From the Pilothouse 
The Skipper is AWOL again (vacationing in Northern Europe - lucky dog). So the First Mate is filling in, again.
The July meeting of the HRSMS held at the Virginia Institute ofMarines Science (many thanks to Dr. Bob Diaz, our host), was very profitable in that a lot of future business was settled.
First, we reviewed the flier that will be handed out at the Nautical Research Guild Conference in San Diego during the first weekend in November. This flier will advertise our conference in Hampton Roads in 2000. Jack Bobbitt suggested some very worthwhile modifications as did a couple other members. I think we now have a very good product. Many thanks to Len Wine for spearheading this project. Our noble skipper, Alan Frazer, will give a short briefing on the 2000 Conference out in San Diego. If you have not gotten a flier for this year's conference, and you want one, call the San Diego Maritime Museum at 619-234-9153.
Second, the membership decided to put off the planned auction until the October meeting. This will give everyone more time to search through all the nooks and crannies to find those tools, fittings, books, spare parts and other things that they would like to put up for auction. This schedule change will also delay the auction to a fall meeting, when more people can attend and bring things to auction. The proceeds from the auction will go to the HRSMS treasury. If you have some stuff to auction, call Graham Horne, who is organizing this event, so that we can get a picture of how much stuff we will have to auction. If we do not get a good response, I will be forced to call your wives. I am sure that they can find things in your workshop that they would like to get rid of, perhaps even you. Look on this as another beneficial recycling project.
Third, we discussed what talks members would like to have given or repeated in the series of lectures that the HRSMS has sponsored for the past three years titled, "To Build a Ship Model". The following are subjects that have been suggested (an "R" indicates this subject is a repeat, a person's name indicates who has volunteered to give that talk):
Nomenclature of Vessels and Models (Bobbitt)
Various Species of Wood and Their Uses (R) (McCleary)
Naval Gunnery (Comet)
Photography for the Ship Modeler (Clarke)
Planking (R) (Comet)
Framing (R) (We need a volunteer)
Model Rope Walks and Rope Making (Bobbitt)
Sail Making (We need a volunteer)
Plans, Where to Get them, How to Read Them (R) Cheevers
Bonding and Gluing (Bobbitt)
Coppering (McCleary)
This is a pretty good start to keep us going, but anyone who has any further ideas should bring them to the next meeting or contact Graham Horne.
Fourth, (and having nothing to do with regular business) Skip Watson brought in a ship's bell for show and tell which engendered a lengthy and interesting discussion on bells. There was some doubt as to whether or not this particular bell had been carried on a government ship, but sharp-eyed Len Wine spotted the government inspector's proof mark on the boss which settled that question. An army veteran, who served on board army service craft, told me that the bells on these vessels were about the same size as Skip's bell and were marked the same way, with a simple "US" engraved on them. There may be some more on this subject at future meetings as Skip continues his research. Members are encouraged to bring in such artifacts which almost always prove to be both interesting and educational.
Along that line, the next meeting of the HRSMS will be held in Williamsburg at the Ford's Colony Bath and Tennis Club. This venue has a lot of room plus numerous tables for display of models and artifacts. So members are encouraged to bring items for show and tell and display and this meeting will be dedicated to that activity.
Finally, the Editor of the Logbook needs your help. He needs you to donate or write items for this publication. It's simple, sit down at your word processor compose a short piece on some subject that you are knowledgeable (or think you are), transfer it into e-mail and send it off to Tom Saunders. If you don't have a PC or access to e-mail, he can handle the old fashioned ways too. This is your chance to get published. If you find interesting items in books and magazines that we can reprint without getting into copyright problems (by adroitly summarizing the piece) then we can use those too.
Joe McCleary
To Build a Ship Model 
Sharpening
At the July meeting of the HRSMS, Joe McCleary gave a talk on sharpening tools used by model builders. He brought in a number of items for display and demonstration. He passed around a hand out on the subject and any member who did not get one can contact Joe for a copy. As always, Joe emphasized that there is almost no single right way to do anything and what works for him may not work for someone else. Many of the members who were present offered their thoughts and advice also.
An excellent and easy to understand reference is the book Sharpening Basics by Patrick Spielman, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. 387 Park Avenue, NY, NY 10016 ($10.95). This book is also offered in many catalogs. A good source of mail order sharpening supplies and edged tools is Woodcraft, 210 Wood County Industrial Park, P.O. Box 1686, Parkersburg, WV 26102 (call 1-800-225-1153 to get a catalog).
