the Apprenticeshop's Ambitious Adventure

Splash x 2 @ WOW

The ramp forward the mast is to aid in unsteping the mast using the hinged tabernacle.

 

Clean lines, form = function

Kytara and Julio, two youngsters who helped with the build, from Urban Promise in Camden NJ.

Bruce McKenzie and his lovely friend Nerissa. Bruce is the lead boatbuilder at the workshop.

Peter Kellog, patron saint of the National Whaleboat Project. Thanks Peter

John Brady, Master of Ceremonies and captain of the ISM spies a whale to port.

 

The first in is the last built

 

And in!

Paddling the first around to the dock after her splash

 

Nestling

 

It's a great party both inside...

 

 

 and out.

Once in, there was a rowing race, New Jersey v Pa. Some may object, but I'm calling it a dead heat.

 

photos and text Copyright Thomas Armstrong

This was a great event! I loved it! Two whaleboats splashed at the workshop, racing each other right away. More than nice party, great food and drink for the taking and two of the loveliest boats imaginable. Our views on whaling have changed, in no small part because of the efficiency of boats of this type. Today we celebrate not the killing but the artistry of these impeccably designed boats.

I was fortunate to meet Peter Kellog, whose generosity undoubtedly made the National Whaleboat Project possible, and also Steve White, the captain of Mystic Seaport, whose restoration of the CW Morgan, a massive undertaking, is the impetus for the building of the whaleboats. I am proud to say that the ISM led the way, agreeing to self fund their project and donate the boat(s) to Mystic and the Morgan. Other institutions followed their lead and began their builds. Congrats to all of them.

I would also like to emphasize another aspect of this project. Many of the builds have involved youth volunteers from organizations seeking to give young folk the chance to experience something extremely positive. In Philly, 55 young adults were given this opportunity, kids from Urban Promise in Camden, from The Wooden Boat Factory ( take a look at their one design, drawn by my friend Antonio Dias) and the Charter School for Architecture + Design, both located in Philadelphia.  

 Most of these projects still need additional funding, as they face building the spars and rigging the boats, so if you can, help!

Copyright Thomas Armstrong

 

Whaleboat Roundup .1

Rocking the Boat

She's a beauty!

Geoff McKonly keeps the project going during a break

Such grace

Ready to launch

Splashed!


Photos courtesy Rocking the Boat

Gannon and Benjamon

 

The lofting

Plastic bags were used in place of steam box so that the plank could be "whomped" in place.

Closer look at the frames. The top of the frame is fit into a chamfer on the underside of the inwales.

Framing installed

We laid down a coat of oil-based primer throughout the hull before installing any of the ceiling.
(The ceiling is the planks you see here being installed atop the frames-ed)

Whaleboat is primed and ready to paint!

Nat and the whaleboat

Above photos courtesy Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway

With  the July 21st deadline for the launch of the CW Morgan, the various builders of her whaleboats are in full swing to finish. I'll be catching us up on the progress of the boats over the next few weeks. As you can see above, at least one has already splashed, the Rocking the Boat build. My heartiest congratulations to the young volunteers and their instructors for reaching this milestone. Also, the work at Gannon and Benjamin is nearing completion.

The two boats being built at Independence Seaport will go in the water June 8, and I plan to be there for their splash, so stay tuned. (You can also follow the progress with almost daily reports by Charles Bernstein on the WoW blog)

It has been decided that each build will complete their spars and rigging independently, with the exception of RTB, whose rig will be done at Workshop on the Water. I know that Graham McKay of Lowell's Boat Shop was in Philadephia at the Worksop recently building the spars for their boat.

It's my understanding that the completed boats will travel to Mystic to be aboard the CW for her splash and then return to their respective homes for awhile, but ship on the Morgan for her cruise to the New Bedford Whaling Museum in 2014.

As mentioned earlier, I'll be doing a (virtual) tour of the various yards to catch up on their progress. Come along.

Copyright Thomas Armstrong   

Great Lakes Boatbuilding School joins the project

CW Morgan at Mystic with a whaleboat in the foreground.

 A raised lofting table was constructed in the school's loft for the whaleboat.

Lofting details

Deciding if the lines are fair

Freshly steamed stem being inserted into the bending jig and bent to shape using a compression strap.

Stem secured in bending jig. Note the custom fabricated compression strap attached to the jig at one end and the handle at the other end.

Chopping the rabbet into the stem

Construction of the backbone begins

Building jig is erected, backbone assembled, and molds are secured in place.

Garboard plank hung along with a lapped-straked plank above it on the starboard side. The following planks will be done with carvel batten-seams. 

