Dunbrody by Mahuna - FINISHED - 1:48 - Cross-Section - Irish Famine Ship

[mtaylor]

Lovely framing, Frank.  The time spent now is worth it in the long run.

[Elijah]

Those frames are adding up! She's coming along nicely!

[Mahuna]

Part 13 – Installing the Frames – cont’d

 

My last post was last Sunday, and I was pleased with the progress so far.  Well, I guess I spoke too soon – on Monday evening I had a medical issue that took me out of the shop for most of the week.  I’m back at work on Dunbrody now, and have made some more progress.

 

By Monday I had 13 frames installed.  I noticed that the last frame to be installed was slightly narrower on top, so I needed to come up with a way to spread out the tops.  After glueing in the filler blocks behind this frame, I then used a couple of long clamps to align it with the frame preceding it.

 

                        

 

I was surprised by the lack of alignment, since I’ve been using the pin indexing approach.  After trying to determine why the top was not correct, I think the answer lies in the scarf joints being too tight at the point where the top timber will want to pivot.  The clamping mentioned above appears to have corrected the problem, and from now on I’ll be making sure all the joints are properly fit before glueing.

 

Here’s the current state of the build:

 

                        

 

                        

 

                        

 

I’m trying to make sure I have enough frames lofted so that the building activity isn’t slowed.  I have another frame almost ready for installation, two more in the construction phases, and 4 frames lofted.  It’s probably time to start planning how to secure the frames via ribbands, so that will likely be the subject of a post in the next few days. 

 

Thanks everyone!

[Elijah]

Welcome back! She's looking bigger!

[GuntherMT]

Looking great Frank.

 

Sorry to hear about your medical set-back.  If you ever find yourself needing something while your wife is away, feel free to call me.

[Mahuna]

Looking great Frank.

 

Sorry to hear about your medical set-back.  If you ever find yourself needing something while your wife is away, feel free to call me.

 

Thanks Brian.  Fortunately I had the car, so I was able to deal with it.  Just glad it wasn't one of those times where I was without a car - would have been 911 time (you're too far away).

[GuntherMT]

Distance depends on whether I'm at work or not.    But yea, if it's an emergency you certainly don't want to wait on anyone.

[druxey]

Glad to read you are back at the model and hopefully not too much worse for wear, Frank. Hopefully frame alignment won't be a big issue for you. She's looking good. 

[Mahuna]

Glad to read you are back at the model and hopefully not too much worse for wear, Frank. Hopefully frame alignment won't be a big issue for you. She's looking good. 

 

Hi Druxey - I don't think there are any significant alignment issues.  I assume installation of ribbands will cure any that exist, or will at least point out if there is any surgery required (re-installation of a frame).

[captainbob]

The framing is looking good.  Sorry to hear of your medical problem but glad to hear it is better.

 

Bob

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up, Frank.  She's really coming along very nicely.

 

John

[Mahuna]

Welcome back! She's looking bigger!

 

Thanks Elijah - although at this point I'm glad I limited it to a sectional model.

 

 

Just catching up, Frank.  She's really coming along very nicely.

 

John

 

 

Thanks John.

 

 

The framing is looking good.  Sorry to hear of your medical problem but glad to hear it is better.

 

Bob

 

 

Thanks Bob - things are going OK.

[ggrieco]

She's going together beautifully Frank! That is going to be one fair hull when you're done.

 

Glenn

[Mahuna]

She's going together beautifully Frank! That is going to be one fair hull when you're done.

 

Glenn

 

Thanks Glenn.  I'm enjoying your build log and appreciate your comments.

[HIPEXEC]

Frank,

You said that the poverty stricken  passengers had to bring their own food for the entire voyage. How did they cook that food? I'm sure the ship's captain forbid private fires aboard.

[Mahuna]

Frank,

You said that the poverty stricken  passengers had to bring their own food for the entire voyage. How did they cook that food? I'm sure the ship's captain forbid private fires aboard.

