Iron-Hulled Wool Clipper

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I have just started another miniature. 32 feet to 1 inch. The hull will be 6.37 inches long on the waterline. To be shown under full sail on a calm sea.

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

[Peter FitnessParticipant @peterfitness34857]

I'm looking forward to seeing this one progress Bob. Australia had a significant association with the wool clippers in the early days, so it is of particular interest to me.

Peter.

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

I, too, am looking very much forward to following your progress once more, Bob; as usual, you have selected a most attractive subject!

Mattias

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Fitted raised decks and clipper bow.

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Bob

We are all mystified by your first photograph

Any further comments?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Hello Bob,

Can't imagine why I said that I was about to begin a mniature of an iron-hulled wool clipper, which is self-explanatory. The first photograph shows photographs of the ship and the plans. On top of them is the piece of wood that I am going to build it from. On top of the wood is a Parker pen to indicate the size of the model-to-be. That's about all there is to it!

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Sorry Bob

I was referring to the roughed out hull…..Your last photo

It's not your usual picture of perfection?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Thought you meant the first one!

They all look like that when I start! Here is the first one of East African, completed, followed by one of the early photographs of it!

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 27/08/2016 12:14:06

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thank you, Bob

What a dramatic transformation scene?

The ugly duckling turns into a magnificent elegant Swan!

Unbelievable quality

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

A bit more progress has now been made.

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I have now made some more progress, and the hull is now almost ready for rigging. Four more boats need to be made and fitted. Forecastle rails, catheads, anchors and a few other bits and pieces still need to be done. Another one going down like a "lead balloon," with virtually no interest being shown anywhere.

Bob

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Perhaps you have simply made too many Bob – sort of been there seen that maybe?

It's a nice trim little vessel though.

Colin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Doubt it – if I said it was a 24-gun frigate, it would attract far more attention. The puzzling thing is that although model shipbuilders hardly ever build anything like this, collectors fall over themselves to get their hands on them. The East Aftican on the previous page didn't last long after completion. We would have been quite happy to keep it, but a collector was so keen on it, so we let it go! Merchant ships are simply not "romantic" enough for most folk, although I have never understood why, as my brief time in the RN was just an endless run of anti-flash gear, gas masks, lifejackets, survival suits, field dressings, drills, practice and exercises in prepartion for something us MN types hoped would never happen, but our RN shipmates seemed to be looking forward to! Ugh – beyond my humble comprehension!

Bob

[Peter FitnessParticipant @peterfitness34857]

I'm certainly following your build with great interest, Bob, as I do all your builds.

Peter.

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Bob,

I most emphatically join Peter Fitness and the others in saying that all your builds are a joy to follow!

For my part I find your subject matters to be beautiful ships of great interest and your admirable skills never cease to amaze.

Mattias

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Thanks,

I know that lots of people like looking at pictures of them, but only about 1 in 10,000 ever try building miniatures of merchant ships. The main reasons are "I don't have the necessary skills," – " I don't have the time", or "I don't have the patience." You never get the skills with anything unless you try! Miniatures can be built so quickly that the skills build up quickly, each model being better than the one before. As for the time, not much of it is required, and as you are reading this, it indicates that you do have some time! At sea, I always managed about half an hour a day no matter how busy I was with the shipboard duties, and it was a great relaxation as well. As for the last reason, – lack of patience – I am very lacking in this commodity, I like to get a model up-and-running in the first hour, and rarely take more than a total of 60 hours to complete one, and that includes making the model, display case and carrying case! The real reason is rather perplexing, but is nothing new. The following words were written by Frank T. Bullen, ex merchant seaman, and prolific writer on maritime subjects during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The following was written in 1906, and hold true today:
I think it may justly be inferred that the public do not want to hear about the Mercantile Marine, are entirely indifferent to the status of its members, and are content to take all the benefits to them as they take light and air – as coming in the course of nature, with the management and production of which they have no concern.
This opinion is borne out by my experience throughout our islands as a lecturer on the subject. Talking from the platform, I can always interest my hearers in any phase of the sea without introducing the slightest element of fiction. But I cannot induce them to read the matter up, nor can I find any evidence of the subject having been studied, however cursorily, except by persons who are, or have been, directly connected with it!
This I cannot fail to lament as being, in view of the paramount importance of the subject, quite unnatural and unnecessary, more especially when I see the intense interest manifested by people of all ranks and grades of education in games such as football, cricket and bridge, and the amount of earnest thought expended upon acquiring information concerning them, not only in their present, but in their past history.
Moreover, I know personally working men who have lavished upon horse racing an amount of brain-power that, legitimately applied would have made them a fortune!

