Young America 1853 by EdT - FINISHED - extreme clipper

[Maury S]

Quote

The fore yard was 82' long and 22' in diameter at the center.

I assume it's 22" in diameter.   Made yards?   Just another opportunity to show off your mastery of all things model making.

Maury

[EdT]

Thank you, Maury.  A 22' diameter yard would be something to see.  No mastery at work here, Maury.  I am perfectly willing to add small details if they are easy to do, more difficult ones, not so much.  The scarph was much easier to do for me than trying to scribe a line for the joint - well beyond my competence.  While the joint itself will not be too prominent, the round center section of the yard on the original ship  (not octagonal) that was needed to accept the shrink-fit hoops might raise some questions with no joint showing.  So...

 

Thanks for staying tuned and thanks to all for the other comments and likes.

 

Ed

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 248 – Lower Fore Yard 2

 

The assembly shown in the last picture of the last post was slit into two and the one for the fore yard downsized to make the 22" squared "first trim" for this spar.  In the first picture holes along the centerline of the spar, in this case jackstay eyebolt holes, are being drilled in the still-square spar.

 

 

This method and the alignment of the vise using a center-finder was described in Part 226.  Using the center-finder helps locate the holes on the precise centerline.  Pencil marks for the quarters, the square near the end of the yard, and the end of the yard arm may be seen in this picture.  The next picture shows the second trim, that is, the tapering of two of the four faces.

 

 

In the next picture the spar is clamped in the planning fixture and one of the two remaining faces is being planed.

 

 

The next picture shows the completed third trim, with all four faces tapered but still square in section

 

 

In the next picture the spar has had the corners of the octagon shape scribed with the tool described in an earlier post and the V-grooved planning fixture is being adjusted to prevent the now-curved spar from rocking.

 

 

This adjustment uses screws to depress the center of the bed to the shape of the spar.  All four corners were removed and the spar rounded on this fixture.  The following picture shows the spar with the first few "iron" bands fitted.

 

Because this is a made spar, it is round in section through the center to allow shrunk-fit reinforcing hoops to be installed to hold the assembly together.  These bands plus a variety of others will be fitted, beginning at the center and working outward.  The bands are made small enough to be force fit into their final positions.

 

Ed

[rwiederrich]

Quite impressive Ed....very impressive indeed.

 

Rob

[SJSoane]

Ed, could you elaborate on how the planing device depresses the center of bed? Or did you explain this earlier in your build?

Mark

[EdT]

Mark, the two planing beds, one with cams the other V-grooved, are 3 1/2" x 3/4 pine planks that rest at the ends on 3/4" thick strips and are screwed through these into a 2 x 4 (i e 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" w) - for stiffness.  Near the center of the bed are two screws through holes in the bed into the 2x4.  Tightening these screws depresses the bed in a curve in the center.  A 3/4" shim is used under the center of the bed to restore it to a flat state when the screws are loosened.  The 2 x 4 is vise mounted.

 

Ed

[SJSoane]

Thanks!

[BANYAN]

Very nice work which is up to your usual very high standard Ed; those yards are very clean and the copper banding adds great detail.  

 

cheers

 

Pat

[EdT]

Thank you, Pat.  The copper will, of course be blackened later to simulate iron, but there is a lot more of it to go on this yard before then.  

 

Thanks, everyone for the likes.

 

Ed

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 249 – Lower Fore Yard 3

 

There is a variety of ironwork to be installed on every square yard.  Beginning with the iron sling band at the center and the reinforcing bands on made yards.  These and other bands, as well as some structures attached to bands, like studdingsail boom brackets, must be sized to each individual yard.   Others, like iron sheet blocks that hang from the center of the yard, cheek blocks for sheets at the yardarms and to some extent iron trusses, are more standardized and lend themselves to a "mass production" approach, if making seven or eight identical parts can be considered "mass."  So, while the work shown in this part and the next was able to proceed, progress was soon hindered until a batch of standard parts could be produced for all the yards.  Developing processes for those has taken some time and this has slowed work on the first yards.  This and the next part describe work on the fore yard before interruption to make sheet and cheek blocks, to be described later.

 

The first picture shows iron (i.e. copper) banding at the center of the yard.

