Gloucester Fishing Schooner by Alfons - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - scale 1:48 - first build

[Wintergreen]

Good luck with the turning!

 

As always, sharp tools are a must

If I may, a couple of tips on the way...

I used my lathe for the spars on Regina, and since those tapered from centre out I finished one end at a time. To treat the spar gently I used a rubber hose when I clamped it in the chuck.

Be careful with the sandpaper, I still have marks going in cross grain on the boom since I was a bit eager with the coarser grits...

 

But...you say you have a bag of blanks..so a couple of try and you'll figure it out

[Alfons]

Håkan.

 

Thanks for the hints related to turning. I ended up using a floor mounted drilling machine instead, applying sanding paper of different grain. It was possible to shape the complete boom without changing positions in the chuck, but I liked your idea of using a rubber tube. I was quite happy with the result from my first try, so I did not make use of my spare material. I am really happy to have found a method of tapering, next time I visit my parents I will make the top masts and all the other booms.

 

Avsjerome2003

 

Thanks for your kind words. Those dorys look excellent piled on each other. Having spent about 3 weeks building just one,it would take me until summer to complete all of those.. 

 

I have also produced my first "sharp" solderings, the shaft for the bilge pumps. Once I got the right soldering paste and had spent a few hours practicing, it really wasnt that complicated . I have dreaded hard soldering since some time now, it feels like a stone just fell off my shoulders

 

Next up: last coat of paint on the dory main rails, then detailing of the jibb boom.

 

Thanks for dropping by.

/Alfons

 

[russ]

Alfons:

Nice work. Those soldered joints look good. I felt the same way about soldering when I first used it. Now, I wonder what was I thinking to be afraid of it?

 

Russ

[Wintergreen]

Yup, that soldered joint looks good Alfons.

 

Q; where did you source the soldering paste? Domestic or abroad?

[Alfons]

Håkan, you will find the paste at www.pmc.se

 

The one that I use melts at 690 C and comes with a very nice injection "needle".

 

/Alfons

[Elia]

Alfons,

 

Nice work on those soldered joints.  They look great in the picture, which probably something like 5X scale, so they must look really sharp at full size.

 

Regarding the note on the dories by avsjerome2003:  Smuggler was a specialized type of fishing schooner, termed a Mackerel Seiner.  The typical mackerel seiner carried one dory and towed a seint boat.  Some of the larger of these schooners carried two dories, and in rare cases, two seine boats.   The seine boat is double ended, looking very similar to a whale boat, but larger.  Instead of dory fishing (for halibut, cod, etc), where 10 to 14 boats were used, the mackerel seiners used their seine boat and dory to deploy a very long net, weighted at its lower edge, cork floats along the upper edge.  When a mackerel school as found the seine boat was rowed as quickly as possible around the school until it met up with the dory, thus encircling the school by the seine net.  The bottom of the net was laced, and drawn closed, termed 'closing the purses' by the seine boat crew.  The net was then moved aside the schooner and the fish were scooped by a dipping net and transfered onto the schooner.

 

Elia

[Alfons]

Thanks Elia, that was interesting information to me. As you probably know, there is a seine boat decribed in the drawings from Blue Jacket, also a few brief instructions are available in the booklet. However, I do not plan to build this one, my scratch building technique needs further refinement prior to such a project. Secondly, it wouldnt fit in my planned dispaly  

 

I am interested in populating the deck of the schooner with as much details as possible. I am now at a point were all deck related structures and parts decribed in the drawings are complete (pictures will follow shortly). Do you know of any further sources (preferably pictures) of additional details on deck? It would be much apprechiated.

 

/Alfons

[Timothy Wood]

Alfons,

 

Its been a while since I've checked in on your build, and I must say again what beautiful workmanship.  Truly artwork in wood!

It truly is a pleasure following your build log!    

 

Cheers,

Tim

[Elia]

Alfons,

I've only got a few sources of information pertaining to mackerel seine purse fishing. They are the following:

1. Smuggler model, plan sheets and instructions, by Blue Jacket Shipcrafters. Kit, plans and instructions were created by Eric A. R. Ronnberg, Jr. Excellent. No need to elaborate on this for you.

