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

[gak1965]

On 8/20/2024 at 5:39 PM, Rick310 said:

She is really looking good George!  You’re doing a great!!

Rick

 

Thanks Rick!

 

On 8/18/2024 at 11:56 PM, Ian_Grant said:

Speaking of overlooked polar ships, what of "Fram"?  I have fond memories of seeing her, and the viking ships, when in Oslo.

 

Ian,

     I took a look at Fram. Every time I read about these expeditions, I have a flashback to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - "Who are these guys"? That is one tiny ship to be taking on an expedition to the South Pole - 128 feet. Discovery is half again as long and carried three times the crew. Amazing. I will note that there is also an MS Fram that does cruises to polar regions and a SpaceX mission called Fram that is due to launch this year and have a polar orbit.

 

So, an update. I've made some progress installing the second set of planking, but realized that I didn't order quite enough of the correct size of wood, so I will need to order a bit more. As can be seen in the photos of my last entry, the second planking does not cover the totality of the ship's hull. For example, it runs to the bottom of the propeller shaft as can be seen on this excerpt of a photo from the Scott Polar Research Institute (original here: https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/picturelibrary/catalogue/article/p83.6.2.3.2/)

 

 

At the bow, the ship is double planked at least to station 3 on the plans, which makes sense as there is an iron ice breaker attached (this is courtesy of a document sent to me by the Discovery Cove Museum in Dundee:

 

 

Or this close up (source Google Maps - full photo credited to Open Virtual Worlds)

 

 

As I mentioned, when I plotted the cutoff points using the sections, it produced a lower line that did not correspond with the photos as shown, so I did my best to come to terms with the variation in a fashion that would seem to make sense and produce a reasonable looking result. This yielded the following lower limit on the double planking, as seen from the above:

 

 

You can see where the double planking isn't complete, but it shouldn't take a ton more lumber.

 

Here is the ship from both sides. I haven't really sanded it yet - will do that once the double bottom is done. In the interim, here she is from both port and starboard:

 

 

It's amazing how much neater the second planking goes on - get a solid surface, and thinner stock and things go on really easily.

 

I will put the bulwarks in while I'm waiting for the rest of the wood. 

 

One question for the experts out there. This is a barque with a 450 hp steam engine. She carries 3 masts, 2 square rigged, each with a course, split topsails, and a topgallant (so 4 yards per mast) and a fore-and-aft mizzen. Discovery has relatively narrow, non-built masts - much smaller in diameter to the massive built masts on my last ship, the Flying Fish. I was wondering about why they could get away with masts like that, and had speculated that a clipper like that would carry a lot more canvas (I mean the Fish had 3 square rigged masts with course, top, topgallant, royal, and skysails) plus all of the clipper extras (studding sails, ringtail, etc.). However, when I look up the size of their rigs, we find that the Fish carried "8250 yards of canvass [sic] in a single suit." The Discovery had a sail area (in 1901) of 12,296 sq ft. So, is the 8250 "yards" square yards, or is there some arcane convention that can be used to convert to square feet? Crothers goes into great detail on these ships about everything but their sail plans (which I realize changed a lot over time). Any help greatly appreciated.

 

As always, thanks for looking in!

 

Regards,

George

 

[Keith Black]

 Beautiful planking job, George. 

[Ian_Grant]

On 8/25/2024 at 12:09 AM, gak1965 said:

 

Ian,

     I took a look at Fram. Every time I read about these expeditions, I have a flashback to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - "Who are these guys"? That is one tiny ship to be taking on an expedition to the South Pole - 128 feet. Discovery is half again as long and carried three times the crew. Amazing. I will note that there is also an MS Fram that does cruises to polar regions and a SpaceX mission called Fram that is due to launch this year and have a polar orbit.

