Gunboat Philadelphia 1776 by tmj

[tmj]

1776 Gunboat Philadelphia 
"Short in life, 'Long' in history!"

 

A Build Log
by
Thomas J.

 

Painting: "The sinking of the Gunboat Philadelphia"... by Ernest Haas

 

 

  In 1776, the British planned to split the American colonies by advancing south from Canada, via Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. Colonel Benedict Arnold was tasked with delaying that imminent British invasion and recognized the strategic importance of Lake Champlain. Arnold took command of a small flotilla of curious vessels in order to effectively impede that British advancement. Arnold's fleet consisted of 15 vessels, including 8 gunboats. Seeing how this is a 'gunboat' build, I'll exclude mention of the 'other' vessels. The eight gunboats built were named Spitfire, Philadelphia, Congress, Washington, New York, Jersey, Connecticut and Lee. These gunboats were all hastily constructed late during the summer of 1776 in Skenesborough, New York... now known as Whitehall, in a location at the southern end of Lake Champlain.

 

  Due to extreme urgency, these gunboats were likely built from green wood. There's also a good chance that no true shipwrights were actively involved in the actual construction of these vessels, evidence being via the unusual manner in which these boats were built. The construction of these gunboats was probably performed by local 'carpenters' who had very little experience as shipwrights, but actually knew quite a lot about building disposable, cheap and effective 'flat bottomed river batteaux's' that were used extensively in the fur trade as well as general cargo transport along the rivers located in that region. This is just logical speculation, of course. Very few records exist. It's difficult to really know for sure.

    
 On October 11, 1776, Arnold positioned his fleet in a narrow part of Lake Champlain, near Valcour Island. This positioning was strategic, forcing the British to sail into a confined space where their larger fleet's numerical superiority would be rendered much less effective. The battle began when the British fleet, under General Guy Carleton and commanded by Captain Thomas Pringle encountered Arnold’s fleet. Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, Arnold's forces fought tenaciously. After a day of intense fighting, Arnold's fleet suffered very heavy damage. Recognizing the dire situation, Arnold ordered a nighttime retreat. The Americans effectively managed to slip past the British fleet during the night, but the British weren't fooled, and their pursuit continued. Several of Arnold's vessels were overtaken and destroyed or captured during this battle. The game was over, and the Philadelphia was one of the vessels that was sent to the bottom of Lake Champlain. Arnold soon ran his remaining vessels aground and burned them to prevent them from being captured by the British.

 
 This battle delayed the British advance, buying critical time thus allowing the American forces to better prepare their defenses further south. Though the battle of Valcour Island was actually a tactical defeat, Arnold's leadership and the bravery of his men were instrumental in preventing an immediate British invasion of which contributed to the eventual American victory in the Saratoga campaign that took place the following year. Arnold's actions, in 1776, particularly his bold and tenacious defense at the Battle of Valcour Island showcased his initial dedication to the American cause... before his later infamous defection to the British.

 Today, the Gunboat Philadelphia is noted for its historical significance and is preserved and displayed at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. Its recovery in 1935, along with its conservation efforts have since provided valuable insights into naval warfare and shipbuilding practices, as they were in that region, during the Revolutionary War period.

 That's the brief history, now... "Let's get on with the build and make some sawdust!"
 

 

 

 

 

[tmj]

  Armed with a few books, a good set of drawings from the Smithsonian, a set of calipers, a calculator and a brand-new box full of wood sheets and misc. sized strips of wood desperately wanting to become something of interest... I hereby declare this new build log as being ready and "Go for Launch!"

  Please be forewarned. The Gunboat Philadelphia was hastily built, and in such... a lot of traditional practices typically observed in Navel Architecture were not utilized in the construction processes of this vessel, nor in the construction of her seven sisters. Haste was the "Order of the day" and 'time was of the essence'! Corners had to be cut, and 'cut they were'! If you see something that does not seem quite right in my build, well... you are probably correct! I'll be building this model just as its real life counterpart was 'actually' built, not how such a boat really 'should have' been built back in 1776. These gunboats simply were not built in tradition ways, nor were they built to last. They were built solely for a specific and temporary military purpose... and nothing else!

   
 I'll be building this as a 'Navy-Board' style model. It will have full masting and rigging with furled sails. I'll also be leaving her sides open to expose the framing, interior structures, etc. Likewise with the decking. I'll be leaving parts of the deck planking off to expose the internals, with exception to the areas supporting the cannons, of course. I don't yet have a clear image as to where this model will actually wind up. I only have a mental concept of the effect that I wish to achieve once all is finally said and done. 

