RRS Discovery 1901 by gak1965 - 1:72 - First Scratch Build

[gak1965]

Hello. This is the start of what will become a build log for a scratch version of the RRS Discovery, a Royal Research Ship built in 1901 to support what was officially called the British National Antarctic Expedition, but which eventually became known as the Discovery Expedition of 1901-1904 after the ship. I'll go into more information about the expedition later, but suffice it for now to say that it was led by Commander Robert Falcon Scott and included such other polar explorers as Ernest Shackleton (of Endurance fame) and Reginald Skelton, who was her Chief Engineer. Although on an official government expedition, and her officers were on loan from the Royal Navy, the ship itself was not a RN vessel, as such, she used the Blue Ensign rather than the Red Ensign.

 

One might ask why build the Discovery. Well, for a start, I think that Discovery has been more than a bit overshadowed by the Endurance, and rather unfairly at that. To date, I am only aware of an uncommon Airfix kit of her. Unlike Endurance, she came home, was used for exploration in other areas, and still remains to this day, in Dundee, where she was built. I find her an interesting subject because she is a transitional ship, a steam vessel but with a full Barque rig, and was fitted out as a floating research lab, designed to conduct science in a hostile environment far away from any help; the epitome of exploration. The ship is the namesake of many other vessels doing difficult things in difficult places, including several other Royal Research Ships: Discovery II (1929), Discovery (1962) and Discovery (2013). Space Shuttle orbiter OV-103 Discovery is named after her, and several other ships with similar names, and the ship Discovery-1 from 2001: A Space Odyssey was also named after her, as Arthur C. Clarke used to eat his lunch on her while she was in London.

 

As I indicated,  the ship is still in existence in Dundee. This is a wonderful, but imperfect reference, as she has been modified a number of times. Her rig is rather different now (5 vs 4 yards on the square rigged masts, for example, and my goal is to make her as she appeared in 1901 on her way to Antarctica for the first time. I should also point out that this log is starting with the development of a Plank-on-Bulkhead design that I can implement. My suspicion is that I won't really be making sawdust until some time in the new year.

 

With all that out of the way, let's have a look at the ship (photo source link here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Discovery_(ship,_1901)#/media/File:Stern_of_the_Discovery_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1805082.jpg)

 

As you can see, she is a Barque rigged steamship. The hull is relatively straight sided above the planksheer, and we have three masts, two square rigged, with a fore and aft mizzen. To give some scale her dimensions are:

 

Length between perpendiculars: 172 feet

Beam (extreme): 33 feet

 

I expect that when the spanker boom, bowsprit and jibboom are accounted for, she'll be 200-210 feet long, or about 39 inches with a hull 6 inches wide.

 

Here are a few photos of the ship during the expedition. For those that aren't aware, the ship spent several years bound in ice, so many of the photos show her in that condition.

 

(Source link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Discovery_(ship,_1901)#/media/File:The_ship_Discovery,_Antarctica,_1901.jpg)

 

Source link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Discovery_(ship,_1901)#/media/File:The_ship_Discovery,_Antarctica,_1901.jpg

 

Discovery by the ice. Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Discovery_alongside_Barrier.jpg

 

 

The ship's officers including Scott (center, 3 stripes on sleeve). Source link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ATLNZ_11715.jpeg

 

And here are is a photo from the New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tanaroa. (New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa, [https://collection.maritimemuseum.co.nz/objects/51662/lantern-slide-rrs-discovery-1901-barque-rigged-auxiliary-steamship (accessed on 2023-11-21], )

 

 

 

Hopefully, this will whet your appetite for the ship. On my next post I'll describe the plans that I have been able to obtain so far.

 

Regards,

George

Edited December 8, 2023 by gak1965
Title change

[KeithAug]

Great Model George. I spent an enjoyable afternoon visiting her about 30 years ago. Unfortunately I now live at the other end of the country. I remember the huge transverse beams designed to take the pressure loads from the ice pack. They crossed the hull in the accommodation areas at a most inconvenient height. She is well worth a visit but Rockville is more than an afternoon trip away. Good luck with the build.

[Roger Pellett]

Great to see another post 1900 scratch build here.  Looking forward to upcoming research and construction of an interesting vessel.

