SS Benjamin Noble by Roger Pellett - 1:96 - Great Lakes Freighter

[Jim Lad]

Slow and steady is the way to go, Roger.  Gives us time to savour your work properly. 

 

John

[Cathead]

I can definitely appreciate the fenders. As a young'un in Western NY, I enjoyed watching lake ships pass through the canals and locks bypassing Niagara Falls. Seemed like there was only a few inches clearance on either side, and in those pre-9/11 days,  you could walk right up to the canal-side and touch the ship as it went by. 

[Cathead]

Any further progress? I miss following this project.

[Roger Pellett]

Eric,

 

I have been making steady progress but have been waiting for something newsworthy to show.  I should have a post in the next couple of days.

 

Roger

[Ras Ambrioso]

Excellent work Roger. Your research has been very informative. Carry on.

[Roger Pellett]

CHAPTER 8- A Major Milestone and a Rabbit Hole

 

Since my last progress report almost three months ago, I have been working steadily on the model.  A couple of weeks ago, I reached a major milestone, I fastened the two hull halves together.  Before I could do this, I spent considerable time adding necessary hull openings; hawse pipes, mooring pipes, porthole linings, the propeller shaft tube, and piping inlets and outlets.  Once the halves were fastened, I added the keel plating and the propeller boss reinforcement plates.  The final keel plate aft awaits installation of the lower rudder support shoe, that first requires installation of the rudder and propeller.  The White supports utilize the female threads embedded in the bottom of the hull but the supports themselves are temporary.  The grey color is  primer.  As usual, the digital camera shows areas that need to be cleaned up.

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Roger Pellett

[mtaylor]

Looks good Roger.   Is there any part of ship modeling that doesn't lead to a rabbit hole?   Some are bigger and deeper than others.

[Roger Pellett]

CHAPTER 8 (continued)

 

The Rabbit hole:  in late July my wife and I visited a fellow model builder and NRG member and his wife who live nearby in Wisconsin.  I was astonished by his collection of beautiful scratch built models, several of Lake vessels.  I was intrigued by the way that he had added interest by giving viewers a peek of the ship’s machinery through an open door, hatch or skylight.  Returning home, I decided to add the same feature to my Benjamin Noble model.  I will show the engine room skylight open revealing the top of the triple expansion steam engine below.  I also decided to show the coal bunker partially filled, visible through the open coal bunker hatch.

 

This all required an examination and reconstruction of the ship’s internal arrangements.  I was able to do so with reasonable accuracy from the structural drawings that showed the rectangular trunk passing from the engine room to the deckhouse roof.  This same drawing also showed the coal bunker and located the two boilers.  I was surprised to discover that the layout of the coal bunker and boilers differed from the usual layout of Great Lakes ships- see drawing below.  Instead of locating the coal bunker at the forward end of the deckhouse, the bunker wraps around the boilers with the hatch behind the smokestack.

 

Why did the Noble’s designers do this, and why not use the generally accepted arrangement?  Answer:  by doing so they increased the volume of the hold by the 7000+ cubic feet that would otherwise be taken up by the bunker.  So then, why did the designers of other Great Lakes ships favor the more common arrangement that cost them hold volume?  

 

For every cargo that can be conceivably be carried  aboard ship there is what’s called a “stowage factor” that lists the volume required by one ton of cargo.  The principal American Great Lakes cargo was and still is iron ore.  In the early 1900’s, coal was a secondary cargo, loaded when the opportunity presented to avoid returning back up the Lakes in ballast.  The stowage factor for iron ore, a very heavy cargo, is about 20 cu ft per ton.  When hauling iron ore the ship would be considered to be fully loaded well before her holds were full.  Sacrificing hold volume for bunker space, therefore, did not affect the carrying capacity for vessels built to haul iron ore.

 

Why did the Noble’s designers need the extra hold space gained by her unusual and costly bunker arrangement.  She was designed to carry a very light cargo: pulpwood with a stowage factor of over 140 cubic feet per ton.   When she sank, she was carrying railroad rails, stowage factor 12 cubic feet per ton.  There was a lot of empty space in her hold that was subject to flooding if her hatches failed.  

 

The subassembly in the second photo below fits into a space chiseled into the poop deck.  Parts of it will be visible through the engine room skylight.  The other part is the coal bunker.  The two boilers would have been underneath.

 

[Jim Lad]

A great idea to give a glimpse into the engineroom.

 

John

[shipmodel]

Really nice work, Roger.

I love the idea of giving the viewer a glimpse of some of the internal details.

It should be interesting to see who notices and who does not.

Hopefully you will bring the completed ship to the next NRG conference, whenever it is.

Looking forward to seeing her in all her glory.

 

Be well

 

Dan

[KeithAug]

Nice work Roger, and i really liked the workbench paint scheme.