 Below is the current state of my CAD file showing the layout of the bottom of this vessel and the size of the strakes, number of planks per strake, and the positioning of the floor timbers. The red lines on the strakes denote where planks were actually joined to make up the individual strakes. These planks were not joined in the middle of the floor timbers. The floor timbers were too narrow for that due to the 1" diameter treenails used to attach the planks. Instead, the planks were joined together via 1.5" thick 'Butt-Block Splices' located 'between' floor timbers and/or wherever the joints landed, and butt-blocks could be effectively placed. If you look closely, you will also note that the bottom planking strakes are of various widths. Not a lot of consistency at all. I suppose that the builders were just using whatever widths of lumber that they had on hand in order to simply fill in the bottom of the boat. Last but not least... the floor timbers, themselves, 'also' vary in 'their' widths too! Not a lot of consistency there, either. 
Even though these 'oddities' might look a bit 'off-putting' to some folks, I'm going to do my best to reflect them as they truly are/were in this scale build.    
 

[tmj]

As she was built, the Gunboat Philadelphia was started with the bottom planking being laid down. The flooring timbers were then positioned atop the bottom planking and temporarily 'toenailed' to the bottom planking, just to hold things together, until the bottom planking was effectively attached to the floor timbers via 1" wooden trunnels. Evidence of these temporary toenails are noticeably present on the actual Philidelphia as she sits in the museum today.  After the bottom planking and flooring timbers were securely tree nailed together, the temporary toenails were removed, and the bottom was cut to its shape. Some folks wonder if this gunboat was built right side up, or upside down and flipped. The boat was a bit too big and awkward to be flipped. It was built right side up. Evidence of 'this' is due to a 2.75" diameter hole that was drilled through the bottom planking, approximately 48" forward of the sternpost... a hole that was plugged prior to launch. This hole was likely used as a drain to remove rainwater while the boat was being built in its upright position. 

 

I hope to have the bottom planking cut and glued this weekend. I'll then cut out the bottom's shape. After that, I'll start on the floor timbers. This is a departure from the actual building process but will make it easier for me to construct in such a small scale, as following posts will explain and further illustrate.      

Edited June 21 by tmj

[VTHokiEE]

Looking forward to your build! Should be a very interesting take - have fun!

[tmj]

Bottom planking Strakes have all been cut to various widths, as shown in the drawing. I'll clean the edges up and start cutting/separating the strakes into their individual planks while watching Svengoolie tonight.

I used my cheap 4" Amazon table saw, steel rules for front and back gauging, and small 'C'-Clamps to hold my gauges in place. I use the calipers to set the cutting width of my pieces. It's kinda 'fiddly' to set up for each cut but works very well and is actually quite accurate for such a 'redneck' rig like this! For today's wood and its thickness, my deviation from measured cut width, during setup, was .017" larger than what I actually wanted. Knowing this, I just adjusted my calipers to read .017" shy of my target width and did my setups to those new dimensions. "Viola!" With a steady feed rate while pushing the wood through the blade I was able to maintain about .005" of accuracy in my cuts. Different woods and different thicknesses will affect the deviation of the cut. I always use a sacrificial "set-up" piece before making any precise cuts, to determine just what the deviation will actually be with that material.         

[tmj]

 

Beginning the bottom planking and caulking. I'm starting from the center of the bottom and working my way 'outwards'. The bottom is being assembled 'upside-down' (unlike the 'real' building method of this vessel). I'll add two strakes every day until the oversized bottom blank is completed and caulked, then I'll cut out the shape of the bottom. I'll only do two strakes per day because I'm trying to avoid any distortion and/or warpage due to the long joints and glue runs. I'll be gluing the new strakes to an already glued up 'sub-assembly' that has cured and is rather stiff.  

 

The strakes are full length. I'm adding the illusion of 'planks' within those strakes via a chisel. The 'caulking' is .0078" diameter "Tuff-Cord" that would represent a 3/16" caulking seam on the full-sized vessel. I lightly sanded the edges of all the strakes to form the tiny groove needed to accept the tuff-cord. To insert the caulking, I run the thread through a puddle of glue, lay it in place at the start of a groove and just run my finger down the thread's length. The thread pretty much finds the grooves all by itself. I then give it a wipe with a paper towel, to remove excess glue, and let everything dry. The tag ends are cut after drying. The caulking is fairly secure once the glue dries, but it will also be sealed in permanently with a clear topcoat after the bottom is completed and finish sanded, prior to cutting out the shape of the bottom.    

[yvesvidal]

That is a great idea.