 

"Who are these guys" indeed. It was known that driftwood from Siberian forests was sometimes found in Greenland. Fram was specially built with an egg-shaped u/w hull to withstand being trapped in ice; pressure would just lift the hull not crush it. The plan was to sail north from Norway and get as far as possible before being trapped in ice, then just sit there and wait for the ice drift to take them to the Greenland area via the north pole (?!!). After a long while (a year and a half? two? can't recall the details) it became apparent that they were on a trajectory to miss the pole by a large margin, so two men, Nansen and Johansen, decided they would take some of the dogs and sled to the pole then attempt to rendezvous with the ship at an estimated future position....they reached over 84 degrees north, some 150 miles north of the then record, but ended up missing the ship on swinging back and had to return south on their own (again, ?!!) in a 15 month ordeal of sleeping in a rotting reindeer sleeping bag and other misery until bumping in to another expedition. There is a great book, unbelievable reading on the level of Shackleton's Endurance expedition, entitled "Farthest North" by Fridtjof Nansen. Riveting reading.

 

 

Edited August 26 by Ian_Grant

[KeithAug]

The hull is looking mighty fine George. 

[davyboy]

Hi George,

 

If I remember correctly from my schooldays 7 decades ago 1sq yard is 9 sq ft,3 x 3. That would give RRS Discovery a sail area

of Approximately 1,366 sq yards. Re your flying Fish multiply the 8250  sq yds by 9 and you have your sq ft.

I think/hope I've got that right.

 

Dave

[Ian_Grant]

On 8/25/2024 at 12:09 AM, gak1965 said:

One question for the experts out there. This is a barque with a 450 hp steam engine. She carries 3 masts, 2 square rigged, each with a course, split topsails, and a topgallant (so 4 yards per mast) and a fore-and-aft mizzen. Discovery has relatively narrow, non-built masts - much smaller in diameter to the massive built masts on my last ship, the Flying Fish. I was wondering about why they could get away with masts like that, and had speculated that a clipper like that would carry a lot more canvas (I mean the Fish had 3 square rigged masts with course, top, topgallant, royal, and skysails) plus all of the clipper extras (studding sails, ringtail, etc.). However, when I look up the size of their rigs, we find that the Fish carried "8250 yards of canvass [sic] in a single suit." The Discovery had a sail area (in 1901) of 12,296 sq ft. So, is the 8250 "yards" square yards, or is there some arcane convention that can be used to convert to square feet? Crothers goes into great detail on these ships about everything but their sail plans (which I realize changed a lot over time). Any help greatly appreciated.

 

As always, thanks for looking in!

 

Regards,

George

 

George, I took a look and yes indeed Flying Fish is recorded as having 8250 "yards" of canvas, but as canvas came in I believe 3-foot wide "bolts" to be sewn together into a sail, each "yard" of a yard-wide bolt is in fact one square yard. Vastly larger than Discovery's sail area.

[gak1965]

5 hours ago, Ian_Grant said:

On 8/25/2024 at 12:09 AM, gak1965 said:

 

George, I took a look and yes indeed Flying Fish is recorded as having 8250 "yards" of canvas, but as canvas came in I believe 3-foot wide "bolts" to be sewn together into a sail, each "yard" of a yard-wide bolt is in fact one square yard. Vastly larger than Discovery's sail area

Ah, that makes sense, it's the length of a standard bolt! Following your lead, I see here: https://textileranger.com/2017/12/05/a-compendium-of-sail-information/, that "Standards for British manufactured sailcloth were enacted in 1746.  In addition to requiring British sail makers to mark each new sail with his name and address, the size of a bolt of sailcloth was standardized at twenty-four inches wide by thirty-eight yards long", and Wikipedia says 23 inches wide in the US and 24 in Britain. Still that gives us a range of:

 

23 inch yards: 8250 'yards'*1.958 ft/"yards"*3 = 48,468.75 sq ft.

24 inch yards: 8250 'yards'*2.0 ft/"yards"*3 = 49,500 sq. ft

36 inch yards: 8250 'yards'*3.0 ft/"yards"*3 = 74,250 sq. ft.

 

As you say - VASTLY larger, 4x at a miniumm. An acre is 43,560 sq. ft. so the Fish had more than acre of sale at even the lowest size bolt. I wonder how many acres of cotton or flax would be needed to make that much cloth.

 

Amazing.