 

Roger

[Rick310]

George, 

looks like an interesting build.  Will be happy to follow along.

Rick

[gak1965]

I have plans for RRS Discovery from a number of sources. The Discovery Point Museum in Dundee (where the ship is docked) sent me a few, along with some photos, and I ordered some of the large collection of plans for the RRS Discovery that the National Maritime Museum (NMM) has in Greenwich. I ordered 6 from the NMM, primarily because I had to pay for the scanning charges, which run £70 for the first document and £50 for the following ones. 

 

The docs I ordered were:

1. Lines
2. Main/Lower Decks/Hold
3. Hold/Sections
4. Sections
5. Mast and mountings
6. Profile, Upper, Forecastle & Bridge Decks

It turns out that I probably didn't need docs 2,3, or 4, but that was only known in hindsight. Just to give you bit of an overview of what the plans are like, and something about the ship (while keeping to my obligations under the NMM license) here are some details, but not the complete drawings (and at lower resolution). So, looking at part of the sheer plan you will see that the ship has a bit of a drag:

 

 

I will need to plot some more stations to make the hull flow better, but that shouldn't be a problem. If you wanted to do a full plank on frame, the section sheets have really great construction details, although the content of 3 and 4 are quite similar. The ship has three layers of wood in much of the hull, an inner layer on the inside of the frames, and up to two additional layers on the outside of the frame. Here is an example section through the engine room. The ship has a 450 hp triple expansion steam engine mounted vertically. You can see the three layers of wood in this as well.

 

 

Again from the sheer diagram. The hardest thing to build on the hull is likely to be where the prop was located. If you look at the bottom of the image, you will see an octagonal structure - this was so that the prop could be raised into the ship for easy repair. My original thought was to cut the center keel for the POB ship to include the mount for the rudder, but I'm less sure now. I may add the rudder mount after I've cut the octagon in the planked ship, or maybe I will add the octagon prior to planking. Not sure at the moment, still thinking that through.

 

 

The detail of the weather deck plans is excellent. Here is an excerpt over the engine rooms. A number of interesting features here, including the coaling scuttles.

 

 

You can see (on the right hand side) 4 of the myriad mushroom vents that were used to provide light and ventilation to the lower decks. They were used because of the concern that portholes would compromise the structural integrity of the ship. Here is a photo of them (Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deck_(336716710).jpg)

 

 

The ship's rig was designed to support an expedition far from home. This shows the fore and main mast, but if you look, although they look different, they were intentionally designed to use the same size masts and yards (i.e. the main and fore course yards were the same, etc.) so that they could carry fewer types of spares in a location where there were no trees to build new ones. The difference in heights is driven by where they are stepped, not because they are different sizes.

 

 

This was an antarctic vessel, so it has plates on the bow to help break the ice (this is a closeup of a plan that Discovery Point kindly sent me).

 

 

And they sent a rigging plan (which I am going to ask them to take a closer photo of). The sheet with the masts has most of the standing rigging, and the data on the routing of the lifts, sheets, clews, and buntlines, but not the braces, which are shown here. More important is the size and type of lines in the upper left corner, which will be very helpful when it comes time to build yards and rig. The key thing is that the lines are a mix of steel and hemp.

 

 

I have yet to find something that is an obvious belaying plan, nor are there any pinrails shown on the plans, although they are visible on photos. I will ping Discovery cove and look at some of the photos at the Scott Polar Research Institute to make up my mind, but I suspect like a lot of contemporary ships they just had pinrails throughout the ship. 

 

Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RRS_Discovery_Dundee_Main_mast_rigging.JPG

 

A couple of other observations from this photo. Note that the ratlines are slats, so, no knots. Not so yea, as I need to figure out how they are mounted. Again, email to Discovery Point. ALso, note that it looks like they use bar fairleads rather than trucks, which I find much easier.

 

So, that is where we currently stand. Next step is to get a full sized (i.e. at 1:64) printed someplace with a big printer, and then figure out where the boundaries on the centerpiece and the keel. Take the lines and cut out patterns for the bulkheads on paper, and then eventually get to the point where I can buy some wood and think about cutting it out. 

