Shotlocker

Sperry,
I can't testify as to what a wooden sailing ship really sounded like at sea but I can tell you what it sounded like on the wooden ocean-going
minesweepers I served aboard. The engine noise was there, of course, but not terribly loud. In moderate to rough seas, below decks, the
noise of the waves pounding against the hull was a booming sound accompanied by some creaking and groaning of the ships structure.
Someone had drawn a vertical pencil line across two overlapping beams in the berthing compartment and it was fascinating to watch that
line separate and come back together again as the ships hull flexed. Lying on the bow in calmer weather, looking down at the bow wave,
one could only hear the wind and the hissing of the water as the bow cut through. Below decks, drifting at sea, the sound of the sea was
a gently slapping against the hull - very pleasant and relaxing. Up on the bridge a humming could be heard from the wire rigging on the
mast plus the flapping of the canvas cover over the pilot house. Not a square rigger for sure but nice anyway. Thanks for the memories
and I hope I gave you some idea of what it was like.
 
Cheers,
Gary

I was an A student in chemistry in the 11th grade. The teacher created a 12th grade Chemistry II class for another student and me. We came up with projects that the teacher had to approve, and then set up and ran the experiments ourselves. We also served as lab supervisors for the first year chem labs.
 
We decided to do some organic chemistry for a Science Fair project - creating an amino acid. It was really very simple, but it seemed exciting to us. The teacher gave me the keys to the lab (and supply room) so we could run our experiment on a Saturday. A friend, Henry,  learned of this and asked if he could also set up his experiments for his Science Fair project - he was producing pure halogens. I said it was OK, so one Saturday morning we all met in the lab and got to work.
 
Henry had already produced pure iodine crystals and some liquid bromine. His next step was to set up a chlorine generator. While he was doing that we were setting up the amino acid experiment. Henry had his generator going so I asked him to pour 10 ml of butyric acid - we were starting with that for the amination step. Up to this point everything was going according to plan.
 
But as Henry was putting the cap on the butyric acid bottle he accidentally knocked over the graduated tube and spilled the acid onto the bench top. Fortunately he was working on a scrap piece of plywood, but unfortunately butyric acid has a very strong and vile odor. It smelled as if an entire infantry company had barfed in unison! We all rushed to the windows and threw them open.
 
That diluted the horrible stench a bit, but then we started noticing the very distinctive smell of chlorine in the air. Henry's generator was leaking! We tried to find the leak but without success. Then I remembered that chlorine and ammonia reacted to make ammonium chloride, a white crystal. I poured some full strength 35% ammonia solution into beakers and we set them around the chlorine generator. We found the leak - chlorine gas is heavier than air and it flowed down into a beaker of ammonia. Cool!! They burned with a pale blue flame like burning camp stove fuel. Clouds of ammonium chloride rose into the air and began "snowing" onto every flat surface in the lab.
 
Great! Now the lab stunk like vomit, chlorine and ammonia all at once. We were hanging out of the windows gasping for air when Henry opened the door to the hallway. There was a strong breeze blowing in the windows and when the door opened a gust blew through the lab. Fortunately this cleared the air a bit so we could breath again. Unfortunately, Henry had placed his tube of liquid bromine on a bench top and the breeze blew it off and it crashed on the floor. A small cloud of brownish bromine gas added to the other three obnoxious odors. The bromine bleached a white circle about a foot diameter (30 cm) on the floor.
 
While all of this was going on the 400 voice high school chorus was practicing in the auditorium four floors below. It was warm and they had the windows open in the auditorium. The breeze blowing into the lab pushed the noxious gasses down the hall to the stair well that was open all the way to the basement. The stench flowed down the stair well and into the auditorium. As we were hanging out of the lab windows gasping for air a flood of kids came pouring out of the school entrance four floors below with everyone coughing and gasping.
 
We managed to get the chlorine generator shut down and eventually the stench was reduced so we could do a clean up job to wipe up the ammonium chloride snow. We left the windows open all weekend.
 
I really expected to get into trouble for all that. But the next Monday all that happened was the chemistry teacher catching me in the hallway and asking "Hays, what have you done to my laboratory!?" After that the lab always had a slight smell of vomit.
 
I started college as a chemistry major, but switched to microbiology in my sophomore year.

