Young America 1853 by EdT - FINISHED - extreme clipper

[rwiederrich]

Indeed Daniel,  Ed's fine version of the Young America shows the *Extreme* version of the clipper design.

There were 3 categories of clippers.  Extreme Clipper(as In Ed's example), the Clipper, and Medium clipper.  Extreme clippers designs gave little thought to cargo capacity..speed was where they gained a good return for the owners.  Clippers and medium clippers were of a fuller body and even achieved speeds equal to or exceeding those of the extreme design. Medium clippers were really sharpened versions of the Cargo carrier(Such as the later models you mentioned).

 

I think the wonderful side effect of this fantastic thread, is that we can explore in greater detail the magnificent construction and beauty of the clipper....and we are further blessed by enjoying Ed's tutorial of the intricacies of their construction.

 

This thread has been a refreshing drink of  exploration and discovery.

 

I'm giddy.

 

Rob 

 

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 288 –Main Topsail Yards

 

In the first picture the main lower topsail yard has been permanently installed and rigging work is in progress. 

 

 

The triple tackles for the upper topsail sheets have been rigged between the sheet block and eyebolts on the main top rim.  With no sails and no clew lines on the upper sail, the other ends of these chains pas through the cheek blocks and are lashed to the jackstays slightly inside the yardarm at a convenient location for shackling to the upper sail when it is bent.  The length of this chain above the yard is limited to less than the working length of its tackle.  The starboard lower topsail sheet and clew line has also been rigged in the picture.  The next picture shows the completed rigging for this yard – except for its braces.

 

 

 

 

The rigging added in this picture includes the four bunt lines and the port lower topsail sheet.  The buntlines pass through double blocks lashed to the #1 top mast shrouds, then down through fairleads in the top, through fairleads on a lower shroud, to their belaying points on the main pin rails.

 

In the next picture, the parral for the upper yard has been roughed out and is being test fit to the upper yard.

 

 

After gluing and bolting to the yard, it is being test fit to the topmast in the next picture.

 

 

In the next picture the hinged clasp and its strapping have been fitted and the yard again tested in position.

 

 

The last picture shows the after side of the parral.

 

 

The hinge and pin connections were modeled using short lengths of 18 gauge copper wire.  These are fitted with pins that slide into the wood yoke.  This method was described in an earlier post.  The yard was then removed for further ironwork and rigging to be added.

 

Ed

[albert]

Hi Ed your model ship is very masterpiece.

[Maury S]

This has got to be the most detailed model of this scale ever made!

Incredible.

Maury

[Sailor1234567890]

So.... Ed.... Whatcha gonna build next?  This is, as Maury said above, incredibly detailed. I can't imagine being able to get half the results you get if I had 10 lifetimes to do it in. 

Cheers,
Daniel

Edited June 10, 2018 by Sailor1234567890

[BANYAN]

Ed your workmanship is masterful and level of detail astounding at such a scale.  This model is QUALITY!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 289 – Mizzen Topmast 2

 

I have been focusing recently on completing the remaining upper mast assemblies.  Making the upper masts and boring caps to fit was described in earlier posts.  There is benefit in making many of these parts together.  Boring the caps and parral yokes using one milling set up was one example.  Making the remaining, small crosstree assemblies will be described later.  Ideally, the masts should be fitted into the crosstrees before cutting the square masthead mortises in the caps – so the masts will be straight.  Installing the mizzen topmast with its crosstrees, the last of the three, will allow the topgallant masts and caps to be fitted.  The first picture shows that mast, its assembled crosstrees and the parts for its iron spreader.

 

 

Shaping and soldering the spreaders was described in an earlier post.  The next picture shows the mast temporarily fitted.

 

 

The crosstrees were glued to the mast in this position so they could be leveled in place.  This levelling and side-to-side alignment was done before gluing by adjusting the angle at the hounds and the square masthead base.  Final adjustment was checked and refined right after gluing.  The next picture is a closer view.

 

 

This picture shows the fastenings of the spreader.  These are copper wire rivets through the cross tree members.  An alternative to this method would be to solder in the wire bolts then glue the whole assembly into the bolt holes later – as was done with the whisker booms.  This would avoid accidental bending of the assembly during rigging work.  The method I used will require straightening of these before rigging the backstays that pass through the cleats.  These are so vulnerable that I suspect that final straightening would be required in any case.

 

In the next picture the ironwork has been blackened.  The served futtock shrouds and deadeyes have been installed at the workbench as described in an earlier post.  The picture shows the mast gripped in the vise for sizing of the masthead tenon.

 

 

The mast is set in the vise with the jaws set at the base of the tenon.  This allows the jaws to be used as a guide for filing all four sides of the masthead to produce the finished 8" square tenon.  In the next picture the mast is set up for installing the bolsters and the eight masthead battens.

