[HN Gopher] To build an 18th-century ship, shipwrights had to re...
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To build an 18th-century ship, shipwrights had to remaster a lost
craft
Author : benbreen
Score : 42 points
Date : 2021-11-15 17:18 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.atlasobscura.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.atlasobscura.com)
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| Related link for those not already aware of it:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg-_lYeV8hBnDSay7nmphUA
|
| Leo is a British/American boat builder reconstructing a 111
| "classic sailing yacht" up in Port Townsend, WA. He typically
| releases 1 video per week, and they are often wonderfully shot &
| edited visual meditations on the nature and practice of manual
| construction. Things have become a little more uptempo musically
| since the move to the boat yard at PT, but there's still a
| delightful sense of calm, steady skillfull work throughout.
|
| And even on this much smaller project, yes, steam boxes were
| important when forming the new hull. [ EDIT: I got this wrong. No
| steam here. ]
| rainbowzootsuit wrote:
| And the Tally Ho restoration is only two years from completion
| at this time.
| krisoft wrote:
| > Leo is a British/American boat builder ...
|
| ... and a sailor! :)
|
| > And even on this much smaller project, yes, steam boxes were
| important when forming the new hull.
|
| Are you sure? I don't remember them using steam boxes for the
| Tally Ho. I think they use sawn frame construction instead of
| steam bending them.
|
| Maybe you are mixing it up with Acorn To Arabell? It's an other
| youtube channel who do definitely steam bent a lot of frames:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOFP4Rop4u0
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| Fairly sure they built a steam box in an old shipping
| container at some point along the way. Not sure which
| components it was for.
| plopz wrote:
| I remember them doing that, was that for steaming or to dry
| out green lumber?
| krisoft wrote:
| Maybe you mean the old shipping container they use as a
| kiln to dry out the planks?
|
| https://youtu.be/3jPNyAn5yyk?t=1172
|
| I don't think they use steam there, quite the opposite if I
| understand it correctly.
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| Probably you're right and I'm wrong.
| sillyquiet wrote:
| This isn't related to shipbuilding, but it IS related to steam-
| bending and the recovery and preservation of lost artisanry:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0xj7OujbwU
|
| Channel of one of the last few remaining wainwrights in the US.
| Animats wrote:
| I looked at the picture, and thought, what? It's in a busy
| harbor. There's a slight wake, so it's moving and not anchored.
| It's headed for a wall. All the sails are furled. It's either
| under power or adrift and in big trouble.
|
| Turns out it's not quite early 18th century. It has an engine.
| And a lot more. Below decks, it's quite modern.[1]
|
| _" The vessel is fitted with two adjustable propellers and two
| 404 kW engines. The electricity supply comes from two 180 kW
| generators, in addition to an emergency generator. Apart from
| propulsion machinery and generators, the engine room is equipped
| with pumps, a boiler, a bilgewater separator, and an air
| compressor."_
|
| _" The front cargo room has two tank rooms filled with technical
| equipment. Between the rooms, there are five waterproof steel
| bulkheads. Furthermore, two large floodable bilge pumps are able
| to pump up to 500 tonnes an hour. The fuel room is located in the
| aftmost tank room and can hold 36 000 litres in total. The full
| capacity of the machinery and generator consumes approximately
| 2000 litres a day. The vessel's toilet system is connected to 12
| toilets around the ship and is also located in the stern. The
| water room is found in the front tank room and contains water
| production equipment and a laundry room."_
|
| _" The galley is located one deck below and is an ultra-modern
| compact kitchen with a convection oven, tiltable pans and
| cookware, a cold bench, and more. The scullery is located next to
| the Galley, containing a dishwasher and other equipment."_
|
| It's even air conditioned.
|
| That's a good thing if they want to sail it around the world. As
| is an adequate maintenance budget. Wooden ships are high-
| maintenance. See HMS Bounty Replica sinking.[2]
|
| [1] https://www.gotheborg.se/about-us/about-the-ship/#tab--
| techn...
|
| [2] https://www.professionalmariner.com/tall-ship-bounty-
| loses-g...
| mstade wrote:
| Sadly I missed seeing this ship when it visited Stockholm a
| couple of months ago, but I've seen it when docked in
| Gothenburg. I've never been on board sadly, but even just
| looking at it from the docks it's such an impressive sight, I
| found myself just staring and marveling at it quite a while.
|
| If anyone here on HN is anywhere along the route of the trip to
| China and you're in to this sort of thing, I highly recommend
| going to see it. Even if you don't much care for tall ships,
| maybe go see it anyway - you won't be disappointed!
|
| Also worth a visit if you're in Stockholm is the Vasa
| museum[1]. It's got a lot of good stuff both about recovering
| the ship as well as the construction and why it failed so
| spectacularly. Iconically, the story of the Vasa ship has so
| many parallels to modern day development that one might be
| tempted to draw the conclusion that we haven't really learned
| all that much since then.. :o)
|
| [1]: https://www.vasamuseet.se/en
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| After reading about how they copied the Mayflower and then
| promptly sailed it across the Atlantic despite having only book
| knowledge of how to handle such a ship everything else seems
| like cheating.
| JasonFruit wrote:
| Not many men have the opportunity to go down as the captain of
| a tall ship these days. I'm not sure if that would enter my
| dying thoughts, but I know people it would.
| jacquesm wrote:
| Steamboxes that large aren't common but steam bending of wood has
| never been 'lost', it has just been substantially scaled down
| from how common it was in the past, just like many other
| techniques for working wood and other materials. But in bespoke
| furniture making it has been in continuous use for centuries. I'm
| really not sure what part of it was deemed to have been lost.
| hasmanean wrote:
| Yeah there are people making canoes and small boats in Ontario
| that use steam bending.
|
| Then there is this classic film by the NFB in Canada about how
| one man made a cedar bark canoe using old fashioned techniques.
|
| https://youtu.be/VRFCxxAKafc
| skyfaller wrote:
| It seems SailCargo has also been working with steam boxes to
| construct their new wooden sailing cargo ship, Ceiba.
| https://www.sailcargo.inc/
|
| You can see workers pulling a plank out of a steam box in their
| latest video update around 2:45:
| https://piped.kavin.rocks/watch?v=LW56HDEYzcA
| gumby wrote:
| I hope to live to see a similar article someday on building the
| Saturn V or even Concorde, both systems built by hand with
| minimal to no computing and neither buildable today.
|
| (though modern alternatives exist, just as modern alternatives to
| the Gotheborg exist)
| vkou wrote:
| I will note that just about any old technology is 'not
| buildable today'. Nobody today 'can build' a Ming Dynasty iron-
| smelting furnace, because we don't have detailed instructions
| for how to do so.
|
| But with a lot of work, we can figure out how to build a pretty
| close approximation. The more precise the tolerances, or the
| more parts something has, the harder the 'figuring out' step
| is.
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(page generated 2021-11-16 23:01 UTC)