Sovereign of The Seas by SawdustDave - FINISHED

[SawdustDave]

Plan sheets arrived today - Carta Augusto (Italian Mfg.).... Appear to be very old, maybe 25 or 30 years or more.  My friend tells me he has had them forever and doesn't even remember where he got them from.  He came across them while looking for something to donate for the April Show in Fayetteville.

 

Actually, after spending hours going over several really fine build logs posted within MSW, except for the patterns for her keel and frames, I'm not too sure there will be much of these plans I will be using in my build. 

 

 

The drawings of all the ornamentation do not represent anything like I want to create after reading Bill Short's extensive research. 

 

 

For the most part, I will be using his interpretation of this ship.  Here is his amazing stern creation..... pretty impressive huh?

 

 

Here goes nothing!  Wish me luck (I'll need all I can get).

 

 

 

 

[GLakie]

By looking at all that ornamentation, I'll certainly give you all I can muster up Dave! I'm sure this will put your carving skills to the test.   

 

Cheers

[SawdustDave]

My carving skills.... although I do love to carve, I'm leaning more toward using Skulpy for most of the ornamentation....much faster than shaping raw wood and can get the same details.  Some of the carvings I see are redundant and can be replicated with molds.... also kinda neat to do.  It's going to be a while before I get around to the fun part, although I might decide to play around with some of the figures to break up the monotony of forming and planking her hull.

Sounds like a plan for now.

[SawdustDave]

Once you get into her history, it is quite spell binding. This ship is a perfect example of a king, being so carried away with his own selfish image, that he managed to bring a great nation to it's knees with the financial burden of his folly. Obviously, Charles I was a very vain and foolish ruler, and SOS proved to be his downfall.

Hmmm, I wonder if.... better not go there.

Edited March 2, 2015 by SawdustDave

[GLakie]

The Egyptians had the same problem when Khufu virtually used up almost all of their resources when he had the Great Pyramid built. I love ancient history! 

 

Cheers

[Jaager]

There are 2 relatively recent books about this vessel:  authors - James Sephton, 2011 and Hendrick Basmann, 2002.

 

Before you cut wood, you may wish to check the following:

Possible - about the time that these plans were drawn, there was misunderstanding about hull length.

After about 1700, the given length was that of LBP (length between perpendiculars) with the perpendiculars being where the inside of the scarph at the stempost and sternpost meet the line of the gundeck (or main deck). There were slight variations in nominclature.  There was at least one set of plans for a 17th century warship drawn using this to match the published hull length.

Before ~1700, the given length was "touch" ( the portion of the keel assembly that is congruent with the baseline).  The stem and sternpost made the actual length longer.

If the published length matches what would be LBP - then the plans have the vessel about 20% too short.

[Jaekon Lee]

Great start, Dave! Dream ship of the modelers.

[mtaylor]

Dave, you've picked quite a project.   I'm pulling up a chair and looking forward to seeing this.

[NMBROOK]

Hi Dave

These plans appear to be almost identical to the Amati ones I have.I know that there isn't anything definitive regarding Sovereign's appearance,but for the most part,these plans are in contradiction with what reference sources are available.The discrepancies between various sources regarding her actual shape is discussed in Sephton's book at great length.

 

Kind Regards

 

Nigel

[NenadM]

Great challenge Dave. As I saw in your logs, you like challenges and had a great fun in it. Of course, you have skill to deal with

 

Have a lot of fun my friend, between poker nights

 

Force will be with you

[SawdustDave]

Spent the day tracing keel and frame patterns.... ready to take the old DeWalt saber saw to the keel this morning.... the frames are small enough to allow me to play with my ancient band saw. 

Nigel.... just knowing you might pop in occasionally is kinda intimidating, but will only serve to pressure me to "up my game".... so long as you allow me to use your amazing build as a primary visual resource. 