 

Regards,

George

 

[bruce d]

George, please accept a pat on the back for your choices of subject and reasons. 

Looking forward to seeing a well researched barque rigged steamship on the workbench. 

BTW, do the Lloyd's digital archives have anything?  Sorry can't give the link at the moment. 

Bruce 

[gak1965]

Bruce,

 

     The Discovery is in the Lloyd's Register starting in the 1901-1902 (R.F. Scott, RN listed as master). They appear to have plans for the replacement ship Discovery II from 1926, but no plans for the original. It does provide some details on the engine and it's manufacturer, which are quite interesting.

 

A very interesting resource, thanks for the tip!

 

George

[gak1965]

Well, next step was to try to validate what scale the plans would be once they were actually printed out. The ones from the NMM are really huge (24917 × 9042 pixels for the sheer drawing, for example). Printed at 300 dpi that would yield a drawing 83 by 30 inches. The nominal scale on the drawings is 1/4 inch = 1 foot or 1:48, so a 200 ft long ship at 1:48 would generate be 50 inches on the plans, that seems consistent for a 3 view diagram with borders.

 

When I print a piece of the plan (what a pain that turned out to be) at 50% scaling, I wound up with a half beam at station 7 (the widest point on the ship) of almost exactly 2 inches, or an 8 inch full beam at 100% diagram scale. At 1:48 that's 32 feet with an extreme beam of 33 feet (I was using the lower view rather than the slices so I don't think it's significant). So, it looks like at 100% it will print to 1:48, and I can get a printer to reduce it to 66.6667% and get 1:64.

 

My original plan, BTW, was to use the length overall to make sure that the scale was good. I know the LBP (172') and I wrote the Discovery Point museum asking about the overall length. Unfortunately, they wrote back to tell me that the overall length (spanker boom to tip of the jibboom) was 284 feet! Accounting for the additional length on deck, that would seem to imply a 90 foot bowsprit/jibboom. That seemed wrong to me (maybe they swapped a digit?). Discovery's bowsprit and jibboom are pretty compact, and it fits comfortably in its slip. I went to Google maps and measured 284 feet from the aft bulwarks and it runs out of the slip, over the pedestrian areas and almost to the A85 road. Anyway, I sent them another note asking if they really meant that long, so we'll see. Don't get me wrong, they have been incredibly helpful, but when your 1:64 project goes from 41 inches to 53 inches, you start to worry!

 

Regards,

George

 

[FlyingFish]

Hey george, great choice and well done on securing such lovely looking plans - this will be a treat!

[gak1965]

Well, the first change, thankfully before any sawdust is created. At the end of the day as I started printing out sections of the plans, and given some of the uncertainty around length, I've decided to switch to 1:72. It should still be easier than working in 1:96 as with the Flying Fish while coming in just over 3 feet stem to spanker (the actual length appears to be about 220 feet - exact measure once I print out the plan. However, I now have the exact amount to shrink them by and will hopefully get it done this weekend.

 

@Vladimir_Wairoa helpfully shared the bulkhead count on his wonderful Glory of the Seas which is also at 1:72, given the relative sizes of the two ships I don't think I will need any additional bulkheads than are already on the drawings that I have. He also pointed out that I needed to make sure that they didn't interfere with cutting a mast slot, which I hadn't considered, but which it turns out is not a problem. So here are the stations at 1:72. The ship is about 5.5 inches wide at this scale. I've removed much of the yellow so I can print it more effectively and have a ruler (badly placed) for scale. The false keel will be about 3 to 4 inches tall depending on whether we are talking at the stem or the stern. I think that 1.5 inch slots in the false keel will work for all but the first and last bulkhead.

 

 

The foc'sle is interesting. At least today it is closed off (unlike say the Flying Fish where it was open at the main deck (if you go to this YouTube video you can see what that access is via doors. Thus, although I was tempted to make it solid, I'm going to need to cut out an opening as you see in the MSW Flying Fish because even though it's closed, the fore stays appear to anchor inside it. And, if it turns out that it was open in Scott's day, I guess it will be a lot easier to have it open from the start rather than trying to open it out.