 

Regards,

GAK

 

 

 

Edited August 26 by gak1965

[KeithAug]

20 hours ago, gak1965 said:

Ah, that makes sense

All very confusing. It was much better when everything was measured in chains and furlongs.

[Keith Black]

1 minute ago, KeithAug said:

All very confusing. It was much better when everything was measured in chains and furlongs.

 And weight calculated in stones. What's up with that? 

[gak1965]

38 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

40 minutes ago, KeithAug said:

All very confusing. It was much better when everything was measured in chains and furlongs.

 And weight calculated in stones. What's up with that? 

And capacity in tons burthen

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, gak1965 said:

And capacity in tons burthen

What about poundals and slugs, in the past measurement units had character, not like this modern SI unit stuff! 

[Rick310]

Beautiful job on the hull, George!

Are you using basswood for the planking and what is the thickness of the 2nd layer of planking?

Rick

[FlyingFish]

According to wikipedia SI units are: "a result of a decades-long move towards increasingly abstract and idealised formulation in which the realisations of the units are separated conceptually from the definitions". Can't imagine what could be wrong with that.

Great build George!

[gak1965]

On 8/27/2024 at 2:06 PM, Rick310 said:

Beautiful job on the hull, George!

Are you using basswood for the planking and what is the thickness of the 2nd layer of planking?

Rick

Thanks Rick! The wood is bass, 3/64 by 1/8. The bulwarks are going to be made from 1/32 by 1/8 planks with 3/32 stanchions.

Edited August 30 by gak1965

[gak1965]

On 8/27/2024 at 2:50 PM, FlyingFish said:

"a result of a decades-long move towards increasingly abstract and idealised formulation in which the realisations of the units are separated conceptually from the definitions"

 

Ain't that the truth. You need some number of base units, and I don't have an issue with the meter, the liter is 1000 cm3, the second and volt were pretty much universal. But this proliferation of named units that don't tell you what they are measuring: webers, grays, bequerels, sieverts, grays, teslas, etc., etc drive me nuts. I mean I know what they measure because I remember some of my physics,, but I would have to look them up to see how they mapped to base units to use them mathematically (not that this has been much of a problem since I took physical chemistry in grad school, but still).

 

And with that I will ask those annoying neighbor kids to get off of my lawn, and move on.

 

Regards,

George

[Dr PR]

The metric system is far superior to random noggins and farthings, but the "abstract and idealized" definition posted above makes about a much sense as inches, feet and yards.

 

I too despise the meaningless names - especially "famous man" monikers - used for the units. Changing from the logical "centigrade" to "Celsius" was pure stupidity.

[KeithAug]

As a measure I like feet. I have two of them.

[gak1965]

I swear that this will be the last I say on the subject of measurement. But - if you haven't seen this, it's worth the five minutes:

 

 

Now back to the ship. I found some extra wood in my stash and mostly finished the hull planking, so I hit the hull with some gray primer to see just how much sanding is required. Answer is definitely some. However, I'm going to do that one time after the bulwarks are in place, so that is the next step. On the ship in 2024, the planksheer and waterways are a dark brown, as are the bulwark stanchions with white bulwarks. In 1901 it seems like the bulwark stanchions were white, with a planksheer and waterway that were the color of the rails. If you look below the lashed poles in this photo you'll see the waterway:

 

 

And here is a photo of a stanchion:

 

 

Given this, my inclination is to paint the planksheer, the interior of the bulwarks, and and the bulwark stanchions prior to installation and then painting the exterior of the hull. My initial thought was to stain the planksheer, but that was not a huge success. Even with pre-treating it, it was very blotchy, and I think that the problem was that I got glue on the wood during the installation of the planks. I tried sanding it a bit, but no dice. In the end, I found some paint of a similar color to the oak stain I'm going to use on the covering board, and said time to move on.

 

 

Next step was to make 77 stanchions. 75 of them are 3/32 in square boxwood, painted white on 3 sides (the final side is left unpainted to adhere better), cut to a length of 1 inch, with a mark on the unpainted side 1/16" from the bottom, and 2 are just 1/2 inch longer. Similarly, I took 1/32 by 1/8 basswood strips, and painted one side white; these would be the bulwarks.

