druxey

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 7 – Stem and False Stem
I decided to do the stem next because I still have some checking to do on the drawings of the sternpost.

The first picture shows the four pieces involved.  They are all sided 16" - same as the keel.



In this picture the gripe and the false stem have already been assembled. Once the pieces were cut out and trimmed to their final shapes, the patterns were removed to permit close fitting of the joint. The two stem pieces in this picture have been cut to “almost” final shape and still have their patterns attached. Once the assembled forward assembly is fit and attached to the keel the stem pieces will be added – lower stem first then upper stem.

The next picture shows the connection to the keel assembly – not yet fit up.



The desired result in fitting this joint is that the false stem adheres to the line on the underlying drawing, and of course, that the joint gripe/keel assembly seams are tight.  The unfinished end of the keel rabbet can be seen in this picture.

The CAD patterns are extremely accurate. On these pieces I cut up to the 1-pixel line before final fitting. I use a disk sander where possible to keep the edges square. The final adjustment of the joint faces was done with a #0 barrette file with many test fitting. Some adjustment is being made in the next picture.

.



In the next picture the back face (port side) of the joint is being checked for fit. The joint will be visible from both sides.



In the next picture the assembly is being glued to the keel while aligned on the drawing. Waxed paper is being used under the glue joints to protect the drawing..



Once the glue has dried and the assembly has been cleaned up, the lower stem is fit into place on the drawing to assure final alignment - as shown below.




The next picture shows the lower stem permanently attached and the upper stem being fitted. Again, patterns have been removed to be able to see the final joint line.




The last picture shows the finished assembly.







The forward edge of the rabbet runs along the joint between the stem and the false stem. Forward of the rabbet the false stem and the gripe taper to a smaller thickness forward – roughly in line with the planking. The rabbet should probably be at least partially cut at this stage.

It is also time to start thinking about bolts.


Ed

Reading in Steel's tables, it looks as if (1805) there were two methods of retaining the tiller at the time. One was with eyebolts driven into both sides of the tiller two feet forward of the rudderhead and two eyebolts in the 'fore part of the rudderhead'. Presumably tackle was rigged each side between these. The other method was as described above. Apparently the tiller could become loose with shrinkage over time, according to Steel. Also a norman and chocks were to be provided, but it does not describe how these were used! 

I don't know whether this is helpful or simply provides more confusion to the discussion....

Congratulations on completing this magnum opus, Chris. She looks very impressive.

Hello,
now finished: 120 square bolts for 20 carronades!
Look for yourself:

Hello Friends,

the aligning the carronade was performed with an iron bar.
For this I made ​​the metal fittings.

 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 6 – Keel Rabbet and Waterstops
The keel rabbet provided a seat for the garboard strakes – the strakes of bottom planking next to the keel.  These strakes were 9” thick and were bolted through the outside edge into the keel as well as into the frames.  The v-notch of the rabbet on these ships was slightly different than the 60 degree triangle of 18C RN ships.  It was less sharp and deep. 
 
(Note:  Having just finished an 18th Century Royal Navy vessel and knowing there is a large following for these types on the forum, I will try to point out differences in structural design that may be of interest.  To do this I will use the abbreviation "18C RN" for the earlier types.)
 
To form the rabbet,  I used a scraper cut from a piece of stainless plate.  I have a lot of these small pieces lying around and they have been useful for this.  The first picture shows the scraper being roughed out with a jeweler’s saw.
 

 
The picture below shows the final filed out shape of the scraper.  The cutting edge is left square - but with sharp cutting corners on both faces.
 
 
 

 
The scraper is dimensioned to ride along the bottom of the keel.  The cut is finished when the scraper bottoms on the side.  Both these rubbing surfaces were rounded over and smoothed to avoid marring the sides and bottom of the keel.
 
The next picture shows one of the first passes on the keel
 

 
The next picture shows the keel with the finished rabbet.  Actually, I did not go all the way to the sharp edge at this stage.  I can use this cutter later, after the frames are set to finish the rabbet – when that sharp upper corner is more protected.
 