Joe concentrated mainly on sharpening chisels and plane blades as they are among the most common cutting tools used by modelers. Sharpening most other tools is only a variation of the basic technique. He mentioned that no tool should be sharpened to a greater degree than its purpose requires. A garden axe can be sharpened with a file; a fine carving chisel requires much more work and careful attention. Dull tools are the ones that cut you, because you have to force them and they perform unevenly.
Joe cautioned against buying sophisticated and expensive sharpening machines and grinders, as these are not generally needed by model makers. Most modelers already have vertical disc and belt sanders, which, if fitted with 220 grit belts and discs will work just fine. He also cautioned against using any grinder that turns at greater than about 1760 RPM. Many cheap grinders spin at 3400+ RPM. At these speeds, it is very easy to overheat and ruin the temper of a tool. Use a strong and well-made tool holder to make sure that the proper cutting angle is formed. These machines are not sharpening machines; they are only shaping machines. You still have to use bench stones to finish the sharpening process.
Tools for fine work should have a cutting angle of about 15 degrees. For more general work and for use with hard woods, an angle of 20 degrees is better. For general workshop work use a 25 degree angle or greater.
When first sharpening a new or second hand chisel or plane blade, check that the back is absolutely flat. Work the back of the blade on successively finer bench stones until it is absolutely flat and polished to a mirror finish. This step is vital and will probably only need to be done once in the life of a tool unless it is damaged.
Next, form the proper cutting angle on the blade. Joe has found that the new diamond hones work very well for this, especially if you use either a 320 or 220 grit hone. He advises using a roller honing guide that holds the blade at the proper cutting angle and parallel to the length of the stone while shaping the cutting edge. After the desired cutting angle is formed, go to successively smoother stones (600 and 1200 grit) to remove all the scratches on the cutting surface. Give a final polish to just the cutting edge (micro bevel) with a very fine stone (1600 grit or finer). Finally, strop the cutting edge with a leather or lamb's wool strop to remove any burr or wire edge from the cutting edge. Joe recommends using a magnifier while sharpening to get the best view of the state of the edge as it is formed. A very sharp cutting edge will look "sharp".
Joe recommends a sharpening "kit" of three 6 inch diamond hones (220 or 320 grit, 600 grit, and 1200 grit), plus one Japanese water stone or ceramic stone of 1600 grit or finer for final polishing. A strop can be home made. The average 6 inch diamond hone costs $36.00 to $44.00. They last virtually forever and will not "dish" or "load up". A very fine water stone or ceramic stone costs about $20.00 to $30.00. The ceramic stone will not "dish" or "load up", but a water stone can suffer from these problems, if you are not careful. Joe now prefers ceramic for those reasons and the fact that ceramics also last forever. All of these stones cut much faster than the old oilstones and are much less messy. A honing guide costs from $10.00 to $25.00 depending on quality and style. So a "kit" costs about $160.00 to $170.00, and should last a lifetime. This cost is about the same as the price of a grinding machine and you will still need at least two stones to supplement the machine. No power grinders, other than what the modeler may own for other purposes, are really needed by a modeler, because they are only used for he basic shaping of tools.
(Note all the "grits" mentioned above are U.S. grit. The Japanese use a different scale numbering system, so be careful. The reference book explains the differences)
Steamboating Among the Vikings
Scandinavia, I have confirmed, is heaven for those who admire small passenger vessels, especially active "up-and-down" steamboats on small and pretty but often busy waterways, in addition to other lovely ladies with different sorts of curves. I include Northern Germany loosely as part of Scandinavia for purposes of this essay -- on both counts. Both species are present in numbers that should embarrass much larger cities, even seaports like Boston, New York and Hampton Roads.
Jane and I began our recent tour at Hamburg, a city of surprising charm, beauty, and grand old railroad stations. There must have been at least six companies offering tours on various parts of the Elbe and its network of connecting canals, as well as on canals that radiate from some mid-city lakes into elegant residential areas, where some offer commuter-boat service. On the Elbe there is a "fire-ship" (really a lightship, the first of at least seven we encountered in various states of preservation) that serves a first rate meal in a charming manner. There are also two "Western Rivers"-style boats-diesel, of course-with "Mississippi" or "Louisiana" names (and maybe creole cooking?), the preserved 1950s passenger-cargo liner Cap San Diego, and the full-rigged ship Rickmer Rickmers ex-Sagres (also housing a restaurant in its 'tweendeck along with a nice museum, but nicely restored above and with heavy foremast repairs under way. The Blohm & Voss shipyard appears busy, with not a single vacant drydock that I could see.
