Deck planking

[Thomas Marocke]

Completely free of values and for Illustration only.


La Belle - Photo: Texas Historical Commission.

The plank widt corresponds approximately to the shoe of the historian.


Boudriot used the data of the texas find for his model reconstruction of La Belle. Here implemented in the model.


Mary Rose in Portsmouth.


Ship deck HMS Warrior. Plank width well below one shoe size.


Restored deck of the HMS Victory. Deck width below one shoe size.


Old Victory deck.


New Cutty Sark deck.


LA Dunton deck.


Charles W. Morgan deck.




USS Constitution deck.


Mayflower replica deck.

Have fun looking at the pictures.

With best regards
Thomas

 

[PT-2]

Completely free of values and for Illustration only.

View attachment 173151
La Belle - Photo: Texas Historical Commission.

The plank widt corresponds approximately to the shoe of the historian.

View attachment 173152
Boudriot used the data of the texas find for his model reconstruction of La Belle. Here implemented in the model.

View attachment 173153
Mary Rose in Portsmouth.

View attachment 173154
Ship deck HMS Warrior. Plank width well below one shoe size.

View attachment 173155
Restored deck of the HMS Victory. Deck width below one shoe size.

View attachment 173158
Old Victory deck.

View attachment 173159
New Cutty Sark deck.

View attachment 173160
LA Dunton deck.

View attachment 173161
Charles W. Morgan deck.

View attachment 173164

View attachment 173166
USS Constitution deck.

View attachment 173167
Mayflower replica deck.

Have fun looking at the pictures.

With best regards
Thomas

Great family trip photos. I hope all of the crew enjoyed your focused interests. . . . they all look happy. Good job Dad! PT-2

 

[PT-2]

Has far as what I read and research that is what I came up with. I read that they didn't use the stone every day but did give the deck a good cleaning with mops every day I believe. I have no ideal about the author sir. Only one way to be sure, but we will have to wait untill they invent a time machine. Gary

The author was R.H. Dana, Jr. who wrote the novel from the journal that he kept during his two years before completing college and was published in 1840 as an immediate success both in USA (California primarily) and England as his detailed descriptions of the California people, villages, and conditions were possibly the most coverage that later comers to CA, particularly San Francisco could obtain. I'll pass on a time machine as there are parts of our lives that once passed through are enough. PT-2

 

[garyshipwright]

Well Mr PT-2 I just order the paper back copy of it and will give it a good read when it arrives sir. Should make the small library a little better. Thank you sir. Gary

 

[PT-2]

Well Mr PT-2 I just order the paper back copy of it and will give it a good read when it arrives sir. Should make the small library a little better. Thank you sir. Gary

It is a good read and depending upon the readers familiarity with a square rigged brig and seamanship it takes you all over the brigs and his learning seamanship. Someone not knowing those aspects would pass them by for the easy low hanging fruit of times, people, and places. I really liked the whole package. Enjoy. PT-2

 

[PT-2]

Well Mr PT-2 I just order the paper back copy of it and will give it a good read when it arrives sir. Should make the small library a little better. Thank you sir. Gary

I may be 79 but not feeling that formal and was enlisted, not commissioned due to eye problems the Boot Camp Chief said when I stepped out for OTS, so Sir is not in my nature. . . you can just a simple Rich which I should have probably have put out to begin with.

 

[garyshipwright]

Nice to meet you Rich. When I was at great lakes many years ago do believe I said sir to the chief and lets just say I was doing dishes for a week. Learn that chief's do not like to be called sir. Some times old habits stick with you, even after you get out of the service. Gary

 

[Winston]

Wonderful collection of images.

 

[PT-2]

Nice to meet you Rich. When I was at great lakes many years ago do believe I said sir to the chief and lets just say I was doing dishes for a week. Learn that chief's do not like to be called sir. Some times old habits stick with you, even after you get out of the service. Gary

When I recently received the third SoS chevron (E-6) it reminded me that aboard the carriers and at the NAS E-6 moved out of the crew berthing areas into their own domaine but not yet into Chief's Territory. . .kind of a "no man's land" between here and there. All that I have to do here is to keep the fingers dancing on the keyboard, not get rejected for something, and the computerized system will provide the promotion, earned or not for whatever is exchanged along the way. Happy sailing/building.

