Gjoa 1872 by Jond - 1:48 scale - Amundson's Cutter

[Jond]

 

01 The Beginning.

This build is the first of three I plan for the next series of stories.  Over the next year, I plan to return to Greenland via Iceland following the Viking trail. That is to the best of my knowledge the beginning of the story of European explorers.  To Complete the story of the Northwest Passage, begun with my recent build HMS Terror, I will have two Norwegian builds, Gjoa and Fram.  Finally, my last of three builds will be to go along with my planned trip to the Greenland settlements.  I will build a Viking vessel.  First up will be the two Norwegian vessels. Fram will be a kit build and follow this scratch build of Gjoa.  So let’s get to it!

 

The cutter Gjoa was the ultimate winner in the search for a sailing route through the Northwest passage.  I first learned of this vessel several years ago while studying the life and times of Donald MacMillan and the schooner Bowdoin.  The Schooner Bowdoin was built in our town here on the Maine coast in 1921. That story is with my build of Bowdoin that I display as a diorama showing her second overwinter experience in the summer of 1924.  In the story of MacMillan’s early life, and the issues that led to his having the Schooner built to his specification, was his research into other experiences.  He was fascinated with the Fram story of a round bottomed vessel designed to survive mid arctic ocean ice.  He also realized after all of his personal experience, that Amundson got it right when he chose the small sailing vessel with its auxiliary engine to find his way through. The relationship of Macmillan study of these two vessels demonstrates the value of their design.  

By example, Admiral Peary had MacMillan with him on his last venture to try to get to the pole. Their vessel the Roosevelt, built in 1905 at Bucksport, Maine,  was quite different.  It was quite big and powered by a 1600 horsepower engine. It had in Bob Bartlett a great captain to smash their way up through the Kennedy and Robeson channels to the shore of the Lincoln Sea on the North coast of Ellesmere Island. They got there yes, but when they returned to New York the following year, the vessel was in sad shape.

Gjoa did not smash its way anywhere.  She was the right size to squeeze through the shallow inshore waterways south of King Williams Island.  After staying in Gjoa Haven for two winters and spending one more winter further west, she sailed into San Francisco harbor as a hero.

 

There are other builds of the vessel and a current one that is a must read for both research and beautiful craftmanship of this vessel.   My build is once again to build a prop for telling a tale.  I am scratch building it in the same scale as the Schooner Bowdoin, so they can sit side by side and one can appreciate the comparison.   One tale will be about Gjoa and Fram and their influence on Macmillan and the other is of the great man Amundson at both ends of the globe. As I understand it, he took Fram South in his race against Scott to get to the South Pole.  

Time to chase up some drawings. 
 

Edited September 15 by ccoyle
corrected log title

[Jond]

02 Starting the reading and preparing Drawings

In preparing for my builds there is always a lot of fun reading.  I just added about 8 books to my library, [ it's like stacking fireplace wood before winter] and I am sure more are in the wings.  I got the Fram Museum illustrated diary of Amundsen’s voyage through the passage, a joy.  I also bought the two-volume reprinted [ English] diary that Roald wrote.  The publisher printed it in the faint broken font of a 1910 typewriter. What fun

 

This build is but a chapter in the tale of the Scandinavians.  I believe my tale will include:
•    Nordenskiold on the Vega making the Northeast passage 1878 to 1880
•    Nansen- Sverdrup  [FRAM to be another build but same story} 1893-1896
•    Sverdrup FRAM. Canadian Arctic 1898 – 1902
•    Amundsen Gjoa  Northwest passage 1902-1906
•    Amundsen  FRAM Antarctica 1910 -1912
•    Sverdrup/Amundsen Maud 1917-1926

 

Before deeper study these are my understood points of reference.  Mostly from other reading or recent internet sources. I hope to expand my understanding though this winter as I build the two models.

• Nordenskiold is our starting point. There is some cross reference as Sweden and Norway were not separated until 1905.  My reason to pull this story in is the geographical relevance, but more to our mission, a study in the evolution of active exploration vessels.  The  Vega  was a steam powered bark, a Sealer. She was launched in 1872.  Many of the vessels used by explorers up through 1913 included a wide selection of similar whaling/ sealing steam powered barks.  Robert Peary used them, including the Winward which the year before had recused Nansen from Franz Josef land. Greely and Hall used them 1860’s to 1880's, and MacMillan used them from USA up through 1913 and found much difficulty. He was finally rescued by Robert Bartlett in 1913 after being in Etah, Greenland for 4 years.    