 

 

I then installed them into the pre-cut holes in the planksheer. Most of Discovery's bulwarks are pretty vertical - I made a little jig to help with the locations that are not. This yielded an arrangement like so:

 

 

 

I then started mounting the basswood strips, using the stanchions to define the curve of the bulwark. Once I reached the height that I was aiming for (in this case 5/8" or 45 inches at scale, I clipped off the top of the stanchion. Here it is from the outside.

 

 

And from the inside:

 

 

Once the bulwarks are done, and the hull sanded, I can mask off the bulwark tops and paint the outside. And this way, I don't have a lot of spillage of the bulwark planks on the planksheer.

 

Anyways, I think in a couple of weeks, I will be able to paint the exterior and it will start looking more like a proper vessel.

 

As always, thanks for looking in.

 

Regards,

George

[gak1965]

The bulwarks are continuing apace (I will put some photos up when they are completed), and that has me thinking about one of the big questions about the hull - namely, what color is it below the waterline. But first, I was in Philadelphia on Monday moving one of my kids from a horror of an apartment to a much nicer one. We went out to the Ikea on Christopher Columbus Way to buy her a small table, when I was very surprised to see the SS United States. Probably for the last time before she goes to Florida to become an artificial reef.

 

 

It's sad to see her go, but off hand, I'm not sure that anyone has the money to really save her. The funny thing is that the ship seemed small, which it is not (I mean the ship is 990 feet overall with a beam of 101.5 feet, and a height of 144 feet from standard load water line to funnel. But compared even to the smaller modern cruise ships (we took a trip on the Holland America ship Konigsdam in 2017) the Big U doesn't have the same amount of bulk. I'm not complaining - her lines are fabulous, but it's still something of a surprise at the difference.

 

Anyway, on to the color below the waterline. The historian at Discovery Cove in Dundee responded to my inquiry, but if the color was recorded, they don't know where. I've been looking for something akin to Duncan McLean's Boston Daily Atlas (there do seem to be a small number of digitized newspapers from Dundee, and perhaps someone mentioned it in a news story about the launching). The historian did however point me to a collection of construction and launching photos (https://www.dhtcollections.com/item/Brand_SYDiscoverybuildandlaunch_0_0_26347_74.html). They are, of course, black and white and more than a bit ambiguous. Here are some of the key photos (or more accurately portions of them).

 

Launch day:

 

Another view of launch day:

 

In the water:

 

When I look at these photos, I'm just not seeing any obvious indications that the bottom was anything but the same color as the rest of the hull - black.

 

Now here are two post-launch photos of Discovery in drydock:

 

 

 

and one from Australia:

 

 

and one from Dundee:

 

 

The photos from Dundee seem to show a different color at the highest Plimsol line, although the modern ship is not painted that high. The ship had (has) metal ice breaking material on the bow - could that be what is the slightly different color up to the upper Plimsol mark? As to the bow on picture in drydock - could that just be salt (or wear) with the ship running at the standard load water line? 

 

I'm starting to think that the correct color is black. And I note that Endurance appears to also be painted black below the waterline as seen in this Paget color photograph by Frank Hurley:

 

Any thoughts welcome.

 

Regards,

George

 

 

 

 

 

[Keith Black]

 George, I wonder if the black paint below the waterline is a different hue/flatter in color because of antifouling agents added to the below the waterline paint? 

[gak1965]

20 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

George, I wonder if the black paint below the waterline is a different hue/flatter in color because of antifouling agents added to the below the waterline paint? 

 

That could be. The ship is a bit odd in a bunch of ways because of its purpose/mission. For example, the foremast (which has the same size yards as the main) uses hemp rigging (and tied ratlines) vs. metal rigging for the main, presumably because they needed to keep iron away from the magnetic observatory which is aft of the foremast. Clearly there was iron/steel on the ship, but it would have been kept away from the observatory (supposedly the original wardroom upholstery had to be replaced with a version that didn't have metal buttons). 

 

If I understand, the primary biocides would have been copper based, but the primary source of color for red paint in those days was iron oxide. Add the copper and it changes the hue somewhat, but don't put in the red to avoid slathering the ship in iron oxide?

