Brig Eagle by robnbill - 1:48

[robnbill]

Once I saw the end approaching to my USS Constitution build I started looking for my next project. I was looking for something that would hook my interest in both the construction as well as the history. I wanted something challenging that would also push my skills. I found and downloaded Gene Bodnar’s Practicum on the USS Brig Eagle. This is a plank on Frame Admiralty build that can be fully rigged or left unrigged in Admiralty style.

 

The Eagle was built at Vergennes, Vermont between July 23rd and August 11th of 1814 by shipwright Adam Brown. An amazing feat in itself when you consider it generally took many months to build a ship of this size and the shipbuilders who built this ship did it in only 19 days. But time was of the essence.

 

The wreck of the ship was found in the freshwater mud off Lake Champlain and fully documented in the dissertation. It was a built in 19 days for the war of 1812 and was responsible in large part for the defeat of the British fleet in the Battle of Plattsburg Bay. However it was built of green wood and began to rot almost as soon as it was completed. After the war it was stripped and mothballed and eventually sunk where she was mothballed.

 

The practicum is a detailed instruction for taking the basic ship's plans and working through the lofting process to the completed build. This modeling project at 1/4" = 1' scale is based on a Masters Thesis and plans by Professor Kevin J Crisman of Texas A & M University.

 

Here are some brief notes on the Eagle from the Texas A&M Nautical Archaeology Program site.

 

 

 

The United States Navy brig Eagle was built at Vergennes, Vermont, and constituted the final addition to Commodore Thomas Macdonough's War of 1812 naval squadron on Lake Champlain. The 117-foot-long hull was constructed and launched by master shipwright Adam Brown in only 19 days during the summer 1814. Outfitted with two masts and 20 cannon, and manned by a crew of 150 men, the brig participated in Macdonough's defeat of an invading British naval fleet at the Battle of Plattsburgh Bay. The Eagle was maintained for several years after the war, until her timbers became decayed and she was abandoned by the Navy in 1825.

 

The submerged and partially-dismembered wreck of the Eagle was discovered in 1981 near Whitehall, New York. A two-year archaeological study of the vessel was sponsored by the Champlain Maritime Society, during which time the dimensions of the hull timbers were documented by divers. Archival research was also conducted on the history of the warship.

 

Wreck plans were prepared from the measurements recorded by the divers, and the techniques of hull construction employed by Adam Brown were examined. The wreck plans and contemporary construction information were then used to reconstruct the original appearance of the brig. The design and assembly of the Eagle were graphically depicted in the form of hull lines, construction plans, and rigging plans. The hull of the brig was compared to other War of 1812 warships on the oceans, and on Lakes Erie, Ontario, and Champlain.

 

The evaluation of the hull and the comparison with contemporary vessels have led to the conclusion that the Eagle was specially designed for accelerated construction and a career on the shallow, protected waters of Lake Champlain.

 

 

 

This is attractive because it will be a challenge that will require lofting my own plans as well as building my first Plank on Frame ship. It is also supported by a detailed practicum as well as the extensive dissertation. While it is being built by a small number of modelers on Model Ship Builder, Gene Bodnar, the developer of the practicum is very active on the boards.

 

Fully rigged the ship’s dimensions will be:

 

L = 45"

H = 31 1/4"

W = 6 1/2"

 

Here is a photo from the practicum.

 

[jwvolz]

I'm looking forward to following this one Bill. I've always liked the Eagle, and thought this would be a great subject to build someday. I'll be really interested watching the lofting develop. 

 

Good luck. 

[robnbill]

There are a number of steps to get this model ready to build. The first is to collect the general ship plans. Those are the Sheer plan, the Half Breadth, and the Body Plan. Then these need to be enlarged to the correct scale where ¼" is equal to a foot. These are used to develop all other plans. These plans all come from Dr. Crisman's materials. In addition to the dissertation, he wrote a book, which is a slight expansion of the dissertation and there was a book edited by Dr. Crisman published last year by Texas A&M University that called Coffins of the Brave, Lake Shipwrecks of the War of 1812. This material expands that found in the previous work as well as makes some slight changes to the ship based upon later research.

