Washington 1776 by KenW - 1:48 - Continental galley from NRG plans

[KenW]

 

The Continental Galley Washington was a lateen-rigged, two-masted row galley built in the autumn of 1776 on Lake Champlain at Skenesboro N.Y. On October 6 1776, she joined the small fleet established and commanded by Brigadier General Benedict Arnold. The fleet consisted of schooners Royal Savage, Revenge and Liberty. Also the sloop Enterprise, and 8 gundalows outfitted as gunboats: New Haven, Providence, Boston, Spitfire, Philadelphia, Connecticut, Jersey, New York, and the cutter Lee. Washington was among three galleys  built, the others being the Congress and Trumbull.

A Sketch of the New England Armed Vessels, in Valcure Bay on Lake Champlain

as seen in the morning of 11 October 1776 A Contemporary watercolor drawing

of the American line of battle by Charles Randle. In the drawing Washington is

shown as the second ship from the left.

 

[bruce d]

Ken, that is a great subject and I'm looking forward to seeing sawdust.

 

Bruce

Edited July 14, 2023 by bruce d
fumble fingers

[B-Ram]

Hi Ken,

 I am very happy to see you start on your Washington. I will be following along with great interest. I have a set of the Washington plans and have received the wood for the build. This will be my first POF build.

 

Bill

[KenW]

Thanks Bill.  

I’m not building it POF, but rather POB.  Stay tuned for the details.

Cheers

 

[B-Ram]

Wow. A POB will be very interesting.

 

Bill

 

[KenW]

I’m using the plans from the Nautical Research Guild for a POF model, but making some adjustments.  I don’t have the skills or use of power tools so I’m going to make the model Plank-on-Bulkhead.  Also, I’m going to follow the method described by Richard Simon in his article, “L’Egyptienne: A 1:160-scale 24-pounder frigate of 1799 (A work in progress)”.  The article is in the Nautical Research Journal, Summer 2023, Vol. 68, No.2.

After some study and thought, etc, I started with frames needed to make the gunport openings.  First, I will use two frames that make up the outside (vertical) of the port.  There will be notches for the upper and lower gun port ledges.  The plan’s frames are very accurate for the shape of the hull.  I’m going to make the upper portions of the insides a little wider in order to avoid accidentally breaking them.  They will be sanded down once the outer planking is done.  The portion of the frame below deck will be solid (or rough) and modified for the camber for the deck. Below are the frames for the center gun ports.

[KenW]

I completed the first ‘set’ of frames that include a gunport.  The frames are for the central port and include the two frames shown in my previous post plus a spacer that is the width of the gunport.  A lot of sanding was done, and of course a lot more will be done when the hull is assembled and the sides are faired.  So far so good.

By the way - does anyone know if the original boat was painted?  The photo in my first post looks like the wales are black.  But if that so - and what about the rest?

I’m trying to decide if I want a model completed in uncolored boxwood or paint it to show how the boat really looked.  Thanks.

 

[KenW]

So far I’ve made four frame sets with gunports and four sets with sweep ports.  I used pieces of ½ inch square dowels to line them up the gunport frames. When placed upside down on two blocks of wood you can see the amount of fairing I’ll need to do.

 

 

Another photo shows all the frame sets placed on the plans.  Still have to make the spacers to fill in the spaces between them.  Lots more work to do.

 

 

[KenW]

I’ve finished the frames excluding the bow and stern frames.  I want to determine how to all these frames together before I decide how to create the bow and stern.  Neither will be easy.  To be honest, so far, nothing has been easy.  But that’s what makes this whole project so interesting and fun.  I have some photos of the frames lined up and it’s obvious that I will need a lot of sanding sticks before I even start to think of planking.  Summer is almost over and I’ll be heading back to Brooklyn to continue working on the Pilot Boat Mary.  I’ll try to divide my time between both models.

[allanyed]

This is a really interesting method using bulkheads in large numbers instead of few bulkheads then filler blocks.  Almost a cross between POF and POB, a really great idea!! 

Allan

[KenW]

Thanks Allan.  I’m not totally sure it’s too much easier except that I’m not cutting as many frames.  Given my lack of power tools and my inexperience with them, I’m sure I’d have to spend a lot of time sanding and fairing.

But so far, I’m enjoying the process.  Just have to wait and see how it all comes out.

Cheers.

[KenW]

 

Well, I’m back with the Galley.  The Pilot boat is done except the little figures I’ve ordered and have to paint.

So, I made a jig (similar to the one in the NRJ article) from basswood.  I glued the side view of the plans to the jig and cut the gun ports so I can ‘mount’ the frames together. 

Each frame with a gun port will have its sweep frame attached.  When the frames are loaded It looks like this:

 

 

I also made a frame with most of the bow bulkheads.  Lots of sanding needed to make the whole hull presentable.

 

[KenW]

I want to do some preliminary sanding so everything looks a bit better.  So, I glued several ‘bulkheads’ to form one of the center frames.  First, I cut out the location of where the stairs leading below deck and painted it black.  I also planked the floor since it will be seen if you look down the stairway.

Then I inserted blocks of wood between each bulkhead to strengthen the structure and started sanding.  I had to add some shims in places and remove a lot of wood in other places.  The result is not bad; nowhere near what will be the final fairing, but not bad.  Still looks ugly.

 

 

[Chuck]

Looking really food Ken.

[FriedClams]

Good progress, Ken - looking very nice!

 

Gary

[KenW]

Thanks Gary.  All the sanding I'm doing, I probably should spent time learning to use power tools.

Cheers.

[KenW]

I’ve spent the last two weeks creating and sanding the stern area.  More sanding must be done.  Also the stern is proving to be difficult.  I don’t really like the way the plans construct the stern area.  I still have a lot of work to do.  I must make/design the counter and transom and continue the endless sanding.

 

[KenW]

I’ve glued the pieces to make the stern half of the galley.  All the pieces had to be adjusted and sanded to make a smooth half-hull.  I’m using a technique from an article by Richard Simon in the Nautical Research Journal, Summer 2023, Vol. 68, No.2. which simulates a POF scheme. I thought it would make the creation of the gun ports easier.  For the stern, I’m using a POB technique. This model is using a lot of different techniques. It’s kind of a hodgepodge of different ideas from various sources.  And the model requires lots of sanding.  My shipyard is getting layers upon layers of sawdust; I’m going to have to spend days doing a complete cleaning up once the hull is finished.  (I am doing some cleaning up each day, but not a major effort.)  Included are the water boards at the rear of the deck.  I made them without edge bending since the basswood wouldn’t hold the bend without breaking.  I may make the board thinner towards the stern to match the plans.  They aren’t glued yet.