Arethusa by Elia - 1907 Knockabout Banks Fishing Schooner

[Elia]

Last fall I began tinkering with making a dory for my schooner with the idea of casting them in resin. The reasoning for casting them was that I didn’t think my build precision and tolerances could yield a stack of dories (5-6) in which the nested dories would resemble real stacks of dories which pack together fairly tightly.

I used a plan for a 15 foot (measured along the bottom of the dory) version. This is representative of the dories used during Arethusa’s era, and the length of dory used for halibut, cod, and other larger dory trawling fishing.

The first photo shows the plans I used.

The second photo shows the bulkheads aligned on a small build board. The transom and stem were extended to the build board and glued in place. Later on they were judiciously cut off the build board once the planking was complete.

The third photo shows the strakes used on the sides of the hull. The largest width strakes could have been left straight; I chose to pre-cut the lower edge to aid in alignment with the bottom plank. Take note that the upper strakes are purely straight planks with no in-plane spiling. This was very common.

The fourth photo shows the bottom surface glued and secured in place. The bottom has a slight rocker or camber (fore-aft) to it.

The fifth photo shows the second strake glued in place. The lap strake assembly method presented slight challenges to me. I tried applying the very small bevel to the mating surfaces of the adjoining strakes. When assembling it was difficult to get the strakes to stay in the correct spot as the bevels and the clamps (applying force - to the beveled surfaces) resulted in the upper strake/plank moving.

The sixth photo shows the dory with planking complete and cut off the build board. You can see the extended stem and transom in this photo.

The seventh photo shows the dory upside down.

I’ve done a little clean up on the dory, having trimmed down the stem and transom and will add the rail strips. I received a starter resin casting set for my birthday and my casting attempts will follow shortly.

Cheers,

Elia

Edited May 11, 2015 by Elia

[Omega1234]

Hi Elia

 

Really nice job on the dory! I would never have thought of doing resin castings, so I'm keen to see how yours turn out.

 

All the best!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[CAd My Fingers]

I'm with Patrick--am very keen to see how the resin castings workout; never would have thought of that and think it's a great idea, Elia!

 

Cheers,

Jay

[Elia]

Patrick, Jay, Lawrence,

 

Thanks for the dory comments. And thanks to all of those who've "liked" my posts. Tonight I spent some time with putty filling in the small open faps between the planks. I'm not sure how either the mold material nor tbe casting resin flows and what width gap won't or will show up, so a little filler I think will help in the process and aid a good flow of the resin from the planks adjacent on the sides and to the stem and trasom. We shall see. Something I'm not certain of, either, is how thin I can make some of the little frame details and get resin flowing into them. With a little time this weekend i'll work on the molds.

 

Lawrence,

 

You are a dory building machine! I find when I'm making multiples of some item I fine tune my process as I progress and usually my first efforts aren't up to the quality or consistency of my later efforts. I think all your dories look very good and any of them will complement your fibe schooner model.

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[frenchguy]

Hi Elia,

I thought you might be interested in this article in the latest issue of BoatUS magazine: http://www.boatus.com/magazine/2015/june/the-real-mccoy.asp

It’s about Bill McCoy who purchased the Arethusa in the 1920’s for a purpose that, let say was not exactly as glamorous as mackerel fishing 

There are some pictures of the Arethusa deck in there. Something I learned is that the wheel of the Arethusa was the model for the helm of the famous Gloucester Fisherman’s memorial in Gloucester.

[Elia]

Frenchguy,

 

Thanks for that link. I've read some on Billy McCoy and have seen some photos of Arethusa (Tomoka) during the rum running years. There were some photos I hadn't seen before there. The photo of Rye Whiskey stacked like hams in the hold was amusing to me, as were the deck photos.

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[Landlocked123]

The build log reconstruction begins...

 

It has been a long time since I’ve started a new sailing ship build, with my sailing ship model (Oneida) taking about 4 years to complete.  Ever since building Smuggler, an 1870’s mackerel seiner from Gloucester, I’ve been smitten by 19th and 20th century American fishing schooners.  There are a number builds, both in progress and completed, that have been inspiring to me – Bluenose builds, a couple of Ben Lathams, a scratch build of Columbia, and even a few of the “yachty” Americas.  Jim Lefever, who’s impressive Benjamin Latham build was a great inspiration for me, provided me with a list of great reading references on American fishing schooners.  After receiving a number of them as gifts, and reading through them, I knew my next build would have to be another fishing schooner.  I have to admit right up front that Arethusa, an early 1900s fishing schooner and the topic of this build, was never called the “Goddess of Gloucester”.  She was a goddess in Greek mythology.  The schooner was named after one of Thomas McManus's daughters.  I just thought that 'Goddess of Gloucester' fit to her will and made for a catchy name for this log.  Arethusa, the schooner, was big, beautiful, and had a colorful history – sounds interesting to me.  Enough about my motivations and ramblings….let’s get on with the ship.  