 

 

Most of this is ½" thick x 4" wide – actually slightly thicker (.010").  The center sling band is thicker (.015") – and wider.  It will eventually be drilled top and bottom to secure eyebolts for the chain sling and the sheet block.  Outside of that are two more thicker bands that will secure the iron yard truss, then the first reinforcing band, a band to secure a block,  then a band than will attach a sheet fairlead, then two more bands, one reinforcing and one for a block.  Additional bands were added out to the first studdingsail bracket that is described below. 

 

But first, the basic banding method.  This was described in an earlier post.  The first step is cutting banding material to a length that will form a ring slightly smaller than the yard diameter at its location.  Some ways to do this were described earlier.  The ends of the band are then butted together and silver soldered.  A soldering setup to keep the ends together is shown in the next picture.

 

 

Two steel blocks were used for this.  After soldering, the misshapen bands are then pushed on to a wooden mandrel to shape them and provide a holder for filing (if needed), smoothing, and polishing as shown in the next picture.

 

 

Using a separate mandrel for this helps keep the spar clean.  This one is maple, one of a pair in different sizes to be used for this purpose.  The mandrel may also be used for sizing bands.  This was described in Part 184.  After this step the band is fitted to the yard, with the last ¼" or so a forced fit.

 

The next picture shows fabrication of a studdingsail boom bracket.

 

 

The band is made a fitted to the spar first.  The square piece of hard brass is the silver-soldered to it as shown in the picture.  The two brass bands under the brass leg are used to center the leg on the band width.  The leg is then cut to length and the outer bands for the booms soldered on.

 

 

These are test fitted to the studdingsail booms as shown in the next picture.

 

 

 

The outer boom irons are made in a similar way, with the addition of a simulated roller on the bottom side of the boom band.  The next picture shows the setup for soldering the roller to the bands.

 

 

The rounded out area on the copper wire will be placed under the band in the final setup before soldering, after clipping off the wire.  This is a simplified simulation of the actual roller, which would be on an axle within the band diameter.   In the last picture, the outer arm has been bent and inserted into the end of the yard and shown with the yard temporarily mounted.

 

 

There is more work to do on these parts, including blackening.  Also, the reinforcement of the yardarm is not shown.  This includes a u-shaped band wrapped around on the axis of the yard and two circular reinforcing bands over it.  I will show pictures of this later.  Also, this photo shows the yard truss that will be described in the next part.

 

Ed

[albert]

Wonderful work Ed.

[druxey]

Exemplary, as usual, Ed.

[BANYAN]

The detail you achieve is astounding Ed; I can't wait for you to get this Volume published.  Vol 2 is on its way soon (Xmas pressie :)) which will help me tremendously with some of the upper deck furniture/fittings I need to make. 

 

cheers

 

Pat

[EdT]

Thank you, Alberto, Druxey and Pat, and all others for the likes and thanks Pat for the book purchase.  The hardware on these yards is a lot of work and this first one has been languishing on the bench since the summer, while I tried to find the best way to move it forward.  Big step forward yesterday, completing fabrication of 7- 21" cloverleaf sheet blocks for the seven larger yards. Next the 8 - 15" versions, but these may wait until I make the iron cheek blocks for the large yards.  I am very anxious to get this first yard hung.

 

Thanks again.

 

Ed

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 250 – Fore Yard Truss

 

Lower yards on ships of this type were attached to the masts using iron trusses.  The fore yard truss will position the yard about 6 feet forward of the mast.  It is configured in the form of a universal joint that allowed the yard to be "braced", that is, rotated around the mast, or "topped," raised at one end or the other.  The weight of the yard was taken mostly by a separate chain sling shackled to the center of the yard and bolted to the mast just below the hounds.  Making and fitting of both these parts are described below. 

 

A pattern for the yoke that connects the truss to the yard is pasted to a 1/8" copper plate in the first picture. 

 

 

This curved yoke lies in the horizontal plane, has vertical holes at the ends for bolting to yard band brackets and horizontal hole through its center for a bolt to a universal fitting that will allow vertical rotation and topping.  The shape of the yoke was first cut out using a jeweler's saw, then filed to a rounded shape.  The next picture shows the shaping in progress and the yard band bolt holes drilled.

 

 

The wide band at the center of the yard will be drilled for the sling eyebolt.  The next picture shows the universal fitting bolted through the yoke.  It has an eye at the aft end to fit the bracket in the mast band that was installed earlier. 