 

It's an interesting problem.

 

Regards,

George

 

PS - Picture of the foremast standing rigging:

 

[Keith Black]

George, the quote below is from an MSW build log, post #17, see link. Evidently black antifouling paint was available in 1901,

 

 

 

Posted September 20, 2016 (edited)

"According to an old textbook on marine engineering (Steinhaus, 1870), antifouling paints were available at that time in a variety of colours, including reddish brown, green, black, white, yellow, and blue. Basically, you just add the pigment of your choice. Their biocide effect was based on inorganic lead and in particular copper compounds. Concerns over heavy-metal contamination in harbour muds and the search for a higher efficacy led to the development of tin-organic compounds. However, these are being phased out since the 1990s, when it was discovered that they act as 'endocrine disrupters', meaning that they lead to malformation in aquatic animals that come into contact with them. The problem is that antifouling paints not only act toxic to things that want to stick to a ship's bottom, but slowly wear off (which is part of the antifouling process) and become dissolved or settle in particles in marine sediments. Here their toxic or endocrine disruptive actions continue. I believe in more recent years antifouling paints put more emphasis on non-stick properties and slow wasting that detaches whatever tries to held a foothold.

 

I gather red(dish brown), green, and black were generally preferred colours, because these resemble the appearance of either coppered or tarred ships bottoms. Muntz-metal bottoms would have looked yellowish to green-greyish, depending on their age. The Austrian navy actually used a pinkish paint on their iron and steel hulls before WW1, btw.

 

Appart from being a waste of money, paint may not stick very well to copper because of the oxide layer that forms rather quickly on its surface. The picture in the first post is not very clear and I don't know anything about the vessel in question, but would it be possible that a protective sheathing of wood was applied on top of the coppering for travelling in areas where there was floating ice ? This sheathing in turn may have been painted."

 

 

 

[Rick310]

All. Wry interesting Georgs

Rick

[gak1965]

Well, another update. First the ship. The bulwarks are done, as are the bulwarks that enclose the forecastle. Two images. The first image is after the first sanding of the primered hull. As you might expect it's pretty ugly as it removes the primer on the 'high' parts of the hull:

 

 

After sanding and with a second coat of primer:

 

 

The second coat of primer looks much better than the first at application. There are still areas that need some filler, and sanding, but it's definitely starting to shape up. BTW, I painted the bulwarks white on the outside to seal any gaps where leakage won't damage the inside. Hopefully when I put the black on the bulwarks it will stay on the outside where it belongs.

 

As to the colors. I've been doing additional research, but haven't found anything definitive yet. Via the British Newspaper Archive, we find the following report from the Dundee Evening Post on 21 March 1901:

 

ANTARCTIC SHIP DISCOVERY. 

LAUNCH THIS AFTERNOON. 