 

 

 

I was thinking of using birch ply for the false keel and the bulkheads. There is a place nearby that sells what appears to be decent 1/4 inch 3 ply American birch in sizes of 24" x 48". I think that two of those should be enough for the bulkheads, and single piece keel and false keel. 

 

Finally, on Saturday morning I am going to annual Montgomery County Maryland Urban wood sale: https://montgomeryparks.org/events/montgomery-parks-urban-wood-sale/. They sell wood that comes from trees that the county had to remove from various places. I figure it is a good place to look for something that I can turn into a nice baseboard or perhaps some simple furniture (we need some place to display some items). Anyway they apparently have walnut, cedar, pine, poplar, oak, beech, cherry, cypress, and ash, some kiln, and some air dried. We shall see, I've never been before, but a nice 3/4 inch oak or cherry board in the 3/4 inch to 1 inch range, suitably prepared would work for Discovery and Kearsarge.

 

Regards,

George

[gak1965]

Well, I'm still waiting on the full sized plans from Staples. Hopefully they will be finished soon and we can continue.

 

In the meantime, I've put together the following, which are going to be the start of the patterns of the bulkheads. 

 

 

 

The big plans have the profile I need for the false keel and the sections so that I know where to cut off the top of the bulkhead so that the waterways will fit properly.

 

Regards,

George

[gak1965]

Bit of an update. I didn't have a ton of time to work on any of this during the holidays for a variety of reasons, the biggest being that my kids came to visit in sequence rather than parallel as it were. Great seeing them, although it would have been nice for both to be in town at the same time, but those are sometimes the breaks, since they both have jobs that still need doing even when the rest of us are on vacation (one is a reporter, the other works with inpatients with eating disorders). Anyway, where we stand. I got the big plans back from Staples, and it was nice to see the whole thing printed out, even at the reduced 1:72 scale (part of the sections drawings at the same scale above).

 

 

Here is a close up of the sheer drawing. As you can see, I've superimposed the center and false keel over the sheer diagram. Everything I've outlined here is going to be made from a sheet of 1/4 inch birch ply a bought last week, so the slots are 1/4 inch. They are centered on the station only for station 7, the remainder are centered with the stern facing portion of the slot aligned to the station (1-6), or the forward facing section aligned to the station (8-14). The logic being that they will be faired forward for the 1-6 and aft for 8-14. FWIW, I've decided to include the sternpost. I'll remove the section where the prop sits but keep the core in one large piece.

 

And finally you can see the first of the bulkheads cut out of paper and ready to be applied for cutting.

 

 

Progress, even if I have 13 more bulkheads to cut before we see sawdust.

 

Regards,

George

 

 

 

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  This is a super project, and one I'll follow.

[gak1965]

Well, I wound up adjusting the upper edge of the false keel to account for the deck camber, and added a small extension at the stem. And all of the bulwark patterns are cut out and ready to mount in the wood. Next step is to cut out the false keel pattern and it's off to making sawdust.

 

 

I was thinking of mounting them on the plywood using the spray glue that is usually used to mount photos on poster board. Has anyone tried that, is it sturdy enough, or do I need a stronger adhesive?

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Regards,

George

[gak1965]

Well, some real progress. First, here are the relevant pieces to make the frame of the ship, in paper, cut out and ready to go.

 

 

Now, attached to the birch plywood, with some sections (not the same ones - the draftsmen chose ones with some significance to the constructors) from the original plans from the NMM.

 

 

Next, bulkhead 7 (the widest, flattest) cut out of the big sheet, and ready to go on the scroll saw:

 

 

And the first two bulkheads (6 and 7) having been cut from the scroll saw and "ready to go".

 

 

I have plenty of wood and may wind up making one or both of them a second time. I realized a bunch of things about using my saw effectively, particularly where the deck is going to lay, although I can probably fix that issue by sanding it flat and putting in a small piece of 1 mm wood and sanding the curve in, so we shall see. In any case, I'm going to do all of the "solid" bulkheads before attempting the three with cutouts, and the very last thing I'm going to do is the false keel. I figure by that time I'll have developed more of the skills necessary to cut out a solid center keel and false keel.

 

However, seeing as there has been sawdust on this project, I'm changing its status in my signature to 'current build'.

 

As always, thanks for looking in and the likes.