 

Arethusa was designed by Thomas F. McManus in 1907 and built by James and Tarr in Essex, Massachusetts, in 1909.  She was what is termed a knockabout schooner.  Unlike traditional schooners, with bowsprits (and jibbooms, and flying jibbooms), knockabout schooners had an extended bow and no bowsprit.  The extended bow essentially placed the fore topmast stay at the same position as on a traditional schooner.  With that configuration of stay location the crew wouldn’t be required to climb out on the typically poorly maintained footropes aside the bowsprit in order to perform tasks involving the sails and rigging.  This was a Thomas McManus innovation, based on his observations and discussions with fisherman and owners, and was meant to reduce sailing crew injuries and deaths.

 

I am using Howard I. Chapelle’s lines drawing and sail plan of Arethusa from his “American Fishing Schooners”, plate 120 and figure 30.  “American Fishing Schooners” (AFS) has a great deal of detail in it’s appendix on most of the features of late 19th century and early 20th century schooners, and it is these I will use to build the details of the model.  If anyone knows of more details about Arethusa I would be most grateful to learn of them.  I have contacted Mystic Seaport Museum about their collection but found that while Arethusa is listed in their collection they don’t have any more information than that (little) which is shown in AFS.

 

Following are some excerpts from “Thomas F. McManus and the American Fishing Schooners”, by W.M.P. Dunne, on Arethusa:

 

James and Tarr “...completed her on 25 September 1907.  Fifteen feet longer than the Pontiac, the Arethusa was, nevertheless, a deep, short ended knockabout, with the typically knuckled straight run of the keel (although with less drag), that Tom favored in this class, and more tumblehome.  Once again he experimented with the rig.  He stepped the foremast farther forward with the masts further apart.  Right from the start, the big fisherman earned a reputation as a speedster.  Captain Clayton Morrisey, the Arethusa’s first skipper waxed poetic: “She’s the slickest bit of wood that ever went down to Bay of Islands.  Nothing can touch her and an eight-year-old girl’s little finger is stout enough to spin the wheel no matter how fresh it breezes.”  “Can she sail?” exclaimed Captain Morrisey, opening his eyes as if he didn’t quite believe his ears.  “Why, when we were coming up from the herring grounds she cut out her 13 knots an hour for six consecutive hours.”

    “We’d see a blotch of smoke away ahead on the horizon and in a little while would make out a tramp steamer bound our way.  Pretty soon the Arethusa was kiting alongside the tramp and then we’d lose sight of her astern.  She did that trick a number of times.”

    In fact, with Clayt Morrissey at the helm in 1912, the Arethusa would easily outrun the Canadian Dominion fisheries’ patrol steamer Fiona, “whose commander opined the Arethusa was violating the three-mile limit.”

 

        “At the beginning of 1921, soon after the new [prohibition] law was in place, Captain William F. “Bill” McCoy, a sometime Daytona Beach, Florida, boatbuilder, guided his fully-laden McManus schooner, the Henry L. Marshall, past the Tybee Lighthouse and up the river to Savannah, where, in the dark of the night, he discharged not fish, but 1,500 cases of illicit liquor.  With the proceeds, McCoy replaced himself with a new skipper on board the Marshall and went to Gloucester in search of the boat of his dreams, Tom’s speedy Arethusa.  Although McCoy had fished the Marshall legitimately until after the Eighteenth Amendment dried out the country, he had always thirsted for Arethusa.  With Gloucester feeling the effect of postwar economic contraction, the owners of the fourteen-year-old schooner…..sold her to McCoy in April 1921.  The Arethusa became a rum runner, a fast freighter of bootleg spirits.  McCoy renamed her Tomoka, added a bowsprit so she could carry two jibs, jumbo and jib topsail-and a lot of liquor (she had the capacity of 6,000 cases of illegal alcohol).

    He brought the Tomoka to anchor just outside the then three mile limit of United States waters, but well within site of the beach.  He soon began a thriving business with New York and New Jersey bootleggers…. “  [this is where the term ‘the real McCoy’ came from]

 

Arethusa later returned to fishing, and was lost off Halifax in November 1929.  Her particulars are:

 

Designer                Thomas F. McManus

Builder                    Tarr and James

Launch date                25 September 1907

Gross tonnage                157 tons

Molded length at caprail of        127’ – 3”    

Molded beam                25’ – 0”

Molded depth                13’ – 2”

Registered dimensions        114.0’ x 25.6’ x 12.5’

 

 

I love this boat! John

[Landlocked123]

I've spent the past few weeks preparing for, and painting, the rails and hull.  For the most part it was turned quite acceptable to me.  There is one glaring exception, and I'll focus on that later.