Speaking of Dodgy furnaces: 
    My maternal grandparents lived in a three flat building built in the early 1920’s. They had a coal burning gravity hot air type octopus furnace similar to the one below, but without the red accessory that was later added on at the bottom.

 
    There was no fan to force the air up since the hot air just naturally rose through the ducts.  Each heating vent had it’s own duct that attached directly to the furnace and made it look like an upside down octopus. The building had more than a dozen heat ducts and due to that maze of ducts and the large coal bin, it took up most of the basement. The basement ceiling was also about twelve feet high to allow some clearance below the ducts.
    Access to the basement was by a 22 rise L shaped stair with a landing half way down that was in a separate room partitioned off from the furnace room with a large heavy steel door, with a closer that always slammed with a resounding bang! I say that because, to a group of young kids ages 3-5 it made us all jump whenever it closed behind leaving us in what seemed like a dimly lit dungeon.
    Eventually we became more adventurous and started going down there to play, but our parents began to worry about us getting into mischief way down there, so grandfather, who always was a bit of a prankster, teased us that there was a green eyed monster that hid in the coal bin sometimes to discourage our interest in going down there.
    At first, we began to think that he was just kidding us since we never saw it and started to go down there again anyway. So grandfather decided that now he needed up his game a bit.
    Taking a pair of flashlights with some green cellophane covering the lenses, he turned them on and placed them in the coal bin just before our next visit. So when we were about to go down to the basement, he told us that he had just seen the green eyed monster in the coal bin earlier and we probably shouldn’t go down there.
    Of course we all though he was just teasing us again, but he said that he better go down with us to see if it was still there. Well, we had just entered the furnace room, he ushered us inside and closed the door with a bang which set us a bit on edge to begin with and we looked around somewhat nervously and said we didn’t see anything.
    Now the basement, with its one small window and a single light bulb, was pretty dim down there to begin with, but he suggested that we might be able to sneak up on it better if we turned out the light,. So he did. Walking over to the coal bin he opened the door a bit and we all looked in. Lo and behold, there was this pair of bright green eyes starring right back at us!! 👾😱😲
    We all instantly made a panicked run to the door and flew up those stairs as fast as we could! For years after that we never went back down there unless grandfather checked it out first.

As a diversion, I saw a pic of what armor piercing shells are capable of ...  sobering indeed.
 

The last step of POB II build was the installation of the flags and ship's pendant.
 
The flags and the pendant were prepared before. Flag photos were retrieved from internet. Pendant was designed, drawed and saved as a picture using MS Powerpoint. Using 'format picture' in MS word and discovering its 'skew' function even drooped like pictures of the flags produced. Prints on several kinds of paper were made in the print shop and put aside.
Paper prints


Skew function results




Then the manager of the print shop suggested to print on cloth. Here the important factor is the choice of cloth type. The best is silk (which was not thought by me or manager at that time) and quality cotton or linen with dense weaving follow. There are  two methods of printing on cloth ( as the manager said) : direct transfer or sublimation. Here is photo showing the difference between them. Red arrow indicates the direct transfer sample.

Sublimation method

Printing by direct transfer creates a layer on the cloth and thickens it. In sublimation method the dye diffuses into the cloth and looks more natural to eye. The colors look pale in this method , however with adjustments done before and during printing may solve it. After all printing to cloth was not a routine daily job for the print shop and I am sure they can develop the method and output quality if demand increases.
 
At the stage of final preparation of the flags I  made an experiment with a sample which was not skewed!
The US flag was folded and glued by textile glue. Then it was clamped between two wood strips which was  clamped in a vise. The flag was wetted by water and a metal clamps were used on two points. Water diluted white glue was applied. After the flag was dry it was removed from the jig. The result satisfied me.
 




However the size of the skewed flags were somewhat smaller and I decided to use the straight samples. In order to simulate the flag grommets and halliard snap hooks  and thus make the flags interchangeable in future, I decided  to make the arrangement seen in the photo below.

The flags and pendant were cut by using a sharp knife and steel ruler. The excess cloth was left at the flag ends. The pendant used was the one with red arrow.

On order to make the ropes with looped ends to simulate grommets, a jig was made with separate distance positions for the flags and pendant. Thread was bees waxed.

