Vol. 64, No. 1 Spring 2019 8


6) Use two copies of each drawing. Once each sub- assembly’s glue has dried, take the two sections and glue them together. Cover one assembly with yellow glue and place the other assembly on the other, and then clamp them together. Make sure the two halves are properly aligned in this step, and stay aligned as the clamp is tightened. (Figure 7) I used wood glue to glue the butt ends together directly on the subassembly drawing. I also protected the clamped items with wax paper so they would not be glued to the clamping jig. T e clamp is nothing but two pieces of lumber with a half-inch bolt squeezing the halves together. (Figure 8) Figure 9 shows several completed frame blanks ready for shaping.


Once the frame assembly pieces are dry, glue a corresponding frame drawing onto the unit. Do not trim the frame drawing paper at this time, since the frame drawing paper will provide strength between the two halves of the uprights for the subsequent work. Note that the frame drawing shows the needed fairing so as to minimize sanding later on. (Figure 10)


T e actual vessel was built in a very similar way. T e full frames were made up of overlapped oak futtocks.


T e fi rst piece of oak was notched to fi t on the keel, and it was called the fl oor and fi rst futtock. A second piece of oak was placed on the keel, slightly longer and pegged to its sister. Successive oak timbers were cut to the contours defi ned by the shipwright, and pegged to its preceding oak timber. Timbers were overlapped at the butt joints so the joints were strong. Since the curved frames were made with relatively straight sections of oak, frames were strong. Each pair of overlapped timbers was pegged together. T e second pair on each side of the ship was called the second futtock, all the way up to the third, and so on. British ships-of-the-line had as many as six futtocks, and on the very tops of the frames, lengthening pieces were sometimes also used. T e straight oak trees were called compass oaks.


T e timbers were joined with pegs made from the uppermost branches of oak trees, which are straight narrow grained, and very tough. T ese pegs were called treenails, or, more commonly, “trunnels”. T e holes were bored with augers and the pegs hammered into place. Butt ends and scarph joints were oſt en sealed with fl annel soaked in pitch or tar. When the pegs got wet they swelled and tightened the joints.


7. A number of sub-assemblies ready for sanding. A full-size piece of sandpaper has been glued and clamped to a piece of plywood, and the sections will be rubbed by hand to achieve the needed fi nish and thickness.


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