Frank T Bullen, 1906

——-

I have put the above on before, but it is worth repeating.

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I have now completed the hull, and laboriously rigged the davits. I am all ready to start the masting and rigging! The worst is now over, the rest is easy!

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Bob

Another nice model, but why has she so many Jolly Boats?

Could she have been a Whaler?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Hello Bob,

No, not a whaler, but a class 1 passenger-carrying wool clipper of the mid 1870s. There were two longboats over the forward deckhouse, two lifeboats over the half-deck and two smaller double-enders on the poop deck. Frank Worsley, who was captain of Shackleton's Endurance, was apprenticed to the New Zealand Shipping Co, and this was his first ship.

The term "wool clipper" was derived from the fact that they carried general cargo and passengers out to Australia and New Zealand, and came home with passengers and a full cargo of wool.     They were very advanced ships, some of them also carried frozen meat home, kept cold by dry-air compressors powered by coal-burning engines, but the ships themselves were propelled only by sail.

Whalers were usually built of wood and were quite stumpy looking.

Bob

 

Edited By Bob Wilson on 15/09/2016 07:44:53

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

In Lloyd’s Register the ship was shown as I00 A1. The A1 showed an iron ship fit and efficient to carry dry and perishable cargoes to and from all parts of the world, and this meant she had been built in accordance with Lloyd’s highest rules. She was 220 feet long, 32. feet broad and had 20 feet depth of hold. Her under-deck tonnage was 885 tons, but actually she carried in her holds 2,000 tons of cargo by measurement. Her gross registered tonnage, which included poop, forecastle and deck-houses, was 1,057 tons. To sail the ship on the 27,000 miles round voyage, she was manned by 28 men and boys.

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thank you, Robert

Tell me……..Why did it take the ship designers such a long time before they gave the Coxwain some protection from the elements?

It was the same for Loco's, Planes and even Cars!

They do say in the GE books, that the lack of cover, stopped the Captain from nodding off!

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

They didn't have coxswains on merchant ships! The bloke steering was the helmsman, and the officer of the watch was one of the mates. You couldn't really have an enclosed poop deck on a sailing ship, as it was just as necessary to watch the sails as the compass when sailing close to the wind. The main braces also came down to the sides of the poop, so they couldn't be closed in. There wasn't any problem with the captain "nodding off," because he didn't keep a watch and could go off to bed whenever he felt like it. In bad weather, or dangeorus situations, no-one would be at the slightest risk of "nodding off!" Merchant ships always carried considerably less crews than warships and it says a lot for their strength, courage and endurance to get a sailing ship round the world and back safely. Contrary to general opinion, merchant seamen did not "laze about the decks" all day. it was work, work, work, with a bit of sleep spliced in occasionally. Watches on sailing ships were 4 hours on, 4 hours off, as long as the ship was at sea!

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Wednesday, 21st September, 2106
I have made a bit more progress now with the stepping of the three masts, and fitting the lower shrouds and ratlines. The main topmast staysail and the spanker have been set and rigged. I have also veneered the display case.

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I have now done a bit more on the ship and the standing rigging on the main and mizzen masts is now complete and the spreaders on those two masts trimmed down to size. I am currently setting and rigging the jibs and staysails. I have made and painted the lower yards, lower and upper topsail yards.

Bob

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