MODELMAKER'S CORNER:
The Whaleship Charles W. Morgan in by Lloyd Mccaffery
How important it is to let the ship speak for itself, and not let one's assumptions get in the way of the truth. In the late 1970s, Mystic Seaport Museum began preparations fo r restoration of the ir whaleship , Charles W. Morgan , built in 1841 at New Bedfo rd . The staff undertook an enormous research project to understand traditional shipbuilding techniques and materials, and the work started in earnest in 1978 . I first saw the Morgan in 198 1 while she was hauled out on the lift dock at the DuPo nt preservation shipyard. ¡ I moved to the Mystic area that year and continued my visits to the ship . As I watched the progress , I reali zed that I had access to info rm ation most modelmakers could onl y dream about: Here was the real thing, a ship being pain stakingly taken apart and restored to her ori ginal configuration. As part of the preservation effort , the staff devoted considerable effort to documenting the ship and the work done on her. Robert Allyn , nava l architect at Mystic, made dozens of measured drawings showing details of the planking, the dispos ition of the frames and the construction of the many joints in her timbers . Kathy Bray kept a dail y log of every change made on the ship and also completed 100 perspecti ve drawings of critical parts of the hull. This beautiful series detail s how the various joints are fitted , and how the timbers relate to one another. With solid documentation ava ilable to me , as well as the poss ibi lity of watching the work in progress , I started construction of a miniature model of the Mo rgan , to a scale of l 6ft I in . The fini shed hull is about 73/sin long, and the whole mode l is about 103/sin . I chose this scale because it results in a jewel-like mini ature and because it is a real challenge to reproduce every detail on the original construction . My style of modelmaking usually involves completing the starboard side o f the model as she would appear when pl anked , painted and coppered . The port side is left partl y in fram e to reveal all interi or details such as deck beams and knees, the stowage of oil casks in the hold and the bulkhead di visions.
=
20
The frames, deck beams and keel are of carefull y selected pieces of light and dark apple wood juxtaposed at the jo ints. Thi s way the viewer can readily see not onl y that the vari ous members of the hull are not solid pieces of wood , but built up and joined exactly as on the ship . The keel, for instance, though less than six inches long is composed o f eleven pieces of wood all jo ined with scarphs. Boxwood , a lovely light yellow wood, is used fo r the outside pl anking and interi or ceiling. Thus each component of the hull is color-coded and the primary structural elements of the hull can be easil y distinguished . I du plicated the layout of the planking as shown in Bob All yn's drawings, each plank being scaled to the same length , width and thickness as the original. It is interestin g that these ships were not built according to the " rules " we are used to reading about. The spacing of the butts of the pl anks , fo r instance , is quite different fro m what model builders are usuall y to ld is acceptable . There is a small tri angular piece o f planking , twelve inches long , that fi nishes the garboard strake as it runs into the stem on the port side . Had anyone told me thi s is how the ship ought to be pl anked , I would have scoffed: I knew the rules of planking. This taught me how important it is to let the ship speak for itself, and not to let one ' s ass umptions get in the way of the truth . Once the bas ic hull structu re of the model was complete, I began fittin g out the interi or. Because the hull wo uld be too small to work inside once the upper deck beams were in place , I first had to pl ace the ' tween deck beams and knees. An interesting problem encountered when working on a cutaway model is that even the undersides o f the deck beams, gratings and planking must be fini shed to the same degree as the outside of the model. All the morti se and tenon joints used on the deck beams, carlings and ledges were cut just as on the ship itself. This is one area where hav ing fi rst-hand knowledge of the work on the actual ship
was especiall y valuable. I could watch the shipwrights at work on the timbers, and then go home and cut the same parts myse lf at 11192 the size of the original. There were other instances where the method of building a certain part of the ship was also best for making the same fittin g in small scale . On the ship , the davits are of the curved type , made by resawing and bending a thick baulk of timber. I built up my davits out of two layers of wood , and treenailed them to hold the shape that I steamed into them . These dav its were then fitted with cleats, lead blocks and ho les for boat tackles , and then glued and treenailed to the hull of the model. For the creation and placement of the crew , I studied o ld photographs to find out what poses the crew would take when perfo rmin g vari ous shipboard duties, their garb and their tools . So the captain is seen taking a sun sight , while some of the crew sharpen harpoons and lances on a grindstone . All the ri gging on the model is made of wire . Thi s material is absolutely stable and perm anent and can be shaped to duplicate the catenary of the rigging on the real ship . The masts and yards are made of lancewood (also called degame), which is ideall y suited to makin g spars in mini ature because it can be shaped into round , tapered lengths . The building of the miniature Charles W. Morgan taught me a lot about the construction and preservation of ships, and allowed me to excercise my talents to the full est extent. The model has found a good home with an appreciati ve co llector, and in time it will become a part of the collection of Mystic Seaport Museum . This little model is dedi cated to those who built and sailed the Charles W. Morgan , and to all the people at Mystic whose effo rts have given the ship a new lease on life. J,
J,
J,
Originally fro m California , Mr . McCaf fery li ves in Boulder , Colorado. His studio is his kitchen table .
SEA HISTORY , WINTER 1986-87