HM Colonial Schooner for Port Jackson 1802/1803 by Siegfried - 1:64

[Siegfried]

Hello all together,

 

after more than one year absence of model ship building and this forum I still have realised a couple of weeks ago that the older forum disappeared including all blogs. So now we are on version 2.0. I did launched a new business and it was important to spend all my energy in this project, especially during the first months that are the most critical ones.

 

However, after a view on Dirk's fabulous Siren log I have got ispired to follow up with my Mercury project and did the outer tree-nailing as well as the first steps to do the hand rails.

 

Unfortunately I have no copy of the blog on the older MSW. But here some reminders about the model. The ship is based on K.H. Marquardt's draughts in the late 80's. As I was a young boy I have got from my dad, he was a fisherman, a book from the so called Blue Series from Hinstorff Publishing in East Germany. Both the country and the publishing house doesn't exist anymore. But since these days I had in mind to build one of his three described ships as the gunboat Axel Thorsen from the Royal Norwegian Navy, the skiffboat Elgen from the Royal Danish-Norwegian Navy and last but not least the schooner HM Colonial Schooner for Port Jackson.

 

In 2011 I have heard about an English version of this book with an additional plan for the Enterprize and did an order. What a positive surprise. It is not just added by one additional plan. I guess it the original masterpiece from what the older German book was printed as an abstract, missing all passages related to the navies of the so called imperialistic class enemy - what a nonsense. The book is really a masterpiece about schooners and belongs into any bookshelf of a serious collection. And, it shows the plans for sail, masts and yards that are still missing in the German version. Perfect. That's what I was waiting for and did a start with the Mercury, what was, following Mr Marquardt, the name for the so called Schooner for Port Jackson. I guess the name was given locally in Australia after assembling all parts on-site. That's why probably the draughts at NMM are also just titled as Schooner for Port Jackson.

 

Hope, my time allows my to frequently continuous with my little tiny schooner.

 

Cheers,

Daniel

[Siegfried]

Hello,

 

meanwhile I proceeded with the hand rail and the stern hand rail. Because of the hugh bend of the hand rail at the outer sites I did first a jig made by cartoon. Than I have transferred the shape to 1,5mm Swiss peer sheet. Next I did a mould made by ply wood with the origin curve of the stern's top. Fourthly I carefully pressed the watered rail-piece into the mould and have fixed it with the counterpart as a die. Over the night it got dry and very strong. E volla, after sanding the stern rail is in a proper shape.

 

Cheers,

Daniel

Edited August 30, 2013 by Siegfried

[Jim Lad]

Hello Daniel, it's nice to see you back.

 

The reason for the name "A schooner for Port Jackson' is as follows:

 

Soon after the arrival of the first fleet in Port Jackson in 1788, Governor Arthur Phillip determined that he needed small ships to use in the new colony for exploration and surveying.  When the first of the fleet's hired transport returned to England Phillip forwarded a request to the Admiralty for two small schooners for the colony.  A design was drawn up in England and titled 'A Schooner For Port Jackson' - as that was it's purpose.  The ships were never built in England and nothing happened until the plans and "furniture" for a ship (the metal fittings) were sent out with David Collins' expedition to found a new settlement in Bass Strait in 1803.  When the plans finally arrived in Sydney they were no longer needed by the Government, which had built various small ships in the intervening years.  As far as can be ascertained from the very few surviving records, Mary Reiby's 'Mercury' was the only ship ever built to the plans.

 

John

[Siegfried]

Hello John,

 

My pleasure. Thank you for your explanation about the Mercury. Hope you can support me about some further details that are not clear yet, even with Marquardt's book. E.g. in both the NMM plans as well as his re-design is missing an information about outer steps at the hull. Indeed it is a small vessel but the hight of the board offers enough space for two steps on each side. Furthermore there is an open question about a yawl. There is enough space onto the main hatch for a 14 ft or 11 ft boat. Could it be possible to fit the schooner with boat aboard or would it be better to let the boat aft the stern in her backwash?

 

Cheers, Daniel

Edited September 1, 2013 by Siegfried

[Jim Lad]

Daniel,

 

I doubt that a small merchant schooner would have had boarding steps.

 

She may have had a small boat of some sort - if so it would probably have been carried on deck.

 

John

[Siegfried]

Hello ,

 

meanwhile I Continued with the plank-sheer rail and painted it black.

 

Daniel.

[Jim Lad]

Very nicely done, Daniel!

 

John

[Siegfried]

Hello Guys,

 

today I did a little brass work on the hawse holes. Following the plans of Marquardt I used in 3/16 scale for the hawse hole a brass tube of 2mm. For the side holes I used a brass tube of 1.5mm.

hopefully the hawse hohle is large enough. Marqqardt wrote in his book a rule for calculating anchors on small vessels in the early 19th century. For vessels of approx 60 tons you need to divide it with factor 17. That means the main anchor for the Mercury had a wight of approx 3.5 cwt. The length of the shaft can be calculated by dividing the breadth of 17ft 6in by 4/10th. For the Mercury it would be 210in (533.4cm) /10*4= 213.36 cm (84in). In 3/16 scale it is equal to 3.34 cm (1.31in). An anchor cable for vessels smaller than 300 tons Steel provided a figure of 90 fathoms (1ftm = 6ft=1,83m). That means the length of the anchor cable of the mercury was approx 165m. Marquardt also explains how to calculate the thickness of anchor cables in circumstances that shall be 1/2in for every foot on the breadth of the vessel. That means 17.5ft*1/2.in = 8.75in=222.25mm. In 3/16 scale it has to be 3.47mm/3.14 (pie) = 1.1mm diameter. This is exactly the size that is measurable on Marquardts drawings.

