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| Great Republic (1853) 1:96 | ||
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Moderators: Winston, aew
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| Gene Bodnar |
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  Registered Member #126 Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20amPosts: 1778 | History of the Ship Launched on October 4, 1853 the Great Republic is noteworthy as the largest wooden clipper ship ever constructed. Great Republic, the biggest of the “down easters,” required 1,500,000 feet of pine ... 2,056 tons of white oak, 336½ tons of iron, and 56 tons of copper"-- about three times as much pine as was typically required for a large clipper ship. Designed by naval architect/shipbuilder Donald McKay as a four-deck four-masted medium clipper barque, the Great Republic—at 4,555 tons registry—was intended to be the most profitable wooden sailing ship ever to ply the Australian gold rush and southern oceans merchant trade. After an elaborate launching ceremony attended by at least 30,000 people, the Great Republic sailed in ballast from Boston to New York, where in December 1853 her first cargo was loaded. On December 27, 1853 a fire broke out in the buildings of the Novelty Baking Company near the piers where the Great Republic and several other wooden merchant vessels were moored. The fire quickly spread to five vessels, and the Great Republic burnt to near the waterline. She was declared a total loss, and Donald McKay, who never got over the loss, was compensated by insurers. The sunken hulk was sold by the insurance underwriters to Captain Nathaniel Palmer who salvaged and rebuilt it as a three-deck vessel with reduced masts. Still the largest clipper ship in the world at 3,357 tons registry, the Great Republic, under command of Captain Joseph Lymburner, started back in merchant service on February 24, 1855. Her maiden voyage brought her to Liverpool in 13 days. Great Republic was "chartered by the French Government to bring munitions and troops to the Crimea," and served in the general cargo and guano trades. In 1862 the fourth mast was removed and the others re-rigged, and the clipper became a three-masted full-rigged ship, a so-called three-skysail-yarder. In 1864 Captain Lymburner retired and the ship's registry moved to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. In 1869 she was sold to the Merchants' Trading Company of Liverpool and renamed Denmark. She continued sailing until March 5, 1872 when a hurricane off Bermuda caused the ship to leak badly and she was abandoned. During her 19-year merchant career, the Great Republic proved to be very fast under leading breeze conditions and often out-distanced the fastest merchant steamers on Mediterranean routes. Sailing around the horn of South America, the Great Republic averaged 17 knots (31 km/h) to set a record by logging 413 nautical miles (765 km) in a single day. The Sources Used for Building the Model The set of plans for the Great Republic, which was purchased from A. J. Fisher Company located in Massachusetts, consists of three sheets on a scale of 3/32” = 1’ drawn by E. Armitage McCann, a premiere ship modeler of the 1930s. The set originally appeared in a series of Popular Science magazine articles in 1935. A second source of plans used appears in Vol. 21 of the Nautical Research Journal. These plans were especially valuable for their depiction of the vessel’s internal construction, detailing the beams, knees, stanchions, and many other crucial items. A back issue of this volume is available, and it is also available on their set of CDs. A third, and most useful, source is William L. Crother’s The American-Built Clipper Ship, 1850-56. It provides detailed measurements of every structure, as well as illustrating many of them, and it also details how each item was assembled, including scarph joints and types of fastenings. This book is currently available from a variety of sources. The ISBN for the paperback edition is 0-07-014501-6. A fourth source is the quaint little volume written by a sailor, Duncan McLean, in 1853, called Description of the Largest Ship in the World, the New Clipper Great Republic, of Boston, Designed, Built and Owned by Donald McKay, Commanded by Capt. L. McKay, with Illustrated Designs of Her Construction. This book can be found as a free downloadable book from the on-line Gutenberg Project site. For the rigging of the Great Republic, I will be using a 12-part series of articles entitled “Rigging of Clipper Ships” by E. Armitage McCann that appeared in the old Model Shipbuilder magazine, Volumes 5 through 16, edited by Scottie Dayton and D. L. McCalip. These articles are also available on CD from Ships-in-Scale Magazine. The Goal in Building the Model The model will be built POF style on a scale of 1/8” = 1’ (1:96) using details provided in the above-mentioned sources. Thus, the model’s deck will be approximately 40 ½” long, with a length of 56 ¼” in length including the bowsprit. The starboard side of the ship will be fully planked and finished; however, the port side of the ship’s interior will be fully open to the observer, so that all internal details can be viewed. Only every eleventh frame will be built in entirety. Preliminaries I spent a great deal of time converting the plans to a POF-style model. About 150 square frames, and another 20 cant frames, had to be