 

Hi Rich:

 

This is from the Dunbrody website:

 

"Lasting up to six weeks, the Atlantic crossing was a terrible trial for those brave, or desperate, enough to attempt it. Packed cheek by jowl below decks, the steerage passengers barely saw the light of day. Allowed up on deck for no more than one hour a day, in small groups, they would gather around open stoves to cook. When their time was up, it was back down into the dark, dank hold. During the regular storms the hatches were battened down, and the passengers would subsist on hard-tack biscuits.

Hygiene was notoriously poor aboard most ships. With nothing more than buckets for toilets, and only sea-water to wash with, disease was rampant. Cholera and Typhus accounted for a great many deaths. Those who died were buried at sea. With death rates commonly reaching 20%, and horror stories of 50% dying, these vessels soon became known as ‘Coffin Ships’ “

 

​Here's a photo of the cooking setup and a 'slop bucket' from the replica ship in New Ross.  Not an enjoyable cruise.

 

                             

[Mahuna]

Rich 

 

Here's a little more - this is a photo from the accommodation deck on the replica ship .  These are the platforms the emigrants had as living quarters - typically a family of four on a platform.  It looks fairly neat and clean, but imagine what the actual conditions were like - the platforms shown in the photo held about 48 people, only a part of the accommodation deck.  The entire population was near 200 emigrants on average.

 

                  

 

 

[HIPEXEC]

The trip certainly wasn't for sissies! The end result was America got a solid, tough breed to help her flourish.

[tkay11]

Cholera and the other illnesses causing death among the passengers, like TB and plague, caused death amongst all types of people. Well-fed officers were as prone to these problems as the privates in the various wars of the time. The major problem was not the starting health or fitness of the people but the extent of contamination. The major variables are exposure, duration of exposure, concentration of bacteria and frequency of exposure.

 

Tony

[captainbob]

I wonder if they knew what the conditions would be like before they sailed.

 

Bob

[AON]

Bob,

 

It was a different time for the Irish.  At one time there were many restrictions to their lives that made survival an unbelievable hardship.  From outlawing the language, family (sur)names, changing given names, restricting ownership of property, restrictions on participation in government.... they couldn't even own a horse.  They came to America to find the Irish were not welcome here.  There were signs in the windows - No Irish Allowed.  Boys who signed on as fishermen in Ireland were left behind in Newfoundland to fend for themselves over the harsh winter so there would be more room for the cargo. (I think that may be how my family arrived).

 

And we speak of the good old days!

 

Alan Uà Niàll

[HIPEXEC]

Most of the various immigrant groups had their own set of assimilation problems. The Italians, The Jews, etc. It all added up to making Americans a tough breed. Let's hope we can still remain as tough as these past immigrants were. Thanks for building this model, Frank. It is a great model. but it also teaches us a good history lesson.

Edited April 29, 2016 by Hipexec

[Mahuna]

Cholera and the other illnesses causing death among the passengers, like TB and plague, caused death amongst all types of people. Well-fed officers were as prone to these problems as the privates in the various wars of the time. The major problem was not the starting health or fitness of the people but the extent of contamination. The major variables are exposure, duration of exposure, concentration of bacteria and frequency of exposure.

 

Tony

 

 

Hi Tony

 

While what you say is absolutely true, the Irish emigrants on these ships started out in very bad shape from malnutrition and typhus.  Here's an excerpt from an article on the History Place on the Irish Famine and the 'coffin ships' ( http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/index.html )

 

During the trans-Atlantic voyage, British ships were only required to supply 7 lbs. of food per week per passenger. Most passengers, it was assumed, would bring along their own food for the journey. But most of the poor Irish boarded ships with no food, depending entirely on the pound-a-day handout which amounted to starvation rations. Food on board was also haphazardly cooked in makeshift brick fireplaces and was often undercooked, causing upset stomachs and diarrhea.

 

Many of the passengers were already ill with typhus as they boarded the ships. Before boarding, they had been given the once-over by doctors on shore who usually rejected no one for the trip, even those seemingly on the verge of death. British ships were not required to carry doctors. Anyone that died during the sea voyage was simply dumped overboard, without any religious rites.

 

Belowdecks, hundreds of men, women and children huddled together in the dark on bare wooden floors with no ventilation, breathing a stench of vomit and the effects of diarrhea amid no sanitary facilities. On ships that actually had sleeping berths, there were no mattresses and the berths were never cleaned. Many sick persons remained in bare wooden bunks lying in their own filth for the entire voyage, too ill to get up.

