Mayflower Dartmouth

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To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Pilgrim Fathers (and mothers and children and animals) on the Mayflower and Speedwell from Dartmouth UK a few of the senior citizens of Dartmouth town have volunteered to create a 1/12 scale model longitudinal cutaway of the Mayflower.

We've been supported by a grant from the Dartmouth Town Council, a huge shed loaned by the Royal Navy and lots of free or discounted tools, benches etc to equip our workshop from generous suppliers. Plus, equipment, materials and time have been contributed freely by the project volunteers.

We are working from drawings of the Mayflower II, obtained from MIT. Mayflower II was built as a thank you present to the people of the United States, in the fishing town of Brixham, which is just 10 miles along the coast from Dartmouth.

We are building mainly in Mahogany and Oak.

I did not discover SOS until very recently, so sorry for not reporting the build from the start.

- Robert

E3F9F2CC-6A17-48F1-9166-8C4B2689E0E4.jpeg

The frame for the after castle. We first worked out the dimensions of the upper half-deck by measuring key points from the plans and calculating the ratio of the new deck width against the actual model main deck width at various points. However that didn't look right at all so we relied on getting the angles of the uprights correct. That worked.


Mayflower Dartmouth Main Deck.jpg

The top deck is now finished. Made in three long sections and two small ones. Now to be fixed together with beams beneath. We've also built the skeleton of the forecastle.

Mayflower Dartmouth Main deck beams spanning gun deck.jpg

Main deck beams in place. Note the curvature in each beam. It was an act of simple genius to number the ribs and the beams - that saved lots of confusion. On the drawing note the position of the capstan and the structure of the aft castle.

Mayflower Dartmouth Gun Deck, gun ports, knees, ceiling planking.jpg

The gun deck showing the floor planking made with Mahogany planks with neoprene strips between. Note the Gun ports and the knees supporting the main deck beams. Due to the compound curvature of the hull, each knee had to be custom shaped.

Mayflower Dartmouth Gun Deck, grating.jpg

Gun deck on the workbench. The gratings were made with 10x10mm square section oak longitudinal beams into which we glued hundreds of 10mm cubes.

Mayflower Dartmouth ceiling stained, gun deck beams.jpg

Ceiling planks sanded and stained. Gun deck beams in place.

Mayflower Dartmouth ceiling planking.jpg

Clamping and gluing the oak ceiling planks in place.


Mayflower Dartmouth Internal ceiling planking.jpg

Overview of the 12ft hull. At this stage we were fitting the internal ceiling planks. Note how the model is mounted on a heavy beam and board which can be tilted to enable easier access.
 
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Hallo Robert,
great that you start now the building log of this very interesting project - a great idea and very unusual - so therefore very interesting.
So we would like to see much more of your progress and also to learn about the problems and your the solutions for the special problems of such a huge model.
I will follow with big interest.
 
At Mystic, Connecticut, USA they just installed the topmasts on the new Mayflower restoration. The ship was re-launched in the spring and will be ready to sail to Plymouth, Mass for the 400th anniversary. It will travel to Boston and take a sail around the harbor in company with the USS Constitution which itself was recently repaired and refurbished. Should be quite a sight. https://www.boston.com/news/history/2019/07/08/mayflower-ii-boston-2020
 
We'll always have YouTube. I can only imagine what the traffic in Boston will be like. Plymouth is pretty small. The harbor was bypassed for deeper anchorages elsewhere. But, during the normal tourist season in the summer, it gets very congested. The 400th will be huge, even in October. Tourists, scholars, descendants, and, I'm sure, protesters.
 
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Pilgrim Fathers (and mothers and children and animals) on the Mayflower and Speedwell from Dartmouth UK a few of the senior citizens of Dartmouth town have volunteered to create a 1/12 scale model longitudinal cutaway of the Mayflower.

We've been supported by a grant from the Dartmouth Town Council, a huge shed loaned by the Royal Navy and lots of free or discounted tools, benches etc to equip our workshop from generous suppliers. Plus, equipment, materials and time have been contributed freely by the project volunteers.

We are working from drawings of the Mayflower II, obtained from MIT. Mayflower II was built as a thank you present to the people of the United States, in the fishing town of Brixham, which is just 10 miles along the coast from Dartmouth.

We are building mainly in Mahogany and Oak.

I did not discover SOS until very recently, so sorry for not reporting the build from the start.

- Robert

608195FA-382A-4281-96F3-32F0815D6496.jpeg

Forecastle frame coming on.

