Bounty Launch by iMustBeCrazy - 1:16 - SMALL

[iMustBeCrazy]

Yes yes, yet another Bounty Launch. This will be the third being built at the moment.

 

Allan's at 1:48 https://modelshipworld.com/topic/33539-23-foot-launch-by-allanyed-bounty-late-18th-century/

Tim's at 1:24 https://modelshipworld.com/topic/33565-hms-bounty-launch-by-oakheart-scale-124-%E2%80%93-18th-century-based-on-drawings-from-national-maritime-museum/

 

And this one at 1:16.

 

As far as I can see these are the first scratch built Bounty Launches on this forum excluding those built for Bounty models.

 

Allan has been asking lots of questions in preparation for his build which has driven much research and given us some facts to work from. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/33217-bountys-ships-boat-details/?do=findComment&comment=945945

 

We have settled on building based on ZAZ7361 with some minor tweaks:
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/33217-bountys-ships-boat-details/?do=findComment&comment=947122
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/33217-bountys-ships-boat-details/?do=findComment&comment=948363

 

We have each done our own drawings and I have now reached the stage where I can start building in earnest. I have made a few pieces but wanted the jig designed before starting this log.

 

 

We shall see how it goes.

[iMustBeCrazy]

It's been too hot to cut wood so I separated out the floors and futtocks which I had forgotten to do.

 

[shipman]

Yea, right, Craig.

We at the other end of the world have no sympathy at all with you and the heat you're having to cope with.

[iMustBeCrazy]

Some progress, luckily I realised I needed to leave tabs sticking up from the moulds to hold the floors in place:

 

 

[iMustBeCrazy]

A tiny update. The jig is complete and dry fitted but I'm not going to glue it until I'm sure I don't need to change it. Frame production is underway (strange, I could swear I'd made three times as many as I have).

 

[oakheart]

I don't know how I missed this new build log. But I am here now.

Nice going Craig

 

Tim

[iMustBeCrazy]

3 hours ago, oakheart said:

Nice going Craig

Slow going Tim, welcome.

 

Scarph, keel to stem, done. I'm happy with it. Stem still needs to be sanded to width.

 

[oakheart]

On 1/7/2023 at 12:55 AM, iMustBeCrazy said:

A tiny update. 

Difficult to tell from the photo, is that stem laminated ?

Tim

[iMustBeCrazy]

3 hours ago, oakheart said:

Difficult to tell from the photo, is that stem laminated

Unfortunately yes, I didn't have any bent trees

 

It's simply a bit big and as it turns through almost 90 degrees the cross grain would be just as obvious as the laminations, or that's my excuse.

 

All the floors and futtocks have been shaped, next I have to drill and 'bolt' them.

 

Keel has been scarphed:

 

[oakheart]

31 minutes ago, iMustBeCrazy said:

Unfortunately yes, I didn't have any bent trees

All very neat and tidy, I'll have to pull my socks up.

Tim

[oakheart]

The Cornish replica had to use a laminated stem, they could not find a big enough piece of bent timber, all of the oak for the futtocks and floors came from just up the road from me here in Herefordshire.

 

Tim

[iMustBeCrazy]

It really doesn't look like much does it?

 

[oakheart]

20 minutes ago, iMustBeCrazy said:

It really doesn't look like much does it?

That looks like a lot of hard, accurate work to me, I'm surprised it's not stained with spots of sweat, given the temperatures down there

 

With my build 'old habits die hard' I'm taking the easy way out and using a single frame, hats off to you for going for the hard way.

 

Tim

[iMustBeCrazy]

3 minutes ago, oakheart said:

given the temperatures down there

Not a problem most days, yet. This week goes 25, 32, 30, 32, 38, 24, 31. Melbourne being on the south coast means northerly winds are warm to bloody hot and southerly winds are cool to almost British

[iMustBeCrazy]

All floors and futtocks have been centre punched (alright, pricked) and are ready for drilling.

 

Centre 'punch' in action:

 

 

How I drill tiny holes:

 

[iMustBeCrazy]

Turning my head to thoughts of planking.

 

John Fincham has given a description of building a Launch in his various books (ca1820) and I've been trying to get my head around his description.