 

Once the Monkey Rails were completed I proceeded to apply a sealer/primer to the rails, perform a light sanding, and then apply two coats of my white mix.  The only masking done was to protect previously painted deck and bulwarks.

 

A while ago, when planking the hull, I built an inverted stand for Arethusa, one that located the hull by the two mast holes and a number of contact points on the deck.  The stand allowed the inverted hull to located such that the waterline as horizontal, parallel to the surface it was placed upon.  This stand, very crude compared to some of the tools and stand folks here build for their models, came in quite useful a number of times.

 

I used the stand to mark the waterline with a pencil, a light line, on the hull.  I then applied two coats of the anti-fouling red/brown lower hull paint.  I purposefully carried the red paint up above the waterline mark.

 

After painting all of the rails white and the hull red, and allowing a couple of days for full drying, I masked the edges of the rails where the hull black and rail white meet.  I also remarked the waterline with my handy dandy stand, and then masked the edge of the black paint at the waterline.

 

I had previously used a draw plate/template to form the very narrow cove along the edge of the waist plank.  In full scale the cove is something like 3/8” wide, so one can image how narrow it is for a 1/48 scale model.  I was able to carve a fairly narrow cove into the plank, but it wasn’t very even.  In the process of scraping it into the plank I felt it wander, almost catching on the wood grain as it went.  I’ve looked at this detail for quite some time and had mixed feelings about it.  I was proud of having made such a narrow cove, but unhappy that is wasn’t straight and perfectly parallel to the plank edge. Herein lies the problem I encountered.  I painted the yellow of the cove, two coats, extending the paint above and below the cove to ensure the cove was fully painted.  Once that paint had cured I applied masking tape to the cove.  I had found 1/64” wide masking tape from an on-line modeling supplier and purchased it.  This stuff is rather amazing in it’s narrowness.  When I tried to apply the tape to the cove I found it very difficult to get the tape to nest down into the cove - it wanted to wander about in the cove...reminiscent of when I scraped the cove some time ago.  

 

I applied tape edge sealing coats of each of the three paint colors - white along the edge of the rails, red/brown along waterline, and yellow at the cove.  This was done to seal the edge of the tape and not allow the over-coat color to bleed under the tape.

 

Once those had dried I was clear to apply the upper hull black paint.  Two coats were applied.  The white/black edge along the rails worked quite well, as did the red/black edge at the waterline.  There were one or two very minor bleed spots, but all in all I think a good success.

 

Now....back to that yellow cove.  Once the black paint had dried I peeled back that 1/64” tape...and....not good.  The thinness of the yellow was excellent.  But, the masked sections wandered along the wandering cove.  And there was appreciable black paint bleed beneath the tape.  I am very disappointed in this and am stewing over ways to correct it. 

 

Following are a few photos of the painted hull, without and with deck furniture.  The quarterdeck of these schooners had a unique deck planking run - the planks were set parallel to the cabin, as that was a large cutout in the deck (a strength issue), to provide as much continuous planking strength as possible.  Thus, there is some unique nibbing of the outboard planks along the margin plank/waterway.  

 

The fish pens and dory skids are shown also.  The bait gurry isn't located quite properly, either.

 

Cheers,

Hi Elia,

 

In the post above you mention your "white mix". I have been trying everything to get a white which covers without building up. It looks like you accomplished realy crisp whites. Would you share your "white mix"? A member of my club suggested Zisser a stain/knot covering highly pigmented varnish. I look forward to your advice.

 

Best, John

[Elia]

John,

 

I have used Liquitex soft body acrylics on Arethusa. My white mix consists of a white base and trace amounts of Burnt Umber and Thalo Blue. And when I say trace amounts, particularly the blue, I mean really tiny amounts. The blue can very easily overwhelm the white....making it a sky blue in no time. When I painted my deck and rails I had custom mixed each of my colors. I have since learned that is easier to mix a gray color, such as the deck color, and then use that to tint the other colors. This gives a consistence of tone across all of the colors on the ship. Liquitex soft body paints, I find, are still too thick to yield a thin smooth coat of paint. They also exhibit a slight sheen or glossiness. I 'cut' my acrylics with Liquitex's Matte Medium. This thins the paint while maintaining to some degree the pigment (versus thinning with water). It also has the benefit of giving the paint a matte finish. It isn't dead flat, but it is better, to my eye, than the glossier stock acrylic paint. If I recall correctly I applied two coats of paint on the white surfaces.