378.jpg

The top deck is now finished. Made in three long sections and two small ones. Now to be fixed together with beams beneath. We've also built the skeleton of the forecastle.

393.jpg

Main deck beams in place. Note the curvature in each beam. It was an act of simple genius to number the ribs and the beams - that saved lots of confusion. On the drawing note the position of the capstan and the structure of the aft castle.

390.jpg

The gun deck showing the floor planking made with Mahogany planks with neoprene strips between. Note the Gun ports and the knees supporting the main deck beams. Due to the compound curvature of the hull, each knee had to be custom shaped.

388.jpg

Gun deck on the workbench. The gratings were made with 10x10mm square section oak longitudinal beams into which we glued hundreds of 10mm cubes.

387.jpg

Ceiling planks sanded and stained. Gun deck beams in place.

385.jpg

Clamping and gluing the oak ceiling planks in place.


384.jpg

Overview of the 12ft hull. At this stage we were fitting the internal ceiling planks. Note how the model is mounted on a heavy beam and board which can be tilted to enable easier access.
 
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Very interesting photos you are showing us here - Many thanks for showing us this very SPECIAL project
 
Have you started making all the stuff that will go inside it yet? That in itself will be quite a task!
 
Have you started making all the stuff that will go inside it yet? That in itself will be quite a task!
We haven’t started but we have procured some posable wooden mannikins to build into sailors, pilgrims etc. And we have a group of ladies who might dress them for us.
 
Thanks - I was thinking more about crates of stores, barrels, boxes, spare rope and sails, spare blocks, cabins and furniture etc etc etc.
Bob
 
It must have been quite difficult planking the inside! Did you take it off the board to do it, or reach over the top?
Bob
 
We cut a big hole in the mounting board so we could access the lower boards and leaned over to fit the upper boards.
 
Thanks - I can see the hole now - it wasn't obvious before, because I was looking at the planking - :)
 
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Pilgrim Fathers (and mothers and children and animals) on the Mayflower and Speedwell from Dartmouth UK a few of the senior citizens of Dartmouth town have volunteered to create a 1/12 scale model longitudinal cutaway of the Mayflower.

We've been supported by a grant from the Dartmouth Town Council, a huge shed loaned by the Royal Navy and lots of free or discounted tools, benches etc to equip our workshop from generous suppliers. Plus, equipment, materials and time have been contributed freely by the project volunteers.

We are working from drawings of the Mayflower II, obtained from MIT. Mayflower II was built as a thank you present to the people of the United States, in the fishing town of Brixham, which is just 10 miles along the coast from Dartmouth.

We are building mainly in Mahogany and Oak.

I did not discover SOS until very recently, so sorry for not reporting the build from the start.

- Robert

View attachment 129508

The frame for the after castle. We first worked out the dimensions of the upper half-deck by measuring key points from the plans and calculating the ratio of the new deck width against the actual model main deck width at various points. However that didn't look right at all so we relied on getting the angles of the uprights correct. That worked.



B5FF4EE7-C8D0-48F2-8815-8D25A1633240.jpeg

Aft castle decks in place including top-most poop deck.




View attachment 127378

The top deck is now finished. Made in three long sections and two small ones. Now to be fixed together with beams beneath. We've also built the skeleton of the forecastle.

View attachment 127393

Main deck beams in place. Note the curvature in each beam. It was an act of simple genius to number the ribs and the beams - that saved lots of confusion. On the drawing note the position of the capstan and the structure of the aft castle.

View attachment 127390

The gun deck showing the floor planking made with Mahogany planks with neoprene strips between. Note the Gun ports and the knees supporting the main deck beams. Due to the compound curvature of the hull, each knee had to be custom shaped.

View attachment 127388

Gun deck on the workbench. The gratings were made with 10x10mm square section oak longitudinal beams into which we glued hundreds of 10mm cubes.

View attachment 127387

Ceiling planks sanded and stained. Gun deck beams in place.

View attachment 127385

Clamping and gluing the oak ceiling planks in place.


View attachment 127384

Overview of the 12ft hull. At this stage we were fitting the internal ceiling planks. Note how the model is mounted on a heavy beam and board which can be tilted to enable easier access.
IDAF3ACB4-8CFD-4BFC-AA24-80456519B44D.jpegFE832CBC-2FD9-4A03-8A88-095EAE929E46.jpegE43DB60A-E13F-4880-9475-FA50168FBF25.jpegB5FF4EE7-C8D0-48F2-8815-8D25A1633240.jpegE206AE49-0EA9-4DEE-8327-F8ACF14C9426.jpeg
 
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