 

Yves

[tmj]

It's been a slow go this week. I was hoping to have made more progress but have only managed to get this far. "Best laid plans", you know... Anyway. The Strakes are all cut to length, and I still need to add the 'butt-joints', glue the strakes together and add the caulking to the bottom side of this 'bottom' planking. I'm really anxious to get this bottom completed and the shape cut out so I can move on to more interesting things in this build. Fingers are crossed in hopes of a more productive weekend...

 

** Notice the varying widths of all of the bottom strakes. No two strakes are the same. This is not me screwing up. This is per dimensions taken off of the actual vessel. There's no consistency in the width(s) of the materials that were used to construct the bottom of this boat. **   

 

  

Edited June 27 by tmj

[tmj]

Bottom planks/strakes have now been glued up and the 'Oakum' caulking has been hammered into the caulking seams. Next up... I need to better seal those oakum caulking seams with a proper topcoat 'bead' of 'pitch'.... stay tuned!

 

 

Edited June 30 by tmj

[tmj]

It's going to be a slow weekend. I'm waiting on Tung Oil to dry which is a bit slow. What I've done is to put a light coat of Tung Oil on the entire bottom to somewhat seal the wood. I've also filled the caulked seams with a thick layer of Tung Oil to represent a 'pitch' cap/layer atop the simulated oakum. I chose Tung Oil because it has a rich, dark, somewhat copperish color to it if applied thick. The thick Tung Oil atop my black thread Oakum should produce a nice looking and well blended color for my caulking seams. Once the thick tunnels filled with Tung Oil have finally cured within my caulking seams, I'll sand the bottom to lighten up the color of the planks and strakes. This should produce a very nice contrast between the lighter colored surface of my planks and the darker, multi-colored caulking seams. You'll also note how covering the 'Tuff-Cord' Oakum with Tung Oil 'pitch' produces a 'rippled' surface within the caulking seams. This is another effect that I am desiring. I've made pitch before, back in my flintknapping and primitive archery days. It's hard to get hot, tacky and gummy pitch smoothed out to a slick, smooth finish. I'm sure that shipbuilders once had the same problem. This is where the 'Tuff-Cord' comes in handy. The Tung Oil will soak in and take on the same surface shape of the cord. After a couple of thick applications, the ripples will smooth out a little, but not entirely. The caulking channels will always have a slight ripple effect to them, unlike the end result should plain glue be used as a filler. Yes, it's a lot of extra work, but I feel as though the end result/effect will be well worth the additional effort.

 

Here's the bottom... Tung Oil drying until tomorrow afternoon.

 

To apply a thick layer of Tung Oil into the caulking seams, I used a small syringe purchased from Amazon. These are real needles used for injecting drugs. I was surprised that they could be so easily bought from Amazon! I purchased a box of 50 syringes for $17 bucks. I also had to advise the Mrs. that if she sees these things in the trash to not think I've suddenly become a 'junkie'! 😐

  

Below you will see that 'ripple' effect in the caulking seams as compared to one of my old arrow points hafted to a primitive wooden shaft using true 'pitch' as a primary glue. The darker rim separating the obsidian point from the wooden shaft is the pitch. It is not smooth, even though applied hot and attempted to smooth out. Pitch is a very gooey, thick, sticky mess! The ripples in my caulking channels will smooth out a bit after one or two more soakings with thick layers of Tung Oil, while still showing a 'not so pristine' and perfectly smooth surface once all is said and done. This should make for a really nice and somewhat realistic effect. 

 

 

This will pretty much do it for the next couple of days. I'll be bored and mostly waiting for Tung Oil to dry. 

 

    

[CiscoH]

you have achieved exactly the effect you were looking for.  really nice planking/caulking effect

[tmj]

Thanks Cisco! I still have a bit to go before successfully achieving the full effect. I'm working on it. Waiting for pure Tung Oil to cure is a real pain, but so far, it's the best medium I've found for doing this sort of thing. The oil is drying a bit slower than I hoped, likely due to high humidity here. I'll be able to move on once the oil finally cures. Are 'you' by chance building a Philidelphia model yourself?   

[Landlubber Mike]

Looking forward to following along on this one.  I saw the Smithsonian plans years ago, and picked up a set for myself.  The plans are incredibly detailed.

 

Can I ask what scale you are building this one in?  And what kind of wood are you using?  Looks very good!

[tmj]

  Greetings Mike!