A large assemblage of spectators was present iu Panmure Shipyard this afternoon [to] witness the launch of the exploration vessel Discovery. The building of this interesting craft has occupied little over a year, the first section the keei having been laid in the early days of M-irch last year. It is expected that the rigging and fitting out operations will occupy the best part of six weeks, and she will then proceed London for stores. Several members of the expedition party reached Dundee yesterday, aud, indeed, Professor Gregory, of Melbourne University, was the principal absentee. Invitations were issued to the following Sir Clements R. and Lady Markham; Sir Reginald Ogilvy, Bart.; Sir James Low Lady Low; Mr and Mrs G. W. Baxter; W. Thomson; Mr I. J. Weinberg; the Hon. J. C. Higgins, TJ.S. Consul; Mr E. Maitland; Mr and Mrs W. H. Fergusscn; Mr and Mrs W. Low; Colonel Cautlev, R.E.; Colonel Baillie; Captain R. F. Scott.. K.N., commander of expedition, and Mrs Scott; Lieutenant Armitage, R.N.R.; Lieutenant Royds, R.N., Mrs Rovds and Misses Royds; Mr R. She! ton, R.N.; Keltic; Dr Koettlitz (scientific staff; and Mrs Koettlitz; Mr George Murray, British Museum (Professor Gregory's deputy); Mr C. Longhurst, secretary National Antarctic Expedition; Mr H. W. Smyth, London; Dr Hill (scientific staff); Mr R. Paterson, manager, Panmure Shipyard, and Mrs Paterson; Mr G. E. Kidd. secretary, Dundee Shipbuilders' Company, Limited, and Mrs Kidd; Bailie Barrie; Treasurer Ritchie; Lord Dean of Guild Bell; Captain Wilson Barker, R.N.R.; Captain Montgomery, R.E.; Commander Austin, R.N.; Surgeon Brown, R.N.; Captain Abbot Anderson; Professor D'Arcy Thompson; Dr and Mrs Bruce, Edinburgh; Mr A. Leitch and Miss Leitch, Dundee; Mr and Mrs R. Leitch: Mr and Mrs Rettis; Mr Thomas Winton; Air John and Miss Henderson; Mr and Mrs Wilson; Mr and Mrs J. P. Newton; Mr H. G. Gourlav, Mr Charles Gourlay, and Mr J. G. Lyon (Gourlay Brothers & Co.); Mr Grant Barclay (Caledon Shipbuilding and Engineering Co.. Ltd.); Mr William Morrison and Mr Howie, Lloyds' Surveyors; Mr A. Watt, Board Trade .Surveyor; Mr F. Stephen; Mr F. W. Emmet; Mr Bartholomew, Edinburgh; Mr Stuart Gray, Kuitauns; David Bruce, Loudon; Mr I). Wyllie, Dundee; Mr B. L. Nairn; Mr William Kinnear; Mr R. V. Scroggie; Mr James Mitchell, and the local whaling captains. 

 

DECORATIONS AT THE HARBOUR. 

In honour of the occasion bunting was plentifully displayed at the harbour. The whalers, needless to say, were prominent in their decorations. Every vessel had a streamer of bunting to the mast-head, and an appropriate touch was to be seen in the case of the North Pole vessel America, where the Stars and Stripes floated alongside the Union Jack, the mission of the America compared with that of the Discovery being literally "wide as the Poles asunder." The flagstaff's at the dockgates were also gaily bedecked, the whole going to make up a bright and animated picture. 

 

THE LAUNCHING CEREMONY. 

For the purposes of the launch huge staging was erected close the stem of the vessel, and to accommodate the launching party a platform about ten feet square had been erected a few feet in front. A barricade had also been placed about ten feet from the side the vessel to keep back the spectators, and prevent them hampering the workmen in the discharge o[f] their duties. The attendance of spectators was unusually large, and it is estimated that the time of the launch there were about 3000 people congregated within the Panmure Yard. They began to gather shortly after one o'clock, and little after two nearly every position from which a view of the approaching launch could be obtained was occupied. At the Marine Parade the crowd was especially dense, and great difficulty prevailed in keeping them in order. 

 

SHE'S OFF. 

By three o'clock everything was in readiness. The gangway leading to the ship was cast on, and thos[e] who were booked for the " maiden vo[y]age" the Discovery gathered on the forecastle, and from their high perch watched the preparations for the christening. The launching party appeared about, quarter-past three. Sir Clements Markham, Lady Markham, and the other distinguished guests being the centre of .attention. The party having taken their position, Mr Paterson, after seeing everything was in readiness, gave the older to the men who were in waiting with hammers in hand. A brisk hammering then took place, and the shores supporting the vessel tumbled to the ground. A slight pause was then made, during which Lady Markham let go the bottle of wine, which, encased in a bouquet tied with the tri-coloured ribbon, was swung cords from the forecastle of the Discovery. The bottle struck the bows, but, to the surprise of the spectators, who expected to see the vessel glide away, she remained fast. It then transpired that the easing operations had not been completed. A minute two of tension followed. More brisk hammering then took place, and the cry broke forth —" There she goes." The vessel, indeed, had begun to move. Gaining speed, she rushed on and with terrific splash the Discovery took the water. The tugs Renown and Excelsior were in waiting, and at once took her in tow. She was berthed in Victoria Dock, where she will be engined. A luncheon was held late in the afternoon. 