 

Rather than manually attempt at enlarging and copying, I decided to pull all of this into my CAD program and redraw them. Since all the existing plans were published in books, the enlargements made the lines fat, as well as some basic inconsistencies between the various plans primary due to enlarging artifacts . By redrawing these in CAD, I was able to place them all accurately in scale and have very clean drawings from which to work with. 

 

Over the last 9 months I have refined these drawings and was lucky enough to get Dr. Crisman to review them and provide comments which I was able to incorporate. As a result I have ended up with drawings that are consistent and accurate across all views and include the latest information from Dr. Crisman. Some of the changes base upon the previous plans include replacing the ship's wheel with a tiller, adding a capstan aft of the main mast. In addition, I decided based upon the "in for a penny, in for a pound" philosophy to build the frames aligned on that found in the wreck. This meant that the frames are not evenly spaced across the ship. Due to the exigencies of the war and the speed this needed to be built, some of the basic premises of ship building were ignored during the build. Green wood was used, knees were not used, rather the deck clamps were beefed up. This was not a ship designed to last. A case an point was soft, rot prone woods were found used deep in the ship. To replace them would mean massive overhaul of the ship. 

 

Also, Dr. Crisman's drawings had been misinterpreted to show a double rail. What he was trying to show was a single rail with hammock cranes mounted to the top.

 

While this will be an admiralty build, and thus not fully planked, I have not yet made the decisions on whether to rig it or not. I am also interested in showing the probable berth deck layout. Other than the number and location of deck support columns, remains of a shot locker and pump locations, little hard evidence remains of the layout. However, layouts of similar sized ships both from the same builders and other period ships are known and can be used to produce a fairly solid layout of the deck. How much of this can be adequately shown in my model has yet to be decided.

 

Once I had fairly solid drawings, I did a complete lofting based strictly on the practicum. However this was based on frames being equidistant. When I made the decision to adjust the frames to the "As-Built" layout and revised the drawings accordingly, this meant I needed to re-loft them. I wil continue to provide a number of posts until I will be current with my build.

[robnbill]

Once of the decision points in the scratch build is the type of woods to be used. While I like boxwood, the chances of needing to go through massive amounts of wood as I fix mistakes necessitate looking for a less expensive alternative. I wanted a hardwood, but also wanted a variety of wood to better show off the ship. I chose cherry for the keel and keelson assembly and rock maple for the frames. As I move further into the model I will make the decisions for the remainder of the ship.

 

I wanted to jump into the build and make sawdust. So I picked up some cherry and maple from my local supplier and milled them down. I will start with the keel assembly, then move on to the building jig and re-lofting the frames.  

 

Here are photos of the keel assembly. I have been trying Dave S's technique for the jointing by cutting the first part, then cutting the matching piece by placing black tape over the second piece, clamping the two pieces together, then cutting the tape around the joint with and Xacto knife. This is then used to cut the second half of the joint. I also used a black wax pencil to mark the interior of the joint so the glued up joint would show well.

 

I did not like the first attempt at the deadwood, so I redid the keel and deadwood. Tomorrow, I will start working on the building jig as well as testing stain. While I do not plan on staining the entire model, I would like the cherry to be a bit darker than it is currently. It would darken over time, but I would rather not have to wait 10 years. I think the darker cherry would look nice against the maple - providing I find a satin I like.

 

[Jim Lad]

Looks like you're away to a good start, Bill.

 

John

[robnbill]

I decided to jump course a bit on the build. The practicum constructs a double decked framing jig. I actually cut all the parts for it then decided to change methods. I had looked at a number of builds which used a Gantry Jig to assemble the models. I liked the idea and it certainly provides more access to the frames. The order of construction changes a bit since the practicum starts in the middle and works toward the ends. With the Gantry, you work from the ends toward the middle.

 

One aspect of using the gantry is the ability to trace any of the ships curves to the frame during construction. So I combined the half breadth, the keel and the frame alignment plans into one master which will be underneath the build. This should allow me to check the alignment of a frame against any of the curves quickly.