In Flensburg, just below the Danish border, we spent several days at the Dampf Rundum (loosely, "Steam Roundup") a biennial event held in the still-active port area and featuring still-active steamers and ex-steamers from various Baltic and Scandinavian ports, along with steam tractors (real and working models), locomotives (live-steam models only, now, as the German Railways [DB] no longer serves the port area), antique cars (for Bill Clarke, but none were steamers). This year there was an operating Junkers tri-motor plane, which made frequent sightseeing overflights from the local airport and had brought passengers from Hamburg; antique buses provided a shuttle between the festival site and the airport. There were also plenty of beer stands, other carnival attractions and vendors, and far too much--and far too loud! --rock music. And at the entrance to the festival area was a small but active wooden shipyard with a pretty schooner-yacht hull taking shape on its shipway; cut frame members and rough timber were stacked on the adjacent, inactive, railway track.
The Flensburg Ship Model club had a grand exhibit of models, including both live-steam and electric ships and boats, and live-steam machinery, in a large tent between the adjacent railroad loops and a large-but-portable r/c pond. They seemed a bit stand-offish, and those operating models were in a space between the tent and the pond, isolated from visitors. (These observations may be at least partly off-base due to my language barrier, and perhaps they have had problems between visitors and boat operators.)
We rode seven of the visiting vessels on short excursions on Saturday and Sunday, possibly qualifying us to become Flensburg pilots. Each boat had charms and/or problems of her own, depending partly on how far her original mission was from the passenger trade, but their crews were uniformly friendly and enthusiastic; engine rooms, fire rooms, and bridges were generally open to visitors except during docking. These ships included the local excursion boat Alexandra (now diesel), lightship Fehmarnbelt (same), yacht Schaarhörn, excursion boat Stadt Kiel (also diesel), icebreaker Stettin, (all of them German), survey ship Hydrograaf (Dutch), and coastal steamer Børøysund (Norwegian). On Monday we took an all-day cruise on the eighth, icebreaker Wal (steam), from Flensburg to Rendsburg (about 35 miles south, but longer by the water route via Flensburg Fjord, the East Sea [part of the Baltic] and about 20 miles into the Kiel Canal). We returned to Flensburg by coach; Wal was on her way home to Bremerhaven, with a stop at Helgoland.
Our next contact with steam was at Silkeborg, Denmark, home to at least six lake boats, where we missed riding, but met, the ancient (1861) and lovely sidewheeler Hjejlen while cruising a local waterway. Had we known her schedule, we could have caught part of her afternoon trip by getting off the train at Laven.
On to Copenhagen, where we took canal and dinner tours, and ate at restaurants on Nyhavn, a dead-end canal street holding an incredible variety of mostly old boats, including two lightships, and many restaurants.
Crossing to Sweden (a short voyage on a large ferry), we caught an X-2000 train to Göteborg (pronounced "Yair' ta bor' e" with a nice lilt on the "e" sound), which again features local cruises, the Maritime Centrum with a substantial collection of actual vessels, and the magnificant four-masted bark Viking, now a floating luxuray hotel and restaurant, with excellent and unspoiled maindeck and spars, the basic necessities of rigging, and a fine little museum below. She is open to casual visitors without charge. But the neat steam attraction is Bohuslan, a very pretty steamer that runs regular cruises on Wednesdays and Sundays in Sweden's short summer. We enjoyed a Wednesday dinner trip to the Göta Archipelago, returning to dock in a downpour.
The next morning (in sunshine) we returned to the same quay to board Juno for a four-day/three night Göta Canal cruise, over 300 miles to Stockholm through lovely scenery, glorious sunsets lasting until 11pm, and mostly grand weather. Strong winds the first night, on Vänern (Sweden's largest lake) caused severe rolling and pitching on the part of 102-foot, 125-year-old Juno, some difficulty sleeping, and some seasickness (in other cabins). The accommodations were reminiscent of a Pullman bedroom (the type with transverse beds) of the 1950s, but with the toilet down the hall; I got the upper, with the porthole (+) and the climbing (-). Nice, relaxing cruise, with a friendly young crew, good company, and excellent food although few choices beyond the beverages. We celebrated the captain's 50th birthday with his family aboard, complimentary champagne, and a complete fireworks show out of a single box with one match.