 

[danielsje]

I find this string super helpful. The lessons learned are solid for modeling. Relationships are critical even between very small measurements. The “eye” is more helpful than scale. And scale is a devil for the details. There are so many things on a ship model that we choose aesthetics, or the “look” over true scale. Or a part becomes too small to handle at scale. Deck rings come to mind here. Rigging is another peccadillo...the size thread we use is often too big or too small. Stays are too small and rat lines are too big. Just like deck planking...scale can “look” wrong! Thanks all!

 

[garyshipwright]

Rich my first carrier I was on was the Midway as a cat guy and really learned what it was all about thats for sure. Years later when I finally got that third stripe things did seem to change as you said. I really enjoyed most of the things on the carrier even giving up my bunk for some body from Vietnam. The most fun was pushing some coptors off of the deck just didn't have room for them. But just history now. She's a Museum in San Deigo now and really just makes me fill old.

 

[garyshipwright]

Jim I usually stick to 1/48 scale and most of the parts are manageable to build in scale for me which is why I stay away from any thing smaller. The last ship I built in 3/16 scale was the Confederacy and when it got down to the details some was a bear. I add a photo of her decking to scale. Its a devil in getting the details right and in scale,have to agree with you there. 1/48 scale for me is easier on the eyes to. I believe thats why I stay away from 1/72 scale plastic models just to small for me. What ever the scale one choose doesn't matter to me but to the builder, weather he chooses to do items out of scale or not it's up to the builder. It really comes down to what one feels comfortable in building Even for 1/48 scale the rigging can get small, and what i use is called a rig right. It gives the dia/circ of the full size rope and reference that to the scale you are working at. It reminds one of a color wheel. I got it from a place called dockyard model company, who use to make carving tools which I believe Woodcraft have taken over the tool part's When I look at true scale Jim I look at it in scale inches and those inches turn in to a scale inch of .0208 for 1/48 scale and that is my scale of parts and pieces that I work in. Some have said, you can't work in .0208 but I do. When you take that .0208 time's 9 you get the scale width of a plank and so on. Bolt's, trunnels, rings are all built to scale size. When you want to look at something in scale and very small, including the planking and keeping it in scale all you have to do is just look at the books done by Donald McNarry, Lloyd McCaffery, Phillp Reed. Can you see a plank on their models being out of scale. Is every thing detailed like blocks with sheeves, probably not but then again to small for my eyes. Details and scale are in the eyes of the beholded.

 

[Jimmy]

Wow! Thanks for launching this discussion, Dave! Definitely an eye-opener for me. As it turns out, my USS Constitution model, which I thought had her deck planks to correct scale, is not even close. As a result of discovering this, I can now add something to the discussion. My Constitution model actually won a national competition in 2011. It was the the Nautical Research Guild contest. They were very hard on my artificial-looking flag, but they didn't seem to mind (or didn't actually know about) correct deck planking width. I do know that they were searching for the tiniest faults in order to arrive at the final winners. So is it possible that deck planking has been somewhat overlooked in contests, or is it more of a practical matter when it comes to making ship models look good? Anyway, Dave, I'm glad those judges didn't have your excellent short seminar on deck planking to refer to back then.

 

[ilanortho]

questions keep coming up about planking a deck so lets do a topic just on that subject.

Many model builders think of deck planks as "planks" when actually they are not they are more like a beam laying down. What we as model builders do on models does not always reflect what was done in actual ship building.

Taken from WOOD a manual for its use as a shipbuilding material and other sources

ship decking in North America for the most part was Southern Yellow pine.