 

The garboard strake is layed into the rabbet of the keel, and is fastened as other strakes, with two nails in each timber, except when it widens aft, when it has sometimes three.

The binding strake is placed to be a parallel distance up from the lower edge of the landing strake, and has its upper edge reduced in thickness, for this strake to lay upon it.

 

The landing strake is then brought on, and the sheer or upper strake, when the gunwale is on, the upper edge of Which corresponds with the upper part of the gunwale,
to lap on the landing, according to the breadths, as in general shewn on the draught. The space between these strakes and the timbers, which is left by their lapping on
each other, is in general filled up by small fillings; and the strakes are fastened with two nails in each timber; and the upper edge of the upper or sheer strake is nailed to
the gunwale.

 

The gunwale, which is the upper boundary of the permanent part of the boat, is in general composed of two or more pieces, scarphed together with a vertical scarph,
from about 9 to 12 inches in length; and has its upper side well with the sheer or upper strake. The heads of the timbers are shaped on the inside, from the lower side of
the gunwale to about one-eighth of an inch at the upper part, and the gunwale is scored over them.

 

Above the gunwale is fixed wash strakes, sometimes permanently, and at other times to fix and unfix. When permanently, chocks are let through the gunwale, to extend
down to the upper part of the landing strake, inside, and up to the upper part of the wash strake, for fastening them to the chock, and are spaced so as to form the rowlocks,
with additional ones on the bow and quarter, according to the space.

 

The wash strakes lap on the outside of the sheer or upper strake, and are fastened to it, in addition to the fastenings in the chocks.
They have likewise to support them, sometimes, a narrow strip, called a feather band, nailed to their upper edge, inside; but most commonly
they are lined quite through.

 

On the outside, close under the wash strake, is fixed a piece, rounded to form a fender; and likewise a similar piece, only smaller, is fastened on the land strake, close to
the lower edge of the sheer strake, called a land rail.

 

Inside, to a proper height and for supporting the thwarts, is fixed a strake, called the risings; this strake is in general nailed to the timbers, and the thwarts are let in a small distance.

 

I made the following drawing based on Finchams description and ZAZ7344 which I think is right except Fincham suggests the Landing strake laps over the Binding strake.

 

 

I then attempted a drawing based on ZAZ7361 and found that the curvature requires that overlap (NOTE. I've left the washboard off).

 

 

Given how much the planks would need to be hollowed out I think I'll redraw it with 8 x 5 7/8" planks.

 

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

 

Edit, it looks better:

 

Edited January 16, 2023 by iMustBeCrazy

[oakheart]

2 hours ago, iMustBeCrazy said:

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

it looks better

That's some really good interpretation work there. I can hardly understand the language from the book.

Your drawings, brilliant as usual, are really useful to those of us at the planking stage like you.  Thank you for sharing them.

 

 

Ti m

 

 

 

[iMustBeCrazy]

2 minutes ago, oakheart said:

at the planking stage like you

Ooh, I'm nowhere near planking yet but I had to think about it sometime and Fincham's words take some thinking about

 

[iMustBeCrazy]

I guess I may as well post the rest of this:

 

The thwarts of boats are loose, and fixed ; generally three are fixed, and are called the fore, main, and after thwarts ; those fixed are commonly kneed at each
end; to carvel-built boats, in general, the main, with two iron knees, and the fore and after, with one, which have two nuts and screws or forelock bolts
through the side, one of them through the gunwale, and two up-and-down bolts through the thwarts. When the knees are wood, which is most commonly the
case in clincher-built boats, they are fastened with nails, which are in general rivetted on roves or washers.

 

To strengthen the fore part, and unite the bow's, two hooks are in general placed across the bow, one on the gunwale, and one at the upper part of the wash
strake; in large boats, when they are attached to the gunwale, they are generally fastened with two bolts on each side; and in others, commonly, with nails;
if wood hooks are used, the nails are driven from the outside, and rivetted on roves.
And abaft, to strengthen the quarters, knees are likewise brought against the transom, one on each side, commonly at the gunwale and wash strake.

