Fanny M - a simple lift model

[Greg Davis]

When I led the Chapelle to build or not build discussion, I mentioned the classic book American Ship Models and How to Build Them by V.R. Grimwood. At that time I had gotten some Cherry wood and milled some lifts for Fanny M. As I have been working on Gracie S, in particular near the sternpost where there is a good deal of concave work with small radius curves, I started to wonder if it might be worthwhile to take a look at how Fanny M can be modeled using lifts. The hull of Fanny M is much simpler to shape due to the fact there are no concave surfaces to shape. Also, in contrast to Gracie where there was a choice between horizontal and vertical lifts, Fanny is a natural for the traditional horizontal lift construction.

According to Grimwood, Fanny M. - a Piscataqua River Gundalow - was built in 1886 by Captain Adams of Adams Point, Mass. Fanny M. was wrecked at Dover Point, New Hampshire. A few pictures of the wreck in 1925 are held by the Smithsonian and can be located on the web.



D. Foster Taylor measured the wreck, and in conjunction with an original builder's model created draughts for Fanny M which appear in the Historic American Merchant Marine Survey (HAMMS). While, I haven't seen the actual HAMMS drawings, there appears to be a reproduction of such in the Chapelle book National Watercraft Collection Plans:



It is from these plans that Grimwood redrew with slightly less detail and placed in his book. The plans in the book are drawn to 1:96 scale and Grimwood suggests building the model to the scale of 1:48. That is what will be done here.

Thus the first step is to redraw portions of the plan twice as large. To construct the lifts, it is the waterlines that need enlargement. Photocopy enlargement was not the way to go as part of the plans have been lost in the book's seam! I took a sheet of poster board and aligned the bottom edge with a straightedge. Using a triangle, station lines noted in the plans were drawn perpendicular to the edge of the poster board. The edge of the poster board represents the centerline of the hull. Using the plan showing waterlines, measurements were taken, doubled and then marked on the poster board. There are 5 waterlines to reproduce. There are various ways that the needed measurements can be developed; the most basic being to measure with a ruler and then double the measurement, and without recourse to actual measurements proportional dividers can be used to double and transfer the dimensions.

I find my proportional dividers bulky to use (wish I had a smaller one), so I actually went with a third option. I took off the needed measurements with regular dividers and then used a 1/2" to 1" drafting ruler to double the dimension, opened the dividers to the need dimension (on the back side of the ruler) and transferred to the poster board. Once all the measurements had been transferred, I got out some French curves and ship curves to draw the waterlines. Here is the result:

 

[Greg Davis]

With the waterline plans complete it was time to get some wood milled for the lifts. Grimwood informs the reader that there are 4 lifts 1/4 inch thick and 1 lift (the top) 5/8 thick. All need to be 17 1/2" long by 6" wide. I decided that I would make my model of Fanny M using Cherry wood, but the choice is obviously up to the builder! I purchased my wood as 4/4 and milled it to the necessary dimensions. Note that if you are 'experimenting' with this model / method of construction; 1/4" sheets of wood are not too difficult to come by in a number of different wood species. 5/8" may be more challenging to find, but you could get by with 3/4" material as the top lift will eventually be cut down.

Here are the lifts that I prepared using a thickness planer:




Next the five lifts were stacked to produce a squared rectangle and finishing nails were driven into the four corners to maintain this configuration. It is crucial that the resulting block is perfectly 'square'. This can be checked by using a machinist square to draw a square along all four sides of the solid - if the final line joins to the first, you are good to go - if not the block needs additional work before proceeding.

I used a marking gauge to layout the centerline along the top lift and then drew station lines using a machinist square. The center line and station lines were extended around the entire block. I also labeled the station lines to help minimize errors in transferring information to the lifts.





A quick run to the drill press came next to drill a pair of holes into which locator / alignment dowels could be inserted. In many cases, the holes will be drilled thru all but the lowest lift, so the bottom of the hull does not show a hole and/or plug. For this model, I purposely chose the locations of the holes to be that for a mounting system and drilled them straight thru.

The nails were removed and the lifts separated.

The next step was to draw waterlines on each of the lifts. Because all the waterlines come fairly close together midship, I decided to color code each.



Now I cut along the outermost waterline and transferred the shape to the top lift:



I then cut along the next waterline and transferred it to the next lift:



The process continued until all 5 lifts were marked.

The five sheets of wood were sawed near their waterlines. I used a bandsaw for this process, but it could just as well be done with a a handheld jig saw, or a hand saw. I sanded each lift to the marked waterline using a spindle sander. Again, alternative tools could easily be used - disk sander, belt sander, rasp, sanding block, ... - as is available. Please don't get the impression a fully decked out woodshop is needed to build a rather simple model ship!

This is what the lifts looked like at this point:

 

[Greg Davis]

At this point I marked the sheer on the top lift. To do so station lines were redrawn down the sides of the previously sanded top lift. Using the plans measure up from the bottom of the top lift to the sheer, double and transfer to the corresponding station line (on both sides of the lift). Once all measurements are noted a flexible strip / batten can be used to draw a smooth curve thru the noted points.

Just a word of caution here - you cannot simply draw a scaled up version of the side plan and wrap / attach it to the lift to draw the sheer:



The reason it doesn't work is because the sideview is a projection and therby suppresses information related to the curvature of the hull in the width's dimension!


Time now to permanently affix the lifts together. Some good wood glue - I used original Titebond - and a lot of clamps is in order. Don't forget the locator pins to keep all the lifts in the correct locations. Also, cleaning up as much glue seepage is a good idea - this may need to be done several times as glue squeezes out. Clamping should be as uniform as possible and it is paramount that the edges where lifts meet are tight so no gaps show in the finished hull.