 

 

The bolsters are rounded squares that prevent chafing of the shrouds.  When the glue had set on the tiny battens, the tops were chamfered at an angle.  The last picture shows the mizzen topmast permanently installed by gluing the lower cap to its masthead and the topmast square into the lower mast top.

 

 

As with the other topmasts, gaps between the square at the base and the crosstree opening were filled with wood shim pieces.  The caps for all three topmasts may now be fitted up and their square mortises marked and cut.  Next time.

 

Ed

[Mirabell61]

Beautiful work Ed,

 

Nils

[BANYAN]

You set a very high standard to follow Ed; another example of very high quality work.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 290 – Upper Mast Caps

 

Part 287 described making basic pieces for mast caps and parral yokes that had correctly sized holes for the upper mast sections bored on the milling machine.  In the first picture one of those basic pieces has been mortised to fit its square masthead tenon – in this case on the foremast.

 

 

Cutting and trimming the square mortise with a piece of this length helps to visually align the cap on the ships centerline as the square mortise is finished.   The spacing between the lower and upper mast sections was also carefully marked and cut to ensure the total mast assembly was straight.  In the next picture the forward end of the cap has been cut to its round shape.

 

 

The circle template in the picture was used to mark the rounded ends, allowing the curves to be cut and sanded to the final shape.  These curves could have been drawn with a compass before boring or mortising the holes, but this would require precise centering of the hole for boring in the rotary table and reliance on measured marking to correctly locate the square mortise in relation to the bore.  Using the template to mark the non-critical shape of the ends was much easier and more efficient.  The next picture shows the final cap shape.

 

 

The next picture shows the main topmast cap and topgallant mast fitted temporarily.

 

 

The next picture shows the fore topmast cap with its ironwork in a test fit.

 

 

The topgallant mast fid mortise has been sized in this picture but the diagonal rigging sheave above the lower square has not yet been drilled and cut.  The next picture shows the model with the fore and main topgallant masts temporarily fitted.

 

 

The last picture shows the ironwork mounted on the main topmast cap.

 

 

The ironwork on both these caps includes the reinforcing band, four eyebolts for mast rigging tackles on the underside, an aft rigging eyebolt, and side eyebolts with shackles for the upper topsail yard standing lifts.

 

Ed

[BANYAN]

Ah, my day is complete (well almost) - have been missing your updates Ed.  She is really taking shape now and as always your finishes and build quality are of the highest quality.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[EdT]

Thank you, Pat. The work is non-sequential and somewhat piecemeal these days, so I am drifting into a one-post-a-week mode.

 

Ed

[Chasseur]

Just catching up. She is a thing of beauty!

Your craftsmanship is unparalleled*

[Erebus and Terror]

Love those spreaders! Brilliant work as always. 

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 291 – Upper Mast Fids

 

Young America's upper masts would have been supported on iron fids that passed through a rectangular mortise near the base of the upper mast.  The fid then rested on the trestletrees.  Masts were hauled up through the forward opening in the top or crosstrees, the fid slipped in, and the mast lowered into place.   Fids on the topgallant and royal mast sections had horizontal holes bored in the ends for shackles that held the standing lifts for the upper topsail and topgallant yards respectively.  The base of one of the topgallant masts with its fid shackles is shown in the first picture.

 

 

Most shackles like this would be shaped and the bolts soldered to the yokes off the model – an impractical solution on these fids that had to slide through the tight mast mortise.  My initial idea was to solder the shackles then cut the fid in the center and insert it from both ends – using CA glue to anchor the two pieces.  However, other situations arose where shackles had to be formed in place on the mode, so a different method was adapted for those and for the fid shackles. The next picture shows a finished fid – on the left - with shackles fitted. 

 

 

Because the model masts are inserted from above, the fids may be inserted before setting the mast.  The mast at the right in the picture shows a shackle in the process of being formed.  To make the shackle, ends of a length of wire were inserted through the fid eye from opposite ends.  An overhand knot was then tied in the wire as shown.  The wire was then pulled tight as shown in the next picture.

 

 

The overhand knot becomes hidden in the fid hole. The pin was used to maintain an opening in the yoke of the shackle.  Once the wire was pulled tight, the ends were clipped off to form the final shackle shown in the last picture.

 

 

This method has also been used on a number of in situ chain connections and wherever a shackle is required but not able to be pre-soldered.  Shackles made in this way look realistic at this scale and are quite strong – more than strong enough for the tightest rigging.

 

Shackles on these fids and at the yardarms allowed standing lifts to be made with spliced eyes at each end.  Later.

 

Ed

[Mahuna]

Another very useful idea, Ed - thank you!  My Kathryn model will need many shackles, and I'm sure this approach will come in handy for some of them.

[michael mott]

Ed it looks like you have got the hang of this rigging gig!