 
 

 
I may have mentioned earlier, that these ships had no rising wood (or hogg) over the keel.  Generally the frames were bolted directly to the keel with long through bolts.  Because of this, waterstops were needed to prevent leakage through the joints in the keel into the hull.  The rising wood effectively blocked this path in the earlier ships.   Although the garboard strakes would be caulked along the rabbet, this did not seal off the keel itself.  To eliminate this leakage, holes were bored through the keel at the inside of the rabbet and plugged with long fir dowels, effectively sealing off the top lip of the scarph.  I decide to install these.
 
The first picture shows the keel being drilled through the rabbet to accept a three inch waterstop cylinder.
 

 
The next picture shows a drawn 3" dowel being test fit.
 

 
These were actually driven in with a touch of wood glue.  The excess was then clipped off and the V of the rabbet formed at the ends with a razor blade.
 
The last picture is one of those close-ups that make me cringe, showing a scarph joint,  the central wedge and the waterstop under the upper lip.  This picture also shows the joint line left using the dark glue.
 

 
 
The slightly flat edge, left – for now - at the top of the rabbet can be seen in this picture.  The picture also gives a pretty good idea of the finish left by the scraper.  The rabbet has not been sanded – nor should it be – to avoid rounding over the corners.
 
These waterstops are a nice little detail.  Of course no one will ever see them without having very good eyesight and knowing where to look.  they went rather quickly, however, so the cost was small.
 
I guess the next work will be either the stem or the stern post.
 
Ed

Hi guys, thanks you all for warm words!
Nearly nothing time to work at the model, so only a small update. The chains are now completted.
 

 

 

 
The next task is the bulkheads of cabins, so here the doors under construction. The door windows are done the same way as at the stern, but here I have glued wood strips at both sides of plastic sheet. The images show the making step by step.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Alex

Careful of taking any AOS book as gospel truth, Gary! I don't doubt that the arrangement shown was used but, as you ask, how early did this come into use? My suspicion is that it was closer to 1800 than 1760.

Another photos...
 

 

 

Ed
You know that this build of yours will take hours away from the rest of our own builds as we keep checking your progress and studying the photos closely.  And a big THANK YOU for doing so!!!
Allan

Hello everyone.
 
Hereby I will restart my build of the Hohenzollern model by the plans/book of Heinrich Winter.
The project was started late 2009 based upon the plans of the Mamoli-Friesland kit but I changed
over to Winter's one. 
 
Jack is the name, The Netherlands my homecountry.
 
I will not post updates from the past, I start with new pics the way she is now.
(for those interested in the start of the project I can give a link to a Dutch forum if you like)
 
 
The latest update from the stern, not the easiest part
 







Jack

Jim,
 
Another method for sanding is to make a bow of sorts.  You take a sanding belt from a 1" belt sander like a delta and then you take a wood strip like a paint stirrer that is just a tad longer than the belt.  You stretch the belt around  the stick and now you have a flexible sanding bow.  One side is backed by the wood and the other is a flexible belt.  This idea was shown to me by one of our club members.  It works very well with little to no chance of getting the end of the stick stuck between frames.
 
Tom R

My understanding is that ships' boats of the period had no standard color scheme. Often it was 'captain's fancy'; in other words, whatever the individual captain ordered. So you would be safe to use any of the standard colors of the day; ochre, blue, black and red. Or, as you've suggested, varnished. You're the captain!

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 5 – Keel Structure
So, finally some real work and some pictures.
 
Young America’s keel was sided 16” by 31 inches deep.  The main body of the keel was two tiered.  The upper tier was 15” deep and the lower was 12” deep.  In all of these posts I will use the word “was” rather freely, since original scantlings lists do not exist.  “Was” will mean based on the best data and/or reasonable assumptions.  In general, I relied heavily on the more complete data for Challenge.  I think that extrapolation is a reasonable approach.  One builders sidings were not all that different from one ship to the next – unless the first was not successful.  Under the two main members is a 4” shoe – a sacrificial protective covering of the main members and boltheads..  This was installed just before launch by removing blocks under the keel slipping it in and fastening it.
 
I will not dwell on my sawmill operations.  These were well covered in the opening parts of the Naiad posts.  The first picture shows some blanks for the keel members and a piece of the swiss pear material from a few steps upstream in the process.
 