Decking of large craft consisted of comparatively narrow planks that either run parallel to the centerline or are curves to conform to the curvature of the ships sides. curves planks along the outer rim of the deck are called margin pieces.
It is desirable for the cross section of any one plank to be square or nearly so, because with wider planking the effects of swelling and shrinking are concentrated on fewer seams between planks' thereby exerting great stresses on the caulking and fastenings and cause more leaks. Also, square cross sections permit turning the planks to achieve the desired vertical grain on the upper face. Excessive swelling due to the use of planking that is too wide has been known to cause an entire deck to buckle and to rip loose from its beams. Edge grain material is preferred for decking because wood shrinks and swells less across edge grain than across flat grain with changes in moisture content.
The ends of margin pieces, unless curved to fit the ships side, are nibbed into cover board or lock strake and are supported on their underside by small intercostals placed between the deck beams. In some ships a king plank is used at the bow to take the ends of the margin plank. Decks are fastened to their supporting beams by spikes, screws or bolts.
The joints between the various elements of a strake of decking are square butts that land on supporting deck beams. It is customary to cover the heads of all fasteners with wood bungs. Bungs should be made of the same wood as the deck planking; their grain should be parallel to the grain of the planking which they are placed. Caulking of decks are set firmly in place by means of "horsing" with an iron driven into the seam with a heavy beetle "mallet. After the caulking operation is finished, the space between the planks and caulking is filled with a pitch, or seam compound of white lead to prevent the rot of the cotton.

the actual color of deck caulking range from light brown to white to shades of gray and into black.

Thank you so much for a wonderful article!!!

 

[Mongrell]

show me pictures of real decks

seems decks are not stark white like you see on models

decks come in different colors

deck planking seem to be narrow about the width of the average adult foot

deck planks curve and sometimes not

View attachment 172573View attachment 172574View attachment 172575View attachment 172576View attachment 172577View attachment 172578View attachment 172579

Seems like a pretty messy deck for a working ship. (Yup was in the US Navy) Got to work on board a Russian ship that came in to port in Corpus Christi when I was stationed ther in the 80s ( Was in SAR, UH-1N's Loved my Hewys)

 

[Mikeyt]

Dave thanks for the fantastic article, I like 1/8" =1' scale so I guess I belong in the hippo category. When i built the Phantom I tried copper plating it looked so out of proportion I stripped it off and air brushed it copper, looked so much better because the model's size ( Artistic License ). I would also like to thank Smelly for the Sampson Boatbuilding Co sight, some how missed that one.

 

[garyshipwright]

Hello guys there is some you tube video about Philip Reed's himself and his ship Models on you tube and very interesting to watch. When watching them look at how small the ships are, and even at this size he still gets the planks to scale and look very good. You can find this under barney hayter on you tube. Very good set of video's of a master ship wright and his love for building them. Gary

 

[Clair G]

What started as a simple question about planking decks has become an exercise in trying to match a pro's ( ? ) models. Im not a pro and most likely
never will be, nor do I care to become one. I mess with wooden ships because it's fun and I love the subject matter. I say mess because while I do
somewhat care about scales, I care much more for how it looks and just how much effort I want to put into it. I do this for ME, the wife couldn't care
less about my hobby, kids too busy playing games, and the cats... Well Hades likes to chew on the wood sometimes. I dont mind that, I love the cats
and the companionship they all give me much more than a simple hunk of badly glued together wood.

Perhaps Im reading all this wrong but it just seems like one self perclaimed be all, end all, of all things wood thinks everyone should be as good as
whoever Phillip Reed is. Never heard of him myself. I do know of Bob Hunt from years ago when I modelled and I know of our own @Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)
and for me, their opinions are top notch, the best information you can get. The best part being when they say "Modellers Choice". That right there
tells me that no matter how bad I am at this hobby right now or in the future, I can feel good about what Im doing and Im not being judged
like it's some kind of competition.

On the level, all my normal levity aside, the health issues I have I will most likely not even see 60, so I just want to have fun and build models
as long as I can and feel good about what I've hacked up recently. Mr. @danielsje summed it up perfectly for me although I felt I needed to
let my thoughts be known as well.

I also second @Mikeyt in thanking Mr. Dave Stevens for the topic, the guidence within, and all the tireless research he does on the Hahn
models, including hippo whatevers.