Bottom two planks on the port side completed. Note the notches in the molds for the batten seams that were laid out during the lining off process.

The whaleboat seen amongst all the other developing projects in the shop.

First lapstrake plank below the sheer being hung.

Students slowly bend the a frame over the jig using a compression strap.

Steamed frames are drying in bending jig as planking work continues.

With the completion of planking, work shifts to installation of the pre-bent frames.

 Clamping the frames in place.

All images courtesy Great Lakes Boatbuilding School

"The Great Lakes Boat Building School (GLBBS) is proud, honored, and excited to have a role in the Mystic Seaport museum’s restoration of the Charles W. Morgan."
So begins the glbbs short dissertation on the project, with a history of the Morgan, a nicely done description of the whaleboat in general and the Beetle craft in particular and  a statement of their expectations and the merit of taking on such a project. As with most of the participants in the project, Great Lakes is using the build as a learning experience for their students. Indeed, their website outlines in great detail what the students will be learning. Here is a taste of that:

"First and foremost, in the building of this whaleboat students will learn team work. It has been said, “To work with someone is to know him; to build a boat with him is to know him well.“ And so it goes at GLBBS.
The process begins with the preliminary work being done by second-year students, while the first-year students are being introduced to classic woodworking skills, which involves building their toolboxes and being introduced to the fundamentals of lofting. Second-year students, having learned the required lofting skills in their first year, will loft the whaleboat to establish its full-size lines, which then will be used to form the necessary references and patterns required for accurately building this boat to the Beetle design.
Second-year students will continue on with the next step, which is using the lofting lines to make the molds representing the hull shape, then setting the molds up in a building jig. The building jig is designed for building the whale boat right-side up, and also to allow plenty of height underneath for working on the bottom of the whaleboat.
Once the second-year students have completed the building jig, the actual boat construction begins with the building of the backbone. They will build a keel, stem, and sternpost. In this process, they will gain more experience in constructing a bending jig, as well as the steam bending process involved in bending the stem and sternpost. When the stem and stern post have been bent to shape, students will learn how to layout and carve the rabbet into the stem and sternpost and assemble them together on the building jig to form the backbone of the whaleboat."

Suffice it to say, there's a lot more.

My sincere thanks to Kevin Pagliuca at Great Lakes for his assistance.

The Apprenticeshop builds a whaleboat

Lofting complete, beginning station molds.

Setting stem and stern molds

Fairing planking lines

Loggerhead carved from trunk

Planking completed

Gunwales installed

Installing frames

Installing centerboard trunk

Bronze roller for Harpooner's line, between the chocks

Hull faired, caulked and filled

Exterior primer coat

Interior primed

Primed and ready for interior fittings

All images and captions courtesy The Apprenticeshop

Miscommunication is a real bugger. John Brady recently put me in touch with Tim Jacobus at the Apprenticeshop in Rockland, ME, they've been building since August but we've just now connected! My lapse, no doubt. Tim is an apprentice and the project leader for their whaleboat. I'm posting Tim's missive to me as it pretty much says it all...

 

Hello Thomas,



I would like to confirm the building of the New Bedford "Leonard" Whaleboat for the Charles W. Morgan here in The Apprenticeshop, Rockland Maine.  Seems the info from our end isn't reaching the main Whaleboat/Morgan info stream. I have slowly been contacting other teams while we have been building our whaleboat and hope to open a line of communication as well as skill share and swap construction suggestions. Anyway my name is Timothy (Tim) Jacobus and I am a second year apprentice and the project leader. I with another second (Simon Jack) and three first year apprentices have steadily been constructing our Leonard boat. Lofting began on August 7, stem stern and keel set on September 19, planking completed on November 13, frames December 4, and now (December 14) her centerboard trunk installed, hull is faired, caulked, and primed. We will begin outfitting her interior once The Ashop is back from holiday break. I was informed of your forum/blog, Whaleboats for the CW Morgan and reading that you have received no info from the Apprenticeshop, I had to send this introduction and a few pictures. I've been in contact with the Great Lakes Boat Building school and have yet to email Lowell's. I am also trying to get the contact info for Matthew Stackpole to share our progress. He recently paid us a visit here in Rockland and we the build team would like to continue our relationship with him throughout the project.  We would love to hear from you and any of your team, to begin "breaking the ice" so to speak, and looking forward to the day we all meet in Mystic. Hope you like, and will share, the pics. Feel free to add them to your forum if you wish.



Proost, Tim Jacobus

The Apprenticeshop was founded by Lance Lee in 1972. More on Lance and the Apprenticeshop here.