[Keith Black]

 Roger, nice detail on the subassembly. The hull is really starting to come together. 

 

 Did you lose some fruit trees out back this year?

[Ras Ambrioso]

I agree with the idea of showing a glance at the ships interior. As mush as possible, I have been adding details to the inside of my Fifie such as leaving the companion ways open to show the ladders going below, having the inside of the hold with floor planking and doors in the bulkheads and having the pilot house inside details visible from the windows and the partially opened door. This is in addition to the lot of deck details which will include boxes and crans full of herring. Good job Roge.r

[Roger Pellett]

Thanks for all of the Likes and comments.

 

Keith:  No, no fruit trees.  There is a dedicated green space between our house and those on the next street over.  It's swampy and heavily wooded.  The trees seen the window are European Buckthorn, an invasive species.  Fall comes early here with colors peaking the first week of October.  Trees are now bare.

 

Roger

[Keith Black]

55 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

Trees are now bare.

 

 I wish ours were bare, we still have about 50% of the leaves left in the trees. We'll be racking and mulching till Thanksgiving if snow doesn't stop us first. 

[Cathead]

Fantastic! Thanks for explaining the considerations regarding weight vs. volume in the holds, something I'd given little thought to with regard to ship design.

[Feathermerchant]

"For every cargo that can be conceivably be carried  aboard ship there is what’s called a “stowage factor” that lists the volume required by one ton of cargo.  The principal American Great Lakes cargo was and still is iron ore.  In the early 1900’s, coal was a secondary cargo, loaded when the opportunity presented to avoid returning back up the Lakes in ballast.  The stowage factor for iron ore, a very heavy cargo, is about 20 cu ft per ton.  When hauling iron ore the ship would be considered to be fully loaded well before her holds were full.  Sacrificing hold volume for bunker space, therefore, did not affect the carrying capacity for vessels built to haul iron ore."

 

Roger, I am building the Great Lakes steam barge Margaret Olwill. She ran between Cleveland and Kelly's Island on Lake Erie hauling crushed limestone from the island's quarry's. Built in 1887, 175'7" x 35' x 10.2'; 542 grt, she sank in a storm returning to Cleveland, June 28, 1899, with a loss of 8 lives. The wreck was discovered in 2017 8 miles out from the port of Lorain.  My question has to do with her cargo. The write-up state she loaded 300 tons into her hold and had another 600 tons on her deck. How would I compute the actual "Stowage Factor" for her?

[Roger Pellett]

Well, you stumped me!  Stowage factors are empirically derived.  Although they are related to the density of the material in question, they are also dependent on the amount of air being shipped.  For example, cut limestone building blocks that can be stacked edge to edge have a lower stowage factor than crushed limestone for steel making.  The tables that I have for stowage factors do not list limestone.  They were intended for international shipping and not Great Lakes Cargos.  I’ll look through some other references to see what I can find.

 

Unfortunately, load lines (Plimsoll Marks) were not mandated for ships on the Great Lakes until 1936.  Loading was left to the master’s discretion sometimes with disastrous consequences.

 

I am actually interested in the Kelly’s Island limestone trade.   In his wonderful novel  Signature of Time about Kelly’s Island, Walter Havighurst mentions the barge James Pellett loading stone at the quarry.  I looked it up and found a picture of the barge; a remarkably ugly vessel.  I also found that James Pellett was a Great Lakes ship captain sailing in the Kelly’s Island limestone trade.

 

The Pellett family  emigrated to Northeastern Ohio in the early 1800’s from Connecticut, and continued to live in the state until I moved to Minnesota in 1990 and I naturally wondered if I am related.

 

Roger

[Feathermerchant]

Roger, checked the personnel records at Bowling Green State University, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes and found the following:

Pellet, ???; Mansfield, 1899

1. Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
2. Personnel
3. Pellet, ???
4. Pellet, ???; Mansfield, 1899

Record
Name	Pellet, ???; Mansfield, 1899
Person Record For	Pellet, ???
Position
Position Date	1867-00-00
Position	Captain
Vessel
Vessel Name	KING SISTERS
Vessel Type	schooner
Source
Source	Mansfield, 1899
Source Date	1899-00-00

 

There is no listed as Pellett. The record shows an individual, last name Pellet, was found in a Mansfield source in 1899 that was a captain of a schooner "King Sisters" in 1867.

Checked the research of C. Patrick Labadie at Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library and found that history of the schooner "King Sisters"

1862 Enrolled Toledo.

1863 Owned Lyon & Sherman, Cleveland, OH.

1863, Aug Damaged cargo.

1866 Owned L.L. Lyon, Cleveland.

1866, Jun Collision, Straits of Mackinac.