2. Benjamin W. Latham model, plan sheets and instructions, by Model Shipways. The principal plans and instructions were created by Eric A. R. Ronnberg, Jr. in 1973. Also excellent. The model plans were revised to a POB design by Ben Lankford in 1994. The plans include a sheet pertaining to the details of boats and equipment of seine purse fishing. The schooner was built in 1902, so it is about 25 years later on than Smuggler. There may be subtle differences in the seine equipment due to the difference in era - I don't know if differences exist or what specifically they might be. Similar to the Smuggler plan sheet the Ben Latham plan sheet includes plans for a dory and a seine boat. It also includes the following: (i) dip net detail, (ii) a dory scoop detail, (iii) kerosene lantern details [used for night fishing illumination], (iv) a splitting knife [tiny at 1/48 scale], (v) a mackerel plough [another knife, also tiny at 1/48 scale], (vi) a seine purse net weight, (vii) barrel details, (viii) splitting board details [a tray on which the fish were dressed], and the piece de resistance (ix) the seine purse net. The seine purse net is ~1400 feet long by ~140 feet deep. Obviously very difficult to model to scale - it might look like a giant pile of cheese cloth if I tried it. Bob Steinbrunn did a very nice job on a 'representative' seine purse on his Smuggler model, as seen in SIS last year.

3. Down to the Sea, The Fishing Schooners of Gloucester, by Joseph E. Garland. Probably my favorite book on these schooners and the Western Atlantic fisheries of the 1870s through 1920s. It covers the evolution of the fishing boats, the fleets, the technologies employed, and colors a pretty grand picture of the Gloucestermen and Canadians who fished the banks, from Georges out to the Grand Banks. Stories on the dangers and difficulties fill the pages, along with the fishermen's races, life as a fisherman, etc. The book has many black and white photos from which a myriad of details can be seen. There aren't any dimensioned drawings which a modeler could use, but the photos and descriptions are well worth the purchase price.

4. The American Fishing Schooners, by Howard I. Chapelle. The definitive volume on the (Western) Atlantic fishing schooners. Not a great deal on seine purse schooners or gear here, but always worth a look.

I hope some of these are of use to you.

Cheers,

Elia

Edited March 14, 2013 by Elia

[Timothy Wood]

Alfons,

 

You may want to do a google image search of American Fishing Schooners along with Bluenose II.

 

Cheers,

 

Tim

[gerty]

Beautiful work !

[Alfons]

Gerty, thanks a lot.

 

Tim, thanks for the idea, I have found some pictures showing details of equipment to the dory. 

 

Elia, thank you for your reply, this information will be valuable to me. 

 

Who would have thought that there are so much information available about fishing schooners on the internet

 

/Alfons

[Alfons]

Fellow ship builders, I need your help!

 

Here I was, thinking that I had learnt the basic skills of hard soldering.. The other parts I have done so far looks OK, now it was time for the iron wye that sits on the jibb boom end. I started off with a 3 mm brass tube, cutting it in about 3 mm length. Next step was to solder 3 pieces of brass band to the tube, this is were I ran into trouble.

 

The soldering does not seem to cure, I ended up with a small blob, very brittle, ugly and looking. I am using the same soldering paste as before, and the same torch applying proper heat.

 

Can anyone help me out, what am I doing wrong???? I´m kind of stuck!

 

Thanks for your support.

 

/Alfons

 

Edited March 17, 2013 by Alfons

[russ]

Alfons:

You need to create clean surfaces by filing them up good and bright. I would make your wye or lug as it sometimes called, on the end of a brass strip. Create a pin on the end of the lug and drill the lug for its eye. Now, drill a hole into the band to receive the pin. It should be a snug fit, just enough to create some contact inside the hole and with the edge of the lug against the band. Now apply your solder and make the joint. After the joint is made, trim the lug to size and shape if with a file.

 

Here are a couple of bands I made for the Ketch model. These all had the joints made first and the pieces trimmed to size afterwards. The first lug is made from the stem of the band after that first joint was sodlered to make the band. The rest had pins inserted into holes drilled into the band.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Russ

[Alfons]

Thanks a million Russ. I will give this a shot as soon as I can find the time

/Alfons

[gerty]

Wow - Beautiful work !   Great job on the Deck and everything else !