Ropes with looped ends were made for all flags and pendant


All the flags and the pendant were ready to be folded with the ropes with looped ends ready too.

This was the method. The rope was glued first. Then the pendant was glued folded over. It was clamped between two wood pieces to dry.




All the flags were ready with their loop ended ropes. The flag fronts were cut to size

The next step was to prepare the halliards for each flag and the metal rings to simulate snap hooks.
I decided to make rectangle shape rather than circular ring shape.

Another jig was made and the halliard line was fixed leaving a part of it where the flag is to be seized. First the upper metal clip was glued and later seized to halliard line.




The flags upper loop is hooked to the metal clip and the position of the lower loop was marked on the halliard line. The lower clip was then seized to halliard line at this mark.




Flag is then hooked to the upper and lower clips. The excess rope of the clips cut. 


An alternate way to seize the metal clips to halliard line. First place the loose  knot at the mark. Then insert the metal clip later.


After all the metal clips were seized to their halliards it was time to give the flags and pendant their final shape. I used the same technique I described at the beginning of the post.
 

The Baltimore flag was put to dry in upside down position . It was treated  again. As all the flags were shaped and their halliards  with metal clips seized were ready,  the final step was to install them on the model.


By the installation of the Baltimore Flag , 27 month build journey was finished. Here is the first photo I took right after the last flag was installed.

 

Had the guys over to the shop.  Tale of two Winnies.  One is mine and the other is Mikes (stuntflyer).
 

DJ, this is grand news and I applaud your decision. I hope any mental anguish is minimal, concentrate on the good times no matter how few. We're here to help you and provide any assistance and advise that we can. 
 
 Keith

I posted this in my build log as well:
 
Please ignore the post above.  After an attitude adjustment I have decided that I will continue with and complete the restoration.  It’s a beautiful model and I can’t allow 2500 hours of my father’s life to be wasted.  Sorry for the pity party.  There is a lot of emotion that comes back when working on something of my father’s.  He was a POW at Stalag Luft IV and his PTSD was never treated, (through no fault of his own).  That aside, he was a fine craftsman and I am amazed that he build this at such a young age.

My heating system has a self regulating mobile heating unit system! The colder the room gets the more mobile units move to your location.

View from the stern corners.

View from the bow angles.

2

Thank you Keith!
   Thanks to the Lord God, everything is fine with me and I am completing my project. It remains for me to install the steam boats on the model and raise the flags.

Just a simple.'thank you' not just the build but all the time spent photographing it and sharing it with us.
 
Ian 🥳

Damn that’s good, congratulations, it’s been a pleasure to watch 

An absolute masterpiece!!
Congratulations to you for your master skills and to the now very lucky owner it will be in the possession of.

It must be difficult to say goodbye to this fantastic ship model, and I hope that many people will get to marvel at it over the years to come. We are all so delighted that we got to see the build log.
Best wishes from London. 

Your work is inspiring!  Having watched the build over the past several months, seeing it develop and the detail that you've laid your hands to come to completion...well done.  You are a master of the art of model ship building!

NS
 

If there were such a thing as a standing ovation on the internet, we'd all be jumping up and down on our seats. Thanks so much for sharing your work with us. Your progress was a pleasure, and an education, to watch. Keep safe and know that all of us in the West are rooting, and praying, for you and for Ukraine. 

Finishing the third bus
 
Ready for painting

Standard painting and weathering

ready

Baker's bus company 😉

And the Olpympia is ready for painting

Simply magnificent build!

The bound sets do have a number of photographs-- not likely all taken by researchers, but they are well-curated. There is also updated (ca. 1980s) information and background on most of the boats included. Another very nice feature of the bound volumes is the introductory sections which include the history of the HAMMS program as well as retrospectives by a number of people involved.  A very nice surprise is the artistic and full-color plates made by some of the researchers-- there's an entire "artwork" appendix in one of the volumes.  I haven't seen sets listed for $3,000 in recent years, but have for around half that; it's actually an incredible bargain when one considers ordering all the plans individually from the Smithsonian. 
 