 
The pear was cut into the piece shown at the top from a roughly 2” thick by 12” wide by x feet long piece.  The planks were then cut to rough size on a bandsaw and reduced to final thickness (16”) on a thickness sander.  One edge was then planed straight using the small modeling plane at the top – so the final pieces could be accurately ripped to size.  The next picture showns all of the pieces needed to make the keel – cut to final width and depth.
 

 
The members were then cut to final length based on the drawing shown above.  Because of the large number of bolts through the actual keel, placement of joints relative to each other, masts, etc., the lengths had to be laid out carefully beforehand to avoid interferences.  I did this on the drawing for the model, even though many of the invisible bolts will not be installed.  The next picture shows a typical joint of the type used in the top two tiers.
 

 
The joints are hook scarphs with wedge driven into the center.  They are identical except for size to the larger keelson scarph shown on the drawing.  That view shows the typical bolting for one of these joints.  It also shows one large bolt through the keel for each floor and another longer bolt through the entire keel/keelson centered on the frame timbers aft of the floors.  The next picture shows one of the lower tier joints being glued.
 

 
Darkened Titebond wood glue is used to give a subtle highlighting to the joints.  The two parts were clamped with light pressure, the wedge shown was driven through to make the ends butt, and finally the clamps were fully tightend.  Excess glue was washed off with clean water – hence the darkened area.
 
With the lower tier fully assembled, the upper tier was added on piece at a time as shown in the next picture.
 

 
To keep the final two-tier assembly straight, a straightedge and the flat top of the shipway was used to clamp the pieces.  Waxed paper was used underneath to prevent gluing to the shipway.  The next picture shows some joints in the final three layer structure.
 
 

 
The final picture shows the assembled keel lying on the shipway drawing.  It is an actual 37” long.  Full length keels make for pretty boring photos, but here it is.
 

 
The next step will be to form the rabbet on either side of the top – at least partially.  The top corners of the final rabbets are quite sharp and fragile and will be subject to damage during erection of the frames.  However, I want to cut at least some of the rabbet now so water stops can be inserted before framing,  but after the bulk of the rabbet has been scraped out.  This will be discussed further in the next parts.
 

Ed

Hey Group,
 
At last all deck furniture is finished with the re installation of the ships wheel (i lowered its supports 1/16) and the binnacles.  All thats left on this one is the headrails, dummy masts, channels/deadeyes, gunport lids/fenders and anchors.  I need to decide if i want to proceed to the head rails or revisit the WVH - it is painting and sanding season outside here in Chicago (if it cools down just a bit).  On the other hand Ive got some renewed momentum on the Confed.  Have a great weekend,
Chris

Thanks for any comments all. 
 
Time to move on with more general warblings. I re-arranged my methodology slightly as I rapidly realised my frames would need more work than I previously expected. Basically
you have the choice of three options here (for the square frames)
 
A - Keep the frames a fixed siding and completely vertical - gun ports would have to move to match the new frame locations. This is the simplest build option but is also the least historical (though I do
ask myself who would even notice)
 
B - Keep the frames a fixed siding and completely vertical but introduce some declining frame sidings where necessary to match the gun port locations as recorded from the plans
 
C - Follow the historical framing plan
 
 
Now I intended to utilise 'B' but found I needed so much declining sidings that I might just as well do 'C'. So this is what I switched to.
 
To make this job easier I removed the square frame layer I had earlier produced and then generated a quick hand drawn picture to remind me of the frame locations (in this area of the ship the left of the
frame would contain the lower or 1st, 3rd and toptimber and the right the floor, 2nd and 4th. 
 
My contract provided the relevant dimensions as follows for the midships area (9-G)
 
Floor  13 inches
1st Futtock  13 inches
2nd Futtock  12 inches
3rd Futtock  11 inches
4th Futtock  10.5 inches
Toptimber    9.5 at top of sides except when bordering a port in which case 11
 
So armed with this I can start
 
Here is my working area. The frame I will be working on is Frame B
 

 
The black square is the sized gun port. The green fixed lines are from the trace of the framing plan with the dashed line representing the framing plan station line.
 
The purply line is my station line.
 