 

Regards,

George

 

 

[Ikcdab]

Hi George, what did you decide on to stick the templates to the wood? I am at a similar stage to you on my build and am thinking prittstick.

Ian

[gak1965]

 

5 minutes ago, Ikcdab said:

Hi George, what did you decide on to stick the templates to the wood? I am at a similar stage to you on my build and am thinking prittstick.

Ian

 

Hi Ian,

     I was going to use the spray glue, but my (probably quite ancient) can was not spraying. I would up using a bit of CA (it was there). Worked a charm.

 

Regards,

George

 

[Ikcdab]

10 hours ago, gak1965 said:

 

 

Hi Ian,

     I was going to use the spray glue, but my (probably quite ancient) can was not spraying. I would up using a bit of CA (it was there). Worked a charm.

 

Regards,

George

 

Hi George thanks.  How easy was it to remove the templates from the wood after cutting out?

[gak1965]

Well, a little progress. Cutting out the bulkheads is proceeding, but I'm at a pause as I have now broken all of my scroll saw blades. New ones en route, so some time to work on the Kearsarge while I wait. Here is what is done. Stacked in the first image, laid out on the next two.

 

 

 

they will need a bit of smoothing, but otherwise seem fine. 9 down, 5 to go, and then the center keel. That's when we find out how straight I can cut the slits and how much file/sanding is going to be needed.

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Regards,

George

 

[Roger Pellett]

George,

 

I used to break a lot of blades on my scroll saw.  Finally, running it at slow speed, I discovered that the blade was flexing on the “up” stroke.  Blades were breaking from low cycle fatigue.  I increased blade tension so the blade does not distort throughout the cutting cycle.  Blades now last a long time.

 

Roger

[allanyed]

On 1/22/2024 at 9:35 PM, gak1965 said:

9 down, 5 to go

Just a thought based on experience...... I hope 14 bulkheads are enough to allow a smooth run of planking.  With an overall length of 172 feet, the bulkheads at 1:72 will be about 2 inches apart so you will have huge gaps between each bulkhead.   If you decide to go with more (28?) bulkheads the body plan with the station lines will be a great guide to drafting the additional pieces. 

Allan

[gak1965]

5 hours ago, allanyed said:

Just a thought based on experience...... I hope 14 bulkheads are enough to allow a smooth run of planking.  With an overall length of 172 feet, the bulkheads at 1:72 will be about 2 inches apart so you will have huge gaps between each bulkhead.   If you decide to go with more (28?) bulkheads the body plan with the station lines will be a great guide to drafting the additional pieces.

 

That's definitely a concern, and you are correct, the stations (except for 14) are all 1-7/8" apart (versus about 1-1/8" for the Kearsarge kit I'm also building). From station 3 until 10, there is very little variation in the shape - the real question will be from the knightheads to station 3 and from 10-13. Aft of station 13 I'm going to be putting a filler in place to create the stern - basically a suitably shaped variant of the Flying Fish kit stern filler block. For 1-3, my thought was that if it was looking problematic that I'd just drop a bit of balsa filler in to ensure an even flow.

 

FWIW, I had spoken to Vlad Wairoa about his Glory of the Seas which used 18 bulkheads for a 101 cm false keel, 6 of which were closely spaced at the stem and stern for the exact reason you describe. Hopefully it will turn out okay, and I'll only have to add a little balsa or a couple of extra bulkheads rather than adding another 13 more to fill the gaps.

 

Regards,

George

[allanyed]

10 hours ago, gak1965 said:

Hopefully it will turn out okay, and I'll only have to add a little balsa or a couple of extra bulkheads rather than adding another 13 more to fill the gaps.

HI George

Whatever you can fair and will support the planking is a good way to go, be it fillers or more bulkheads.  If this was a warship with many gun ports I would go with drawing and making double the number bulkheads, maybe more, depending on the spacing of the ports, but as this is not the case filler blocks seem like a great alternative.  

Allan

[KeithAug]

On 1/23/2024 at 2:35 AM, gak1965 said:

but I'm at a pause as I have now broken all of my scroll saw blades.

George - Roger is correct. Scroll saw blades don't usually break a lot. you should have a look at your set up. 