[Alfons]

Thanks Gerty.

 

I have spent hours trying to solder the lug, without success Even though I did ensure nice bright and clean surfaces, with a snug fit to each other, the soldering did not cure properly. 

 

I came up with an alternative design of the lug, this type came together quite nicely.

 

The size of the lug is about 3 mm in diameter, and the brass rings are about 1 mm. I was considering pinching the rings slightly, given them a more oval appearance. 

 

So, what do you think, would you say that this design is totally out of the question for a fishing schooner such as this one??? Be honest with me now

 

Thanks for dropping by, feedback will be highly appreciated.

 

/Alfons

Edited March 25, 2013 by Alfons

[cog]

Nice solder job Afons. Looks like a good alternative

[russ]

Alfons:

Not sure why the lugs would not solder, but what you came up with will work.

 

An alternative is to make your lugs with a pin that would go into a hole drilled in the spar. You can glue a paper or poster board band on to the spar and drill holes right through into the spar and then glue the pins of the lugs into the spar. Once the lugs and bands are painted, it looks like the real thing.

 

Question is, will the glue hold? That is why soldering works so well.

 

Russ

[Alfons]

Thanks Carl.

 

Russ, I am not quite sure that I understand your suggestion. Anyhow, I have decided to use the part on the picture above, the solderings seems strong and fully able to handle the tension from the rig. The picture is not really fair, the lug actually seems smaller in real life, compared to the complete bow spirit and its sorroundings. Furthermore, the "lug problem" has stalled me for quite some time now, and I need to gain some momentum in the build. I am now soldering small brass rings to the lug, allowing for the foot ropes and other rig details to be attached properly.

 

What would you say is the right color of a typical lug, I have seen both blackened and white ones so far. The instructions and pictures does not really define which color to use.

 

Thanks for your support and encouragement

 

/Alfons

[bhermann]

Alfons - the "pin" idea Russ suggests worked well for me when adding multiple lugs to a band.  Basically you drill a small hole in the band and file a short tang into the inside edge of the lug.  The tang fits tightly into the hole and provides a good mechanical connection for the solder.  I may have a photo of the tang in my log... if not I'll be happy to dig up a picture if you'd like.  I tried to make my lugs look like galvanized steel, based on photos of the actual ship.

 

Bob

[Alfons]

Bob, thanks for your reply. Scrolling trough your log, I found the pictures describing your work with the lugs. Following the suggestion from Russ, I tried making the lugs in just the way you decribe above. I encountered the same problem with soldering paste not "melting" properly, creating a useless joint with no strenght. All surfaces were clean and shiny. The techique as suggeted seems great, but I cant seem to figure out what I am doing wrong!

 

Maybe I´ll give it a final try shortly, else the lug with eye bolts will have to do.

 

/Alfons

[russ]

Alfons:

The color for the lugs and bands could be anything from black to grey if left natural, or white if painted.

 

Russ

[bhermann]

One more thought on the lugs.  I find that silver solder flows toward the heat source.  The idea was counter-intuitive to me but it does work that way.  In future attempts you may want to think about applying the paste on one side of the band and applying the torch to the other side.  Good luck - whatever you decide to do will be fine.  The band with eyes looks good to me.

 

Bob

[dgbot]

Nicely done.  I would paint all the iron work black..

David B

[Alfons]

Finally, I managed to get the lugs right I gave the technique described by Russ (thank you) one more shot, this time using a different sheet of brass. The soldering paste melted nicely and the joints appear strong. As suggested, I think I will blacken the iron work.

 

I am attaching a picture showing the difference compared to my back up solution, eye bolts soldered to the brass ring. I am glad that I invested the time end effort to get the lugs right. The proper one looks much better. No I can finally move on with the rest of the jibb boom.

 

Thanks for dropping by.

/Alfons

[russ]

Alfons:

That looks good. If the joints are good, you will be able to give them a slight tug or bend without any issues.

 

Russ

[bhermann]

That's got it Alfons - nice work!

 

Bob

[captainbob]

That really looks good.  I see I need more practice with the torch.

 

Bob

[Elia]

Alfons,

 

Very nicely done eyeband version 2.  That really looks the part.

 

Elia