
Some pics of the decks after sanding smooth, filling and re-planking :
 

 

 

 
To be Continued in next Post

The hull after painting with Hammertone Copper. The particular paint I used didn't come out as a real hammertone, more like a very light ripple :
 

 

 
Wales and other strakes were made from new stock and re-fitted :
 

 

 
Some more particularly bad work around the Quarters. The kit instructions were to blame for a large part of this - no mention made of Fairing the frames at all   :
 

 

 
Wood Filler was used below the waterline. I laid new planking forward of the quarters themselves, and later fitted a roof over them (also not mentioned in the instructions).
 
To be Continued in next Post .....

I won't be finished for a while yet , but here's a couple of pics of the "current state of play". I'll do a full set of progress pics when I get home next week - it's too hard to do with the laptop I'm using at the moment.
 

 

 

 
Craigb - sure, the old guy had a go to the best of his abilities on a very poor kit. The more I read the "destructions" the more I realise why he did it the way he did - they even confuse ME .
 
If he'd have been on MSW from the start we'd have helped him through and I'd have had a much easier task now. Or we'd have talked him out of attempting the kit in the first place and gone with something a lot easier which he probably would have finished before he passed away.
 
  Danny

I sure have Nigel, but the worst is over. Here's a pic from two days ago :
 

 
At least I haven't been suffering withdrawl symptoms while I'm on holiday, although I've missed my Byrnes Saw a lot (would have come in very handy  .)
 
  Danny

About six months ago a friend of my girlfriend's asked me if I could finish off a model ship which her father was building before he passed away. Being the sucker I am, I said yes before I'd even laid eyes on it, or even before I knew which ship it was - MISTAKE.
 
It turned out to be one of the worst constructed models of HMS Victory I've ever seen - only the one I'd previously restored for a friend (similar circumstances) was worse, but at least he didn't want me to spend too much time on that one. As I'd already promised both my girlfriend and her friend that I'd do the job I was stuck with it  .
 
This was the old guy's first ever attempt at building a wooden ship, and he couldn't have picked a worse kit for his debut - a Victory, and a Del Prado part-work kit to boot. I doubt I've seen another kit with worse materials and instructions, at least the timber on my AL HMS Suppy wasn't too bad for an experienced builder to make something of it even though the rest of the kit was rubbish. A novice attempting this Victory kit was never going to get far (bloody thing should have been banned on it's release   .
 
Here are a few of pics of what I faced when I first saw it :
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I have spent the last 18 days stripping and re-planking the decks, ripping out and replacing a lot of hull planks, bogging the entire hull and replacing wales and deck furniture. I am currently re-painting the hull.
 
I will update this log when I get home from my holidays in a week or two - the internet connection I am using at the moment is as slow as a wet week and it takes me forever to try to send anything.
 
  Danny

Welcome to the "Newsboy" 1854 build log,
 
The following pictures document the completion of hull and deck outfit.  Future posts will address planning, fabrication, rigging setup, and installation of masts, spars, standing and running rigging.
 
Pete Jaquith
Shipbuilder

Finally a bit of an update!
First photo shows some shaped pieces at the bow. In my eagerness to finish and install these and the fancy trim overlay, I forgot to take pictures and these pieces are virtually hidden now!
 

 
Next up were the catheads and trim, made from basswood square stock.
 

 
I used copper sheet to cut strips and fashion the brackets that hold the catheads down.
 

 

 

 
Everything is assembled.
 

 
Then installed on the model. I used copper wire to simulate bolts.
 

 
Here's a bow shot with catheads installed and bow braces and trim pieces.
 

 
This picture shows the copper brackets blackened with liver of sulphur. I used EdT's method of soaking them in acetone first, to clean and remove any coating that may have been present. Then I dipped a small paint brush in dilute liver of sulphur and applied to the brackets in situ, followed by a water rinse - it worked like a charm!
 

 
Just a slightly different angle.
 

 
That's it for now.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 61 – Lower deck framing
 
The first picture shows the first four beams of the lower deck installed.
 

 
The beams, lodging knees, pillars and pillar knees are Castelo – representing hard pine.  The hanging knees are pear – representing oak.  Beams 2 and 3 have their bolts installed – down into the hanging knees, pillar knees and deck clamps. The off-center staggering of the pillars can be seen in this picture.  Wax finish has been applied to surfaces under the first three beams.  Two forward ledges are installed.  Beams 3 and 4 have been scored for carlings. 
 
The next pictures show the cutting of the scores.
 

 
First, centerlines were marked on each beam and the carling locations marked out from those lines.  The depths of the scores were then marked with a compass.  In the above picture a cross-grain plunge-cut is being made in the beam.  In the next picture the score is being pared out after the three plunge-cuts.
 

 
The depth is set by eye.  In the next picture a piece of carling stock is being used to check the fit.
 

 
After the beams are set and glued into position, the hanging and lodging knees are fit.  Dummy bolts in these knees are then installed using black monofilament as shown below.
 

 
A razor blade is being used to slice off the monofilament after gluing with CA.  The knees are then sanded smooth before installing. 
 
The next picture shows a pillar and its top knees being prefabricated.
 

 
These knees also receive bolts as above.  The knees at the bottom are installed on the keelson after the pillar is set.  The next picture shows beams 2,3 and 4 installed and the next one (beam S) positioned.
 

 
Note that the lodging knees are set slightly below the top face of the beams.  This allowed air circulation under the decking and the massive waterways that will cover the beam ends.  The tops of the ledges are also slightly higher than the tops of the knees – to match the beams so the decking will lie fair.  Two carlings have been installed.  Ledges will be installed between all these beams.  The staggering of the pillars is more evident in this picture.  Note that no hanging knees are installed at the frames - marked X on the port side.  Those will be removed for the view port on that side - later.
 
In the next picture pieces of bilge ceiling have been glued to the frames that will not be removed for the view port.
 

 
After bolting, these will be trimmed off flush with the fore and aft faces of the frames.  These are needed to allow hanging knees to be installed under these beams.  The three frames between these beams will be removed later between the top of the lower futtock heads and the middle deck clamp..
 
Ed