HMS Bounty Jolly Boat by SighingDutchman (Seb) – FINISHED - Artesania Latina – 1:25

[SighingDutchman]

Having just finished a very simple rowing boat model as my first build, Midwest’s Dinghy, this model will undoubtedly be more challenging. It is single lay plank-on-frame hull, so I am painfully aware that I have little scope for correcting mistakes if the planking goes wrong, unless I decide to fully paint the hull (which I may do, have not decided yet). The Bounty Jolly Boat kit by Artesania Latina has been around for a while, and there are plenty of build logs on this forum, which I have read with great interest and will undoubtedly be very helpful in my own build. However, Artesania Latina has renewed the kit this year, and there is a number of differences to the old kit. This appears to be the first build log for the new kit. A first change in the renewed kit is the box (see image below).

 

The older kit is still available for sale from some retailers, so if you want to make certain you are getting the newer kit, make sure you get the kit with number 19004-N, not the one with number 19004. I have found the instructions for the older kit online, allowing me to compare the old and new kit. The new kit is very similar to the old one but there are some differences. An oft mentioned problem with the old kit was that some of the sails where much larger than on the plans. That problem appears to have been remedied. The new stand, now being of the ‘cradle’ type, is different from the old one. The new kit includes a grapple, which appears not have been included in the older version. The inside front of the boat is now covered by a grid, which is also new. The plywood that the false keel and bulkheads are made of is of a different style than in the past, looking more like solid wood with a thin veneer on it than ‘traditional’ plywood. This makes it less visibly ‘fake’ when seen from the side, which makes for a cleaner build where the plywood sides are visible. The oars are now in one piece, requiring rounding of the shaft; in the old kit, blades and shaft were separate. I am sure there are more differences, but these are the ones I noticed so far.

 

One significant difference is in the instructions: an instruction booklet is no longer provided. Instead, the instructions are provided digitally. This means you either have to print the instruction booklet yourself, or to use the digital document directly. Since the instruction booklet is quite thick, I opted for the latter, meaning I have to make sure to have a charged tablet or laptop near my model shipyard (=my kitchen table). This sounds less convenient than the older, printed, colour instruction booklet and, in some ways, it is. However, the new instructions are truely excellent. They are super detailed and much more extensive than the old ones.  Virtually every little step is giving its own photographic explanation, leading to an instruction booklet of eighty A4-sized pages, with on average six photographs per page (see image below for a sample page). It leaves very little to the imagination, which is excellent for a kit aimed squarely at beginners. I was very impressed.

No one-to-one scale plan drawings are provided, only a one-to-one scale photograph of the completed model, but that should not be a problem given the excellent instruction booklet. This print, plus all the contents of the kit, can be seen on the photo below. The front of the box mentions multi-media instructions, that is, an online build video. Such online videos do indeed exist for some of the other renewed beginner kits, but not for the Jolly Boat, at least not yet. Maybe Artesiana Latina is in the process of creating it? A six-colour paint set is available as an extra purchase. 

I started the build today, by removing the false keel and bulkheads from their sheets. All the parts were straight and came out easily. I sanded the laser burn from the edges that would be visible, for aesthetic reasons, but not on invisible edges because I have read elsewhere on this forum that the laser burn does not affect the strength of the glue bond – hope I have understood that correctly. The bulk heads fit easily into the false keel, perhaps even too easily. There is a degree of wiggle room up, down, and sideways. To ensure that the bulkheads were perpendicular to the keel in all relevant directions, I used foldback clips (as shown in the photo below). Will leave the white carpenter’s glue to set overnight and continue with the hull tomorrow.

[Paul Le Wol]

Hi Seb, nice start to your build log.

[allanyed]

Nice start to your build.

You may benefit from looking at the models and plans of launches (the Bounty's jolly boat was rotted through) at RMG that replicate the boat used by Bligh.  For example it had two masts that were lug rigged thus there would not be a bow sprit.  