• Nansen understood the effects of ice on the hulls though over wintering, and FRAM was all about the shape.  She was quite successful. The fact that Amundsen not only took her to the Antarctic but used her design for the third vessel Maud speaks to the correctness of “fit for purpose”. 

• Gjoa was a 1872 Norwegian fishing sloop [ cutter rig ]. Amundsen understood the need for less than 10 feet of draft, and a small profile to be able to maneuver through the narrow and shallow inshore passages which he both expected and indeed did find. He had a new type 13 horsepower engine that could burn many things.  I hope to learn more about it.  I look forward to the details by reading his diary.

Off to the drawings.  

There are several exchanges in the MSW logs about drawings for these vessels.  The models of Gjoa are apparently not currently available as kits.  Dialogues suggested that the Model Shipways 1950 vintage drawings for their solid hull kit were even better than the expensive ones from the Oslo museum.  I found an old Model shipway kit on eBay and thus I have a set of prints.

Scale….I plan to build this vessel at 1:48 as that is the same scale as my Schooner Bowdoin. I will show these vessels side by side as an extended chapter. It will discuss the influence of this little gem of a vessel and its impact on MacMillan programing his schooner in 1920.

 

The scene….it is too early now but starting out I think it be good to show her moored in ice /water as she spent over 14 months in what today is Gjoa Haven, Nunavut.

 

Working
To change the scale of the drawings I scanned the lines, added them to TurboCad…simple 2d cad… and traced out the stations and what I call the “keelson” assembly. 

• The first 3 images show the Turbocad effort.  First is the rescaled line drawing followed by a typical station layer. I added lines to mark the top plank [ planks are thicker below this line][ then the deck and the top rail.  The 3rd image shows the transom that needed to be stretched to accommodate the angle of the transom from the vertical line.

• The next two images show the keelson drawing rescaled in front of the old kit box.  Not sure what I will use the hull for and all the other stuff all went into general supplies. The stations are all printed out and glued to 4mm plywood.

• The next two images show the marking and cut out of the keelson assembly. I used a maple blank for this piece.  The paper plan is glued with kids glue, so with a simple brush of water it will all come off.

• The final three images show front or back views of the glued stations and then the overall with the outer blocking supports.
• 

Next up is a slower process...it is all the prep needed before planking
 

[sheepsail]

Amazing to think this was a San Francisco landmark for many years albeit before my time.   Such things are so underappreciated outside the local cultural context.  Similar things happened to the cities clock and watch collection, which no longer fit in with the Academy of Sciences desire to teach the fear and hate of technology.  At least that collection is still complete in the national museum in Lancaster PA, but it is a bit difficult to visit.   One has to learn to enjoy such things while available. The Vaillancourt fountain is next on the deacquisition list. 

 

Really need a ♥️ emoji in the likes.   Looking forward to following along on this one.  I like ships with a local connection.

[Jond]

Dear Sheepsail. thanks for your interest.   I think San Francisco has lost a treasure but the whole story of her return to Norway was fun.  And now the Maud recovery from Arctic Canada.....  the beat goes on.   

 

 

cheers 

[Jond]

3 partway  through the planks

We had a little excitement last month when our annual Northeast Shipmodelers Guild show took place in Bath Me.  We went this year to the shed associated with Maine's First ship.  That is the reconstructed replica of the 1607 Pinnace built here,named Virginia, known to the be first European vessel built in America. 

• 
• Here is their website internet image of her sailing from the shed
• Here is an image of Gjoa sitting with other of my collection at the show inside the shed. The idea was for all of us to bring models being worked on. The audience was lots of fun, some came for the models and others were waiting to go sail on Virgina.   

Over the past several weeks I dove into the reading of Amundsen’s diaries of the venture across the top of Canada.  Wow. What incredible people and how, according to Amundsen they all got along so well. Lots of fun sailing tales too.  The gaff seemed to break several times, and the lack of wood was a big impact.  During their third winter they were on a beach loaded with driftwood and the tried to replace it....more on that later.

