PLANS

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

Every once in a while, there will be a post where do i get ships plans? good question but to general to answer, Ship plans come in a variety of forms like original shipyard drawings, modeling plans, plank on frame plans, plank on bulkhead plans, plans from kits and plans out of books. Here is a small sample of where to find plans, museums all over the world will have a collection of plans as well as historical societies and private collections.

American Ship Building

Way back in the 1980s i was a volunteer at the Inland Seas Maritime Museum and had access to areas off limits to the public. Up in the attic there was a room full of rolls of ship drawings. I would spend entire afternoons unrolling and looking at these hand drawn pen and ink ship plans. The...

shipsofscale.com

Where to order HAMMS plans?

With the Smithsonian closed due to US government shutdown, are there any other sources to order plansets from the The Historic American Merchant Marine Survey? Preferably physical copies?

shipsofscale.com

Category:Ship plans of the Royal Museums Greenwich - Wikimedia Commons

commons.wikimedia.org

Research & Collections | Wisconsin Maritime Museum

www.wisconsinmaritime.org

https://taubmansonline.com/

Plans

Model Expo Online

www.modelexpo-online.com

Historical Collections of the Great Lakes

The main purpose of the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes (HCGL) is to collect, preserve, and make available historical materials documenting the Great Lakes

www.bgsu.edu

sometimes ships are built "by the numbers" yes math is a big part of building ships.



the numbers are used to create patterns for the carpenters out in the yard, the guy in the middle holding the papers might be calling out numbers like bingo or the master shipwright checking the work being done.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

some plans provide very little information while others such as this one from the Bowling Green collection will provide a lot of details

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

Then you have plans such as this one, there is nothing to tell you what the stern looked like, what the figurehead was, nothing on the deck layout, no construction detail as to framing or timber sizes the plan is just the shape of the hull. To build a model from such plans you need to use other sources such as the "establishments" which is a document giving general timber sizes but not things like deck layout.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

Before you can develop a set of working modeling plans a quick reference to the terms used

Length overall (loa): It is the distance measured parallel to the summer load waterline between the extreme points at the forward and the aft. The extreme point at the forward can be taken on the bulbous bow.

Length on the waterline (lwl): It is the distance measured between the intersections points of the bow and the after end with the summer load waterline. In case it is not mentioned, the length of the summer load waterline is taken into consideration as the length of the waterline.

Midship or amid ship : The midpoint between the aft and the forward perpendicular is known as midship or amid ship. The section passing through this point and which is normal to the waterplane is called midship section. The term ‘beam’ is quoted at amid ship. The breath extreme is measured at amid ship. It is also known as moulded breadth line.

Depth: The depth of the ship varies along the length. But the depth of the ship is taken as the distance between the undersides of the deck amid ship to the bottom of the keel. You might not get an exact value of depth as the hull is symmetrical and the depth varies thorough out the ship. For example, the depth is greater at stern than at midship.

Width or beam or extreme breadth: The width of the ship is also known as the extreme breadth. It is generally measured at the amid ship. It is the greatest distance between the two sides of the ship at the greatest width.

Sheer: It is measured as the rise of the deck towards the stem or stern. It is the height of the deck at the side above the deck at sides amidships.

Camber or round of beam: It can be defined as the side of the deck going from side to the centre of the ship.

Rise of floor or dead rise: At the amidships region, the bottom of the ship is extended out to intersect the moulded breadth line. The rise or the height of this intersection above the keel is known as rise of floor or dead rise.

Tumble home: If the sides of the ship at the amidships is not vertical and if the upper deck beam is less than the waterline, it is said to have tumble home.

Draught: It is the distance between the keel and the waterline at any point along the length of the ship. Moulded draught is measured from the inside of the keel plating.

Trim: The difference between the draughts at forward and aft is known as the trim. Trim is mentioned as by the bow or by the stern depending upon which one is greater.

Freeboard: It is essential in determining the stability of the ship. It is the difference between the depth at side and the draught, i.e. it is the height of the deck above the waterline. Freeboard is generally less at amidships than at bow and stern.

 

[Kurt Konrath]

This is all great info for a new learner being able to understand all these naval terms you may hear, but know exactly what is being talked about.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

For the GRACIE plans from the Historic American Marine Survey will be used. Any model planning to be built starts with the hull lines

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships which describes Gracie S. as "length 83' 0"

when you look at the hull line drawing it says 95 feet 6 inches. Who is wrong? actually both dimensions are correct because it depends on who is taking the measurements and how ships are recorded and what exactly is being measured.



so what is going on here?

Length overall (loa): and Length on the waterline (lwl):

The 95ft 6 in is the LOA measurement and the red line is the LWL

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships list the length of Naval ships at the LWL Admiralty drawings may record the length on deck or between perpendiculars. Then even between perpendiculars breaks down into overall and from the back of the stem to the front of the stern post. Then we have the add measurements which calculates the cargo capacity and cargo weight a ship can carry.
For model building the add measurements are not needed unless you love math and are into RC naval combat and you need to know how much weight you model can carry.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

Width or beam or extreme breadth:

this is shown on the bodyplan



in the case of the GRACIE the draftsman noted lines drawn to the inside of the planking.



Some plans do not indicate what the breadth measurement is. But for model building it may not matter because at 1:48 scale the planking is about 1/32 thick so overall it is a matter of + or - 1/16 smaller scale the difference is minimal.

 

[DAWarden-(Jaager)]

a quick reference to the terms used

Length of the keel or touch: applies to English ships in the second half of the 17thC. - The length of the keel that is on the baseline of the draught. It is shorter than the length of deck from the rabbet of the stem to the rabbet of the sternpost of the main deck.

Breadth of record: on 18thC. RN draughts is the greatest width at the deadflat and also includes the thickness of the bottom planking. The actual Body Plan is to the inside of the planking so the value does not apply there.. For a ship as actually built the value also does not apply. The level of the greatest breadth is also the location of the wale. The wale was usually twice the thickness of the bottom planking - or more.

In the 18thC. Round up or To round how much higher is the crown of the midship beam than it is at the side. This value decreases going fore and aft. The ends of the beams are chopped off. They are not squeezed in.
Camber is the longitudinal curve from stempost to sternpost that describes the arc of the crowns of all of beams. Water runs to the middle from both ends..