 I'm building this in 1:24 scale. I'm using Cherry for the bottom and for what few planks that I'll add to the sides. A lot of my build will be open, somewhat Navy-Board style, so there will be a 'LOT' of air and light moving through the insides of this model. As for the internal flooring timbers, frames, etc., they will be easily seen. I'll be using lighter colored Boxwood for those interior components to achieve a nice contrast in colors within the darker hull and atop the bottom planking. I'll likely stain the boxwood components to tone them down just a wee bit, still leaving them brighter than the darker cherry exterior. I've so far only purchased wood for the hull and interior framing. What I use for the decking, etc. has yet to be decided. I'll choose the rest of the woods as I go, depending on how things actually look as the build progresses. I don't like paint; I like to choose woods whose colors closely resemble the finished colors and tones that I desire in the finished product.         

[Landlubber Mike]

That's going to look fantastic!  I agree with you on "painting with wood" - would rather use woods to achieve the colors and tones I want as well.

[tmj]

Nothing much to see right now. This is just me being bored and wishing that I could do some work on the Philidelphia's bottom. I was wanting to lay out the outline shape of the bottom, for cutting, of which I could do, however. I was 'also' wanting to start laying out the locations of the numerous flooring timbers on the top side of the bottom, but I need to do some sanding first. I can't sand right now. The Tung Oil is still a bit too tacky and I don't want to risk sanding dust getting stuck to uncured Oil inside my caulking channels. That would ruin the effect. High humidity is the culprit, and it is seriously hampering the Tung Oil curing process! Tung oil hates high humidity but 'loves' a lot of air circulation. I've moved the slow curing bottom into a less humid environment and also put a computer fan on it to move a lot more air over its surface. If the curing still seems 'stalled', I'll put it into my oven with the oven light on (good for 90 degrees in temp) and add the fan too. That's how I cure/dry Biltong. I hang it in the oven with the light on, the fan blowing, and the oven door cracked open to let moisture escape. That works well for drying Biltong... it should work well for curing Tung Oil too, maybe. Not sure. All I know is that if this bottom has not satisfactorily cured, come noon tomorrow, I'm turning it into Biltong! 

 

 

[Keith Black]

7 minutes ago, tmj said:

All I know is that if this bottom has not satisfactorily cured, come noon tomorrow, I'm turning it into Biltong! 

 Hey, it's got built-in dental floss. 

[tmj]

4 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

 Hey, it's got built-in dental floss. 

... and can be turned into wooden 'toothpicks' too! 😮

[tmj]

It's time to add the drain hole and make a plug for the bottom. I can't have my gunboat filling up with rainwater while it's being built!

 

[tmj]

I may need to rename this gunboat to that of one of Philidelphia's sisters, one of the other boats without documentation and drawings. Reason being, I made a mistake that is really bothering me. If you notice my previous photo, you will see that the centerline of the boat is not on the center line of the center strake. It's offset to the port side of center (the above view is of the 'bottom' of the bottom, flip it over for proper orientation). This is not correct for the Philidelphia, and probably not for the other boats either. I could try to chock things up to these gunboats being built in haste and in 'fantasy' this is how one of them 'could have possibly' turned out... or I could just start over and do it properly next time. I'm scratching my head. Maybe I'll build two gunboats. One to make mistakes on and another with 'fewer' mistakes. 

 

This is what went wrong. I glued all the strakes up using a centerline separating the bow half from the stern half. I found the center of each strake and lined them all up on those centers. What I 'should have' done was to shift the two outboard strakes, on the starboard side, a bit forward, towards the bow. I Remember running into that on my design but forgot all about it when I glued things up. This is because of the irregular widths of the individual strakes. Port side was fine. Only the starboard side needed adjustments. Due to my failure to offset those starboard strakes, the only way to fit the bottom shape onto the strakes, without gaps, was to offset the bottom. I didn't catch this until it was too late, when I placed my pattern atop the bottom to trace out the shape. I too was in a rush to get building, just like Arnold was back in 1776. I wonder how many mistakes were made, due to haste, in the construction of those 8 gunboats...? 

 

So here I am, making a decision. "Live with this major discrepancy, or start over?"

 

This photo shows why I had to offset the pattern of the boat's bottom.

 

 

 

Edited July 6 by tmj

[Paul Le Wol]

Would it be possible to cut the two planks free and move them ahead a bit. Might be worth a try as long as the new joint looks as good as the others.

[tmj]

1 hour ago, Paul Le Wol said:

Would it be possible to cut the two planks free and move them ahead a bit. Might be worth a try as long as the new joint looks as good as the others.

Hello Paul!