 

The gantry is complete. I still have to attach the scales to all of the members. Once that is done, I will use them to finalize the alignment of the master plan which will be on the bottom of the jig. I had the plan printed and laminated so it will be more protected as well as keeping glue squeeze out from damaging it.

 

Once all the scales and plans are affixed, I will create the holding and clamping surfaces to mount the keel and clamp cant frames etc. 

 

So framing will commence soon.

 

Below are a couple of photos of the scales and master plans after getting them back from lamination. These are sclaed to 1:48.

 

 

 

This shot shows the bow. The red lines are where the cant frames hit the keel. The green lines map where they intersect the outside waterline. The black vertical lines are the square frames. 

 

 

Midsection

 

 

and Stern

 

 

This shows the gantry with the keel assemble temporarily on the plan. The bow is being held by a temporary appliance. 

 

 

The top horizontal member will have the scale laying toward the bottom of the shot attached to it. 

 

 

 

The lower horizontal member will slide up or down. I made it out of an aluminum straight edge. The forward side has inches on it. The back side has the 1:48 scale. It is narrow enough that it will pass through the spaces between frames. By using a square on the master plan, lines can be traced upwards through the model.

 

 

 

The T-Slots allow the gantry to be moved easily along the model It can be used as well as a clamping brace. In addition, the T-Slot also allows other appliances to be held and moved as they require. I also will be attaching other blocks through the mater plan via hanger bolts with slots in the appliances allowing easy adjustment. The measuring strips are marked in both inches and centimeters. This also will confirm that the frames are square as they are moved around the frame.

 

 

[mtaylor]

Looks good, Bill.  Are you securing the keel to the drawing?  The reason I ask is that in Jig10.jpg, it looks like the stern is off center.

[robnbill]

I will be but it is not yet. I ran out of double sided tape yesterday so I did not finish securing and aligning the scales to the gantry. Once that is done, I will use those to align the build board plan and stick it down. Then I will make the appliances to attach and hold the keel secure. I just set it on the gantry for a photo op yesterday.

[robnbill]

I used hot glue to glue the keel blocks to the gantry jig. This allowed me to keep them very small and still hold the keel adequately. I also removed the keels tail since it is not required with the gantry. 

After this was done, I used some cherry to build a test frame. I wanted to go through the process from cutting the raw wood to having the frame ready to mount to the keel. I chose Frame X as my test subject - Bwhahaha.

I used a band saw to cut the frame out once the glue dried. Then I used the Oscillating Sander to remove the excess wood to the line for the frame. I used the Scroll saw to trim the keel slot and cleaned it up with a file. Once that was done, I used a #57 drill to drill the drift holes. I did this in the drill press since it allows me to keep the frame at a specific angle during the drilling. In this case, of course at 90 degrees.

I used the Byrnes drawplate to make bamboo pins. These I glued into the holes. I have not yet trimmed these back since the glue is still drying but I did try a test fit with the gantry. Since this is a test frame and also made of Cherry, this will not go any further than trimming the sanding the pins. I will instead move on to completing the new lofting set then start working on the frames at the stern first. 

My plan (always subject to change) is to start the frames with the last full square frame. Then work back to the stern through the counter timbers. Once the stern is complete, I will head to the bow, per Mike, Gary, and Ray's excellent advice.

Since this is my absolute first attempt at making a frame, please comment if you see I am doing something stupid.

Thanks,

[robnbill]

I completed relofting the frames to the as-built spacing. I have decided that I want to redo my keel for a number of reasons. First, I want to make the deadwood more in line with the research materials. In those they show the stern half frames to only have half of the frame slotted into the deadwood. In addition, I want to re pin the keel with brass scaled to that in the materials.

 

In that vein, I put together a chart mapping the scales for 1:48 pin sizing ½" through 6". This maps the scale sizes through Metric, standard, wire gauge, and micro drill sizes.

 

 

I took brass wire and pinned a scaled 18" beam with ½ through 3" pins as a reference. 