 

Allan

 

 

[SighingDutchman]

Thank you, Paul, for your encouragement. And thank you, Allan, for your suggestion. I will have a look at the website of the Royal Maritime Museum. But the only model I built before this one was a Midwest rowing dinghy, so I am too inexperienced to adapt the current kit to a more historically correct one. I know that the Jolly Boat was not actually used, and that Bligh used the launch instead. Had I known that when I bought the kit (in a black Friday sale, at half price), I might have picked the one from Model Shipways, which is (or at least, is supposed to be) the actual launch. Even without the historical interest, the jolly boat is still and attractive project for me though. I have a question for you, since you clearly know your stuff. Looking at old paintings that feature these kinds of smallish boats, the hulls appear to be either bare, fully painted, or painted up to the wales. I have not found one with the 'water line' look displayed on the Artisania Latina box, which I therefore suspect to be ahistorical. What is your opinion on this? Only answer this question if you have time, and feel like doing so, of course. No pressure!

[iMustBeCrazy]

3 hours ago, SighingDutchman said:

I know that the Jolly Boat was not actually used, and that Bligh used the launch instead.

 

3 hours ago, SighingDutchman said:

Even without the historical interest, the jolly boat is still and attractive project for me though.

G'day Seb, it seems they've finally dropped the claim that this was 'the famous boat...'. As to what it is, it's probably a generic 20'9" longboat, it doesn't really matter just enjoy the build.

 

How were ships boats painted? It probably depended on how much paint of what colour they had on board.

For the Bounty all we have is "Hauled the Launch up and breemed her and payed the Bottom with half pitch half Tar." and "Paid the small Cutter with Turpentine having not sufficient white to do it."

Payed or Paid meant Painted. So my guess is Bligh's boats were painted white but I have no idea how much of them was white. If you want to read more about Bounty's boats, see my sig.

[SighingDutchman]

Many thanks, Craig, this is great info! I’m afraid Artesania Latina is still claiming this to be ‘the boat’. I only found out that this claim was false somewhere on this forum, but can’t remember where exactly. 

[allanyed]

1 hour ago, SighingDutchman said:

I’m afraid Artesania Latina is still claiming this to be ‘the boat’.

 

Building kits requires the same thing as scratch building IF accuracy is of any interest, that being, research.  There are books based on contemporary data and thousands of contemporary plans, contracts, paintings, and models that can be found on various websites including over 800 high resolution plans at no cost on the Wiki Commons site.  Plus, there are a LOT of members here that love the research as much as the build and are a wealth of information if research on your own comes up short.   Everyday is a chance to learn something new no matter how much experience we have.

Allan

Edited December 11, 2023 by allanyed

[SighingDutchman]

Thanks for you input Allan. And I agree. I will merely be using the AL JollyBoat as an example of a generic longboat and as a learning experience, and will not claim anything else. I need to develop my building skills and experience before I am able to make major adaptions to kit plans, let alone scratch build. That is certainly my ambition though. And I annoy afraid of research, on the contrary. In that light: do you have a link to the plans on Wikimedia common? Would love to check them out. 

[iMustBeCrazy]

56 minutes ago, SighingDutchman said:

do you have a link to the plans on Wikimedia common?

Best way is to go to https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page  and type in your search, say "rmg frigate plan" and you will get https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=rmg+frigate+plan&title=Special:MediaSearch&go=Go&type=image 

Select image size large and you will get (mostly) the larger scans.

 

You can modify your search using the modifiers AND and OR or even NOT (in caps)(the AND is usually implied) such as "rmg frigate plan 1812 OR 1813 OR 1814" [which is the same as "rmg AND frigate AND plan AND (1812 OR 1813 OR 1814")]

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by iMustBeCrazy

[SighingDutchman]

Thanks, Craig, that’s very helpful!

[allanyed]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ship_plans_of_the_Royal_Museums_Greenwich takes you directly to the list of plans they have.  About 2200 are low res but over 800 are high res.  The drawing size is shown under each plan so you can see quickly which are high resolution and those that are low resolution.  The plans are listed alphabetically but is split for some reason.  Goes from A to Z for several pages then starts over for many pages.  Those in the first group are not repeated in the second group.  I downloaded all the high res plans and put them into a file (44gb) by category (100 gun, 90 gun, and so on and so on, plus separate folders for boats, masts etc. )  I added contracts where I could find them and a few low res plans if a particular plan was missing in a set of high res for a given vessel. I would send them to you or post them but at 44gb there is no way to do it unless the mods have some idea.  