I've considered that. It would be the most logical and also the 'simplest' solution. The only thing that it would affect would be the location of the two butt joints of those two strakes. Nobody would ever know that those joints weren't exactly in their proper locations other than 'me', however. I keep rejecting that idea for some curious reason. I'm wondering if it's something phycological. Something subconscious that deep down I don't really like about what I've done, something that I think could be done better. The wood tone 'is' a bit richer and darker than I'd like, but that's my only 'other' gripe at this time. I also know that I'll be making more mistakes as I go. Maybe I need to use this current bottom as a prototyping platform/sacrificial Guinea pig for discovery and getting things correct on the 'real' gun-boat model. I don't have a lot of time, nor money invested at this stage. I could go either way. I'll be giving this some thought while I continue to work on this piece, before cutting out the shape.         

[tmj]

Okay... The plug has been cut, tarred, hammered into the bottom and caulked. Now this boat's bottom is going back in front of the ol' fan to further cure the Tung Oil before sanding. 

Edited July 6 by tmj

[Chuck Seiler]

4 hours ago, tmj said:

"Live with this major discrepancy, or start over?"

I would not consider that a major discrepancy.  How much is it off?  1/8".  Given that nobody will see it and it is close enough given all the McGivering they did with the real gunboats, I don't think it is an issue.  I know you are shooting for perfection, but...

 

On the other hand, if you make a prototype and a finished, one can be Philly and one can be Spitfire (still at the bottom).

[tmj]

10 minutes ago, Chuck Seiler said:

On the other hand, if you make a prototype and a finished, one can be Philly and one can be Spitfire (still at the bottom).

Howdy Chuck, I like the way you think! 😉

After the Tung Oil 'fully' cures on this bottom, and I'm able to sand the 'bottom' of the bottom and see the actual color/tone after sanding, I'll decide which way I want to go with this. There are currently quite a few options. My current desires are to display the model over a slightly angled, LED illuminated 'mirror' base that will reflect the actual bottom construction, something that would normally go unseen on a flat-bottomed model like this. The purpose for my wanting to do 'that' is simply to display accurate details, underneath, without the model ever needing to be physically touched, lifted up and eventually/possibly dropped, damaged, etc.          

[tmj]

Here's a flight into 'fantasy'. I dedicate this cleaver idea to Chuck Seiler for giving me this novel inspiration and a 'great' alternative solution with acceptable historic purpose via a 'pinch' of believable and sound reasoning! Should the Smithsonian ever contact me about this, "I'll deny every word of it!"

 

In 1776, a small collection of 'gunboats' were ordered to be built. There was no time to waste! The first of these 'gunboats' was to be named 'Spitfire'. Seven other gunboats of the exact same class were to follow and be built upon Spitfires original design, however. There were problems encountered with the Spitfire's build. After all of the flooring timbers were effectively fastened to the bottom planking, it was discovered that the shape of the boats bottom hull would not properly fit within the designed parameters of the bottom strakes due to the irregular widths of the strakes themselves. The irregular widths of the strakes were not by actual design, but rather dictated by necessity via the true dimensions of the local lumber that was actually available at the time. While not of normal practice, and for the sake of immediate 'urgency', it was decided to continue with the build of Spitfire by simply offsetting the centerline of the boat from the true center of its center plank. Notes of this gross error were taken, and the remaining seven gunboats, including the Philidelphia were all more carefully laid out prior to hastily fastening the flooring timbers and cutting out the bottom shapes of their hulls. This boat was never located nor recovered for examination. You'll just have to believe Chuck and myself! 😋               

 

 

[Chuck Seiler]

51 minutes ago, tmj said:

This boat was never located nor recovered for examination. You'll just have to believe Chuck and myself!

Well, partially correct.  Spitfire DID exist.  She was damaged during the battle but managed to escape with the survivors, only to sink at Schyler's Island the next day.  SPITFIRE was discovered in 1997, but never raised.  The centerline COULD be a bit off. 

[tmj]

That offset centerline just won't work for me. It would drive me batty! This is what I'm going to do to repair it and make things right. I think I can blend in the 'scabbed' filler pieces well enough that they won't be readily noticed. *Fingers are crossed* It's a good thing that I save small scraps and sawdust!

Edited July 7 by tmj

[tmj]

Much better now. I'm back on track again.

[tmj]

The inside of the bottom has been sanded, Tung Oiled and is now curing in front of the fan. Nothing else to do today... waiting on Tung Oil again. I had to put weights on the bottom to counteract the bowing that occurred from Oiling the first side. This should help flatten the bottom out again. If not, I'll hide some stainless steel 'stiffeners' inside of a few of the flooring timbers to ensure that the bottom does not ever try to bow again. I might do that anyway, as an insurance policy, because there won't be enough 'side-planking' on this model to effectively hold the flat bottom 'flat' during fluctuations in humidity, the passage of time, etc. 

Once the Tung Oil cures, I'll lay out the locations of the flooring timbers and start cutting those timbers.