 

AN IMPORTANT LETTER. 

The following letter has been received from W. E. Smith, chief constructor for the Admiralty, a gentleman who designed the Discovery:—

 

The building of the Discovery is unique a character that much more than the usual interest attaches to her. Usually when vessel is required to built there no difficulty obtaining tenders from large [nu]mber[s] of competent firms, any one of which might safely entrusted with the work. The Discovery, however, [is] of [n]o usual character, either as regards the material of her construction or regards her design. A large number firms were invited tender, but the tender from the Dundee Shipbuilders Company was the only one that indicated any real determination to grapple with the difficulties and novelty of her design if opportunity were afforded. It might perhaps have been anticipated from the past history and experience of the firm that they would not flinch from the difficulties of the case, but the fact remains that stood foremost in the breach and undertook to build the without, which the [e]xpedition could not be undertaken. The firm having accepted the responsibilities involved the building of the vessel, once set. work in the actual construction of the ship, and have vigorously and continuously prosecuted that work ever since, and have endeavoured their part nothing undone that could contribute the seaworthiness of the vessel or the comfort and convenience of those board: and there firm in the country having greater knowledge of what, necessary in the[s]e particulars for this type vessel than the Dundee Shipbuilders Company. 

 

In the interests of the expedition [I] have, [I] am afraid, been sometimes exacting, but I [am] most pleased to say that have been very handsomely met, and my work has pleasant one. desire particularly thank Mr for the very great interest he. has taken the work and the skill in which has executed it. I am much indebted to him for many useful suggestions, the adoption of which will make the ship more efficient than she otherwise would have been. I [am an] old wooden shipbuilder my[s]elf, and I must congratulate the firm on having in their [ser]vice yard foreman the qualifications of Mr John Smith, who has, under Mr Paterson's directions, so thoroughly attended the actual work of building. I hope w[e] live to s[e]e another Discovery launched, and that the Dundee Shipbuilders Company will again ready undertake the work they have [ris]en [to] the occasion.

 

Nothing about the color of the ship unfortunately.

 

Similarly from the Aberdeen Journal (same day):

Again, nothing about the color.

 

[As an aside, the article mentions, and I've seen photos, that she carries a balloon. I was going to model the gas tanks (stored above one of the after deck houses, but a tethered balloon might be more interesting yet.]

 

However, I have concluded that there must have been some different color up to the top Plimsol line. Here is another photo with an apparent color change.

 

The most common colors were red and green. It has to be something that doesn't use iron oxide based pigments, so that suggests either red lead (which apparently uses lead II|IV oxide as a pigment, or verdigris (copper II oxide), or emerald green (copper(II) acetate triarsenite or copper(II) acetoarsenite). The arsenates and copper compounds would act as antifouling agents on their own.

 

Bottom line is that I need to make a decision, and probably pretty soon. I'm now thinking I'll make it green or red, without boot topping.

 

Thanks for looking in and for the likes!

 

Regards,

George

Edited September 25 by gak1965

[Jared]

Your build is coming along very nicely.  Interesting historic account if the launch, especially the style of the writing.

[gak1965]

Well, finally doing an update. It's been a somewhat chaotic time for me. I'm preemptively looking for a new position, and we went on vacation with my older daughter who lives in Boise. So, good and bad, but either way reduced time in the shipyard. However, before we get there, a couple of photos from our time with our daughter in the Dakotas. We met her in Denver and drove to Rapid City and stopped a bit on the way. So, first, in Nebraska (where she lived before she moved to Boise, but never saw these sights.

 

Scott's Bluff National Monument:

 

Chimney Rock National Historic Site:

 

 

Into the Black Hills of South Dakota, we have a number of sites.

 

Mount Rushmore National Memorial:

 

 

Wind Cave National Park. Unfortunately, the cave was closed, but the park has amazing hiking:

 

 

and all kinds of interesting wildlife including prairie dog towns and these:

 

 

Badlands National Park where we saw Bighorn Sheep and rugged country:

 

 

Devil's Tower in eastern Wyoming:

 

 

FYI - on a nautical theme, this is an old photo, but you see it everywhere in Wyoming:

 

 

Finally, one additional stop, Minuteman Missile National Historical Site. We stopped at the Visitors Center but for some reason they had closed the actual missile site that day. Nevertheless, here is the Delta-9 site.