 

 

I stil need to refine my stern counter timber framing and plan on doing that tomorrow or later today. Then I am ready to start making sawdust.

 

 

[robnbill]

Before I get into the keel assembly I should explain my sources of information. First, there is a 1984 PhD dissertation by Dr. Kevin Crisman found on the Texas A&M Underwater archeology Site. Great reading. This was expanded by Dr. Crisman in a book called "The Eagle, an American brig on Lake Champlain during the War of 1812" published in 1987. This was followed last year by a chapter on the Eagle in "Coffins of the Brave" also edited by Dr. Crisman. There is also a great practicum developed by Gene Bodnar on scratch building a version of the Eagle. These documents along with my CAD drawings and supplementary communications with Dr. Crisman on various aspects of the ship are the materials used in this build.

 

I have completed redoing the keel assembly. I went through all of Dr. Crisman's materials noting dimensions carefully. Where text differed from sketches, I followed dimensions explicitly called out in the text. A few things I found very interesting. First, as I followed the sizing between the various parts on the bow assembly it fell into place that the apron was shaped not only to support the cant frames but also to support the side planking leading to the rabbet. So the rabbet was wider here to allow for this. The assembly was also shaped. The top of the bow and the apron would be 18". The forward part of the cutwater would be 6" and the keel where it met the bow would be 8". This gradually increases to 12" before reversing at the deadwood. This solved some of the perplexing transition questions I had with both the bow and stern.

 

The stern has notches cut for the heels of the futtocks in the half frames. On the ship, these were a bit sloppy with the notches on one side of the keel deeper and wider than the other. This is more a factor of the speed at which they built the ship and shipwright skills. Dr. Crisman goes on to explain that the lower deadwood had a great deal of shaping done with great forethought. It starts out at 12" on the forward end and 8" on the stern (following the shape of the keel below the rabbet and 15" above. This change follows the rabbet as it rises towards the stern and would have provided a stable base for the garboard plank.

 

Since the frames will be white rock maple, I stained the cherry for contrast. Prior to staining it, I sanded it to 220, the burnished it with steel wool. I still have to add the fishplates. Note in the photos, the plan the ship is sitting on has my old framing numbers. As I worked through the various details called out in the materials, I found my numbering scheme was off. Frame X in the materials is actually a ½ thickness square frame. Once I made this change all the details mapped out by the materials aligned perfectly. I also changed the number of cant frames in the bow to 6 to following the materials.

 

 

[DocBlake]

Very nice, Bill!  I'm very interested in this build as I'd like to try it myself.  My problem is that I know absolutely nothing about CAD, and drawing the frames by hand will take the remainder of my life, most likely.  Any thoughts about selling your CAD drawings to those of us who can't/won't learn how to do them ourselves in CAD?

 

Dave

[robnbill]

I will be happy to share my drawings for free if you want them. There are two flavors. The original drawings I did which follow the Bodnar practicum closely, except for areas that were changed after Dr. Crisman's comments. I do have lofted frames in DeltaCAD that you could have. I also have the latest generation of drawings that I am using for my build. I call this the "as-Built" set since the frames are based on what Dr. Crisman found rather than a more stylized version that is from the practicum.

 

DeltaCAD is pretty inexpensive and is easy to use. I have all of the plans in PDF, except for the frames. Since I printed them at home, I did not need to make exportable files. When you get ready, let me know.

[DocBlake]

That's incredibly generous of you, Bill!   One day I'll repay the favor.  I was planning on using the Bodnar practicum for the build, but I'll watch the modifications you are making with interest.  I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not sure which set of plans/drawings I'll need (all of them?!).  Let me know what you think.  I'll PM you with contact into.  Thanks again, so much!

 

Dave

[robnbill]

I shaped my first frame actually being installed in the ship today. I started with Frame 36 which is the aft most frame. Since it sits so high on the stern, and it is the fashion timber I decided to make it a full frame. This also aligns with the notches found on the ship since there were no notches for this frame in the deadwood. 

