ELBE 1 1948 by Mirabell61 - scale 1:87 - Lightship

[Jim Lad]

That roller fairlead it special, Nils! Well done!

 

John

[Mirabell61]

thanks John,

 

I hope I`ll get the other one done as well as the prototyp, hopefully it will not take so long ....

 

Nils

[Hsae]

On 5/19/2024 at 12:10 PM, Mirabell61 said:

made the six line-fairleads

Nils,

How did you make them?

 

Thanks,

 

Hermann

[Mirabell61]

Hi Hermann,

 

I found 8 line fairleads, like the silver one shown in the last pics. They are brass pessed and nickel plated. So I merely had to determin the length and cut off the surplus materil. Painting in hull color.

 

The two aft brass roller fairleads were more tricky due to the small dimensions, but it worked out OK. They are full workable and can handle a at maximum) a 2mm polyester mooring rope.

They were mounted in square cut outs in the bulwark

 

Nils

made from 8 mm brass squaretube, each with 4 rollers working on soldered in 0,8mm axiles in two separated layers behind each other

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rick310]

Very nice!

Rick

[Mirabell61]

thank you Rick,

 

Nils

Edited May 21 by Mirabell61

[Jim Lad]

I agree with Rick - very nice, Nils!

 

John

[Mirabell61]

Thank you John,

 

I`m evaluating the boats deck and how it can be mounted with all those side supports to be fitted in ....

 

Nils

[FlyingFish]

On 5/19/2024 at 9:00 AM, Mirabell61 said:

I only had one white capital letter "F"

Brilliant. Love this approach. The speed of your build is astonishing. I seem to spend hours staring at my plans and workbench and bits of wood for little output. I must learn to make these pragmatic decisions and move on!

[Mirabell61]

many thanks for your words Andy,

 

you`re right, I also sometimes make a decision on a certain build sequence and start preparing to the intended  thing, but after thinking it over twice I recognize that if I would do so, there is no more access to an item that lays behind or under the section I`m planing to do. So foot on the brake before continuing. For example, before the boatsdeck is placed, I have to make sure that the ship`s bollards are near to the appropriate fairleads and the footpoint-fastening positions of the  lighttower stays are placed so that they do`nt interfere with other items, and that the stairs to the boats deck are clear form what is to be mounted items above later on.

 

For mounting the boatsdeck to the long deckhouse and to install a number of supports along the length, I decided to make a bunsh of wooden supports which have slight overhight so that the can be tuned to precise fit when mounting. In this case I refraigned from making a brass framework to mount on.

 

Nils

these are the  20 wooden supports for the boatsdeck. 2mm pine squarebars with ply-knees

a template for the boatsdeck, for evaluating positions etc.

the boatsdeck has a shere and a longitudinal curving. The standovers (port and starboard side ) need to be supported and fastened to bulwarks below and deck above. Before that the 0,8 mm ply deck needs to be planked, like the main deck below. All must be in accordance in what I wrote in the  beginning of this post

 

 

 

 

[Dr PR]

Light ships are interesting vessels, but you don't see many models of them. Nice choice for modelling, and nice work!

 

There is a lightship (Columbia WLV604) museum ship near me at Astoria, Oregon. I enjoy visiting it occasionally. It was positioned at the mouth of the Columbia River from 1951 to 1979.

 

I wonder about duty on one of these vessels. A plus would be that you were near "home" all the time, but it seems that it would be monotonous duty. In the Navy we visited many ports - we really did see the world. On the Columbia they would have seen the fog.

[Mirabell61]

Thank you Phil,

for your input, I took a look at the Columbia WLV604 lightship per WW-web. A nice Vessel, perhaps we shall see a model of her here at MSW someday.

 

Nils

[KeithAug]

On 5/25/2024 at 4:41 PM, Dr PR said:

I wonder about duty on one of these vessels.

Additionally I wonder what size of crew she carried. Trinity House lighthouses (before automation) were typically manned by a team of 3. While I don't know the crewing arrangements for Trinity House lightships, as they have no propulsion, they presumably also had a crew of 3. 

Presumably this vessel didn't carry the "steaming crew" unless she was being moved.

[KeithAug]

I looked it up, but what were they all doing? Presumably some were oarsmen to make up for the lack of an engine!😀

 

By the start of the 20th century, Trinity House lightvessels had a crew of 11, of whom seven (a master and six ratings) would be on active duty at any one time. It was an extremely demanding and dangerous profession, and it would take 15 to 20 years of service to be promoted to master.^[10]

 

 

[Mirabell61]

Hi Keith,

acc. to the techn. data of the Elbe 1 there was a 12 head crew, but i also unfortunately do`nt have any information for their individual tasks. Probably in duty-shift operation at a time there were 6 on duty and the other 6 had free time, (or on stand by).

The Elbe 1 is (was) the largest German lightship ever.

 

Nils

[Javelin]

I would assume there was quite some maintenance. Although there was no propulsion, they'd still have generators (need to keep that light on), which then means they'd have a fuel system, starting air system, fresh water production (or bunkering), sewage system, etc. All of that requires maintenance. 

Additionally I'm not sure if they had pneumatic chipping hammers, if they didn't, they'd have to chip with manual chipping hammers, which really takes a long time to do properly (in fact also also with pneumatic hammers). Cosmetic maintenance would therefore also take a lot of manpower. 

