Elizabeth Howard by Jond - 1:48 - The White Ghost - Schooner

[Rick310]

Looks great!!

Rxk

[KeithAug]

All looking very neat Jon.

 

On 8/1/2024 at 7:26 PM, Jond said:

It is all amusing as the real decks of fishing schooners were really a mess

Yes it is a pity that most of us are unwilling to lower our standards to match reality.

[Jond]

Thank you Rick and Keith for you comments.   

 

I just had a set back as I was reminded that haste may cause waste.   I had hurried up to get to a point to move the model to the garage while summer quests were here so I could continue and install the decking .  In that rush I made a big oops.  I had mis located both masts.  I am part way through the fix and I must say it is an ouch.    I will post in a few days when I figure where I went wrong.    My not having drawings did not help but I do have enough pictures , so it was me in a hurray  

 

cheers

Edited August 8, 2024 by Jond

[Jond]

10   oops rework the deck based on review of photos

 

I mentioned above a dumb move / oops.  I was in a hurry and somehow laid out both masts incorrectly.  Based on that layout, I shaped the rails and included the pin rails.   I took the model to the garage, so I could peck away each day a bit while summer guests made working in the shop not convenient. I posted the installed decking.    I should have just waited.

 

Here is the sequence…..

 

01   returning to the shop, I proceeded to carry on and installed all the chain plates.   Dumb!

 

Back at my shop computer, which coincidentally I replaced my long-gone computer at this same time.  We all know that resetting a new computer means another week that I should have waited.    I finally resumed studying all the available images to figure out how the deck was laid out.  As I mentioned earlier through the net I found the several collections in both Gloucester and Boston Library collections.  I “borrowed thumbnails” and blew them up, scaled spars etc.  I had previously shared the sail plan that I did in cad months ago based on a broadside racing image.  Why did I not use that drawing when I located the Mast?   Who knows

 

02-05 In these photos one can see the relocated masts and re-laid decking.    The foremast wrong hole is amazingly close enough to the round fish loading hatch with which I will plug the hole. The main mast hole was plugged and covered in new decking.  The pin rails and chain plates were all relocated and are back together.  At some point I need to do more remedial work, especially the outer hull where the chain plates were removed.  The pin rails will be mostly covered with coiled lines so they will work out.

 

Going forward

 

Photos 6-8 To plan the deck work, here are two cropped images that come from different internet images and sites.   When blown up, they give a reasonable sense of what was on deck and where.  I also have one of our Historical Society photos of the sister schooner Louise Howard.  The similarities carry through after scaling and measuring the sail plan. So they both confirmed the error made and after the fix I am ready to move forward.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

cheers

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2024 by Jond

[Jond]

11 This update covers some down time as I travelled North through the Northwest passage in August and a few extra activities in the model shop this fall. Before setting EH aside for a bit of a rest last August , I had fun on the shop toys making some of the deck furnishings and spars.  

• 01-04. these photos capture making the masts and setting them up for the right rake

• 05-9 capture the annual visit of my daughter and some of her friends. She loves to make sails.  So since I am out of prepared silk span she prepared four large sheets for me, sure enough to make the sails this winter. I also have found a better image to use for the sail planning.

• 10 Finally we see EH sitting on the shelf as the rebuild of the schooner Zebedee Cliff took over the shop
• 

Edited October 27 by Jond

[Jond]

12. we are back to work

 

This update is to celebrate the resumption of my build of this fun schooner.  During the past year I diverted into the arctic where half of my current and near future builds are planned.  I hope to continue in parallel with arctic stories and vessels and the Boothbay region shipyards, stories and vessels.   The real live full-size work in our town this year is the rebuild of the vessel Niagara from Erie Pennsylvania. I have been down several rabbit holes over the years following the Ernestina Morrissey and Bowdoin rebuilds but have chosen not to focus on this area.  I will visit a few times and what I learn I will share on whomever has an open log. She is quite the popular vessel, so I am sure I will find one.

 

The first event that got Elizabeth Howard off the shelf was our annual model show in Bath, Maine. This year we moved to the shed that houses Maine First ship, the 1607 Pinnace Virginia.  I stood up the masts and added a few shrouds just to have some visible change. The intent is to include models that are being built as a part of the show.  In the view below she is among several other builds and anxious to return to the shop and not to the shelf.  

• 
• 1 here she is at the show in Bath me.  

In my posting of last year, I showed the photos that I am using to figure out how best to show the deck.  My current activities include adjusting things to better fit the dimensions that I have extracted from the photos.  

• 2 here is image showing a printout of the fore deck photo with hand measurements. It’s very low tech as the view shows the dimensions on the photo compared to the 11 inches bow to foremast.  I also realized that the foremast head stay is not going to the samson post, so I needed to move that aft and then, like on other schooners, rig an iron loop from deck structure around the bowsprit to take the load of the lower foremast stay.  I also have rebuilt the bowsprit so it can now come aft to the samson post near the windless. 

Next up is the windless and its machinery. Probably 10 years ago I bought a “fisherman windless kit “ . It has been sitting in a box all these years so now is the time to use it.   

• 
• 3-5  here we see first setting the main mast and rigging the shrouds.  One can also note my arctic build Gjoa is at the far end of the worktable, so I can divide my time.  The other two deck overviews show where we are starting, with the kit windless in place……. something is just not right

I find it is missing a key ingredient, a direct drive wheel to connect to the donkey engine that surely would have been there.   Looking even more closely to the photo above I see what I wanted to see; a second set of bitts just forward of the engine box, very fuzzy but clearly with a flywheel.   So, borrowing experience from my schooner Bluenose build, I went ahead and had some fun. 

