Member postings for Bob Wilson

Just for interest: Passage times.

Tea Race 1872

Norman Court - Macao - London, 17,143 miles - 96 days - Average speed 7.4 knots

Thermopylae - Shanghai - London, 17,205 miles - 115 days - Average speed 6.2 knots

Taitsing - Shanghai - London, 17,205 miles - 114 days - Average speed 6.2 knots

Cutty Sark - Shanghai - London - 17,205 miles - 122 days - Average speed - 5.8 knots

They had very wide hull when compared to the length. But I very much doubt that the Cutty Sark ever reached 20 knots, never mind 30, and never won a tea race. Generally made good passages in the wool trade, but didn't carry very much cargo compared with the big iron and steel wool clippers. Sailing ships could not compete with the 8 - 10 knot tramp steamer that maintained their speed 24 hours a day and that is why sail died out - too slow - too dangerous -

Bob

.

Lady Elisabet - 1879.

Lady Elizabeth: -

Wearing drab dress, but an honourable stain,

A lady you were, and a lady remain!

Edited By Bob Wilson on 06/05/2020 17:16:41

I can only think you mean Garlandstone, never heard of Gladstone! But I haven't built Garlandstone. I have done a few of these coasting schooners, but generally prefer bigger ships.   The Lady Elizabeth, above is not being preserved.    It is lying beached in Whalbone Cove, Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, where it is slowly rusting away.    Structurally, it is in a terribel state.   I could see out when down below through one-inch cracks in the iron plating..

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 06/05/2020 17:06:51

This is the'tween deck of the iron barque Lady Elizabeth, completed at Sunderland in 1879. She was about 1,200 tons. There was plenty of headroom down below. I was standing up when I too the photograph, and there was plenty of space above me. The lower hold was even deeper, but I couldn't go down there, because it was full of water.

Bob

Bob,

I am not in the least discouraged. The fact that so few people make anything like this makes it far easier for me to sell them, although we may keep this one, as we like it so much. The copper sheathing was certainly worth the effort. It kept the worms from boring into the planking and ruining an expensive ship. The plates were nailed on over a felt backing. Quite often, sailing ships spent weeks or months in port loading or discharging, but there was plenty of headroom inside merchant ships. It was only sailing warships that had low headroom in order to pack in hundreds of seamen. Ships like this would normally have cargo, but the big iron or steel ones, especially on the nitrate run to South America, would sometimes go out in ballast that was generally hundreds of tons assorted rubble, but a cargo of coal out and nitrates back was more profitable

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 06/05/2020 09:42:04

More progress on the 900-ton barque. It does not have a name - I designed it myself. Initially, I did not intend to finish it, but made the hull to try out a new method of showing the copper plating. But after I had made the hull, I was so pleased with it, that I decided to carry on. The copper plating is actually a photograph of a brick wall. I stretched the bricks in Adobe Photoshop to the correct scale of the plating, and put them on in strips two or three bricks deep. It did not take very long, I and really like the way this model is turning out!

This one has not aroused a great deal of interest - another "damp squib" in fact, but I like it very much, and feel it is one of my best so far -

Started masting & rigging -

Bob

For the last two days, I have been making the display case - soon be ready for the masting & rigging!

Bob,

I do remember. My St Helena was built in 1963 in Vancouver, as Northland Prince, but became St Helena in 1978. Then we all transferred to a new ship, also called St Helena in late 1989.

Bob

Thanks Colin,

I just remembered I had this photogrpah, it graphically illustrates the shape of these old wooden vessels. This was the last mortal remains of the 400-ton wooden barque Jhelum, that I photographed in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands in 1982. She was built in Liverpool in 1850, and hulked at Stanley in 1870 after getting a severe battering off Cape Horn. It was quite interesting inside it, as the poop cabins remained, but everything forward was in the final stages of decay, and the whole shebang has since collapsed into the harbour. So ended the last surviving Indfiaman!   That is my ship in the background, RMS St Helena, all flagged out for the victory party to be held onboard that evening -  

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 22/04/2020 20:26:10

Edited By Bob Wilson on 22/04/2020 20:26:50

Bob,

I certainly haven't taken any offence! The answers are quite simple. Initially, I had no intention of finishing it. It was to produce a download on how to make hulls, and get the shape right in plain and simple language to try and dsipel the myth "I could never do that!" The dimesions are standard for that type of ship. Most sailing ships were not long and slender, as is commonly supposed. They had to have bulky hulls because of their tall masts, and also in order to carry a lot of cargo. On completion of the bare hull, I was so pleased with it, I decided to coninue with the deck details, and finally the masting and rigging. So that readers of the completed article could learn how to build one, whilst not being tied to plans of any particular ship. but could alter the deck layout, and even the rig to suit what they wanted. Finally giving the completed model any name they wished (wives, girlfriemds, partners etc).