 

[PT-2]

What started as a simple question about planking decks has become an exercise in trying to match a pro's ( ? ) models. Im not a pro and most likely
never will be, nor do I care to become one. I mess with wooden ships because it's fun and I love the subject matter. I say mess because while I do
somewhat care about scales, I care much more for how it looks and just how much effort I want to put into it. I do this for ME, the wife couldn't care
less about my hobby, kids too busy playing games, and the cats... Well Hades likes to chew on the wood sometimes. I dont mind that, I love the cats
and the companionship they all give me much more than a simple hunk of badly glued together wood.

Perhaps Im reading all this wrong but it just seems like one self perclaimed be all, end all, of all things wood thinks everyone should be as good as
whoever Phillip Reed is. Never heard of him myself. I do know of Bob Hunt from years ago when I modelled and I know of our own @Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)
and for me, their opinions are top notch, the best information you can get. The best part being when they say "Modellers Choice". That right there
tells me that no matter how bad I am at this hobby right now or in the future, I can feel good about what Im doing and Im not being judged
like it's some kind of competition.

On the level, all my normal levity aside, the health issues I have I will most likely not even see 60, so I just want to have fun and build models
as long as I can and feel good about what I've hacked up recently. Mr. @danielsje summed it up perfectly for me although I felt I needed to
let my thoughts be known as well.

I also second @Mikeyt in thanking Mr. Dave Stevens for the topic, the guidence within, and all the tireless research he does on the Hahn
models, including hippo whatevers.

I Googled up Phillip Reed to see what he is doing after such big reviews for his microscopically small work. To small for me to try or want to but it is interesting to see what he can do. In a related way I am not really interested in keeping track of what I am doing in a build as there is too much in and out, on and off, and I am only interested in the doing itself while I am able. Keep on your course of enjoyment in your hobby and tolerance with the dogs and cats. I only have one to whimper for my attention which is not given often enough. We all need some recognition in some ways as self absorption is an inward direction while our builds are an outward expression of ourselves.. . at least as I see it (with my one good eye) . PT-2

 

[Vfordyce]

questions keep coming up about planking a deck so lets do a topic just on that subject.

Many model builders think of deck planks as "planks" when actually they are not they are more like a beam laying down. What we as model builders do on models does not always reflect what was done in actual ship building.

Taken from WOOD a manual for its use as a shipbuilding material and other sources

ship decking in North America for the most part was Southern Yellow pine.

Decking of large craft consisted of comparatively narrow planks that either run parallel to the centerline or are curves to conform to the curvature of the ships sides. curves planks along the outer rim of the deck are called margin pieces.
It is desirable for the cross section of any one plank to be square or nearly so, because with wider planking the effects of swelling and shrinking are concentrated on fewer seams between planks' thereby exerting great stresses on the caulking and fastenings and cause more leaks. Also, square cross sections permit turning the planks to achieve the desired vertical grain on the upper face. Excessive swelling due to the use of planking that is too wide has been known to cause an entire deck to buckle and to rip loose from its beams. Edge grain material is preferred for decking because wood shrinks and swells less across edge grain than across flat grain with changes in moisture content.
The ends of margin pieces, unless curved to fit the ships side, are nibbed into cover board or lock strake and are supported on their underside by small intercostals placed between the deck beams. In some ships a king plank is used at the bow to take the ends of the margin plank. Decks are fastened to their supporting beams by spikes, screws or bolts.
The joints between the various elements of a strake of decking are square butts that land on supporting deck beams. It is customary to cover the heads of all fasteners with wood bungs. Bungs should be made of the same wood as the deck planking; their grain should be parallel to the grain of the planking which they are placed. Caulking of decks are set firmly in place by means of "horsing" with an iron driven into the seam with a heavy beetle "mallet. After the caulking operation is finished, the space between the planks and caulking is filled with a pitch, or seam compound of white lead to prevent the rot of the cotton.

the actual color of deck caulking range from light brown to white to shades of gray and into black.

You could hardly see the bungs on the Victory Museum virtual tour on YouTube. Would that mean we’d be wasting our time with tree nails since you wouldn’t see them with the scales we’re using?