1868 Readmeasured 286.75 gross tons, official number US14039.

1869, Oct Dismasted, Lake Erie.

1871 Owned Mrs. L.L. Lyon, Cleveland; repaired, new deck.

1871, Jul Collision with bark MONITOR, St. Mary's River.

1871, Aug 24 Aground Point Pelee, Lake Erie with schooner DELAWARE.

1874 Repaired.

1874, Aug Aground False Presqu'Isle, Lake Huron with pig iron.

1876 Owned Burgess, Cleveland.

1879 Owned Lyon Estate, Cleveland.

1881 Extensive repairs, new keel, stem, stern post, rudder, planking, new running gear.

1884, Oct 19 Wrecked, Lake Erie.

The schooner "King Sisters" was built for the King Brothers, Toledo, by Smith and Rogers, Toledo. She wrecked on Gull Island Sholl, was an island north of Sandusky  and the Marblehead Peninsula 120 years ago and is now submerged.

 

 

[Roger Pellett]

Thanks,

 

That’s probably the same guy that I found.  Even today, the second T at the end of the name Pellett seems to be optional!  Thanks for looking it up.

 

Western Lake Erie is familiar country for me.  When I was very young we sailed my father’s home built L. Francis Herreshoff H23 sailboat that he kept at Vermilion, on the Lake.  Typical trips were to Lorain, Sandusky, and the Islands.  I was mostly wet, cold, and seasick but somehow gained a lifetime love of the Lakes.   In the last few years of my father’s life, my parents moved from the Medina, Ohio area to a home in the Vermilion Lagoons.   We were living in Marietta then and used make the drive up to visit, so my Great Lakes interest was passed down to my children.

 

It is remarkable how different the various lakes are.  Lake Superior is completely different from Lake Erie and what I have seen of Lake Michigan is different still.  I have little familiarity with Lakes Huron or Ontario.

 

Roger

 

 

[Feathermerchant]

M

Spoiler

My experience with reviewing enrollment records is, the clarity and spelling, depends on the clerk filling out the forms.  They were not always correct in their spelling or grammar. I looked at the photo of the James H. Pellett. That is a steering shelter on the stern and there is a smoke stack forward, indicating that the crew quarters were in the bow.  I expect she was towed by either a tug or a steam barge and had a skeleton crew aboard with a captain to handle hooking up, entering and leaving ports and handle the barge in heavy weather.

 

[Roger Pellett]

Feathermerchant:

 

I just reread Dwight Boyer’s account of the sinking of the Margaret Olwill.   People that don’t live near the Lakes, may not realize that these ordinary Lake Freighters often carried passengers; family members of crews, owners and their families, important customers, and guests of all of the above.  The Benjamin Noble had a large owner’s suite in her forward. Deckhouse.  A shipwreck with loss of life is always a tragedy but even more so when these “civilians” are killed.

 

In the very early 1890’s the Western Reserve, one of the first steel ships on the Lakes sank on Lake Superior during an August storm.  There was only one survivor.  Unfortunately the ship’s owner, Peter Minch, was on board with his entire family plus guests.  The Minch Family was from Vermilion, Ohio.

 

[TBlack]

Sad story, but nice painting.

[Roger Pellett]

I continue to make progress on the Benjamin Noble.  I am currently working on the poop deck, a silly term, but that’s what it’s called on the drawings.  With its open curved bulwark, I have not been looking forward to tackling it.  I will post pictures soon.

 

Since he has not posted a build log, I will wander a bit from my topic to comment on Feathermerchant’ s build of Margaret Oilwill, another Lake vessel.

 

In the late 1800’s, there were three painters who have left us with visual records of Great Lakes vessels; Vincent Nickerson, Howard Sprague, and Asa Whipple.  As each specialized in selling paintings to the vessels owners, their work is considered to be accurate.  There are a number of paintings here in Duluth by Howard Sprague, as he was commissioned by the American Steel Barge Company to paint pictures of their whaleback ships.  Two of his pictures hang in Duluth’s historic  Kitchi Gammi Club, a great place to hold a future NRG Conference 😏.

 

My painting of Western Reserve was painted by Vincent Nickerson in 1890, and sometimes when I have nothing better to do, I surf the web in search of other Nickerson paintings.  The other day, I found a painting by Nickerson, of Margaret Oilwill, Feathermerchant’s subject that had recently been sold by a Cleveland, Ohio art dealer.  I found it by googling Vincent D. Nickerson.  Not exactly a Van De Velde, but an exciting find neverless.

 

Roger

Edited November 11, 2021 by Roger Pellett

[Feathermerchant]

Roger, thanks for the lead.  It is good to see another picture of the M. Olwill.  My picture, taken the day before she sank, does not have that third mast on the cargo deck. The stern house matches the photo and I now have a side view of the pilot house. I also painted the hull the same color the artist did. Good guess on my part. 