 

Progress

• The next 7 images are the familiar porcupine type images of early planking and all the finagling we do to fit clamps. 
• 
• Here are two images while at a breathing point, when the first two bands are done and planning the tough center ones commences. Since this is a painted hull, I am milling a few types of scrap wood.  most of the planking is cut down bass wood, but a few maple planks are in the stock.  

[Cathead]

This looks like a great project. I'm a big fan of Amundsen as an explorer and leader, and will enjoy watching this story take shape.

[Jond]

 

3 lower planks are on …what’s next

Fumbling along I got the rest of the planks on for the lower section of the hull.

• 
•  1 this view shows the joy when we get from clamps to wedges….I think that’s like getting to the red zone in an NFL Sunday.  
• 2-5 The next four images are two sides presanding.  I show the upside-down images as I will be changing away for the base board, needed up to this point, for the upper hull work as I have learned the hard way to cut out the building temporary bulkheads now.  They need to be out of the way before trying to match planking and the deck line.  Before that however we go to a challenge of this build.
• 

Painting.   I like building Maine boats, One reason is they are typical either black of white.  Gjoa is quite fancy and I need to stretch my skills accordingly.

• 6 The next image shows the hull in front of a Gjoa museum internet photo showing a nice detail of how to both planks and paint the upper hull. In the image below the top stake installed today will be green. when I go upward I will use two thinner strakes for the red then one thick green. 
• 

So I am off to the sanding and pre-paint prep to get the waterline on using the level benefit of the current build board before I remove it.

Cheers 
 

[Jond]

3b painting prep and firs paint

 

This update shows steps to get the lower hull ready and painted so I can removed if from the jig.

•  views 7-8 show results of glazing putty repairs and marking of the waterline. the hull is wet as I just damp rubbed it to get off all the dust.

• views 9-11 show my low tech means to build the gudgeons in brass and the plates and bolt heads using mylar fishing line

• views 12-13 show taping out the black section above the water line and afyer painting it.  

• views 14-15 show taping out to allow rattle can spray of heritage red for the bottom and "backside".  

I mentioned earlier that I am trying to build this model without buying new stuff.  As anyone knows, 12 years into retirement, our home collection of parts, wood etc. is ridiculous.  The problem came up when I started to spray red with a can that has sat for more than a year, it wasn't pretty.   We'll see in the next post how all came out.  

 

cheers

 

[Dr PR]

jond,

 

I am curious about the tools you are using for soldering the gudgeons. Those look like some pretty heavy duty clamps that are holding the parts. What are they? Photos? Part manufacturer and number??

 

I see an ordinary soldering iron in the background, but are the clamps part of a resistance soldering tool?

[Jond]

Phil

 

What I use is one of many soldering tables I found on line several years back.  I think I got mine from Rio Grande, but I'm not sure.  Here is photo of one on line that looks similar  I see several others and some a bit cheaper.    I am a total amature when it comes to soldering or any metal work.  That is one reason that I record my learning process.  One major issue in these small pieces is holding them steady.  These very rugged clamps are great for what I try to do making little fittings.   

The soldering iron I bought online after watching a friend's blog from nearby in Maine. When I saw it, I bought it.  I had found  many of the electrical ones I tried just didn't get it and was using butane torch on everything.....too much for this size.   ...this one does it quickly, so I am doing a little more each build.  

Edited Friday at 09:59 PM by Jond
added image

[Jond]

4 topside planking now started

 

This step is turning out to be a bit complicated.  It is easier to show than just to go forward with words. Here is my trial [ and probable error] attempt to do this upper planking. 

 

• 1 In this museum web photo we see green in sunlight. It is the color I am after.

• 2 In this image I dry fit the two thin stakes to plan clamping

• 3-4 here I try different greens and reds to capture the spirit of Norwegian painting. My shop work table overhead light is day light so a a good idea….I hope. 

• 5 A parallel task is to build the rudder and its pintels.

• 6-7. first then, and then the second strakes set in place.

• 8-10 dry fitting the top green stake and marking the bulkhead for removal at the deck level.

• 11-12 the bulkhead has been cut away above the deck line and the top green strake glued in place,

Next up is the port side .   I will then plan to remove the jig to get ready for the deck. The shaer plank protrudes through the planking.  

All fun.  I hope it works
 

[Harvey Golden]

Hi Jond! Nice to see another scratch built Gjøa on the ways!  My 1/32 version is a bit stagnant at the moment, though nearing completion. Yours is looking great, and I envy the slightly smaller scale! 

