Young America 1853 by EdT - FINISHED - extreme clipper

[Mirabell61]

excellent work Ed,

 

your platforms look so nice, and all is made in a most accurate way, its a pleasure to see and watch this clipper come together so well...

 

Happy new year to you and your family....

 

Nils

[Mahuna]

Wonderful work, Ed.  Thanks for the explanations.  Your drawings are extremely detailed - your draftsmanship is on par with your modeling.  You've set a very high bar for the rest of us to try to reach in the New Year.  

 

Best wishes to all for a healthy, happy, and safe New Year.

[EdT]

Thank you, all.

 

Frank, the drafting has been a major part of the project and its complexity is ramping up as rigging approaches. One of my goals is to adopt a new approach to presenting rigging information.  I think this may be warranted by the inclusion of many lines on the model that are often omitted from the usual rigging drawings or many models.  For example, even Crothers extremely well done and detailed drawings exclude many important lines, like sheets, bunt and leech lines, reef tackle, to say nothing of running rigging associated with fore and aft sails - jibs, staysails, etc.  Even if some would decide to omit these lines from models, I wanted to include them in the design.  

 

Even at this level, I am not planning to describe or model the running rigging for studding sails that was usually stored with the sails and would not appear on the ship at most times.  Including all this on a typical rigging plan (or plans) would result in unreadable drawings.  

 

Also, the usual method of a belaying pin diagram that relates a pin number to the name of the line has always left me frustrated with the amount of cross-referencing left to the modeler.  

 

Finally, I think rigging can be made a lot more understandable and user friendly if preparation for it begins early in the modeling.  Hence, you will see rigging line numbers appearing on deck plans, spar and spar furniture drawings, sometimes along with rigging elements like blocks, shackles, etc, that are best installed early, as the pieces are made.  So far, this is working out well from the modeling standpoint but has added work to the drafting and other document preparation.  I am finding the process fascinating and hope to say more about it and specifics as work proceeds.

 

I should say that some gratitude is owed to author's who have influenced my thinking on this in earlier and present work:  Longridge, McKay, and Underhill.  While I am not duplicating their presentations on rigging, they have influenced my thinking and been very helpful.  McKay with the Victory Rigging List.  Longridge and Underhill with their setup notes and diagrams.  I should note that much of the design is coming from contemporary sources like, Luce, Murphy and Jeffers, Kipping, Biddlecomb, and others.

 

So, a long story but one I hope will generate some interest.

 

Ed

[rwiederrich]

I call it *Hyper detailing*...where you go beyond typical and you attempt to include details found on the prototype..regardless how insignificant. Rigging can be a storehouse of detail...when done in scale.

 

Good luck.

 

Rob

[AnobiumPunctatum]

 

So, a long story but one I hope will generate some interest.

 

It does. Your clipper will be a possible project in the future if my sloop is finished. I like the lines of the hull and also the interesting rigging of this ship type. How long will be the fully rigged model in 1/72?

Edited January 6, 2017 by AnobiumPunctatum

[EdT]

Christian, the temporary dust case I am making to fit the 1:72 rigged model is 60" long, 39" high, and 19" wide.  For the 1:96 version, this would be about 45" long, 29" high, and 15" wide.

 

Thanks for your innterest in modeling her.  You are right.  She has beautiful hull lines.  I often take time out to just look at them.

 

Ed

[mhegazi]

if I can phrase what I want to say in English , I would say " Gorgeous Wood & Modeling Work"

thank you for sharing all these details

 

Mhmd

[wefalck]

Another of the many projects I didn't follow (for a long time) - fantastic model ! And at 1:72 scale it come almost into my scale range and provides a challenge ...

[joandbob7]

   Hi!. Ed.

   I have been lurking here for quite a while. I have read many of the build logs and am absolutely blown away By the quality of the topics i have read. I dont read fast these days. in fact i dont do anything fast any more.

   This morning the posty called with a book. The book Vol 1, Young America, I have had a quick fumble through it and as you say it is out of this world.

   It will be a while before i dare read it, I have to say you are a very clever person to do the research, Design. Make the tools. Battle with the CAD. CAD dont come easy either. After all that your workmanship is second the none. Also you write a book for us all to soak up and try to do what you have done.

   You are SIR Are a master of all the things it takes to provide us with material second to none. I take my hat of ti you and wish you all the best for the future. The future in your life whatever you do. I shall be adding some of the other titles at a later date.

   Please dont give up now. You must have many more Wonderful models and ideas to cheer us all up. I look forward to reading about some of them if I stay around on this planet.