After gluing up the boards and gluing the frame template to the face, I used the bandsaw to cut near the lines. Then I used the Oscillating sander with varying diameters of sandpaper rolls to sand to the lines with the frame square to the table. This gave me the hard line I needed on the bottom forward and the top aft of the frame. Then it was a matter of sanding the bevel between the two.

After test fitting it to the keel I used the drill press to drill the pinning holes through it. I found putting a backing block at an angle in the vise below the drill allowed me to keep the drill square to the face of the frame. I could sight down the edge of the frame and make sure it was parallel to the drill. Then I glued the brass wire into the holes. Tomorrow I will sand the flush. 

I also printed a scale on an 8 ½ sheet of paper. This was a subset of the scale I used in the gantry. I glued this to a strip of cherry. This provides a quick check on the ship without having to convert from inches or MMs.

 

On a side note I found out that when working with Maple, it is important to have bandaids around if I am using an Xacto blade since I invariably end up pricking my fingers somewhere. Blood makes a mark on white maple!

[kees de mol]

I have read the buildinglog. And there is only one question I have left..........

 

 

 

Do you, or do you have not super human powers?

 

 

 

 

I will worship you the next coming updates, oh great shipmodellingguru

Edited April 4, 2015 by kees de mol

[DocBlake]

I think the maple frames are going to look great. I love contrast between the maple and the

stained cherry keel.

 

Dave

[robnbill]

Thanks all for following. Kees, your trawlers are nothing short of amazing. I can only strive for your attention to detail!

 

After today I am a solid advocate of the gantry! I built and installed the first frame to be attached to the keel, Frame 35H. These are two half frames immediately forward of the fashion timber. Since the fashion timber has no slot and minimal slot for the keel and , attaching the two half frames allows me to align everything then attach the fashion timber. However the gantry also showed that I was too aggressive in lopping off the tops of my fashion timber. So it is too short. So I will remake it tomorrow. Hopefully as I move along I will stop building by the adage that "the third times the charm".  I am also finding that shaping the frames is getting easier to judge as I go along so this just give me a bit of extra practice. The gantry allows me to very accurately align and square the frames as well as check the level and spacing between the outside edges of the half frames. Using this I was able to see where I needed to adjust the bevels so it fit the dimensions between the outside upper ends of the frames.  I plan on adding spacers between the frames at the top so they will be firmly held.

 

[robnbill]

I have been focused on the stern framing this week. Rather than box it in solidly I wanted to frame it like it might have been done. Since none of this actually survived on the wreck, this framing is conjecture. We know there were no cant frames in the stern so everything aft of the fashion frame are counter timbers. There are two gun ports out the stern which need framing.

I first worked up a method for framing which was straight forward. Given the speed which this ship was built, they did not go for complexity when simplicity would do. 

The first task was to design the sternmost deck beam. This beam is notched into both the fashion frame and the outermost counter timbers. I cut this with the camber the deck would have and used the top of this as the guide for mounting it to the ship. The inboard profile provided the height this beam should have on the centerline. Once this was established it was a simple process to use the gantry frame to align the beam and clamp it in place for glue up.

I started lofting the counter timbers using the inboard profile. Then once I had that I cut two counter timbers to mount either side of the sternpost deadwood. These provided the planes needed to cut the other timbers. Since the stern of the ship is flat I had to maintain the angle of the counter timbers above the main deck beam. Below the beam the angle would change allowing the timber to meet the fashion frame.

I notched each of these for the beam. This provided the two points the timbers were attached to the hull. They were also attached to each other with carlings which stiffened them and framed in the gun ports. I planned on having four sets of counter timbers. I waited to cut the last set until the other sets were installed on the stern since the outer timbers were rather complex angles and would require extensive shaping to the hull.

Below are the first three sets of counter timbers. Notice the upper arms of each are the same. The angles change at the notch allowing them to hit the frame.

 

 

I found the easiest method for installing the timbers was to use a spring clip to attach a flat beam across the upper stern. This gave me a third point for the timber to be clipped to when installing. The brass bar clamps recommended by Wayne have come in very handy here!