So I start at the keel. Here I simply drew parallel constructions 13 inches from my station line as follows
 

 
and then drew in the floor
 

 
followed by the lower/1st futtock
 

 
At this point I needed to return to the gun port which is bordered by the left hand side of this frame and here I drew a construction line
 

 
This relates to the toptimber so the width bordering a port is 11 so a parallel soon provided the shape of the top timber
 

 

 
Next up I looked at the 3rd. As always I returned to the framing plan
 

 
As you can see (ignore the 'new' purple lower timber) that on the original plan the 3rd matched exactly the left side of the lower. So I placed a construction
there and then paralleled a line at 11 inches - which is the 3rds width
 

 

 
Now to the 2nd. As before I checked how the framing plan coped
 

 
Here the left border is again exact. So I placed a vertical construction and then put a parralel out 12 inches
 

 
and drew it in.
 

 
Finally we have the 4th
 

 

 
 
So here is the final frame with diminishing sidings. I shall be slowly following this process for the rest of the frames.
 

 
Though time consuming (and I am not particularly looking forward to all the different thickness's of wood required when cutting the frames out - no more placing all parts of a frame on one piece of wood) this will have the historical thinning and lightening of the sides on the model and thus more weight in the centre lower section of the ship.
 
Cheers,
 
Joss
 

Hello,
many thanks for the nice comments.
It must be made ​​a total of 120 square bolt guns for the carronades.
These are made of brass.
The pictures clearly show the manufacturing process.
 

 

 

 

Hi Ayutansin,
many thanks for your nice comment.
 
Here an update for building of the carronades.
 
The guide pins on the top of the sliding carriage carronades is made ​​of brass.
Here some images of explaining the process of manufacture.

 

 

 

 
 

Hello,

and it goes on with the details of the metal fittings for gun carriages of the carronades.

 

 
The sorting box is filling up slowly but surely with the parts of the carronades.

Hello,
here I show the continuation of the construction of the carriages of the carronades.
First, this is about the making of the recesses for the metal fittings.
 
 
Next is the production of a metal fitting for pivoting.

 

 

 

 

 

 
It also works outdoors under the sun sail on the terrace.
Because it's much more fun.

How does this color combination of lines on a present-day model strike you?

That must be a ship, au naturel!

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 4 - Webb’s Young America

Well, they say that every good plan eventually degenerates into hard work. The research and planning for the model has been fun, but now it is time to get down to business. That does not necessarily mean getting right into the workshop, although apart from the frame process tests discussed in Part 3, I do hope to start forming the keel in a week or two. Right now there is a ton of frame lofting to do and sometimes that can get tedious. With 80 frame pairs, totaling 160 frames, there are a lot of patterns to create. Please be patient.

In Part 3 I had intended to discuss Young America, and my choice of her as a subject, but I inserted the framing process work instead. So, I will discuss YA here while I take a break from lofting frames.

Webb
William H. Webb was widely regarded as the premier American shipbuilder of the mid-19th century period. His father Isaac Webb took over the New York shipyard of Henry Eckford in 1825 and operated it under the name of Webb and Allen until his death in 1840. During that time, 23 ships – from cutters to packets were built. In 1840 William Webb took over the yard. Over the next 30 years, 135 ships were built – packets, clippers, steamers, barks, ironclads, and of course, extreme clippers – 9 of them. Following Celestial and Gazelle, the third.of these was Challenge, launched in 1851. The purchasers single requirement was that Challenge should be the finest and fastest merchant ship in the world, regardless of cost. At 252’ feet she was the largest extreme clipper to be launched to that date. Comet at 241’ was launched two months later. There were four more before Young America in 1853 – the ship that Webb considered his masterpiece. He knew the extreme clipper era was ending and that YA was the last he would build. He went on to build many more ships through 1869. In later life Webb turned to philanthropy, starting a school of marine architecture for boys of limited means. To this day, tuition at Webb Institute is free to qualifying applicants.

Young America

Young America was named after a broad, popular cultural-political movement that flourished in pre Civil War America. The movement advocated democratic reform, free trade, expansion and similar themes. It was a largely urban, middle class movement that became associated with the Democratic party and Stephen Douglas. It paralleled similar movements in Europe.

Some design particulars:
~243’ long od, 43’2” extreme breadth, ~26’ depth of hold
1961 tons – old measure
20” floor deadrise (9 deg)
deadflat forward of midpoint 25’
swell of the sides (tumblehome) 20”
3 decks
circular stern
cost $140,000

Excuse the approximate numbers on her size. There seems to be a variety of measurements reported and due to lack of standardization, it is not always clear what they are. Fortunately the original offsets (see below) ensures that the model will be correct. Other features will be described and compared to other similar ships as they occur later in construction.