 

All of this, plus scantlings from the Establishments, The Shipbuilder's Repository, and Steel's Elements and Practices of Naval Architecture will provide you with a wealth of contemporary information.  For boats in particular there are sets of scantlings in W.E. May's book The Boats of Men-of-War that are quite useful.  All of these scantlings are available in one book from SeaWatch Books for $45. 

 

Hope this helps for now and especially for future builds, be they kit or scratch.

Allan

Edited December 12, 2023 by allanyed

[SighingDutchman]

This is very helpful, Allan. Thank you very much!

[SighingDutchman]

Based on the welcome input from Allan and Craig, above, I have been doing some online research regarding the (supposed) historical significance of this boat. Am awaiting some relevant books (second hand, so affordable) and will report back on conclusions reached soon. Of course, it was already clear that the Artesiana Latina Jolly Boat is not the boat Bligh used, and that the launch which he did use looked quite different from the model I am building. But it is still interesting to see if the model I am building at least shows similarity to one of the other Bounty boats and, more generally, how credible it is as a model of contemporary longboat.

 

In the meantime, I have made some progress with the build. I attached the transom and some filler pieces at the bow and installed the internal 'surround' (don't know what its name is) which the thwarts will lay on. I noticed too late that the third bulkhead from the bow and, to a lesser degree, the second bukhead from the stern, were a bit too tall, leading to a slight wave shape of the internal 'surround' (see photo below). I hope this won't be really visible in the finished model, but for others building this model, it is worth checking this, because the fit of the bulkheads is not perfect. I removed 1.5 mm from the top of the third bulkhead from the front, to prevent it from sticking out over the gunwale (apologies if I am using the wrong terms; as a newbie, there is a lot of nomenclature to get my head around). I also lowered the transom with 1.5 mm, for the same reason.

 

Have faired the bulkheads, false keel, transom etcetera, and have started planking. This being my first real plank-on-frame model means I am finding this quite hard, but will report back on how it all went shortly.

[allanyed]

If you have not already done so, you might benefit from watching the You Tube video (4 part series) on proper planking techniques by Chuck Passaro.  It will help you immensely.

Part 1 --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCWooJ1o3cM 

 

Allan

 

[SighingDutchman]

Hi Allan, I did watch that, but I messed up nevertheless by trying to find some kind of midway house between the Artesania Latina instructions and Chuck’s method. But I have also received the NRG half hull planking kit now, which I will do after this kit, and which will hopefully much improve the planking on my next build.

[SighingDutchman]

As discussed above, and despite Artesania Latina’s claims, the model I am building is clearly not representative of Bligh’s 23ft launch. Despite its name, it is not representative of the Bounty’s jolly boat either as it is too big, corresponding to a 20ft vessel whereas the jolly boat was significantly shorter – Craig’s wonderful scratch build for it on this forum (see: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/33083-16ft-cutter-by-imustbecrazy-finished-small-116-bountys-small-cutter-jolly-boat/) is based on a length of 16ft. So, as Craig suggested in the discussions above, it is probably best to simply consider it as a model of a generic eighteenth-century longboat.

But perhaps it can, more specifically, serve as a model, albeit an imperfect and accidental one, of the Bounty’s third boat, a twenty-foot cutter. For one, the model scales to the correct length of that boat. Comparing it to plans of contemporary cutters, found in W.E.May’s ‘The boats of men of war’ (1999, p.33-4, 41), it also seems to have roughly the right general shape, breadth and depth for a boat of that size. In the image below, I have overlain the contours of the model (in red) onto a plan for the Bounty’s cutter published in John McKay’s ‘The armed transport bounty – anatomy of the ship’ (1989, p.120), and the correspondence is reasonable, although certainly not perfect. It is also virtually identically rigged to what McKay proposes for the bounty’s large cutter.

 

To underscore that tenuous connection to the Bounty in the model (in a desperate attempt to maintain a level of historical interest for it, other than just as a generic 18^th century longboat), I decided on using the same colour scheme for my build as that of the reconstruction of Bligh’s launch in the National Maritime Museum in Cornwall. This was built there for the 2017 exhibition ‘Captain Bligh: Myth, Man and Mutiny’. I did not visit this exhibition but based on pictures online, I gather that the boat builders decided to paint the outside hull white up to the whales, which were themselves painted black, with the (single) strake above it painted a light ochre. Keel, rudder and stern were also painted white. So that is what I will do as well.