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[Dimitris71]

Hello Elia, just checking for new updates... How are you? I hope everything is alright.. :)

 

Kind Regards

Dimitris

[Elia]

Hi Dimitris,

 

I am fine. Thanks for asking. This past summer I took on a number of home projects - rewiring my shop (now grounded outlets and lights!), solved some basement plumbing problems, and I demolished and rebuilt a crumbling stone walkway and stairs. Those took some time; the walkway and stairs are now done, with just a little cleanup remaining. Couple that to running the kids to sport practices, school work, etc and I haven't found time for modeling. I hope to get some modeling in during the holidays.

 

I pop in every so often to MSW to see some modeling - always inspiring and keeps the modeling embers lit.

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[Dimitris71]

Glad to hear it Elia!! Kids tell me about it...lol . School, tennis , piano, English etc.... Nice to hear from you!!!

 

Kind regards

Dimitris

[captainbob]

You're doing fine.  Last time I moved it took nine months to get back to modeling.

 

Bob

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Have just discovered your log for the Arethusa. Its magnificent! I I am not sure I have ever seen better deck fittings, and yes I know this is a strong statement. But put it this way: If I never see better deck fittings on models I will NOT feel cheated. I think a lot of builders take schooners as being some sort of lesser class of subject matter and often you see simplifications in details and rigging on schooner models, as if the bar was low for schooners. So I am very pleased to see the lengths you are going to to do the subject proper justice. Yah Thalo Blue is a very very strong pigment! Why not ultramarine or cobalt? I can't think of ANY other color with the power to alter the final color mixture with such a tiny portion of itself in the mix, no other pigment I know of is as strong.

[Omega1234]

Happy belated Birthday for the 28th, Elia!!!

 

I hope you had a great day. Here's looking at many more to come.

 

All the best.

 

Patrick

Edited April 29, 2016 by Omega1234

[Elia]

Jersey City Frankie

 

Thank you very much. I lean towards trying my utmost towards scale and detail (though sometimes I find I need to say enough is enough and move along or no progress is made) ... Sometimes that is a double edge sword...having to repeat my work several times.

 

The Thalo blue was on a set of pigment recommendations.. Fortunately I've work out the colors and hews and don't have to struggle with that any longer.

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

Edited April 30, 2016 by Elia

[Elia]

Hi Patrick,

 

Thank you much for the wishes. It has been a fine day, some time with my new book (Ed T's Young America 1853), some time coordinating a home renovation projecy, a nice dinner and cake...

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[Landlocked123]

Hi Elia,

 

I am going to try the Woodland Dry Transfer letters on my schooner. It is the Smuggler and I'm trying to figure out how to layout the letters. Do I figure the length of the name and Gloucester together and and center the letters below the monkey rail or do I center between Smuggler ~ Gloucester? I hope this makes sense. Thanks for your help.

 

Best,

John

[Elia]

Hi John,

 

I think I understand your question. I would determine the length of the entire 'Smuggler_Gloucester' (all on one line or gentle arc) assuming some gap distance between each of the letters and also the larger space between the words, find the mid-point of it, and center that midpoint on the centerline of the transom or monkeyrail. If you choose to do the alternate you may find one of the words, likely Gloucester, wrapping around the rail or transom pretty far. I attempted the former on my schooner and it worked out Ok.

 

Hi Lawrence,

 

Thank you! I did get a few Ship modeling goodies... I haven't tried them yet as I'm at the beginning of a kitchen 'minor project' which will keep me busy for a little while.

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

Edited May 12, 2016 by Elia

[Landlocked123]

Thanks Elia,

 

That sounds spot on.

 

Best,

John

[Elia]

Hi Lawrence,

 

Thank you for inquiring about my progress.

 

My job has taken me out-of-town a bit but I've been able to make progress through little snippets of time.  

 

I've fabricated much of the mast and spar iron work, though the soldering step(s) remain. 

 

I've proceeded with partially making the mold for casting my dories - it is a two part mold and I've made the first half.  

 

I recently purchased some of Chuck Passaro's internally iron stropped block kits and hope to begin assembling them shortly.  These are amazing little block kits - perfectly appropriate for Arethusa.  I hope to do them justice.

 

I've also been reading up on how folks here at MSW have made their silkspan sails (many here producing quite convincing sails), along with having ordered the sail making supplement to TFFM from Sea Watch Books - I'm certain it will be highly informative and hopefully will guide me along in making sails for Arethusa.

 

I'll try posting some images (from my cell phone).