15 hours ago, allanyed said:

I hope 14 bulkheads are enough to allow a smooth run of planking.

George - Allan is also wise. I think it would make life easier for you if you put in more frames, particularly at the bow and stern. Filler blocks are also a good option.

Edited January 26 by KeithAug

[gak1965]

9 hours ago, KeithAug said:

George - Roger is correct. Scroll saw blades don't usually break a lot. you should have a look at your set up. 

I now have some new blades and will take a look at my setup, particularly on the blade tension.

[gak1965]

Well, a brief check in. I did get my saw set up better, proper tension on the blade in particular. I also learned that I was breaking the blades when I was making straight cuts removing pieces from that large piece of ply, and realized I was pushing harder on the blade. I'm using a very fine blade (34 teeth per inch) and I think it just needed to go slower. When I am cutting out the pieces, I'm much slower to make sure that I don't over cut - and so once I realized that my blade problem more or less went away.

 

Here are the bulkheads as of today (no real smoothing or fairing). I thought I had all 14, but then I realized that I made 12 unique bulkheads, 2 of bulkhead 12 and none of bulkhead 11. So, one more to go before cutting out the center keel. I did take the cut out bulkheads and put them into the paper pattern for the center keel and they seem to fit properly, although several of them will require a non-zero bit of fairing due to their thickness. But that's okay - cutting them wrong would have been more of an issue. So here they are (I haven't cut out the forecastle yet. Debating at this point as it turns out that the Discovery forecastle was closed off in 1901 (the doors are on the plans). Probably going to leave them solid - no reason to model something you won't be able to see, and I know on my Flying Fish that those beams are fragile, and by the time I close it off would likely be about 90% glue. Probably better to keep them closed and model the doors closed. 

 

 

It's also clear in addition to the filler blocks I was planning for the stern, I'm going to need them at the stem as well. Fortunately, the USS Kearsarge I'm (probably stupidly) building along with this came with a giant block of balsa for filler and after finishing the filler portion I have a ton leftover that I suspect is going to find its way to Discovery.

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Regards,

George

 

[gak1965]

Well, this feels like a bit of a milestone. Center keel cut. I drew lines to split it into two, but I was able to do it as one piece by cutting a bit of the center with a razor saw and some 80 grit sandpaper. So here is the keel with the pattern still attached:

 

 

Here are two views of the bulkheads, from the top and side, dry fitted into the center keel:

 

 

 

They still need to be trimmed and faired, some of slots lengthened and maybe one shortened, the bearding line needs to be put in, frame 3 has to be thinned above the main deck so that the forecastle will be properly aligned, filler blocks are needed fore and aftand I still have to cut out the keel. But, the thing is starting to look like a ship. Not radically different looking than the Flying Fish at a similar point in the journey:

 

 

In any case, thanks for looking in and for the advice!

 

Regards,

George

[gak1965]

Small update. Rabbets are cut. Keel is attached (it currently sticks out a bit on the end. Started fairing the bulkheads. Need to remind myself that putty covers a multitude of sins.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Regards,

George

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, gak1965 said:

Started fairing the bulkheads. Need to remind myself that putty covers a multitude of sins.

George - it will turn out fine in the end, just keep at it and you will be surprised how many people are impressed by the result. Putty is fine once painted - only you and your readers will know.

[gak1965]

On 2/11/2024 at 4:27 PM, KeithAug said:

Putty is fine once painted - only you and your readers will know.

Thanks Keith, appreciate the confidence!

 

I'm heading off on a work trip followed by visit to my daughter in Boise, so last update for a couple of weeks most likely. Bulkheads 1-8 are rough faired, evened out, but not yet glued in place. As you can see I opened out the fo'c'sle after all. I don't anticipate adding ceiling planks in there but the foremast has a set of forestays that anchor in there (through holes in the bulkhead so I just cut them out.

 

 

 

One thing that may not be obvious is that in bulkhead 3 I thinned the part above the center keel to 1/8". The reason is that the fo'c'sle starts about 1 ft ahead of the station line in the drawings, so I needed to adjust accordingly.

 

As always, thanks for looking in!

 

Regards,

George 

Edited February 19 by gak1965