 

 

In the picture, two long wire bolts have been inserted through the yard band brackets and yoke eyes.  These were first peened to form rivet heads as shown in the next picture.

 

 

The pliers in the picture have half-round slots filed into the jaws that allow wire to be held for peening of the end. I believe this process was described earlier, perhaps in a Naiad post.  In the next picture one of the long bolts has been clipped off on the underside, leaving just enough for its head to be peened, locking the yoke arm to the bracket. 

 

 

A flat-end center punch was used for this.  The other bolt was then inserted, clipped and peened to complete the attachment.  Unfortunately I did not take photos when making the universal fitting, so a description of that will await work on a later mast.  Note in the picture that the yard bands are pinned to the underside of the yard with small copper bolts.

 

The weight of the yard, as mentioned above was mostly taken by a chain sling.  This is shown in the next picture, shackled at one end to an eyebolt temporarily inserted through the central yard band.

 

 

To set the length of the chain, the yard was temporarily hung and the chain held with tweezers as shown in the next picture.

 

 

The tweezers were used to hold the chain at a link that could be fitted with an eyebolt into the mast that would hold the truss level.  The chain was cut at this point and an eyebolt spun onto it.  The hole for the eyebolt was then spotted on the mast, again by holding the eyebolt with tweezers and marking the height that would hold the truss level.  The next picture shows the yard hung temporarily with eyebolts inserted.

 

 

The next picture shows the yard fully braced around to the point where it contacts the forestay and almost touches the forward lower shroud.

 

 

There is still much work to do on this yard before installing it permanently, some of the parts were shown earlier.  Others will be described in the next parts.

 

Ed           

[Mahuna]

The detail on YA continues to amaze me, Ed.  Excellent work!

[druxey]

A beautiful demonstration of how far the yard can be braced around using the yoke and swivel arrangement. Nice, Ed!

[Roger Pellett]

A neglected topic in books and articles about wooden ships in the age of sail is the ironwork required to make them work.

 

Your posts do a great job of bringing this neglected topic to light.

 

1/8in at 1:72 scale equates to a real life dimension of 9in, so this was a large piece of ironwork.

 

It would seem that this would have been way beyond the capability of a shipyard blacksmith. If forged, would it have been within the capability of the water powered drop hammers of the time?  Or would it have been an iron casting?

 

Roger

[BANYAN]

Very nice metal work Ed; thanks for the piccy and discussion re 'peening', which will be very useful.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[EdT]

Thanks, everyone, as always for the likes and comments.

 

Roger, I would assume that the trusses of this type would be forged, and would be well within the capabilities of the time.  Hammers by this time were often steam driven and I assume a large yard like Webb's would have the necessary equipment, or these may have been contracted out.  Consider, for example, the forging of anchors back well into the 1700's.  There seem to have been many shapes for these trusses, and sometimes it is hard to distinguish between simplified drawings for patents or in treatises and actual practice.  Some may have been bent bar, but I suspect these would be more common on smaller craft.  These are mainly large universal joints, with the weight of the spar being taken on the chain sling and, in the case of lower yards, some on the topping lifts.

 

Ed

[EdT]

Druxey, I meant to comment on your comment.  The forward extension of the truss from the mast really helped with bracing of these yards by increasing the range of rotation before interfering with other rigging.  I don't know what the actual extension on Young America was, but another ship of the type was documented to have the yard 7' forward of the mast on a truss of this general type.  The lower topsail yard will also be hung forward of the cap by about, I think, 4 feet - on a similar swivel truss.

 

Roger, just another comment. although the starting point in forming the truss was a 1/8" plate, the final shaped size is smaller, perhaps on the order of 6" - still a lot of iron.

 

Ed

[druxey]

I assume the swivel helped level the yard when the ship was heeled.

[wefalck]

Harbours in the old days could become very congested with the often long waiting times to complete the loading. As yards were considerably longer than the width of the hull, at least the lower yards were lifted up at an angle in order not get entangled with neigbouring ship or harbour cranes etc. The universal joint would help in this. Before these forged universal joints were introduced in the late 1840s(?), the truss and parrel would have to be loosened for the purpose.

[EdT]

That is my understanding, wefalck, in fact here is one of the photos of Young America where she is docked in New York with her main yard topped up and another of Black Hawk.  In this position the yards could also be used for handling cargo, I believe.  Comments on this last point welcome.