I include deadrise in this list because it was considered a key variable in improving speed. Of course as the angle of the floors increased, hold capacity decreased, so the pronounced deadrise of up to 20+ degrees that was employed on the early extreme clippers clearly emphasized speed over capacity in these ships. As the period advanced, bottom shapes became more flat, without an attendant loss of speed. At 9 degrees YA is a good example of the evolved design.

The key structural issue in these ships was the prevention of hogging – the downward deformation of the hull at the ends – sometimes to the point of failure. The problem occurred in wooden ships because of reduced buoyancy at the ends due to less hull volume at the bow and stern. The long length and the sharp entry and run aft in these ships severely aggravated the problem. The obvious solution was to increase hull strength by various means – huge keelsons, heavy inboard planking (called bilge keelsons), various forms of triangular bracing, anti-hogging chocks, diagonal iron lattice-work bolted to the frames, kneed pillars, and generally heavy construction - to the point of reducing hold capacity. Relative to the competition, Webb employed these features with a lighter touch, generally keeping scantlings smaller. He also employed some innovation in going to variable frame spacing with frames spaced further apart toward the ends of the hull where the smaller sections required less structure. This is said to have reduced the dead weight of the structure at each end by up to 25 tons – a substantial relief of the hogging strain effect. The long life of Young America (and others) is a testament to this good engineering.

Availability of data on Webb’s ships is limited to books of plans from his papers for some of his ships. Data for Challenge is fairly complete, since at her launch detailed descriptions were printed. For Young America, less original data is available.

Building a fully framed Young America would not be possible for me without the work of William L. Crothers, specifically his recently published (1997) The American Clipper Ship, Characteristics, Construction, Details. The book is a thoroughly researched tour de force on clipper ship construction. In it he has reproduced Webb’s original table of offsets for both Young America and Comet – essential for producing hull drawings. He has also included substantial basic scantling information for a variety of ships. Based on the assumption that Challenge, Comet and YA would all be similar in structural design, I believe an accurate framed model design can be made forYoung America. Having reached this conclusion, I made my choice to proceed. Crothers also published model plans for a number of ships under the name Sea Gull Plans. The plans for YA (1:96) do not include framing or structure, but will be useful for deck arrangements and rigging. I have also used his similar plans for Challenge and McKay’s Lightning for reference. I have acquired and studied a variety of other sources, but in the main, Crothers has nicely collected most of the useful data – and has usefully referenced his sources in detail.

Below is an image of the CAD body plan from Webb’s original table of offsets. This provides a good description of the hull shape. It is very different from my previous model of Naiad and ships of her type. The method of creating the body plan was also much different. Gone are the heights and breadths of rising, the circular sweeps and points plotted on diagonals. It is possible that a half hull model was made first and the waterline/butt line offsets taken from that to loft the ship. This was a common practice.



This body plan is a starting point for the frame lofting. It shows only profiles at primary station lines. To this drawing I have added all of the intermediate frame profiles as well as profiles between these to permit beveled frame patterns to be lofted. The intermediate profiles were plotted from points measured on a half breadth plan constructed from the original table. That body plan is shown below.



The cant frame profiles are not shown in this plan. The square frame lines are extremely close together, especially near midship. Fortunately, only the computer has to see them.  The diagonals on this plan were added only to set the height of the frame joints in fair lines. I do not believe the American builders paid too much attention to this, but it will make a neater model.

In addition, a table of scantlings is being progressively constructed from various sources.
 
As proof that there will really be a model starting soon, I have included the following photo of the old Naiad building board sporting the framing plan for YA. The shipway is just long enough.




Ed

Lots of great ideas.  Thanks everyone.  As far as cleaning...  As I am the "admiral", if I make a mess the only person I can complain to is myself.  I try not to let it get too out of hand but if you get something crunchy in your dinner and it looks like a carling, oh well.    

Damp - not wet! - brushes of various sizes can pick up dust and quite large particles by surface tension and/or adhesion. It's a tedious process, but will deal with everything the vacuum won't.