   I attempted to get in touch with Sea Watch Books. I had a problem in the checkout. I didnt know if the order had gone through, or i had paid the postage etc..Will you please inform them My order has arrived safe and sound, and in pretty quick time. Kudoooos to them as well.

   I am your very sincerely, and happy.

   Bob Hamilton from the UK.

[EdT]

Thank you, all, for the recent comments and likes, and thank you, Bob, for the very nice note.  Very generous to say the least.  Thank you for your best wishes.  I do hope you will find the YA book interesting and useful.

 

With regard to your order, I will contact Bob Friedman at SeaWatch and ask him to check.  He may have already seen your posting, but I will followup for you. 

 

I have not been posting at the usual rate, because model work has been deferred for the past few weeks as I wrestle to get Young America II to the publishers.  This has taken a lot of time and I hope the result will be worth it to readers.  I should be back in the shop soon.

 

Thanks again.

 

Ed

[joandbob7]

   Hi!. Many Thanks.

   Regards. Bob

[MartinCJM]

OK, time to emerge from the closet. My name is Martin and I'm an Ed-oholic.

 

A little background. Back in the late fifties when we were nippers, my dad took my brother and me to the Science Museum in London, a truly wonderful place for youngsters with a vivid imagination. What made the greatest impression on me was the fabulous collection of ship models. I was entranced, and thus began a lifelong fascination for all things nautical, preferably with sails. Years later I was running my own company based in the West End, and one of the few real pleasures of being in the heart of The Smoke was being able to take an afternoon off and wander down to the Science Museum to see the ships, this time with a mildly more discerning eye. Seeing Nepean Longridge's Victory after reading his book on its building was a particular pleasure. Sadly, they've all now been removed from display and are unlikely to emerge again any time soon.

 

I came across this build log just before Christmas and spent a joyous week working my way through. I have to say, Ed's craftsmanship is the equal of the builders of those navy board models from the eighteenth century.  But what is even better is his willingness to share with us exactly how it's done. Inevitably - you can see how my downfall progressed by easy stages - I acquired a copy of The American-Built Clipper Ship and devoured it, followed by a re-read of the build log accompanied by even greater amazement at Ed's felicity to the way the original was built. A copy of Volume 1 of Ed's trilogy from SeaWatch Books soon followed, which brought home Ed's commitment to process and basic building blocks which allow the complexity of the build to be broken down into manageable pieces, and turned me into a total devotee. Ed, I just love your work, your commitment, your style and your passion.

 

So there it is. I'm and Ed-oholic. Both volumes of Ed's Naiad build are heading across the Atlantic as I write this. Discovering your work has been a rare pleasure, to be savoured at great length.

 

Martin

[dvm27]

Just curious. Longridge also built a model (and published a book) of the Cutty Sark. I would assume it is magnificent. Any photos of it around?

[wrkempson]

A quick search found

 

http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/sciencemuseum/sciencemuseum.html

 

scroll down and click for 

 

http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/sciencemuseum/ScienceMuseumShipping-11.jpg

 

Wayne

[druxey]

Longridge also had a two-volume book published on building the model.

[EdT]

I have the book - Two volumes in one, Edward W. Sweetman and Co. New York, 1959.  He wrote the book in 1933. His usual standard of modeling and many of the same methods.  The hull is bread and butter vs, his plank-on-bulkhead Victory.

 

Ed

[Landlocked123]

Hi All,

 

One of things it is so easy to forget is that these ships, especially the "high end" merchant ships, and war ships, were at the apex of technology for their times. In some ways they were the equivalent of the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. I think about that often when I build and it provides me with a great sense perspective and appreciation.

 

Last year I was able to go to Mystic Seaport and see the exhibit on Benjamin Harrison's Chronometer on loan from the UK. Harrison was the winner of the the longitude award (see Dava Sobel's book). It was fabulous. One of the best "take always" from the exhibit was a quote from Neil Armstrong (for you idiots the first man on the moon) that the Eagle's voyage was the culmination of the journey started with Harrison's chronometer. We all stand on the shoulders of giants and it would serve us well to remember it.

 

Best,

John

[PeteB]

Hi All,

 

One of things it is so easy to forget is that these ships, especially the "high end" merchant ships, and war ships, were at the apex of technology for their times. In some ways they were the equivalent of the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. I think about that often when I build and it provides me with a great sense perspective and appreciation.

 

Last year I was able to go to Mystic Seaport and see the exhibit on Benjamin Harrison's Chronometer on loan from the UK. Harrison was the winner of the the longitude award (see Dava Sobel's book). It was fabulous. One of the best "take always" from the exhibit was a quote from Neil Armstrong (for you idiots the first man on the moon) that the Eagle's voyage was the culmination of the journey started with Harrison's chronometer. We all stand on the shoulders of giants and it would serve us well to remember it.