 

The internal fittings of boats are different according to their class and service.
In launches, the footwaling generally extends from the keelson to the rising; to some boats, to about the height of the floor-head; while others have bottom
boards, only to fix and unfix. The bow and the stern sheets are likewise not only fitted differently, according to the class of boats, but frequently according
to the taste of the captain, officer, or person for whom they are intended; some times with regular platforms, and frequently with gratings only.

 

The internal fittings of boats generally are of too trifling a nature to require description; and to explain their detail would be more extensive than important; since a very
moderate attention paid to them would be sufficient to become acquainted with all the particulars relating to them, and would fully answer the requirements of
the student.

 

It's a pity he never guessed that future students would be unable study a genuine contemporary boat.

[allanyed]

While a yawl, not a launch, there are some similarities on the drawing below with what you show .  It is available in high resolution (18mb) on the Wiki Commons site.

[iMustBeCrazy]

22 hours ago, allanyed said:

not a launch

There are some options within Launches too.

 

 

From left to right:

 

1/ ZAZ5298 (1795)

2/ ZAZ7344 (1779)

3/ ZAZ7450 (17??)

4/ ZAZ7452 (1798)

5/ ZAZ7453 (1798)

6/ ZAZ7459 (1798)

7/ ZAZ7462 (1799)

8/ ZAZ7467 (1814)

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by iMustBeCrazy

[iMustBeCrazy]

I think mine will probably finish up something like this:

 

[mtaylor]

Looking at post #21, It makes me wonder if every contractor for boats had their own way of doing things which would make it tough to sort out which one was correct the Bounty at the point in time of the mutiny.  

[iMustBeCrazy]

1 hour ago, mtaylor said:

Looking at post #21, It makes me wonder if every contractor for boats had their own way of doing things which would make it tough to sort out which one was correct the Bounty at the point in time of the mutiny.

Mark, I have no doubt that every shipwright had his own way of doing many things but these are Admiralty drawings presumably saying 'we want it built this way'. So the question might be 'did every draughtsman have his own way of doing things?' or was there actually a reason for the variations? I don't know. I think these eight are the only launch drawings that show any planking details and they basically fall into two groups, sheer strake and sheer wale (thicker sheer strake) with more or less detail/accuracy.

 

As for the Bounty launch short of the wayback machine or discovering that the Tahitians had invented photography we can only make educated guesses about much of it. What we're aiming to do is get as close as we can without the commercial considerations of kit manufacturers. Ultimately it is extremely unlikely we'll get it anywhere near 100% right but hopefully we'll avoid obvious errors.

Edited January 14, 2023 by iMustBeCrazy

[mtaylor]

5 minutes ago, iMustBeCrazy said:

I have no doubt that every shipwright had his own way of doing many things but these are Admiralty drawings presumably saying 'we want it built this way'. So the question might be 'did every draughtsman have his own way of doing things'? I don't know.

Thanks.  I guess this is one of those things we'll never know for sure.

[clearway]

and here is me thinking we Keiths had problems with deciphering our Terrors!- looks great so far Craig.

 

Keith

[oakheart]

looking at all of the variations in post 21, on my build I think I will opt for, counting left to right No. 7, it's simplest to make ( typical of me )

also on all of the contemporary artist drawings / paintings I don't remember any showing a rubbing strip? anyone else see anything?

 

 

Tim

 

[iMustBeCrazy]

38 minutes ago, oakheart said:

build I think I will opt for, counting left to right No. 7, it's simplest to make

And it could be right.

 

I've added ID's and dates to post 21.

 

58 minutes ago, clearway said:

and here is me thinking we Keiths had problems with deciphering our Terrors!

Yeah, you guys have bucket loads of info compared to us.

[iMustBeCrazy]

I've decided to make a change to the jig. Instead of just gluing it to a board as I have previously I'm going to glue a notched strip either side of the false keel and notch the moulds to fit.

This should allow better access to the inside during construction.

 

Please forgive my attempt at 3D, the false keel........:

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by iMustBeCrazy

[iMustBeCrazy]

I realised that by forming the frames before the jig is glued it would be easier to clamp them using the moulds to set the shape.

Note that the futtocks only follow the mould as far as the floor head.