Our final visit was to Stockholm, which fairly overflows with boating opportunities, ranging from little ferries between islands to many sightseeing cruises to the huge and ugly Baltic ferries and globe-trotting cruise ships (the catamaran Radisson Diamond spent one day). The full-rigged ship af Chapman, now a youth hostel, looks good at her berth and may be visited. The coal-fired steamer Mariefred, with her original 1903 engine, runs day-long excursions to its namesake town, where there is an operating narrow-gauge railway museum. There is, I believe, a steamer to Drottningholm Palace. But we particularly enjoyed a cruise to Vaxholm aboard Norrskär, a lovely old steamer that operates as part of a commuter service (summertime, at least) to Vaxholm, with numerous but quick "single line" landings where locals jump on or off. An excellent dinner was served in her elegant, natural wood, upper-deck dining room; we were among the few in the second seating (the return leg). In a rarity for such boats, we could choose from a full menu including eight entrees; the cold salmon was delicious. The menu itself was an outstanding printing job, decorated with two excellent photos of steam-engine details. We asked for a souvenir and were given a fresh, new copy.
It was hard to climb aboard a 747 after experiences like these!
Maritime museums were also a part of this trip, most notably at Hamburg, Odense (an excellent railroad museum with a roomful of very fine models of railroad ferries and other steamers), Roskilde, Elsingor, Göteborg, Motala (Göta Canal), and Stockholm, where the National Maritime Museum (Sjöfartsmuseet) is one of the city's best-kept secrets (it has some very fine models, notably a collection of several dozen excellent 1:200 models tracing the development of ships for over 500 years) while the spectacular Vasa Museum is perhaps the biggest attraction. But those are for another story.
Mystery Photo 
Welcome to Mystery Photo, Logbook No. 157! A good working title for this month's column could be "Hiding in plain sight--a primer on how to deceive your enemy." This mystery vessel did just that, becoming the central character of a modern high seas' drama that earned it a somewhat dubious reputation. The story surrounding this vessel is still clouded in mystery and it may be some time, if ever, before the entire story is told. I can't think of a better way to play Mystery Photo than to ask you to identify this modern and now infamous vessel. Ideally, a ship such as this should need no introduction, but time has a way of clouding the facts and fading the memory. For some of you, "hiding in plain sight" didn't hamper your ability to identify the vessel and provide interesting pieces of its story. However, for the rest of you, this ship did its job so well that its identity remains elusive. We owe our thanks to Tom Saunders for finding and using the photograph. This was not quite a Clarke stumper (Yes, he identified it), but I'm not going to complain.
About that little matter last month concerning the Clarke Mutiny, it seems that Bill has picked up the gauntlet and threatened to provide photographs that will really test our mettle. Perhaps as a response, we should prevail on the Sliver Tongue Devil to pre-bend the plank--just in case we need it.
This month the vessel in question quite clearly dates from the modern era. Its style, proportions, and outfit suggest deep water mining or oil drilling and exploration. Its size is extremely deceptive--it appears much larger than it actually is. Notice what appear to be two bridges, one forward on the forecastle and one aft on the stern deckhouse. Between these "bridges" is a veritable forest of steel. Though he was unable to identify our vessel, Bob Comet responded first with as apt a description as any. Bob writes, "I think I am more at home with the warship types, and I haven't a clue on how to research this one. Here is my guess, which is just based on looking at the photo (which Tom Saunders was kind enough to re-transmit to me via e-mail. This may constitute an unfair advantage--jfc). I saw a lot of oil/gas well rigs in PA and that surely looks like an oil well drill rig on the vessel. The protuberances sticking out from the after superstructure bridge area could very well be helicopter landing pads. The ladder-like structures could be stabilizers for supporting the drill rig on the sea bottom. I think there are two options for how it works: Alt 1; The ship itself is the drill rig platform, with a caisson structure penetrating the hull to run the drill bit and cables, and casing (pipes) through. Alt 2; The ship has a ballasting system so that the rig, designed for use in relatively shallow water, would be supported by the ladder like legs, the ship ballasted down and backed from under the rig. I think this latter is improbable, but what the hey, we can't stand mute in the face of this mystery.