 

Here is my low-tech approach to adding a drive gear to the barrel. These 4 images show:

• First attempt to simply cut the “barrel and drill a hole to receive an extended shaft to hold the gear. This was an oops
• Second attempt when I realized I needed to shrink down the spool to make room for the gear drive.
• Drilling the winch to receive the other end of the shaft 
• Using the drill press to carve two new winches 

 

• And here is the partial reassembly.

I will need to add some chain and the breaks for the anchor windless.  One of the details I like in this option is the second windless is obviously a higher speed than the big windless barrel and more reasonable for raising sails.

All for now  I am just happy to have at least started again.
 

[Jond]

13a deck work and standing rigging moving along

 

As I now divide my time between this build and the 1872 Norwegian ship Gjoa, things are not so fast.  It is fun though, as Gjoa is in the hull stage as this build is into deck furniture and starting the rigging. This is a partial update.

 

For most of my guidance I refer to the age-old favorite book o fishing schooners by Howard Chapelle. Several similar scale schooners in the past and the detail I learned building a bigger scale bluenose several years ago.  One difference from Bluenose is, from the photos of Elizabeth, lashed dead eyes were used instead of turnbuckles.  Perhaps the 5 years between 1916 and 1921 made the difference.    I am therefore using lashed bullseyes for many of the fixed stays that surely would have needed adjustment.

To work

• 1-3 these images show my low-tech approach to building the sliding goose neck for the jumbo boom. I took a brass channel drilled a hole on top.  Then I set a tiny rivet upside down and put a cut off brass eye with system through the rivet and the hole in the channel and soldered it up.  I then soldered a clevis on the end of a rod to sink into the fore end of the jumbo boom.  I also added some handles to control the winch [ imagined anyway] and some chain.  I am not proud of the mechanism but is represents that something would have been there.

• 4-6   these images show progress making up the hardware and stringing the running rigging aloft.  It is all left untied for now.  When it is all in place I will have some extra hands here over the next holiday and we’ll square it all up, tighten and then lash all. 

• 7 This image shows from the bow, the bowsprit and fore stay rigging is taking shape as well. I even put in all the belying pins
• 

[Jond]

13B Standing rigging done

 

I have been working to get the standing rigging and spars all done, so as my daughter comes for Thanksgiving, we might have fun making sails.  Her friend flew in from Arizona, so we have two helpers…oh boy.

 

• 1-3.  The first three images are overall views just to record we are done.   The main back stay on starboard is aft as we will display the schooner sailing on starboard tack.  Without any sails up and sheets and preventers holding things down, it is the only line holding it all rigid.
• 
• 4 -5 show the foremast starboard side all secured. next up of course are the ratlines.
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• 6-7 show the bow sprit. This sprit was only added for racing.  The foot ropes need to be completed. I have the furling tie offs. A detail I learned about while visiting Bluenose II. The planks to catch the sail and the preset lanyards to secure the sail make lots of sense.     This rig is a racing rig as the scene to be set is the first elimination race against the Henry Ford , October 13,1922   When not racing the bowsprit was not even rigged as she was launched to be a knockabout schooner.
• 
• 8. just a tease as the first sail is progressing through the assembly line. I need to finish up all the spars, so they are ready when the sails get done.

 

This sequence of rushing to secure and fasten everything is not a great sequence if rework is to be avoided. Once the patterns are done and test fitted for adjustments to allow sail making, there will be some disassembly needed.   that will come in the next update.

 

cheers 

 

 

[Jond]

14 getting all the spars ready for sails

 

Over the next month I hope the 8 sails will get made.  In a parallel effort they need the spars for lashing and all the running rigging lines that need to go on before installation.  Example would be the boom tackles or topsail clewlines, that are much harder to install on board, should go onto sails before they are rigged. A halyard could go on the sail or the gaff before but I find it easier after for the peak halyards to a gaff.  

 

During the holiday, the sail patterns were made, and dry fit for adjustment. Since dimensions were taken from scaling photos, I was not surprised that every sail needed something trimmed; usually cut down. 

 

• 1-2 show the patterns all made and after adjusting held in place for a look see.  They were taken off as soon as the photo was taken.
• 
• 3 -4 show that the top masts need to come back off [cutting and removal of dead eye lashing on top mast shrouds and other stay lashing needed.   Dressing of the masts include bands and blocks at the top of the lower masts, hoops for the upper masts and more running rigging needed to be done before reassembly.   This effort was understood to allow the timing for the sail making process that my daughter likes to do when she comes for vacation.  Otherwise, the complete dressing of the spars would have been completed first.
• 
• 5,6 ,7 show my selected process to make top mast hoops.  I like to use 1/64 birch plywood strips for larger hoops, but found coiled packing tape over saran wrap on a Dowel of the selected diameter works well.  I use a simple razor blade to trim off say 10 or 12 hoops. They then get coated in varnish and some need a little AC glue to tighten up the ends.  This roil of tape will outlast my work by a century. The uncut tape stays on the dowel so I have about 4 diffewrne sizes waiting for the next job......sound familiar?
• 
• 8,9,10 show my low-tech use of a mini mill to drill more accurate holes.  Three images are the pear wood I chose for the jaws getting drilled for monofilament simulated bolts and the gaff band holes. View 4 is a foresail mast peal halyard ring getting drilled to hold a halyard block.

all for now...first snow is predicted, let's see if it happens