Jaager.... Thanks for the info (way over my head), but technical "discrepancies" are not really much of an issue to me.... no apologies to those of you who I admire for your dedication to the art.  But I decided long ago, as long as my kids, grand kids, and great grand kids, look at what I leave behind and say "WOW!" it will be fine with me. 

Welcome aboard mate.

 

Rest assured my friends, regardless of the end results, this should be the ultimate fun challenge for someone of my moderate skills.

Now, let's make some sawdust.

Edited March 3, 2015 by SawdustDave

[tarbrush]

Pulling up a chair to watch Dave.  Best of luck with you build, your Mayflowers came out beautiful!

[Jaager]

I got plans for HMS Prince a long time ago.  I later worked thru part of the exercise in Deane's Doctrine in developing plans for a first rate of about 1670.  In doing this, I learned that vessel length was based on touch of the keel.  When I checked the plans of HMS Prince, I found that its length was based on LBP, not touch.  The model plans were about 25-30 feet too short.  Because they used the model in the Science Museum to provide the deck details, the deck is a bit crowded - trying to squeeze in the hatches and bits and such and the gunports were too close together.  Plus, the model looks short and fat.   

If your plans are too short, you can measure the distance from the front edge of the keel to the scraph of the stem at the gundeck and the back edge of the keel to the scarph on the sternpost.  Add this distance to the center of the Keel piece at the dead flat (midship mold).  Make two more copies of the midship mold and add them on either side of "0" and  call one "A" and the other "1".  You will need to adjust the gunports, and deck furniture between the quarterdeck and forecastle, but you will have the correct distance to place it all.  This will save having to redraft the hull lines

[SawdustDave]

Jagger.... You have raised my curiosity, but left me somewhat confused. 

So if I want to check the dimensions of the plans I have and compare the keel length and beam width found in the Wikipedia research article, can you tell me (in the simplest terms possible), exactly where do I measure my plans (point to point) in order to be comparing apples to apples.

Wikipedia .... Keel length 127 ft..... Beam width 47.6 ft (after re-build)

[Jaager]

OK.  On your 1st jpeg - the keel - at the stern - extend the inner line of the sternpost to the lowest horizontal line. This will be the aft end of the keel "touch".  At the bow, the fore part of the "touch" is where the stem line starts to curve up.  Measure this distance.  Using the scale of the plans  (1:76, 1:72, 1:64)  Covert  measured inches to full size feet.  

If the scale is 1:76, then  127 feet should be = 1.67 feet or 20 1/16 inches.   If the measured touch is 20 inches then the plans are correct.  If it is closer to 16 inches, then  the plans were drawn incorrectly.  At the place on the keel where the center mold is placed - add the extra length.  If you measure 16 inches and it should be 20 1/16 add 4 1/16 more to the keel here. 

Adding more molds is not a bad thing.  If you had twice as many or more, you could get by with just a single layer of planking. The planks would need to be twice as thick.  The hard part is that you would have to draft the outlines of the intermediate molds.  When you do this, you are doing the most difficult and most tedious part of POF construction.

[edmay]

Hello Dave, I would say your skills are somewhat more than adequate, very capable is more like it.After following your Mayflower builds, your methodical method of thorough attention to detail.The depth of your research.The quality of your workmanship,makes the "time is right" for you to build this grand ship, the only thing I would add is to display some kind of plaque giving your viewed ship some mentions of it's history. Secondly you will probably need more chairs as your audience I feel will be quite large and enthusiastic. Just my two cents worth.Edwin.

[SawdustDave]

Thank you Jaager for that information. Measuring my keel as you so clearly explained, I get exactly 23.5".... which converts to

1:65th scale.... which I assume would actually be 1:64th.

Edited March 4, 2015 by SawdustDave

[SawdustDave]

Good to now know the exact scale of these plans seem to be accurate. Particularly since I have spent the last two days tracing and cutting the keel and frames.

 

 

She is a big ol' lady.