 

Back to the actual build. Despite this being my first real plank-on-frame build and, therefore, not expecting much in terms of the quality of my planking, I was still disappointed with the dog’s dinner I made of it. I found it really hard to get the strips to lay flat against the frames. As a result, as shown in the picture below, the finished hull has a heavily, unintended clinker appearance. I will chalk it up as a learning experience. The NRG half hull planking kit is going to be my next project, when I finish this one; with its help, I hope to do a much better job in the future.

 

But, I think the hull is still salvageable. The image below shows it after sanding. It is going to be painted anyway, so hopefully my mess will be largely hidden.

Unfortunately, since it is an open boat, it will be impossible to fully hide it, as the image below of the boat’s inside shows. So, to save myself from continued disappointment, I will have to remember to mostly view the boat strictly from the side ;-). Artesania Latina markets the kit as ideal for first-time modellers but perhaps, in hindsight, I would have found a double-planked hull closed off with a deck easier. It would have allowed me to use fasteners to better align the first layer of planks with the frames, and enabled me to hide mistakes below the second, thin layer of strips and the deck. But, I am still thoroughly enjoying this build, which is the main thing.

[Keith_W]

Don't be too disheartened. When planking any boat, the planks at the top are the easiest to plank since they mostly go on without any taper. The planks near the keel are the most difficult, since by then all the errors from your tapering have compounded and you need some funny shaped planks to fill the holes. 

 

You can get around this by only painting below the waterline, leaving the wood above it unpainted to give the illusion that your planking is better than it is  As for the view from the inside, what I do with all my models of open boats is to make sure the planking up to the level of the grates is neat. Anything below that level will be hidden by the grates from the inside, and paint on the outside, so it can be a complete dogs breakfast and nobody would be any wiser because it will be hidden with filler and paint. 

 

Yeah, you can tell I am not one of the more talented modellers on this forum. But I know how to hide my mistakes! 

[SighingDutchman]

Thanks for the tips, Keith. And for the encouragement. Just had a look at your album of the Bounty and drakar. You may be dismissive of your talents, but I would be very happy (and proud) if I could, eventually, achieve builds of that quality. Your Bounty especially is a real beaut!

[Keith_W]

Just goes to show how good I am at hiding mistakes  Don't worry, we all make them. But I make a deliberate choice where I am going to place difficult parts of my build. If I know I am going to hide it with paint, I will keep planking neat until it goes under paint. Not everyone on this forum builds like Chuck. 

Edited December 20, 2023 by Keith_W

[SighingDutchman]

Because there was a lot of 'downtime' in the planking phase, when waiting for the wooden strips and/or glue to dry, I was able to work ahead on a lot of the elements that go into the inside of the boat, in terms of cutting/sizing/sanding/staining/painting/etcetera. So, they were all lying there, waiting to be installed once the hull was fully planked. This morning, I glued them all into place, completing that part of the build. The result can be seen below. As Keith already predicted, a lot of the planking imperfections are now hidden or, at least, no longer so blatantly visible, so that's good.

 

Meanwhile I am painting the hull in the 'Cornwall Bounty launch replica' colour scheme. Will post a picture once finished.

[SighingDutchman]

Finished painting the hull and installed the rudder. Changed the design of the rudder to something that, to me, appeared more natural and historical than the kit instructions (=a bent copper rod with a small wooden ball at its end).

 

 

For anyone reading this who knows their ships' boats (Craig and Allen are real experts, of course), I have a question about the oar locks. I have seen that in ships' boats, these are usually fairly large, square cut-outs in the upper strake. The kit suggests very shallow half-round cut-outs, just as deep and wide as the oar diameter. These are easy to create, but not realistic. However, I worry about making large cutouts in the upper strake, for fear of ruining/breaking things. I am currently watching the 2017 Channel 4 reality show ('Mutiny'), in which the nine participants are making Bligh's journey in a replica of the launch, and in that boat, the square oar locks exist, but there appear to be removable wooden inserts, that can close off the oar locks when the oars are not being used, thus preventing surface water from entering the boat through the oar locks. When these inserts are in place, from the outside, the oar locks are more or less hidden. My question is: are such inserts historical? If the answer is yes, I might be able to get away with somehow indicating the outines of the inserts onto the boat, without having to actually fully cut the strake, thus minimising the risk of ruining my build. If anyone knows the answer to this question, your help would be greatly appreciated!