Best to leave the clamped up hull dry for several days before taking off the clamps. I left mine alone for a week.

 

[JacquesCousteau]

Very cool project, I'm looking forward to following along. It's certainly a distinctive vessel.

 

[Greg Davis]

After I was sure the glue was dry, I began to remove material from the top lift, working down toward the previous drawn sheer line. I chose to do the first stage by repeatedly running the hull over the blade in my table saw. Notice that wood was not removed near the bow nor stern; it was left to keep the hull elevated at a constant height throughout the process.



In similar fashion, some modelers mount the hull perpendicular and make repeated cuts to the sheer using a bandsaw. Chisels are used to remove wood between the bandsaw cuts. There is no reason that a multitude of cuts could not be made with a handsaw and then the remaining material chiseled out - it would be just a bit more time consuming; however, the result would be the same.

I used Shinto rasps to remove the rest of the excess material above the sheer line. This was my first experience with a Shinto rasp (made from a series of interlocked hacksaw blades). I found the tools efficiently did a fine job for this task.



At this point I decided to remove some of the interior wood - this is not uncommonly done in lift models, especially large ones. I took out material using a mini-router. Honestly, if I were to do this model again, I would not go through this process again. However, here's what it looked like after material removal, some smoothing, and a block of wood added to hold the hull in a vice.




Now it was time to flip the hull over and start working the lifts together. The goal here is to remove the excess wood up to, but not exceeding the lift joints. A tip from Bob Cleek, helped me not go past the lift joints: paint the inner corner of the joints black and shape until they are just about to disappear.

So, again using the Shinto rasps, excess wood was removed in a way that worked toward a smooth continuous surface that would display the hull lines of Fanny M. This is the stage of the build that has me classifying the build as 'simple'. All the shapes of the hull's exterior are convex - no hollows, nothing concave to worry about.

Here are a few pictures along the way - this take more than a few hours to accomplish!







At this point I switched to a sanding block first 120 grit and then 150.

 

[Greg Davis]

Very cool project, I'm looking forward to following along. It's certainly a distinctive vessel.

And one Chapelle said was worth modeling!

 

[Greg Davis]

Creating a deck plate was the next major task. Grimwood would have you cut a piece of wood for the deck, sand / shape to the correct camber and then scribe planks into the board. I have tried scribing in the past - it is simply not in my skillset. So I've cut the deck plate from thinner stock, it was cambered and then planked with strips of Cherry.

Here is the deck plate as I am cutting out regions for hatches and deckhouse on my scroll saw. A coping saw by itself and/or a key hole saw would work here as well.



Among many other limitations in my skill set is filing / sanding a flat line. There are a dozen to do just on this deck plate! To aid me in this process, I find clamping the workplace with a straight guide along the side to be shaped is often useful - some individuals just line the work up with the vice jaw.



The deck plate now needed to be glued to the hull. This is one of the more challenging processes to be delt with on this model. The surface that the plate glues to is curved and there are few locations for easy clamping. Looking back, because the deck was planked, perhaps mechanical fasteners would have been a good idea here. There are locations that small wood screws could have been inserted without fear of protruding thru the hull.

Fortunately the bottom of Fanny M.'s hull is flat so that boards could pass across the bottom to serve as clamping locations. At other locations spring clamps with bits of sandpaper to keep them from slipping off were used. The result was satisfactory, but I would be grateful to learn better ways to take care of this task.

 

[Greg Davis]

Once the glue had cured - I think I left this for a couple of days in its clamped up state - the plate was faired up with the rest of the hull. Once again the Shinto rasps followed by sandpaper. Then some deck camber was introduced to the deck plate.





Strips of Cherry 1/8" wide were made up for the deck planks. To somewhat preserve the look of a scribed deck, all deck planks were laid in single strips fore to aft.


Here are some pictures of the planking process.



Strips of wood perpendicular to the deck planking is being used to hold the planks tight to the deck.



All the deck planks are in place. I've drilled holes near the front and back of the deckhouse and hatch location, because the deck was sanded smooth prior to opening the deck (and of course, the pencil lines would be removed).



Now the deck has been faired to the hull and is sanded and smooth. The next work was to open the hatch and deckhouse locations.

 

[Greg Davis]

Deck rails as they may be called - but only a few inches in height on the actual ship were added next. Fore and aft they are made from 1/16" by 1/8" strips that had been wetted and clamped in their curved shape prior to attachment. Between are thicker rails that have a series of scuppers. I milled the scuppers, but they could be made using files, knives, hobby saws, etc.



A skeg and false cutwater were cut from 1/4" cherry and fitted. These parts as well as the scuppers are visible in the next picture.



At this point, for all practical purposes, the hull is complete. In many ways, while 'plain' the lines of this hull are not disappointing - at least to me.

Now it is time to focus on deck fixtures / furniture and then the masting and rigging. I've a start on the deck house; hopefully some pictures and update soon.

 

[Greg Davis]

I should have mentioned this right from the start - while the National watercraft Collection holds a model of Fanny M., I have not seen any pictures of it. In fact, I have not actually seen photographs of any display model of Fanny M., nor pictures of other builds of any Grimwood models. If anyone can point me toward models associated with the Grimwood book, I would appreciate it.

Now the reason I said 'display model' of Fanny M., is that there is a full size reproduction / model of Fanny M https://www.gundalow.org/