[NenadM]

Nice start

[SawdustDave]

Since one of the early tasks, along with getting the first layer of planks onto the hull, is planking the decks, I have been playing around with trying something new (for me). I like the initial results and thought I would share it this morning.

I have always liked basswood planking, using the jumbo craft sticks (1" x 8"). It takes a nice edge and stains up quite nicely.

 

I also like to use black fishing line as caulking between each plank, as opposed to paper, or simply drawing in with a pencil. So the question became....

How can planking be done without fitting each and every single plank individually, and improve the technique of applying the caulking lines.

Here's what I came up with....

Created a rip fence jig for my mini table saw with a spacer shim.... the jig is set at a height to give me a perfect slot cut on each edge without passing through the thickness of the board.

Removing the shim allows me to get a second, perfectly spaced slot on each edge....

The result looks like this....

[SawdustDave]

And here's the finished board.... five perfectly caulked planks in one piece.

[dgbot]

I think caulking for deck planking should be a little subtle.  That is why I use a pencil of the edge.  It all depends on the scale of the build.  Plus when using line for the caulking you have to be careful when smoothing the deck.  Good luck.

David B

[SawdustDave]

Subtle vs. bold caulking.... I agree David. Thanks for the input.

 

I tend think the scale of this build allows for the caulking seen here. However, once the decks are installed, I will dry fit a few of these and see if it fits my eye. If it doesn't, I have a thinner kerf blade I can go to with the same jig. This, of course, would allow me to use a thinner caulking line.

 

As for smoothing the deck, the depth of the slots is quite sufficient in this case.... no issue.

 

UPDATE:

This experiment did not go as well as I had hoped....too much work to get the staggered end butts to look right.... And, I tend to agree, the caulking was a little too bold for the eye. Not my first or last experiment.... to me, it's just part of the shipyard fun.

Part of the fun

Edited March 9, 2015 by SawdustDave

[Jack12477]

When planking the deck I use the Elmer's glue for dark woods - it leaves a nice dark line between planks

[CaptainSteve]

Radical new approach to planking there, Dave.

Consider me most impressed.

 

One question, what about the butts of the planks ??

[SawdustDave]

Jack.... Nice suggestion, however, still requires individual one-at-a-time planking. A big part of my effort here was to come up with a five-plank unit to install.

 

Cap. Steve.... The butts can easily be achieved with a knife....interlocking the units in the waste area where longer planks will be required. The staggered butts will also be scribed in with a sharp Exacto blade. Been there - done that.

Edited March 5, 2015 by SawdustDave

[SawdustDave]

BREAKING HISTORIC NEWS!

In my research, I have uncovered a never-before-seen document that will change the history books.

In 1634, at the order of King Charles I, British forces invaded Malaysia for the sole purpose of raiding their harvest of bamboo trees!

 

Learning that bamboo is the strongest and most enduring wood product in the world, superior in strength and resilience to other natural fibrous building materials, with a higher compressive strength than wood, brick or concrete and a tensile strength that rivals steel.... King Chuck decided his Sovereign of the Seas MUST be planked with laminated bamboo. He also discovered there was no bamboo in England.

 

That's right mates, after all these years, I have just discovered that the entire hull of SOS was planked with bamboo!

 

Now isn't that a crazy coincidence, since I just this very day happened to pick up another bamboo serving tray at Wal-Mart.

Crazy world huh?

 

OK, I was kidding about King Chuck invading Malaysia?

But.... if he had known about bamboo at the time....who knows?

Edited March 5, 2015 by SawdustDave

[GLakie]

That's interesting Dave. Been sniffing around for a source myself, so I'll be very curious to see how well bamboo is to work with for planking. Just happens to be a Wally right up the street from me. 

[SawdustDave]

George.... just take a look at the planking of my larger Mayflower. Stunning!

[GLakie]

Oh yeah! That turned out beautiful. My Connie's a sizable ship, so I'll probably need 3 or 4 trays. Might use it for the deck too! 

 

Cheers