Best, Harvey

 

[sheepsail]

That green looks exactly like the green that some of the rooms in our house were painted when we moved in.   Now the underpainting in most of the rooms.

Was a real popular color in the 1950s.  I think the upstairs bathroom still has walls that color.

 

-julie

[Dr PR]

Before you add the deck I recommend sealing the interior of the hull planking with thin epoxy paint or the epoxy used for counter tops. This will seal cracks between planks and glue everything together solidly.

 

My early (1960-70s) planked hulls developed severe cracks between planks after a few years. Wood expands and contracts with humidity changes and causes the cracks to appear.

 

Since I started sealing the interior with epoxy I have had no cracks appear on hulls 40+ years old.

[Jond]

Harvey

 

thanks for dropping in.  I have enjoyed your build as i have started this one and will drop back many times. Your study and work on deck and with the rigging looks great.  I will highlight your source when i get to that stage.   I am still not sure what i will do for setting up the scene.   Perhaps when snow gets here it will come to me.    

 

 

cheers 

[Jond]

Julie

 

thanks again for jumping in.  I think working on the color is fun more than anything.  Most of out New England builds are a bit boring.   That said I fear "fiesta Green"  and " real Red" respect painting that was apparently important to the crew.  In Amundsen's diary he mentioned how before leaving after wintering, not only was the hull cleaned out and scrubbed, but they carried paint with them and touched it all up.  It's too bad their photos are all black and white.

 

cheers 

[Jond]

Phil

 

To seal the insides.......That sounds like great advice.  Back when I started all this modeling, my hulls were for Radio Control sailing and both inside and outside were epoxied.  Those hulls will last a long time..😀   I have never done that on my static hulls, but it makes a lot of sense to at least seal them, and I will do it. On this build , especially when the top strakes I am doing are so thin, a thin epoxy makes good sense.

 

thanks for the advice   

 

Jon  

[Jond]

4b topside planking done

 

This update takes us through the four topside strakes below the deck and taking the hull off the jig.  Then a quick look at possible ways forward.   That means’, what’s next? 

 

• 1-2  here we see the screws were undone holding the bulkhead blocking to the building board. Then the closeup shows the first cut back of the bulkhead at the deck level.

• 3-4 show the first cut down of the bulkheads to the top rail level.

 

What’s next to me is to figure out the extended frames acting as bulwark stanchions.  I am going by the theory that every other frame would have been extended. I stretched a ¼ inch scale tape and found most bulkheads are 7 feet apart in scale. That would mean mid frames to be 3.5 feet or 42 inch on center.  Half again would make frames at 21 inch centers, and that seems reasonable.   The bow curve increases the distance between bulkhead 1 to 3 by 2 feet [ in scale].

• 5. this hand drawn sketch shows my thought process.  To continue the logic of the hull framing foreword of bulkhead 3 would continue with four stanchions [ 8 frames]. The spacing would grow however to 4.24 feet or 51 inches.   I think that would be wrong.  Therefore, I will use option 2 and add another stanchion [ or ttw frames ] in this area to keep more reasonable spacing.    All of this thought is seat of my pants but I want to have at least thought about it.

 

• 6 this view shows I have milled down some Costello strips to act as extended frames.  I prefer their super smooth finish properties over a softer wood. 

 

• 7  This view shows the second cut down do the bulkheads. I am cautious to remove all and for now am keeping the center section up to the rail line.  I think that is waste of time for two reasons, so will likely change next week after more thought.  This hull bulwarks is made up of 4 parallel strakes so probably no reason.  If I make all the stanchions too high, they can get sanded back.  Thus, having set them from the lines is not needed.  I have learned the hard way that to build the bulwarks and then try to sand the bulkheads to use as deck framing is between awkward to impossible.  So Likely I will first sand the bulk heads down, add a few thin beams to control the canter of the deck first and add tall stanchions second.

• 8. There as a oops.  I foolishly thought to take my utility tool and cut smoother lines.  The sideways vibration of the utility tool dug into my top strake.    Oops.  One step back I guess.

• 9. I followed Phil's advise and brushed in a light coat of resin to make the inside of the planking wicked strong. Also I needed to remove the inside blocking at the transom that would have interfered with the decking.

[druxey]

Power tools always seem to come back and bite....