To demonstrate the point of hull shape - here is a wreck of a similar vessel -

I have now stopped at the finished hull, and will make the display case and base next, and then come back to the masting and rigging.

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 22/04/2020 10:04:11

Edited By Bob Wilson on 22/04/2020 10:11:51

You wouldn't guess in a million years! It is a photograph of a brick wall. I stretched the bricks in photoshop to the required scale and printed them onto writing paper. I cut strips of bricks two or three brick deep and stuck them on with wood glue. This is the first time I have done this, and I am absolutely delighted with the result . It only took about 15 minutes!

Bob

Tuesday, 21st April 2020

I have now completed the hull, and it is all ready for masting and rigging - I replaced the forecastle companionway, as I didn't like the original one. But as this vessel is a figment of my imagination, it doesn't really matter!

Minimal interest shown in this one, but I feel it is one of my best so far.

**LINK**

I have just looked up Things to Come. I see it is H G Wells, I must get a copy - thanks.   I read a science fiction book about 57 years ago called Earth Abides, it is rather like the situation we fond ourselves in today!

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 17/04/2020 18:14:56

Edited By Bob Wilson on 17/04/2020 18:15:14

Bob,

Not all that frghtening - I felt pretty much like the rat back in 1992, when it finally dawed on me that I was getting nowhere, working harder and harder for less pay. The rat is searching for the cheese and jumps through a lot of hoops to get it, only to find itself in a trap at the end of it. Since 1992, I have seldom made the minium wage working for myself, but have been a lot happier with the less stressful lifestyle, and have never received any benefits or state help, and occasional had spells where I earned more than I did at sea, although these are few and far between, but are wonderful when they do happen. Ironically enough, since the lockdown, things have looked up as far as writing is concerned, and thanks to the digital age, I do not even need to go out! Here is a final thought that I read at the end of an ancient novel written over 100 years ago, called Pocket Island:

Life at best is but an enigma, and like children pursuing a "Will O' The Wisp,"so do we all pursue the illusive beacon light of a brighter and happier to-morrow - always hoping, never attaining, though striving ever until, wearied of the vain pursuit, at last we fall by the wayside and are forgotten.

Charles Clark Munn (1847 - 1917)

------------------------------------------

I have just come to accept things as they are, and fudge along the best I can, without worrying too much about anything!

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 17/04/2020 17:51:39

Each generation has its own problems to deal with, but I got fed up of all this progress in late 1992 when I quit the rat race by throwing in my highly paid job at sea and never regretted it, The danger now is that when the up-and-coming generation realise what they will need to give up to sort it all out, they may not like it!

**LINK**

Bob

I know this is not good for the economy, and will cause major inconvenience and hardship to many, but isn't it what the young have been "demanding" of late - vast reduction in the use of fossil fuels? It is them that are inheriting the Earth for the next 70 years or so, not us! I have no doubt that the health of everyone will benefit in the end if only we (everyone) can keep the pollution down. This is not political in the slightest. The main danger is that when the young realise how it will alter their lives, they may change their minds and want to return to a good, comfortable (and polluting) lifestyle. Now is the time to push home the advantage. Once it is all over, no more flying, no more cruising, no more school runs, more use of public transport rather than cars, more recycling and more repairs rather than "discard!" Sadly, the present times appear to be the most wasteful in history. I have seen rubbish skips piled up to the top with old computers, printers, copiers, radio sets, CD players, hi fi systems. Most of them apparently built so that it is extremely difficult to even get inside them to try and repair them. All this is probably just nature "readjusting itself!"

Once the virus has gone, I hope the world's population in general will take the hint - because if they don't - it will probably come back again!

Bob