 

Masterful workmanship of the highest order Ed. I continue to be amazed by your skill and execution of this work.

 

Michael

[EdT]

Lawrence,

 

The problem with adding an acrylic to the PVA glue is that it will very likely affect the glue strength - and not in a good way.  The artists pigment has shown no ill effects on the properties of the glue.  I suggest ordering it online from an artist supplier - perhaps Jerry's Artarama - link below.  I use burnt Umber.   I described the mixing process both in the Naiad Volume I and in the Young America Volume I.

 

https://www.jerrysartarama.com/sennelier-artist-dry-pigments

 

Good luck, 

Ed

[rtwpsom2]

Ed, what about India Ink? Normally it is just carbon in a water suspension.  It shouldn't affect a white glue or water based wood glue. Of course, this only applies to black india ink.  Depending on who makes the colored stuff it could be made of anything.

[EdT]

I have not tried India Ink to darken glue, but use it for other dyeing because it is non-fading - as is the dry pigment.  India Ink does contain a binder, usually shellac, to make it waterproof after drying.  The binder may affect the PVA glue.  The best answer for this is to test glued parts with and without the coloring used.  Make some identical wood samples, glue them, then pull them apart.

[Jeronimo]

On 9.7.2018 at 8:58 PM, canoe21 said:

Hello Ed

My, but you do such wonderful work with such great results. I have been going over your build log that Mark Taylor referred to a while back. I am just beginning to build the Oliver Cromwell from a set of Hahn plans purchased from the Lumberyard. I do like very much the way that you highlight your wood joints with darkened wood glue. In the beginning of part 17 of your build, you specify using raw umber artist grade pigment in a dry state. I find that I am not able to get this in my part of Ontario. I can, however, get an Acrylic paste paint in a tube of raw umber. My question is could this be mixed with glue to highlight my wood joints and not weaken the joint,                                                                                                                                                                 ENJOY.

 

Regards   Lawrence

 

Hello Lawrence.

I mark the wood joints with a black marker.

No impairment of the adhesive power of wood glue or superglue.

Karl

 

 

[Maury S]

To darken glue, try mixing a little red and green food coloring to make a nice dark brown.  Experiment with results.  Not sure how this might affect strength.

Maury

[MikeR]

Hello Ed

 I have been following your builds since the Victory and they are some of the best I have seen on this site.  If this question has been answered before I do not remember.  What do you use to clean the copper fittings after they have been installed on the ship, before you use liver of sulfur to blacken them?

Mike R

[chj]

I found artist pigment here: http://www.kamapigment.com/store/index.asp?lang=1&catpage=500. The store is located in Montreal, so perhaps that would be better for you.

[Calhoun Zabel]

Whew, made it to present day. What a ride this thread is! There are so many tips and tricks contained here - in both your posts Ed, and others - it's astounding. I'm sure I missed half the information in my first read-through. Especially the rigging information. There was one part in particular:

On 9/28/2017 at 3:53 AM, EdT said:

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 238 – Head Sails Running Rigging

 

Each of the three stays described in Part 235 carries a triangular headsail.  Each of these sails is rigged with three lines of running rigging – a halyard to raise the head of the sail along the stay, a downhaul to bring the head down, and a double sheet to restrain the clew of the sail on the windward side.  When bent to the stay, the tack at the lower end of the sail is tied off low on the stay.  Then as the luff of the sail along the stay is secured with rope "hanks" the halyard is hauled up to raise the sail along the stay.  Both the halyard and the downhaul are shackled to the sails head cringle.  On the "unsailed" model, the halyard and downhaul eye splices are secured to the shackle, which is "stopped" to the lower end of the stay with a short length of rope as shown in the first picture at the base of the topmast stay.

 

I read that probably three times in a row, and just started laughing - I don't understand what most of this means, and I love it.

 

Then there are some things that make total sense, and are brilliant - the leathering where the lines wrap around the masts for example: incredible! The tiny metalwork: I don't know how you do it, but I'm so glad you take the effort. There are many more examples I could mention, but I'll leave it at that for now. I'll be following along for sure.

 

Thank you for your extremely thorough and patient explanations and tutorials, Ed. You're a credit to this community. 

 

On an entirely different note; clippers are very cool! I had no idea these ships were built to be such beasts. I'd heard the term 'clipper' before, but man, seeing what they're actually made of is very interesting. I also find it interesting how similar the mast construction and rigging is to how something like the Charles W. Morgan was done. Not the number of sails, but the general structure at least. Perhaps that was just generally how things were done around that time. I'd be interested to hear the more educated folks' thoughts on this. 

[EdT]

Thank you all for these comments.  I have been away lately and have not been keeping up very well, so I am late in some replies.