 

 

Cheers,

Daniel

Edited September 14, 2013 by Siegfried

[rwiederrich]

Beautiful build.

 

Rob

[Siegfried]

Hello out there,

 

Thanks Rob, I am also impressed by your Clipper. She is turning out magnificient!

 

Over the weekend the Mercury has got her remarkable eyes / hawse hole plates. I hope latest from now on she is recognisable as the Schooner for Port Jackson. After carving the plates I watered both pieces. After bending and drying in my little stamp jig I finally fixed the plates with 0,3mm tree nails. Hope this is correct. Otherwise I have to fix the plates with bolts.

 

Cheers, Daniel

Edited September 16, 2013 by Siegfried

[Jim Lad]

They may have been bolted or treenailed, Daniel - we have no way of knowing now, however I'd suspect treenails would be most likely given the shortage of supplies of all descriptions in the early days of the colony.

 

John

[Siegfried]

Hello John,

 

Thank you for the input. You probably are right. Especially if we consider that the Mercury was a small vessel. I am thinking about a 14/11'" yawl yet. As it is known that she did some journeys acoss the South Sea I strongly believe that a reliable captain and merchant would not start such a trip without any spare masts & yards and a small boat. So now I think twice to fit her with some spare yards (topmasts) on the main hatch that probably offers a possibility for a temporary storing of a boat.

 

Cheers, Daniel

[Siegfried]

Hello,

 

after coating the surface of the hull with a varnish I found a little time to starting the companion way and some other fittings for the stern. The knob for the wing door is a down drilled pinhead.

 

Cheers,

Daniel

[captainbob]

Looking good.  Great detail work.

 

Bob

[Jim Lad]

Nicely done, Daniel.

 

John

[UdoK]

Hallo Daniel,

just found your build log, beautiful build and Details!

 

Happy birthday to you!!

[Anja]

Hello Daniel,

 

Happy birthday. Have a great day.

 

Anja

[captainbob]

Happy Birthday ! ! !   

[Siegfried]

Hello all together,

 

Thank you very much for you kind wishes. It has been a nice party with friends from Russia, Poland, Germany, Tunis, Spain, US and Switzerland and we have spoken a kind of Esperanto.

 

Enjoy your weekend, Daniel

[ginger]

When this model first came out a friend of mine was given it for a birthday present. Unfortunately he became unwell and I built the model for him.

It was an interesting build considering its history. A very important part of Australia's early maritime days.

Ginger    (les rogers in the old days) 

[Siegfried]

Hello Ginger,

 

Thanks for the picture of this nice looking model of the Schooner for Port Jackson. You are right, she was one of the first assembled ships in Australia as ther spares where prebuild in England and shipped as a puzzle to the colony. She took part on the daily fight for the surviving of the colonists and it seems to be logical that Australians pay honer to her if they print her counterfeit on the 10$ note.

 

Cheers, Daniel

[Siegfried]

Hello folks,

 

After exactly two years of absence I am back on in the hobby and keep going with my schooner. It is been a tough time in my business but now I have some space to bring my vessel afloat, hopefully. First pictures about the progress with my stern work follows soon.

 

Cheers,

Daniel

Edited September 15, 2015 by Siegfried

[Siegfried]

Hello all together,

 

Attached a first little progress about my new work on the stern. 

 

Daniel

[Siegfried]

bolting...

[Siegfried]

further progress...

[Siegfried]

Hello,

 

today I did some little work on the binnacle. making a 18th century marine compass...

[Siegfried]

additional work on the binnacle....

[Siegfried]

Hello,

 

On the original draughts from the NMM is a little kind of frame at the stern recognisable that is not on the draughts of Mr Marquardt. It might be a little try to make the draughts of the ship much more good-looking. Indeed, as the ship has been assembled in the colonies, that detail finally didn't found its way to reality. However,  I found it attractive and am going to realise it on my vessel. On the side view of the stern is no attached frame to see. That brought my to the reverse, that the frame might be carved to the planks of the stern and have started to do so. It needs a bit finish by sandig and a little fine tuning/reshape. 

 

My direct question is about the paint work on the stern I have to do now. I would like to give the ship its name at the stern by yellow-ochre letters on a black background as it was usual practice at this period. The upper part of the frame appears to small for it. That means I have to paint the entire stern and frame in black straight down to the level of the lower edge of the wales or, alternatively, to paint all of the stern in black. I have now clear idea now.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Daniel

Edited October 5, 2015 by Siegfried

[ginger]

What a surprise to open my laptop this morning to see an old post of mine of the Schooner for Port Jackson.

It was a great pity that all the old postings of years ago was lost as I had submitted quite a number of builds both timber and plastic.

My first post to this great site was the Anteo Tug boat built from scratch,

Very  pleased to see this build revitalised .

Ginger.....(Les Rogers in olden days)

[Siegfried]

Hi Ginger,

 

nice to hear from you again. Hope you are doing well.

 

Meanwhile I made a decision about the colour scheme of the stern and have chosen a simple solution with as less as possible paint work but with a nice look. Hope this solution is acceptable under historical aspects. In the end there are very, very limited sources about the real ship. It is not clear yet, if the real ship was a one-to-one build after the admiralties design (the original draughts offers a configuration with a single mast and optional, marked with doted lines, one with two masts, furthermore it offers a much sharper underwater design of the frames, marked with doted lines too, in the aft-section - surely for making the ship faster). As it was in the end a cargo/supply vessel with a true mission for making profit and to load as much supplies as possible, I have chosen for the wider frame design as it makes more sense to me in terms of the circumstances in the colonies at that time.

 

Daniel