 

 

Ed

[wefalck]

I gather the yards would have been used, when no other equipment was available, e.g. when moored in a river or so and discharging into/loading from barges.

[Roger Pellett]

According to the ASME historic landmark program the steam forging hammer was invented in France in 1839. They do not say when it migrated to the US but you are right the trip hammers used to forge anchors certainly could have forged this sort of ironwork.

 

My biography of Webb unfortunately says almost nothing about his yard operations, except that he did not build the machinery for the steamships that he built.  After launch they were towed to an engine builder to be fitted with machinery.

 

Roger

Edited November 18, 2017 by Roger Pellett

[PETERPETER]

Your entire builders log is a treasure trove of information for each and every model shipwright. Always looking forward to seeing your continuing progress on this magnificent model. 

PeterPeter

Edited November 19, 2017 by PETERPETER
Corrections

[EdT]

Thank you, Roger, Peter and all for the likes.

 

Roger, I have not found much about Webb's yard - except about the large bell at the gate - so I can't really comment, except to say that Webb was one of the largest, if not the largest yard in America at mid-century and as a thriving shipbuilding city, New York had an impressive array of contractors supporting the industry, so I am inclined to believe that the latest equipment would have been in use.  I have read that McKay's yard in Boston at the time was equipped with a steam-driven saw that could bevel frames - pretty sophisticated.  I doubt that Webb would have been outdone in equipment capability - but I don't really know.

 

Nice words, Peter.  Always good to hear.

 

Ed

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 251 – Sheet Blocks

 

Each square yard, except for the skysail yards at the tops of the masts, will be fitted with an iron sheet block suspended from an eyebolt below its center.  These "cloverleaf" type blocks contain two sheaves, one for each of the two chain sheets for the sail directly above.  The sheets pass through sheaves in the yardarms, or cheek blocks on the larger yards, through fairleads under the yard, then to the sheet blocks.  The blocks direct the sheets downward to tackles that are belayed on deck in most cases.  The first picture shows the seven fabricated, 21" sheet blocks with eyebolts attached.

 

 

Two of these have been blackened.  This size will be used on lower, lower topsail, and upper topsail yards on the fore and main masts and on the crojack yard on the mizzen.  The remaining yards will be fitted with smaller, 15" blocks of this type.

 

To make these efficiently, some "mass production" was used.  In the first step, holes for all the plate casings were drilled as shown in the next picture, through two long strips of .010" brass, ¾" at 1:72 scale.

 

 

The holes were drilled using the mill as a drill press, with holes spaced using the calibration wheels, in a prescribed sequence using calculated spacings.  The resulting strips, for both block sizes are shown in the next picture.

 

 

Part of the drilling guide sheet may be seen in the picture.  It shows each movement in a numbered sequence, with penciled spacings calculated from the full size dimensions.  The punch marks on the strips were added for matching. 

 

In the next picture two dressmaker pins have been inserted through the holes on the vertical centerline of two matching plates. 

 

 

The rough shape of the block was cut through both plates using scissors.  The two pins are close fitting, and in the picture below are clamped in a vise where the triangle shapes are being sized with a file.

 

 

There is a thin, drilled wood shim under the two plates for clearance above the vise.  In the next picture the triangular shape has been filed, the plates separated, and the pins have been replaced with lengths of drawn copper wire.

 

 

One of these wires has been threaded through a turned sheave.  In the next picture, with both sheaves fitted, the lower ends of the pin wires are clamped in the vise.

 

 

In this picture the upper wire ends have been clipped off just above the top plate and then peened to form rivet heads.  The assembly was then turned over and placed on an anvil.  The long bolt ends were then clipped and peened.  In the next picture the central pin has been peened on both sides in the same way and the top pin has been inserted through a spun eyebolt.

 

 

As before, the lower ends of the pin wires are clamped in the vise for peening the first side.  The block was then flipped over to clip and peen the other ends, completing the assembly.  The lower block in the picture below shows this stage.

 

 

 

Each side of the triangle was then filed concave, shaped to match the pattern and polished. The fourteen smaller sheet blocks will be made later.

 

Ed

[druxey]

Aiee! What a complex set of procedures to carry out, Ed. I would have been strongly tempted to simplify and fudge those blocks at that scale. My hat is doffed to you, Sensei!