 

Mike, I find that isopropyl alcohol does a good job degreasing and cleaning away any residual copper dust, but I have also observed that liver of sulfur does not require as much cleaning as the selenious blackeners like Brass Black or Hobby Black.

 

Maury, food coloring is interesting because it is likely to be vegetable dye and therefore probably non-fading.  Have never used it.

 

Calhoun, thank you for your endurance in reading through the thread - as evidenced by the volume of notifications recently.  Sorry for the nautical vocabulary.  I am anything but an old salt, but in developing the rigging list for the model and through using it everyday in the work, the labels stick.  Clippers, large ships designed for long voyages across the globe, and specifically those destined for regular Cape Horn service had to be built very strong - and so they were.

 

Ed

[Calhoun Zabel]

Ed, I love the correct terminology, so please keep it up. I just had to laugh at that point, I'd been able to follow most things up to that point via context, but that whole paragraph stumped me. Just goes to show how much I need to be reading and learning, so it's definitely not a bad thing. 

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 292 – Mizzen Topmast Standing rigging

 

It has been a few weeks since the last post.  Busy summer, but work has been proceeding to the tune of one or two hours a day.  The work in this post was completed in early July.  The first picture shows the mizzen topmast set in position with some of its standing rigging fitted.

 

 

The futtock shrouds for the topgallant mast shrouds were put on before the mast was set – as described for other masts in earlier posts.  In this picture the six topmast shrouds were temporarily put over the masthead to allow the glue on the parceling to dry.  The seizings were then tied.  The serving ends have still not been clipped off.  The deadeyes have been turned in on the starboard side.  The next picture shows further work on the shrouds.

 

 

The parceling has been "tarred" with black acrylic paint, the deadeyes have been threaded and given an initial tension, and staves have been lashed on top and bottom.  These were made from stiff blackened brass wire.  Drawn boxwood staves that were used on some of the earlier rigging have proved too fragile and most of these have been replaced with wire.  The next picture shows the backstays rigged and the mizzen topmast stay seized at the top collar and loosely fitted.

 

 

On all the masts the topmast backstays are the same size rope as the lower shrouds.  This was discussed in an earlier post.  These seemingly large sizes were mandated by the underwriters at the time, probably due to mishaps caused by overly aggressive captains.  The backstays go over the masthead after the shrouds and before the forward stay.  In the picture the starboard backstays have been secured.  The next picture shows the lower ends.

 

 

The lengths of the backstay lanyards are longer than those on the lower shrouds to allow for more tightening of these longer, structurally important lines.  The excess seizing ends will need to be clipped off.  The lanyards are left loose to allow additional later tensioning.  This progressive tensioning has been necessary on all standing rigging. 

 

The next three pictures show the method used to secure the lower end of the mizzen topmast stay.

 

 

This stay cannot be secured before at least the initial tension is set on the backstays.  The top end of the stay has the typical collar – served, parceled, leathered and the seized below the crosstrees.  The forward connection shown above is made with a seizing through a shackled eyebolt on the main mast top.  In the picture the stay is being pulled through the shackle and hauled tight.  The lower end of this stay is served.

 

In the next step the stay is clamped as shown in the next picture before applying the seizings.

 

 

In the next picture the seizings have been applied.

 

 

I am using a rule-of-thumb of one seizing for every 3" of rope size – rounded up – so there are three seizings on the 8" stay.  Rope size is circumference.  After tying, the seizings as well as the served short end, are soaked with thinned, darkened glue.  The excess ends are then clipped off when the glue dries.  The final tension of this stay is set by hauling on the four backstays and the topmast shrouds.

 

Ed

[michael mott]

Ed Thanks for your very detailed description of the process. A question I do have, is why the ropes are sized by circumference and not by diameter? does this have anything to do with the act of handling a rope? Somehow the whole mindset of converting the circumference or diameter by 22/7 or 3.1416 one way or the other seems cumbersome. If I have say a 2 inch diameter ring or eye bolt, then it would seem easier to understand that the max diameter rope that could thread through it would be a  less than 2 inch diameter, rather than less than a 6 inch circumference.

 

Michael

[wefalck]

Due to the structure of ropes - three or four more or less round strands winding around each other, it is difficult to measure a diameter. On a three-strand rope a caliper would touch on one side a strand and on the other side the space between two strands. This is why traditionally the size of ropes is given by the circumference, which can be measured by laying a thinner rope around it. In addition, direct measurement instruments, such as the vernier caliper, though known in principle for quite a while, did not come into common use until well into the 19th century.

 

This is, indeed, rather inconvenient from a modellers point of view, as the circumference of our 'ropes' would be very difficult to measure. However, as pocket calculators are common and virtually every mobile phone has a calculator, it should not be a big deal today to convert circumferences into diameter or vice versa. In many case a division/multiplication by 3 should be good enough.