[Keith_W]

Re: oarlocks. Take a look at @chris watton's ships boats of various types. I hope he doesn't mind me posting this photo:

 

 

You can see that different oar locks were in use. 

 

This is from AOTS: Bounty

 

The illustration depicts the "same" 23 foot launch used by Bligh. Note the square cutouts. 

 

Now take a look at the instructions for Model Shipways Bounty Launch. If you click on "Instructions and Parts List" you will be able to download the instructions. This gives you a very good look at their opinion of what the oarlocks should look like. 

 

In reality, ships boats were not standardized, and often changed during the course of duty of the ship. They came from different contractors. Bligh's Launch has not been preserved - if you recall, he sailed to Java and boarded a Dutch ship that took him back to England. Nobody knows what happened to the Launch after that. So in my opinion, do what you like and what you find aesthetically pleasing. Any of the choices you listed are historically plausible, and there is no evidence to suggest one way is more accurate than another. Just don't paint it pink and put Barbie and Ken in it. 

[allanyed]

4 hours ago, SighingDutchman said:

but there appear to be removable wooden inserts,

It sounds like you are speaking of washboards.   Thole pins were common on long boats but the later boats SEEM to have the cutouts as Keith shows or the style as shown below.   

 

Note that in this particular plan there are six thwarts and three spots for the oars as is single banked.  There has been some question as to whether the launch for Bounty was single banked or double banked.   

Allan

[SighingDutchman]

Thanks, Keith and Allan, this is very useful. Will have a think about this over the holidays and decide on what option to go for, as I appear to have some room for choice. And I will save my Barbie and Ken figurines for a less historically accurate future project.

[iMustBeCrazy]

9 hours ago, SighingDutchman said:

I have a question about the oar locks.

Don't we all!

 

9 hours ago, SighingDutchman said:

are making Bligh's journey in a replica of the launch

It's probably the worst replica ever built. So don't take much notice of it.

 

9 hours ago, SighingDutchman said:

My question is: are such inserts historical?

Umm, yes. But that certainly doesn't answer the question.

 

4 hours ago, allanyed said:

Thole pins were common on long boats but the later boats SEEM to have the cutouts as Keith shows or the style as shown below.

Historically Cutters had washboards (or at least construction that resembled washboards), other boats not so much (as usual there will be exceptions) until around the mid-late 1700s (as usual there will be exceptions) . After Bligh's journey, and perhaps as a result of his books, they seem to have become more popular (as usual there will be exceptions) but that might have been normal evolution.

 

Did I mention there will be exceptions)?

 

I posted this in one of Allan's threads:

 

I guess the general progression was one round pin, two round pins, two rectangular pins, two rectangular pins through a 'plinth', two gusseted rectangular pins with or without plinth, two gusseted rectangular pins with removable washboards and then two rectangular pins with fixed washboards. But I wasn't there.

 

Your boat could be any of those but I think 'one round pin' is unlikely.

 

I know, I know, I'm just confusing you

 

[SighingDutchman]

Thanks, Craig, for your answer to my question. Lots of options to choose from, then. 

[SighingDutchman]

I finished the build a few weeks ago, but did not have time to finish the log as well. So, I am doing that now - see the photos below for the final result. Regarding the oar locks, I went for thole pins in the end, as they are surely more historically correct than the peculiar small, half-round cutouts that the kit instructions suggested I make, and I liked the look of them as well. I have given the boat to my dad as a present and he said he liked it (but maybe he was just being polite). He did put it on a shelf above his PC,  where is he forced to look at it every day, so maybe he does indeed like the look of it. As for myself, I really enjoyed the build, and I am not ashamed of the end result, but there is definitely a lot of room for improvement. But it is only my second build, so that was to be expected. I have started another kit already, a 'yakata bune' (Japanese house boat) from Woody Joe, and will be opening a log for that one shortly.

 

Thank you, everyone, for your help with this boat, and for your encouragement during the build!

[SighingDutchman]

By the way: can anyone tell me how I mark this build as 'Finished'? Thanks!

[iMustBeCrazy]

30 minutes ago, SighingDutchman said:

By the way: can anyone tell me how I mark this build as 'Finished'? Thanks!

If you edit post #1 you can edit the title.

[ccoyle]

Beautiful result!