 

 

The carlings were all glued in then sanded down to the ship's stern planes once the glue was dry.

Lastly, I trimmed the ends of the deck beam and prepared the outer counter timbers. These were notched to fit over the end of the deck beam. I left these to dry over night.

In preparation for trimming the counter timbers, I printed out the stern elevation. I also made note of the height of the center below the handrail.

 

With the stern elevation and the height of the timber tops on centerline it was a snap to set the gantry at the appropriate height and mark the tops of the two center timbers. Then I carefully placed a cut out of the stern elevation across the timbers using the centerline and the top line as the guides.

 

By placing the top of the cutout on my previous marks, then aligning the bottom with the center of the keel, I traced the outline on the other timbers. Then it was a matter of cutting and sanding the stern to the profile.

Once this was done, I did some final cleanup of the glue squeeze outs, then drilled the holes for the pinning and glued the brass into them with heavy CA. I trimmed these off and sanded smooth. I did one final faring of the stern with the frames then wiped the entire assembly with mineral oil to remove all dust. I touched up the keel assembly with stain where needed.

Now I will move forward with the remaining half frames.

Here are photos of the stern as it sits in the gantry.

 

 

 

[robnbill]

I was able to also get the side rails on the stern. Of course the handrails will go over these, but these finish the framing in the stern.  In addition, I added the block for the rudder post to go through as it passes through the stern.

 

[robnbill]

I have spent a lot of time working on the stern frames. Most of these frames should have been constructed as half frames. However, I found there was so little deadwood to attach them to they were very weak. After working constructing them and mounting them a number of different ways that left me very unsatisfied, I finally decided to build them as full frames then will modify them over the keel to appear to be the half frames since the frames would have been butted against each other over the keel/deadwood. Cutting a small groove should provide this.

I have done some preliminary fairing, more sternward. I am fairly happy with the way the stern has turned out and now will work on the cant frames in the bow. You can now start to see the frame spacing being unevenly spaced.

Anyway, here are some photos of how she currently sits. Much work still to be done! Since this is my first attempt at scratch, please feel free to jump in with any advice. This is very much a learning project.

[mtaylor]

Looking great, Bill.  Just curious... the space between the 2nd and 3rd frame from the front.   I looks smaller than the other spaces or it could be camera angle.

[robnbill]

It is smaller. One of the unique parts of this build is I am trying to follow the frame spacing that Dr. Crisman found when documenting the wreck. While the frames were consistently the same size, at least at the 1:48 scale and with a few notible exceptions, they were not evenly spaced. The spacing they did have was well documented by Dr Crisman. The previous models built of the Eagle had the frames evenly spaced per the practicum by Gene Bodnar. Gene simplified the model and intentionally spaced the frames evenly because it looked better and was easier for the first scratch build. While that is true, it is also ignoring the documentation from the wreck. The ship was built quickly (in 19 days) and the wreck showed this. Many of the frames were built of green wood and some still had bark left on the sides. Prior to finalizing my plans I pulled all the frame information that I could from the various publications and calculated the widths at the 1:48 scale to see if I needed to change the sizing of the various frames. However the differences in them were too small to show at the 1:48 scale. However, the spacing between the frames was different enough that it could be shown. My master plan on the build board has the specific spacing shown by Dr. Crisman. The gantry jig allows me to space these according to the plan pretty easily.

 

It might look sloppy in the end, I hope not. My goal is to hopefully show a very imperfect ship, built perfectly for the job at hand. Attached is a photo previously taken of the stern. You can see in the drawing below it the master which shows how the frames are sort of seemly randomly spaced.

Edited April 24, 2015 by robnbill

[mtaylor]

Bill,

Thanks for refreshing my brain on the spacing.  I had to go peek at the thesis.  I'm tickled that you're building it this way.  I gave it some thought when I first read the thesis but figured it was too much for a first build with no lofting experience.     I do love this little ship.. the story, it's looks... 

