Steam Schooner Wapama 1915 by Paul Le Wol - Scale 1/72 = From Plans Drawn By Don Birkholtz Sr.

[Paul Le Wol]

1 hour ago, KeithAug said:

All very precise Paul. Great workmanship.

Hi Keith, thank you so much!

[J Snyder]

Paul, you do beautiful work. Even the unseen is well done. I look forward to the rest of the build. One question I have is as our building to the displacement water line are you planning on setting a load of lumber on deck? It would be a shame to cover that beautiful deck.

[Paul Le Wol]

22 minutes ago, J Snyder said:

Paul, you do beautiful work. Even the unseen is well done. I look forward to the rest of the build. One question I have is as our building to the displacement water line are you planning on setting a load of lumber on deck? It would be a shame to cover that beautiful deck.

Hi J, thank you very much for your nice comment. I do like the the look of these boats fully loaded in the old photos. Gives you a sense of how hard they had to work for a living. So yes I would like to load up the deck. 

[steamschooner]

SS Saginaw, Operated by Hart/woods leaving Willapa bay loaded with lumber.

[kurtvd19]

I bet those aboard are hoping for clear weather.

[Keith Black]

 I wouldn't have wanted to be the guy that had to release the bindings once they reached their destination.  😱

[Paul Le Wol]

My back aches just looking at that photo. A lot of that lumber must have been hand -bombed.

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, Paul Le Wol said:

A lot of that lumber must have been hand -bombed.

Absolutely, Paul. Both on and off. 

[Dr PR]

Kurt,

 

Willapa Bay is on the West Coast of Washington, just north of the Columbia River. There is no clear weather half the year. That lumber would have sat out in the rain at the mill for some time before being loaded (probably in the rain).

 

That's a good photo of a loaded lumber schooner. It always amazes me that they floated at all! It has a high center of gravity, and that means it will roll a lot in swells. And it will be heading south along the Pacific Coast to California for about 500 miles with swells parallel to the coast all the way. That's several days rolling in the troughs between swells. It would be a rough ride in clear weather! 

[kurtvd19]

I was referring to the lack of free-board.  A decent wave would have swamped the ship.  I have seen photos of lumber boats on the Great Lakes loaded even higher and there are a lot of them on the bottom to prove they loaded it too high this time.

[Jim Lad]

Kurt, provided the hatches were properly secured, a few waves coming on board wouldn't be a problem. many a sailing ship has sailed for days with the decks regularly filled to the top of the bulwarks with no ill effect.

 

John