 

 

One thing I have never been able to explain to my children (who are 26 and 24) is the existential dread that we all had during the Cold War. As I've mentioned in one of my other build logs, I remember the Destroyer I was on being shadowed by a Krivak in the Med off the coast of Lebanon in 1984, the Able Archer 83 fallout, and when I was in Kyiv in 2008, it was really weird to go visit the Mother Ukraine statue (then called the Rodina Mat) and see something similar to this in the form of an R12 MRBM. I certainly never expected to get this close to a (decommissioned) missile silo in my younger days. I wonder if I might have been able to provide a bit more context to my daughter if she had been able to see the missile in situ (it's visible through a glass cupola you can see in the center of the photo so that its decommissioned status can be verified by satellite) but this was the best we could do.

 

On to the model. I've sanded the hull to where it is now ready to start accepting some of the additional components that are needed prior to painting it for real. This is the first version of the lower mount for the rudder (I realized the join piece in the middle is in the wrong place and remade it, but it gives you the idea for what I'm doing. The two roughly triangular pieces mount on the stern post, and the connector is used to create a circular mounting point for the bottom of the rudder 1/8 of an inch in diameter, with a doubled connection of 1/16 inch, with the rest of the connector (the two, 1/8 inch segments closest to the triangular elements mounted on the back of the keel. 

 

 

If that sounds a bit weird, here it is in situ, you can see where the loop is made and the connector is. In addition, I used a ponce wheel on some copper tape to mark some additional ironwork that is on the keel and the sternpost.

 

 

 

Discovery has iron plates on the bow to aid in the breaking of ice. These are being made from copper tape to keep them from getting too far out of scale. I'm looking for some very tiny nails to use on the tape to represent the relatively small number of bolts. I'll see what I can find - if I can't find small enough ones I'll leave them off - they won't be very visible once they are painted anyway. The iron shield extends slightly above the load water line, which is now marked on the hull (you can see it as a pencil line). In fact, I used the LWL to direct the placement of the copper tape representing the plates. You will also see that I have installed some (unpainted) wood that represents the continuation of the main rail once it reaches the forecastle.

 

 

Finally, I pre-bent and did the initial trim on the trailboards (I hope I've got the right terminology here, please correct me if I'm wrong). They will contain the scrollwork on the stem and will not go on until after the hull is painted, but I wanted to shape them first. My plan is to practice carving the scroll work on scrap until I'm confident enough to do the job and then work on the shaped pieces, but here they are for now. Initial piece (soaked in hot water and allowed to dry on the model.

 

 

And with the initial trimming. I think I need to trim the area that currently overlaps the prow - need to check back with the plans.

 

 

Pardon the long and rambling post. As always, thanks for looking in!

 

Regards,

George

 

 

[Ian_Grant]

Nice pics of scenic landscapes. An area I've never been to.

[Jared]

You certainly have been busy with your travels and model George.  You visited many interesting sites that I sure would like to photograph.   

[KeithAug]

On 10/31/2024 at 3:13 AM, gak1965 said:

However, before we get there, a couple of photos from our time with our daughter in the Dakotas.

Thank you for the reminder.

 

My family and I spent 10 years up to 2002 doing all the USA national parks with the exception of Big Bend, Shenandoah and Great Smokey Mountains. Devil's Tower was a must see for Trecky fans. Fortunately we caught Wind Cave open. Quite refreshing on a hot day.

 

Nice metalwork detail on the hull.

[FriedClams]

Very nice progress on Discovery, George.

 

On 10/30/2024 at 11:13 PM, gak1965 said:

on a nautical theme, this is an old photo, but you see it everywhere in Wyoming:

 

That's most likely about controlling the spread of freshwater Zebra Mussels.  They are a destructive invasive species and problematic in many places in North America and indeed other continents.  Free swimming larvae often attach themselves to hulls.

 

Gary