[robnbill]

I was able to get the bow cant frames installed. Now I can work on the square frames. Yeah! I am happy to have all the half frames/Cant frames behind me. I still need to do a bunch of sanding cleanup on the inside and outside of the cant frames. I left more meat on the bones of these. I found it easier to sand them down than to recut them if I beveled them incorrectly when off the ship.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos on the ship where it stands today. The darker frame is the test frame I built before starting the frames. It is standing where my frame X will be.

 

[DocBlake]

Your build is outstanding, Bill!  I can't wait to see further progress.

 

Dave

[robnbill]

Once I got a bit beyond the bow section, I was able to start cutting standard form pieces to make the frame blanks. This sped things up dramatically. 

So after cutting a bunch of blank forms I started up the frame pipeline. I would use rare earth magnets to hold the pieces edge to edge while gluing. Once the glue set, I would glue up the side and clamp the two sides together. Once this comes out of the clamps, I cut the template for the frame out and glue it to the surface using thinned white glue.

Once this is dry, I cut the frame out on the bandsaw leaving a small border all the way around. Then it is off to the oscillating sander to sand the frame square to the lines. If this does not have much of a bevel I leave it like this. If there is a large bevel, I will take some of this off with the sander. Then it is back to the bandsaw to cut out the notch for the keel. Then fitting everything to the ship.

The gantry provides a great platform to insure the frame is glued square to the ship in all directions. It also provides a sturdy clamping surface. Since the horizontal member on my gantry is a heavy metal bar, I can also use it as a clamp itself to hold the frame tight to the next one.

I have managed to get all the frames forward of Frame X installed and 2 aft of Frame X. I ran out of the precut frame pieces and had to stop and cut more. Luckily for me, when I ripped a bunch of strips out a few days ago, I guessed pretty close to what I was going to need to get all the remaining frames done. So I cut all of that up today so I can finish assembling and mounting the frames.

I know I have said this before, but I will say it again, the gantry Jig makes it so easy to work on the ship. No guessing dimensions, many checks that can be done from plan lines to squaring everything. I am so glad I let Ray and Dave take me to the REALLY dark side.

Anyway, once the frames I had installed were set, I carefully removed the ship from the jig. I was really curious to see it turned over. The photos of the ship below show a number of things, first, I have a lot of fairing to do on the bow. Once I started in with the square frames, I trusted the lofting lines and sanded square to each one. This should allow me the minimum of fairing. On the other side, It could also mean I have to remake a bunch of frames if I did it wrong, but I think the lofting lines are working.

The other think you can see clearly in these photos, is of the spacing of the frames. I am following the as built so the spacing is different almost every frame. What you can't see clearly here is the first futtocks are all facing aft fro the bow to Frame X. After frame X, they are reversed. This also is following Dr. Crisman's work.

The skinny third frame from the top is Frame X per Dr. Crisman. If you recall, I renumber all of my frames to follow the dissertation. Frame X was the only ½ thickness frame. The double frame shown is just aft of the forward mast. There will be a second double frame underneath the main hatch.

After fairing the hull, I also plan on cutting the limber holes on each side of the keel. These were notches cut into the bottoms of the frames and are also documented by Dr. Crisman.

After gluing up the last frame set I had in the pipeline, I spent the remainder of the day cutting new stock. I have enough cut now to make all the remaining frames.

[robnbill]

I was able to complete the installation of all the frames. Tomorrow, I will start the fairing both inside and outside. I also will be adding the clamp to the interior once the interior fairing is complete. The hull is interesting. This follows the "as-Built" documented by Dr Crisman in the keel assembly as well as the frames spacing. Also note the two pair of cant frames near the bow which extend higher than the others. While all the frames will be trimmed, these will still extend above the cap rail to form timber heads per Dr. Crisman's latest book.

I will probably leave the spacers glued into the tops of the frame since that part of the ship will be planked and cover them. The cannon ports will be cut later. The Gantry jig should make this easy both in locating them and squaring the port sides to the keel.

I have also framed the stern, how much of this will be exposed after framing is still undecided.

[Guest Tim I.]

Bill,

 

Looking great!

 

- Tim

[jwvolz]

Very, very nice Bill. I love your approach to this build.