drawn for the vessel. The location of all the frames, which are spaced 28” apart on their centers, was plotted on the ship’s plans. Then, each frame was drawn individually. The first requirement for building the model is to build a jig in which the model will be held. I decided to experiment with Mike’s gantry-style jig. I did not buy the required hardware; instead, I purchased a 12” x 4’ pressed wood board for the base and used materials I already owned. I screwed runners along the outer edges of the board and then built the gantry as precisely as possible. After testing its accuracy, I taped a plan to the baseboard, centering it perfectly. The first part of the vessel that I built was the keel assembly, which includes the keel, stem, and sternpost. I used ¼” basswood throughout. I reduced the top edge of the keel, stem, and sternpost by 1/16” from that shown on the plan to allow for a rabbet in the planking. I did not cut a rabbet; instead, I installed a 1/16” x 1/8” strip of basswood onto the top of the keel, ensuring that it was perfectly centered. Then I cut out deadwood pieces from ¼” basswood and installed them at the stem and sternpost areas. Thus, there is automatically a 1/16” indentation allowed for the rabbet. Next, I built the midship frame. Each frame is a double frame, which means that the various futtocks and top timbers are spaced differently on each side of every double frame. Furthermore, each frame is at its thickest at the floor timber, with decreasing widths for each futtock until it reaches the top timber. A typical full frame consists of 10 pieces of basswood, with 5 pieces in each half. Each half consists of 1/8” sided and ¼” molded dimensions at the floor timber, with the remaining timbers decreasing in dimensions until they reach the top timber. The midship frame is shown installed on the keel with two trenails.  | ||
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| Mike 41 |
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 Registered Member #702 Joined: Fri Feb 05 2010, 10:37pmPosts: 1227 | Hi Gene, This will be another very interesting build to watch. The building board looks great. Mike | ||
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| teleman |
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 Registered Member #1925 Joined: Tue Nov 29 2011, 05:32amPosts: 1357 | Another fun one to watch here Gene, Sure would like a close up shot at how your gantry slides and secures to your build board. | ||
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| Pete38 |
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  Registered Member #4127 Joined: Fri Feb 15 2013, 01:04pmPosts: 79 | This is going to be great..... | ||
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| deckape |
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  Registered Member #1797 Joined: Sun Sep 25 2011, 09:09pmPosts: 69 | Ahoy Gene Looks like this going to be a great build This is Donald Mckays last clipper. The biggest clipper in the world much larger then the west Coast clipper Northern Shore. I be following you on this with great entrest what scale is it 1/8th? if so looks like a 45 inch model when done. Hardy Well done Now Turn Too. Boats | ||
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| Gene Bodnar |
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| Registered Member #126 Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20amPosts: 1778 | Thanks, everyone. Mario, A snug-fitting tongue protrudes into the grooves. It is not secure; the whole gantry can be lifted out easily and its direction reversed. One disadvantage of NOT using embedded metal runners at the edges is that the gantry has a very slight wiggle, resulting in constant checking to ensure that it is situated precisely 90 degrees to the center line. Other than that, it works great. Boats, Yes, 1/8" = 1' (1:96). The deck is 40 1/2" long, and with the bowsprit she'll be 56 1/4" long. Gene | ||
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| teleman |
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| Registered Member #1925 Joined: Tue Nov 29 2011, 05:32amPosts: 1357 | Ok Gene, I had it in my mind that it might of been something of a tongue. You answered my next question on the securing of the gauntry. So no securing. So that little play won't become an issue at all thru out the build I see. Thanks Gene | ||
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| aew |
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aew  Registered Member #1929 Joined: Wed Nov 30 2011, 03:05pmPosts: 2921 | Gene: This is a ship I'd read about previously. It will be great to see a model of her. | ||
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| Michael Mott |
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| Registered Member #4083 Joined: Wed Nov 21 2012, 12:46amPosts: 121 | Gene I am looking forward to watching this build. (second post after first one vanished because I hit the post reply button instead of reply to thread) | ||
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| bbrockel |
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 Registered Member #1520 Joined: Sat Mar 12 2011, 04:39pmPosts: 136 | Wow Gene. 56 1/4 " LOA. That's a monster! At that size, the details will be easy to work with and easy to find if they land on the shop floor. Looking forward to this build. | ||
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