 

Best,

John

 

Great post - some of these older civilisations knowledge was mind boggling - Been spending time on youtube site clickspring with step by step episodes building a carriage clock from scratch it was mesmerising watching him turn and cut this functioning precision machine out of brass - but he has upped the anti this year and is proposing to do as a special project a re-construction of the 6th century AD Byzantine daily calendar/ sundial /eclipse predictor for 279 years I think known as the Antikythera Mechanism after the area it was recovered underwater from a wreck - with epicyclical gearing one wheel has 283 1mm teeth - how the heck could they machine that let alone work out the maths that goes with it in 6th century AD ??? It also corrected for the latitude of the place you were using it

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGHq4O-ib2U

 

http://hist.science.online.fr/antikythera/DOCS/FLORENCE2009/byzantine-sundial.htm

 

Hope its not to much off topic - Cheers pete

Edited January 26, 2017 by PeteB

[EdT]

Wayne, thank you for the link to the Science Museum picture of Cutty Sark.  I had not seen it before and have never seen the model, although I made at least 15-20 visits to the model section of the Science Museum in the 1980's.  Since many of these were to make notes on the Longridge Victory model. I know I would not have missed it, so I can only assume it was not on display in that period.  Of course, all that is gone now.

 

Greg, your comment got me paging back through the Longridge Cutty Sark book.  Like Anatomy, it is a fascinating read.  Some points that caught my eye:

 

In the 1933 preface he states that in trying to find a book giving "the anatomical view" of a sailing ship, he had it on good authority that "no such book existed in the English language".

 

Then, interestingly, "Although models of the Cutty Sark are so many, and varied, that as a prototype, she  is a somewhat hackneyed subject, I decided to build a model of her....".  Already hackneyed in 1933?

 

On Scale:  The model is 1/4" to the foot.  A big model of a 200' ship, but as I think about it, not a lot larger than the 1:72 model of the 239' Young America.

 

His comments on addresses in London where items may be purchased are fun to read - things like silk and linen thread, tinned copper wire, tools, etc.

 

He made actual screwed shackles from 26 gauge copper wire, hand filed the milling cutter teeth to groove the waterways, served all the footropes and stirrups, silver plated thimbles made from copper sheet, and it goes on.

 

Using a cyanide bath to darken metal makes me less hateful of the products we all use (and love to hate) today. 

 

Although for some reason I overlooked his model design for the windlass, I was pleased (and relieved) that it looks a lot like mine - and like mine his is virtually invisible under the forecastle.

 

The drawings for the book were done by Harold Underhill - a name that I am sure we all know.

 

The book contains many pictures of the ship and of the model in progress.

 

His comments on rigging sequence - leaving lower ratlines until all running rigging is done, setting up main and topmast stays before the lanyard on the lower shrouds on next  forward masts, etc.  But the big one is to make all the rigging with its parts, etc. an tuck it await in storage before any is erected on the model.  Who has the self-control for that?

 

A fascinating book - and worth the search it will take to find it.

 

Ed

 

 

[dvm27]

Your review prompted me to order a copy, Ed. I've never  built Victory but love his book on the subject. They're actually readily available and inexpensive on ABE. Numerous printings and choices available.

[druxey]

Yes, that Longridge book is a nostalgic one for all the pre-war sources of materials that existed then. Unlike his Anatomy of Nelson's Ships, there is little on hull structure. A framed model of Cutty Sark would be a nice challenge for Gerald Wingrove! How about it, Gerald?

[EdT]

Martin,

 

Somehow, perhaps in my usual careless haste, I passed over your post.  My apologies for not immediately responding.   Anyway, reading it this morning certainly brightened my day.  Your comments are far too generous, but I do appreciate the acknowledgement for sharing the how-to details.  I like doing that, but it is also a way to give back to the craft and the community that have been so helpful to me.  I get the same satisfaction out of doing the books, as do the other authors I know and the publisher.  Thank you.

 

The closing of the ship model section at the Science Museum is regrettable to say the least.  It was clearly giving way to other displays over the last years of my visits.  I spent many rainy, and even snowy Sunday afternoons there during many business trips in the 80's, usually with a notebook and pencil in the days before concealable camera phones.  My sons - and perhaps to a lesser degree - the female family members enjoyed visits as well when we lived there.  We made the last visit in 2005 and I did manage to sneak in a view pics.  One is attached.  I thought you might enjoy it.

 

 

 

If anyone knows where the model ended up, I'd love to know.

 

 

 

Ed

[druxey]

Undoubtedly the Science Museum ship models are all in storage vaults somewhere in England.... I do not believe that they have been 'de-acquisitioned', or this would be public knowledge.