 

Another big problem was the lack of good drinking water. Sometimes the water was stored in leaky old wooden casks, or in casks that previously stored wine, vinegar or chemicals which contaminated the water and caused dysentery. Many ships ran out of water long before reaching North America, making life especially miserable for fevered passengers suffering from burning thirsts. Some unscrupulous captains profited by selling large amounts of alcohol to the passengers, resulting in "totally depraved and corrupted" behavior among them.

[tkay11]

Thanks, Frank. I agree totally. My comment was just to point out that this has nothing to do either with being 'sissy' or with being 'a solid tough breed' -- whatever those might mean.

 

Tony

[Mahuna]

Part 14 – Installing the Frames – cont’d

 

Construction and installation of the frames has been continuing.  I also decided to start making the adjustments that will be needed while it’s still easy to get to the mid-most frames.

 

The first adjustment is leveling the Cutting Down Line so that the keelson and sister keelsons will properly sit on top of the frame floors.  This was already done in the early part of the construction of each frame, but I’ve found that the amount of wetting that has to be done to remove the glued-on plans causes the wood to swell somewhat, so that this area is no longer level.

 

In order to accurately mark the boundaries of the Cutting Down Line, I made a template by printing the bottom of a frame on a piece of card stock.  After marking the centerline on the forward-most frame I used this template to mark the boundaries of the Cutting Down Line.  This was repeated on the aftmost frame, then lines were drawn to mark the boundary along all of the frames. 

 

                        

 

Then it was a simple matter of sanding between these lines.

 

                        

 

Another adjustment is to start fairing the inside of the frames that have already been installed.  At the moment I’m only fairing the frames up to about the end of the second futtock, which is in the area of the turn of the bilge.  Because the frame-holding fixture shown in the following photo is used to secure the frames, this lower area is stable enough to sand.

 

                        

 

I use a fairly long (about 8 inches) sanding stick that allows me to cross 6 or 8 frames at once.  I made some light pencil marks on all of the frames, and will sand until all of the pencil marks are gone.  This is a process that will take some time, so I’m only doing it intermittently.

 

                        

 

Because of the flexing of the keel and shoe combination, I’ve decided that I need to leave some cross-spalls in place to ensure that I can level the hull during construction.  The installation of some of the early cross-spalls was inconsistent – although the centerline was properly marked, some of the spalls were lower than they should be.  So I decided to make some changes to the way I install spalls.

 

The first change is to include a horizontal line across the frame plan to indicate the bottom of the spall.  The following photo of a pinning template shows this line.

 

                        

 

I then made a jig with a horizontal bar that will be used to position the bottom of the spall, and a vertical bar that will be used to set the centerline position on the spall.

 

                        

 

The left edge of the vertical bar is aligned with the centerline on the pinning template, and the top of the horizontal bar is aligned with the line for the bottom of the spall.

 

                        

 

A drop of glue is then placed where each end of the spall will mate with the frame. 

 

                        

 

The spall is then put in place and the spall’s centerline is aligned with the left edge of the vertical bar (I’m re-using spalls, so they are already marked for a centerline).  Large nuts are used as weights to secure the spall while the glue is setting (now I just need to add something to make it a Smiley-Face).

 

                        

 

And now the reason for my Smiley-Face: I reached one of my milestones today – I completed the installation of frame 44 – the forward-most frame of the model. 

 

                        

 

                        

  

18 frames are now installed – 8 more to go.          

 

Thanks everyone!

 

[mtaylor]

Happy milestone, Frank.   Looking great.

[GuntherMT]

Great looking as always Frank, but I noticed in the last two photo's a gap between the keel and frame 44, is it seated and glued in the photo?  Or is that just a shadow from the light in the photo?

[Omega1234]

Hi Frank

 

I, too would have a smiley face if I'd done what you've done. Beautiful work and congrats on reaching the milestone!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

Edited May 1, 2016 by Omega1234

[albert]

Very beautiful work.

[captainbob]

You're moving right along. 

 

Bob