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[Elia]

So .... here are some initial 'casting my dories' images (taken with my cell phone).

 

The first two are my dory, puttied, sanded, and primed.

 

The next is of my mold box constructed of Lego blocks.

 

Following that is my mold box with clay, the blank, and vented tubes placed.

 

I purchased a starter kit from MicroMark - showing the mold two part materials.

 

Then there is slowly mixing up the silicone mold batter.

 

And lastly the mold filled.  

 

I have taken the blank out out of the mold and the first half looks pretty good - though I don't have a picture of it here...

 

Elia

[Elia]

While I putter along with things here is an in-process picture of the masts and spars and their associated ironwork.  I still have some to do on the topmasts.  And there are a few fittings which I'll fret saw and file from thicker brass sheet.  I'll solder the soft or load bearing joints shortly.

 

Elia

[russ]

Elia:

Nice looking spars and fittings. These early 20th century fishing schooners have a lot of metal work and yours looks great.

 

Russ

 

 

[Pete Jaquith]

Elia,

Nice looking spars and rigging ironwork.  I look forward to seeing your work on silkspan sails as I plan to go that way for future builds.

 

Regards,

Pete

 

[Elia]

Russ, Pete,

 

Thank you.  It has been very enjoyable working on this again.  If you recall from an earlier time I was unhappy with the stain color of the spars and masts. Today I took 200 and 400 grit sandpaper to the spars and masts and was able to remove much of the offending hew. 

 

Pete - I'll post progress pictures of the sails once I have time to read through the mini-practicum and perform some trials.  I really liked working with silkspan on my Oneida's furled sails but clearly didn't have an entirely proper method for them, and some problems emerged.

 

Elia

[Elia]

Some of today's effort: assembling some of the Syren Ship Model Company's internally iron stropped blocks.  

 

In the first picture you'll find, on the left, how the mini-kits arrive.  

 

In the center/top are blocks glued together using medium CA and toothpicks (per the online instructions).  

 

At the right are the sheave pin 'wire' and the incredibly fine strip stock used for the strops in the remaining bags.

 

In the center you'll see blocks snipped off the frames and also blocks which have had the sprue and laser burn sanded off.  I found using a no. 11 blade wasn't the best way to separate the blocks from the frame - it is easy for the sprue to snap off at part and remove a small chunk of the block. The shears shown worked quite well at separating the block without the damage to the block.

 

The second picture is a close up of the blocks.

 

I tried inserting the fine strip stock into the laser cut slots - they worked perfectly on the couple I tried.

 

I will have to wait a short while before I can tumble them to smooth the edges.

 

Elia

[Elia]

Oh I feel a drop off in productivity nearing...

 

these all just arrived...

Edited September 3, 2017 by Elia

[Elia]

Hi Lawrence,

 

Thanks for dropping in.  Now that spring is here and my basement isn't uncomfortably cold I will get back to finishing those blocks.  I purchased essentially all but the very smallest blocks for my schooner from Siren Ship as the build up blocks.  The very smallest blocks required were smaller than the smallest size Chuck offers.  For those Chuck tried to create some custom small blocks but couldn't get them work out, so I purchased some if his standard blocks for those smallest sizes.  The blocks look surprisingly realistic for a built up internally iron stropped type.  The only 'limiting' aspect I had to accept was that the blocks are available in fewer block sizes than the range specified for the actual ship.  Not too big of an issue for me.

 

Those books of Ed T's on his clipper model Young America are as impressive as his build.  I've got both books and await the next one on rigging.  Just last night I dropped them off with my dad - for his perusal and enjoyment - while he recovers from a medical set back.  He really loves clipper ships so I'll bet he spends hours wading into the books and plans.  Honestly, I can't consider something like Young America for years (more than a decade) ... my family consumes far too much time and its only once the kids are through college that I would have the time to devote to such a massive undertaking.  All I want is to keep making progress, as slow as it is, on my Arethusa.

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[Mahuna]

Hi Elia

 

I'm looking forward to seeing more progress on Arethusa.

 

I've ordered Chuck's internally stropped blocks after seeing yours during your visit, and really like them.  I wish there were some smaller versions for my Kathryn build, since they're slightly bigger than I need for some of the rigging.  The traditional blocks that are available aren't configured like the more modern blocks used on Kathryn, so I'll need to decide whether I try to make my own.

 

I know it can be frustrating to not be able to make progress on your model - many other modelers run into the same issues with life and responsibilities getting in the way.  EdT's Victory model is a great example of completing a build over many years - started in 1976 and finished in 2009 and very much worth the wait.  I've seen it in person and it's superb - hard to believe it was his first model.