[EdT]

I know they are not in the NMM collection at Chatham Dockyard, but would like to see them safe in that world class facility there someday.  I can think of less acceptable fates.

 

Another picture showing my half-sized copycat attempt.  Any lack of family resemblance is not for want of trying.

 

 

Ed

[MartinCJM]

I last visited the Science Museum in Summer 2015 - my wife was singing in a choral concert at the Festival Hall (Vaughn Williams' Sea Symphony, appropriately enough) and I had a morning to spare in London. I emerged a disappointed man. No ship model collection. In fact a single ship model in the entire museum, in a section called 'The March of Progress' or some such. About a year ago, I had a long conversation with a friend of my step-daughter who happens to work at the Science Museum. She told me that the museum had effectively re-thought its public remit and decided that its primary role was the encouragement of young people to be interested in technology and engineering. Documenting - via artefacts - the nation's scientific and industrial heritage has to fit around the new mission statement as best it can...and that meant no room for ships. The ship models are in safe storage - probably in the museum's facility just outside Swindon - but there's little chance of them seeing the light of day any time soon. However, she did say that if this was something I felt particularly  strongly about, I should write to the museum - it seems that the voice of the great unwashed still counts.

 

By contrast, I went to the Rijksmusem in Amsterdam last year - what a truly marvellous collection of ship models and maritime artefacts. One gets the sense that the Dutch still have a profound sense of the importance of their sea-going heritage.

 

Ed, what a lovely photograph. Imagine a protracted ahhhhhhhh. It encouraged me to pull out my copy of The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships for a browse. I'd quite forgotten what a great publication it is; the quality of NR's freehand drawings is really quite sublime. Then again, on clearing out my dad's books just last week (he passed on just last September) I came across a little tome called Freehand Drawing and Pictorial Illustration for Draughtsmen, from 1956. In fifty-odd pages it shows how to create accurate perspective drawings of complex mechanical equipment - its main example is a vertical milling machine, though there are also examples of bolts, boots, a cutaway motorcycle engine, girders and dynamos. These were drawing skills for which there was ready use and a lucrative market in the days before computers, skills which NR or Harold Underhill would have been entirely at home with. That said, no doubt NR would have leapt at the chance of using a modern CAD package.

[AON]

Funnily enough as I approach retirement I find I reminise the simpler times when I started my career at a drafting table and tee square with my pencils, sanding pad, eraser, compass, triangular scales and french curves.  It was a less stressful time and took real talent to create the perfect engineering drawing.

 

With CAD anyone can draw a straight line.  It annoys me to no end that they insist on making them 20 short straight lines instead of one single long continuous line.

 

Kids these days....

[captain_hook]

You've done a wonderful work here so far. Can't wait to see more progress.

[Capt.Bob]

While there is a lull in the action, I thought I'd share some progress on my YA.  After making frames for what seemed like forever, its finally time to begin on the ship's interior.  Ed suggested starting with the bilge ceiling, but since it required removing the shell from the shipway (which I have never had the courage to do), I've decided to start with the deck clamps.  With the three deck clamps in place the structure will be far more rigid and less prone to warping.  Given the importance of these initial structures I have had nightmares about alinement accuracy.  I keep re-measuring everything constantly.  The deeper I get into this project the greater the investment.  It can get a bit scary.

 

Looking ahead at the bending members I decided a small steam box is going to be essential.  I built this small one from an old electric kettle, tubing, and PVC pipe.  I made a 12", 18", & 36" insulated tube oven to accommodate different sizes.  I steamed an 8 X 8 piece of hard maple and bent it around the stern rail pattern.  It seemed to work quite well.  However, PVC doesn't like elevated temperatures.  I'm going to try ABS.

 

I do have a question for Ed.  You used 24 awg wire and 5 minute epoxy to secure the deck clamps, et al.  Also, you peened the ends of the wire after cure.  I'm concerned that 5 minute epoxy has too short a working life and would constantly mixing small batches.  Additionally, by peening the ends after trimming I would be concerned about breaking the epoxy/copper bond.  Any advice?

 

Its time to charge into the breach.  ....., the brave die but once.

 

Bob

Edited January 31, 2017 by Capt.Bob

[Mike Y]

Bob, the model looks great! I can't imagine building that many frames, you ended up with a bery sweet hull after all!

Is there a build log? Can't find it in your signature

[Roger Pellett]

Bob, Rather than messing with a steam box get a plastic or glass pan of water, soak your wood in it and then nuke it, wood, pan, and water in your microwave. Cook it long enough to full boil for several minutes. Works great!

 

Roger