Bob clearly falls victim to the deception built into this ship; apparently the designers did their job well. Several other members also described the vessel as an oil drilling ship but left it at that. Joe McCleary, Bob Krumpen, and Greg Harrington saw through the deception to correctly identify the vessel as Glomar Explorer. It seems that Joe and Bob recognized the ship from its infamous past. Greg wasn't completely sure until he matched physical traits between the ship in our mystery photograph and another photograph of the ship he gathered from the Internet. Joe points out that she was built at Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Chester, PA. in 1971, for Global Marine, a subsidiary of the Summa Corporation. For those of you who don't remember, the Summa Corporation was the parent company for all enterprises owned and operated by the super-rich recluse Howard Hughes. The connection of this ship to the Summa Corporation provided the cover for a secret operation planned and executed by the CIA to recover a sunken Russian submarine with its deadly armament of nuclear tipped ballistic missiles and secret cryptographic machines and code books. Bob Krumpen noted that the clandestine operation was code named Project Jennifer. Joe continues, "...While the Glomar Explorer was being built, National Steel Shipyard in San Diego was building a large barge commonly known as the Hughes Marine Barge, or more commonly HMB-1, plus a large claw mechanism. Ostensibly, the barge was to be used as a support platform and to receive all the mined manganese which would be picked up by the claw mechanism. The claw would be lowered 7000 feet to the bottom on the end of a long drill pipe string payed out through the bottoms of the ship from the prominent drill rig in the mid section of Glomar Explorer. In fact, the claw was intended to pick up the sub and then transfer it to HMB-1 when it got close to the surface.
The recovery was made in July, 1974 but in driving the arms of the claw around the submarine, several of the teeth which surrounded the midships area cracked. When the submarine had been partially lifted to the surface these teeth gave way, the sub broke again and only the forward part of the hull, including the torpedo room was recovered. Shortly after this mission, much of the story leaked out and Glomar Explorer could not be used again for covert missions."
No longer able to hide in plain sight, Glomar Explorer was acquired by the United States Navy in 1976 and classified as AG 193. She was transferred to the Maritime Administration in 1977 and Laid up in the Reserve fleet in Suisun Bay, California. Except for a short period of time, ending in 1980, where she was leased to Global Marine Development, Inc. and actually used for sea floor mining, Glomar Explorer has remained in reserve until recently. Greg Harrington managed to find a press release on the Internet from a Portland, Oregon shipyard named Cascade General, that provides details of her just completed conversion into a state-of-the-art, deepwater drill ship. This deceptively large ship consumed over 2,500 tons of steel in this conversion, mostly to reduce the size of her "moon pool." That's one Gearing-class destroyer to you laymen out there.
Bob Krumpen never lost sight of one aspect of this game and tentatively dated the photograph between 1974 and 1976. A published photograph in Norman Polmar's book The Ships and Aircraft of the U. S. Fleet, pg. 249, and dated 1981, shows Glomar Explorer in Suisun Bay with her top-hamper cut down. If this happened to get the ship into the Suisun Bay anchorage as Bob suggests, then he has correctly narrowed the time frame.
This has been a fun mystery for all who played. Greg even went so far as to ask, "Easy mystery or a clever trap?" I know Joe, Bob, Greg, and I had fun! Now, how about the rest of you?
John Cheevers
Navy Days 99 Den Helder
Some time about mid-May, I was invited to participate in the Navy Days in Den Helder (Netherlands) on the first weekend in July by Tony Roberts (a member of the Mid-Themes Model Boat Club in the U.K.). Some of you may remember that he attended one of our meetings about two years ago.
This festival has been occurring for years and has been supported by ship modelers for the past fifteen years. The Dutch Navy opens the gates of their main naval base to the public for a three-day weekend. Ships of the Dutch Navy as well as a number of foreign vessels are open for visitation. Vendors of all sorts (food, crafts, navy memorabilia, suppliers, etc.) were in abundance. A highlight each day occurred when the Royal Marine Band performed. They were superb, as good a military band as found anywhere. Local bands also performed at other times. Another highlight took place in mid-afternoon when the Royal Marines stormed the beach in rib boats, supported by landing craft and helicopters with lots of gunfire, smoke and explosions. It was quite a show! Throw in aircraft fly-byes, tugboat tours of the harbor, and various other naval and civilian boats moving about and it's easy to see why the Dutch public supports the event.