Here's a jot I wrote about these Volumes recently, for any interested: 
 

The Historic American Merchant Marine Survey
 
In the midst of the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration had many projects designed to employ workers laid off from various trades.  The short-lived Federal Project No. 6 employed shipwrights, marine surveyors, and naval architects to document ships and boats around the United States.  Despite its formal name (Historic American Merchant Marine Survey), many of the vessels surveyed were more common or anonymous than historic; a number of recreational craft and foreign-builds are also included.  During the year-and-a-half they were active (1936-1937), they recorded over 350 vessels.  Some consist of lines lifted from half-models in museums and shipyards, while others were on-site documentation of full-size vessels—some derelict, some still active.  The presentation consists of the common three-view scale drawing of a vessel’s lines, and often numerous pages of construction details, machinery details, and sail and rigging plans. 
 
These drawings, while available individually from the Smithsonian Institution for many years, had not been assembled into publication until 1983, when the Ayer Publishing Co. of New Hampshire turned these into a large seven volume set, complete with an introduction on the project, retrospectives by those involved, and new introductory information on each recorded vessel.  Further, the volumes include photographs of many vessels during documentation, as well as full-color and monochrome watercolor sketches made by the surveyors. The beauty of this edition is astonishing—and every drawing in it was hand inked by gifted experts, each with their own style, precision, and artfulness. The size—23-1/2” x 18-1/2” is a very worthy size for the quality of the illustrations, and many pages are foldouts. Very few libraries hold these volumes; I haven’t been able to find how many were printed.  According to WorldCat, only 11 sets are in U.S. Libraries, only 2 of which are on the West Coast.  
 
The range of documented watercraft is astounding.  Some of the older recorded vessels are from the 1820s, while others were just a few years old.  The survey includes dugout canoes from Nicaragua, a U.S. Revenue Cutter, sharpies, scows, schooners, barks, full-rigged iron ships, sponge fishing craft, tug boats, steamships, stern- and side-wheelers, and even two Polar exploration vessels (Peary’s S.S. Roosevelt, and what may be the only larger vessel from the survey still in existence: Roald Amundsen’s Gjöa).  Small inshore fishing craft of many designs and lineages are also represented.  
 
The West Coast is well represented for some areas, but in the Retrospective, a contributor expresses regret at not getting the program into and up the Columbia River.  Columbia River watercraft have since received attention and documentation, courtesy of the Historic American Engineering Record, established by the National Park Service in 1969.  The closest-to-Astoria vessel in the HAMMS set is the Steam Schooner Willapa, built in Raymond, Washington in 1908. The Willapa is masterfully recorded in over 17 sheets of drawings.  The volumes include a number of vessels of this type as well as other lumber carriers, including sailing vessels built in the Puget Sound—no doubt many serviced ports on the Columbia River. 
 
That this project was ever created is a bit of a miracle; its success is perhaps even more miraculous given the necessary organization and its brief existence.  At one point, the director of the project (Eric J. Steinlein) was faced with an overwhelming backlog of work the very day before the official termination of the project.  He penned a letter that afternoon beginning “Dear Mr. Roosevelt…” which bought them six more months to work. 
 
That this was the right project at the right time cannot be understated. A collapsed economy and widespread poverty spelled a quick end to many already aged wooden vessels. The age of working sail was effectively over, and steel was becoming the material of choice for smaller and smaller craft—eventually fiberglass would replace the smallest of wooden work boats. During the Great Depression, the older relics had not yet rotted completely away, and they were ripe for documentation.  These volumes provide a glimpse of what was—a diverse fleet no longer in existence, captured in its twilight. Also captured in these volumes are the mastery of draftsmen trained by hand, shipbuilders trained by eye, and the ever-pressing urgency of historical documentation. 
 
 

Eberhard, there are still a couple of items that I need to add to the display. One is the data plaque that I am having engraved for it, the other is a mirror to go under the paddlewheel. I put so much work and detail into the building the paddlewheel that it was a shame to hide it. It is almost impossible to see it through the cutaway, so I decided that I would elevate the model from the base and place a small mirror under it. When the lights are on, it should highlight the paddlewheel nicely. If you notice, there is a coin located on the starboard aft of the base. This is a US Quarter for the Vicksburg NMP. The quarters obverse has a depiction of the USS Cairo on it, and I thought it was a nice addition to the display. The Quarter also functions as the switch to turn on the internal lighting of the boat. Once I get these other items completed, I'll get more pictures posted.
 
-Brian

Simply magnificent build!

Simply magnificent build!

Simply magnificent build!