Thanks again, and have a great Thanksgiving.

[Roger Pellett]

When she sank in 1899, Margaret Oilwell was by Great Lakes standards, a new vessel- only 12 years old, but because of her wooden construction she was becoming functionally  obsolescent  

 

The Great Lakes was and to some extent is still a refuge for obsolescent vessels.  They are typically moved down to less competitive trades until that have no more economic value.  As this is written a 100+ year old Lake Freighter is being scrapped here in the Duluth Harbor. Prior to scrapping she was used nearby as a stationary bulk concrete storage vessel.

 

My guess is that Margaret Oilwill was on the same path at the time of her sinking.  In 1887 wooden ships were still engaged in hauling iron ore and grain; the premier Great Lakes trades.  By 1899 400+ steel hulled ships were state-of-the-art, and a few years later new vessels would be 600 ft long.

The short haul stone trade often featured vessels “bumped down” from other trades. I suspect that she was one of these at the time of her tragic loss. One these short Lake Erie trips sail assist was no longer needed.

 

Roger

 

 

[Feathermerchant]

Roger, I agree with you on the life of wooden ships on the Great Lakes.

 

The Margaret Olwill was built in 1887 as a steambarge, rebuilt in 1890 as a propeller and in 1893 returned back to a steambarge. From my research to date, from launch in 1887 to her sinking in 1899, she was owned and operated by L.A. & J.A. Smith, Cleveland and they appear to be in the construction, excavation business. I have found legal documentation that reference work in 1892 (proposals for work at the mouth of the Detroit river, a contract in writing was entered into December 31, 1892, by O. M. Poe, Colonel, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, and appellees, by which the latter agreed to excavate a ship channel 20 and 21 feet deep, located in section 8 of the Detroit River. They won in court.) The Smith Co. owned land on the Cuyahoga River where the Margaret Olwill was built. It appears the vessels were used to haul building supplies and rock. The contract that the Olwill was providing limestone for was the breakwall being built for the Cleveland harbor.

 

In my research work I have found that the life of a wooden vessel, if they lasted, went from a sidewheel steamer or propeller to sail and then to a barge for hauling bulk materials or for storage.

[Roger Pellett]

Well, it’s way past time to post some progress but I have been busy working on the Benjamin Noble.  I decided to tackle construction of a subassembly that I was not looking forward to; The poop deck.  The Noble was unusual but not unique among Lake Freighters as she had a raised poop deck.  This deck formed the after end of the “box” for hauling a deck cargo of pulpwood.  It is a complex structure consisting of:

The deck itself 

A curved bulwark.  The bulwark is pierced with three openings, an oval opening in the center of the stern for a towing cable, and an opening on each quarter for a mooring cable.  On the real ship the bulwark was constructed from 10# (1/4in) plate.  The top of the bulwark is capped with a 6in diameter rail, the bottom is secured to the deck with an angle.  Neither the General Arrangement nor the structural drawing shows support brackets for the bulwark.  I do not believe that this is an omission as these support brackets are clearly shown for the main deck bulwarks.  There are a pair of brackets reinforcing the oval towing port at the center of the stern.  There are also four arches  per side that rise above the bulwarks and bend over to the top of the deck house.  Apparently the designers considered these to be sufficient.

 

A sketch of the poop deck, bulwark and stern.  There is a transition where the plating running diagonally up the hull meets the fore and aft plating on the side of the poop deck.  This transition was covered with a half round trim piece, accented with a paint color different from the hull.

 

[Roger Pellett]

The poop deck itself was simple enough, a block of wood carved to shape.  A disc sander was helpful.  The trim piece is a piece of brass sheet fastened to the bottom of the deck piece and will eventually be sandwiched between the deck and the poop deck.

 

The bulwark was made from .005in brass sheet formed around a wooden former.   Tabs on the bottom of the bulwark allowed it to be soldered to the bottom of a brass deck piece.  The round cap was a piece of 1/16in brass tubing, slotted with a fine toothed blade on my Byrnes Saw.

 

I decided to cut the three openings in The bulwark after I had formed, soldered, and cleaned it up.  When I tried to scribe one of the roller chock ports, Disaster!  The scriber tore the thin brass.   I fixed things by cutting a “doubler plate” from .01in brass.  I cut the correct opening into the doubler and soldered it to the inboard side of the bulwark.  In addition to reinforcing the opening it also served as a guide for filing the opening, and a backup for the Bondo (a necessary modeling material) used to repair the damage.  Use of doubler plates reflects actual shipbuilding practice.  In Retrospect I should have made the bulwark from .01in brass to begin with.

 

Here are the results.  I still have some cleaning up to do of the brass decking.

 

[TBlack]

Nice recovery! Looks good.

TB