Tony and I left Reading about 6:00 a.m. by coach. That is too early, but coach left Brighton shortly after 3:00 a.m.! We crossed the North Sea from Harwich to the Hook-of-Holland on a twin hulled water jet propelled ferry capable of forty knots!
There were fourteen of us (counting the coach driver), most belonging to the U.K. club "Warship Squadron". We were hosted by "Mini Marine International", an informal club of Dutch warship modelers. The Dutch Navy housed us in their barracks and fed us in their mess hall, Both were more than adequate. The Dutch language is a bear, but thankfully, most of the Dutch spoke very good English.
The models were very good, especially when considering most of them were R/C and most spent time on the pool (about 50 X 100). The Dutch modelers do a superb job of building kits with the added detail finishing them nicely. There were a few really stunning models - you know the type, those that reach out and grab your attention. Among these was a 1/8" scale model of the British Carrier HMS Victorious; another was a 1/8' scale model of the USS Chandler; still another was a not quite completed 1/72 scale model of the WWII Dutch cruiser Hr. Ms. Tromp; and a model of my favorite warship, the WWII Dutch Destroyer Hr. Ms. Isaac Sweers (as designed) in 1/8" scale.
All in all, it was a truly great weekend for an aficionado of full scale and scaled model warships. The "Mini Marine International" modelers (led by Henk Kleinhout) aand the Dutch Navy were terrific hosts. The opportunity to go with "The Warship Squadron" led by Tony Ansell) is one I have looked forward to since I read the write-up of their first visit to Den Helder five years ago. The weekend was everything I had hoped for and I hope to be able to attend more. I need to do some of the things I missed on this trip.
P.S. Many rolls of film were expended and I am trying to get them sorted out!
Bill Clarke
From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
Vol. VIII, 1981, pp. 533
- Yorktown (CV-5)
-
- Displacement
- 19,800
- Length
- 809' 6"
- Breadth
- 83' 1"
- Draft
- 28' 0"
- Speed
- 32.5 knots
- Complement
- 2,919
- Armament
- 8x5", 22x.50-cal mg., 81-85 aircraft
- Class
- Yorktown
From The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
By E. Cobham Brewer
- Before the Mast
- To serve before the mast. To be one of the common sailors, whose quarters are in the forward part of the ship. The half-deck is the sanctum of the second mate, and, in Greenland fishers, of the spikeoneer, harpooners, carpenters, coopers, boatswains, and all secondary officers; of low birth.
- Sea Legs
- He has got his sea legs. Is able to walk on deck when the ship is rolling; able to bear the motion of teh ship without sea-sickness.
Minutes 
- Date
July 1999
The meeting was called to order at 2010 hours by the first mate, Joe McCleary- Host
Bob Diez
- Reports
Several cannonballs were fired across the bow of the editor but the minutes were approved as published.
A purser's report was given, with 11 members having dues outstanding.
- Old Business
The auction of surplus tools, toys and material will be held at the October meeting to allow for better participation. Plans for NRG 2000 were discussed. Len Wine showed a copy of a flier for the 2000 NRG Conference to be distributed at the San Diego Conference. The floor was opened for comments so the flier could be finalized. Mementos to be included in the registration package were suggested but it was decided to leave the selection to the NRG committee. As Bill "World Traveler" Clarke was not present, so discussion was limited. Joe asked for input from the members as to subjects to be presented in the "To Build a Ship Model" series. Joe asked for members who would be willing to present a topic. This series of presentations is being coordinated by Graham Horne. A list of subjects and a partial list of presenters was generated.
- New Business
None
- Show & Tell
Jack Bobbitt said that the Blazer Torch is available at K-Mart. Jack Soul Talked about a 3 jaw chuck for the Dremmel tool and Jack Bobbitt noted that there was a good adapter available from Model Engineering. Bob Comet showed a drawing of a Tipairua ( a Tahitian voyaging canoe) that he is going to construct for a diorama at The Mariners' Museum. He had a box of parts for small boats he is building. He highly recommended a rare book he found at The Mariners' Museum library, "Specifications For Boats of the U.S. Navy, 1900". This book is full of details of small boat construction, with all drawings at a scale of ½ inch to the foot. Bob Diaz showed a work in progress of the Emma C. Berry. Skip Watson had a ships bell with the letters "US" on it As the bell was missing the clapper, he ask if anyone had information on the clapper, and how the bell would have been mounted. This invoked much discussion on ship's bells. Jack Bobbitt announced that his model of the Wild Goose is finished.