Additionally there is taking provisions, spare parts, bunkering, communications etc. 

Pretty sure they could keep themselves busy, although it would look to me like an end-of-career/retirement job considering the lack of prospects and for local people the idea of working closer to home.

 

[Mirabell61]

Hi Roel,

 

the propulsion was done with a 650 PS MTU / MAN diesel engine

 

Nils

[Javelin]

oh sorry, got confused with Keith's Trinity House lightships. 

Propulsion or no propulsion doesn't make that much of a difference in this case when it comes to shipboard activities.  

You also stand a higher chance successfully fighting a fire with 11 or 12 than with 3... 

[KeithAug]

8 hours ago, Javelin said:

I would assume there was quite some maintenance. Although there was no propulsion, they'd still have generators (need to keep that light on), which then means they'd have a fuel system, starting air system, fresh water production (or bunkering), sewage system, etc. All of that requires maintenance. 

Roel

 

Many of those activities are also required in off shore lighthouses which had 3 keepers. 

The interesting comment is "It was an extremely demanding and dangerous profession, and it would take 15 to 20 years of service to be promoted to master." This seems to imply more substantive activities than just maintenance. I think I will do a little more research.

[KeithAug]

Re - above 

The full crew of each lightship was two officers, who served alternatively one month on the ship and one in port, and nine men who were divided into three classes – seamen, signalmen and lamp trimmers, who each served two months on board and one on shore. Seven of the crew were actually engaged at any one time aboard the lightship. One officer and three men were always ashore, where they were employed in the Trinity House depot or to make the relief boats when required.

More detail here:- https://friendsoflv50.org.uk/history/life-aboard/

I particularly liked this extract:-

In the summer-time, when the weather was fine and the days were long, the crew, though there was always plenty of work for all, often employed their spare time in the construction of model ships, rugs, boxes, toys etc and many of the men were extremely expert at that pastime. 

 

Sounds like a pretty relaxing job.

Edited May 27 by KeithAug

[Javelin]

1 hour ago, KeithAug said:

It was an extremely demanding and dangerous profession, and it would take 15 to 20 years of service to be promoted to master." This seems to imply more substantive activities than just maintenance.

Well actually, I doubt that. The reason for such slow promotions is often just long retention due to good employment conditions (if no one leaves, there's simply no place to promote anybody) and I consider time for model building etc. part of that.

 

Additionally there would be training/certification requirements. To get a master licence it takes sailing time in rank and as officer of the watch (navigation watch that is). 

Often on such special ships, the time onboard is not fully considered as "sailing time". It might have a reduced validity of 50% compared to real sailing time. In the past this was the case  for some dredgers as well.

I've also encountered a system in offshore where the sailing time fully counted to retain a valid licence, but could not count for upgrading a licence. That of course resulted in a rather old crew, where all officer candidates already had their master licence.

[Mirabell61]

many thanks Roel and Keith,

 

I learned a lot from your input with ref. to duty on lightships

 

Nils

[Mirabell61]

Update

made the boat`s deck and planked it, also coming for edges and aft stair outcuts. The fastening points (turnbuckles) for the mast stays were mounted. It would be difficult to mount the bottlesrews after the deck is on.

The blanc patches on the deck in the areas for the boats will be plated with a profiled anti slip layer

 

Nils

the card template for the boats deck

start with the planking. Deck and planking strips are both 0,8mm thick, so the total thickness is 1,6mm. That is flexebil enough for sheric bending down when glueing it on.

 

measures to bring the curvature into the deck

 

 

supports will be mounted (10 on each side)  between deck and bulwark

 

[Michel Bénard]

Really well done Nils. As a sailing model, it would look great on the water.

[KeithAug]

Elastic bands are the best value for money tool for ship modelling. She is really taking shape Nils. I thought the light really set her off well.

[Mirabell61]

Thank you Keith,

yes, I bought a bunch of longer and broader rubber bands some time ago and now they come good to use.

The light mast (till unfinished) was one of the first parts I started with. There will be a ladder from boats deck to the light platform later on. That will be quite tricky to solder ....

 

Today I closed the long deckhouse with the deck on it, and first made a pic of the last possible look  into the hull. The moment the deck was glued on I realized that the cable from the hall anchor was only prefixed with a tape, so I have to find a solution for fixing the cable permanently, because I had unfortunately forgpotten to do so

 

Nils

last look into the hull. here one can see the cable I had forgotten to tie to the frames or somewhere else.

Also the turnbuckles can be seen. Bollards and Panama fairleads are also mounted on foredeck and along the long deckhouse

 

the chain end (of mushroom anchor) coming from the front bulkhead (on deck) is going to be fastened to the spring loaded buffer element

the underside of the boatsdeck is painted except  (taped off ) for spaces where the supports will be fixed and the deck to be glued on to the superstrcture below

Edited May 31 by Mirabell61

[Oboship]

Beautiful deck planking!

Uwe

[Jim Lad]

She's looking first class, Nils.

 

John

[Mirabell61]

Many thanks Uwe and John,

for your words

 

Nils

[Rick310]

Amazing work!!  Really enjoy following along!

Rick