Brig Neilson - Plank on frame miniature

[Shipbuilder]

I built this about 30 years ago.   Plank on frame brig.     Standing on a small box of matches.

Bob

[DSiemens]

Models see to look so much more real when planked.  It's hard to do in small scale though.  

[Shipbuilder]

The planking was sycamore veneer.      I built it whilst at sea.    I prefer them painted, but even if I build a model of a wooden ship, I still plank it with paper planks over a solid wooden hull, so that the planks can be seen even when painted.   Sams goes for my iron or steel hulls, they are plated with paper plates over solid hulls.

Bob

[DSiemens]

I've just started doing the same thing with my more recent builds.  It can be subtle but it adds a lot to the look.  

That's incredible that you built that at sea.  I've always wondered how it would be to build a model on a ship.  

[Shipbuilder]

The planking was sycamore veneer.      I built it whilst at sea.    I prefer them painted, but even if I build a model of a wooden ship, I still plank it with paper planks over a solid wooden hull, so that the planks can be seen even when painted.   Sams goes for my iron or steel hulls, they are plated with paper plates over solid hulls.

Bob

[Shipbuilder]

Just the same as building them anywhere else really, apart from the fact that you couldn't just go out to buy materials etc.   Had to make sure you had it all before you sailed.     As I was in the same ship for 11 years, I left lots of stuff aboard when I went on leave.     It was only 300 feet long and 3,150 gross tons.   But we carried 76 passengers all the way from the UK to South Africa  and back via the Canary islands, Ascension and St. Helena, turning round at Cape Town.     My wife travelled with me a lot of the time.     Generally a fair weather run, but in bad weather, no chance at model shipbuilding.     This is the ship, RMS St. Helena, the last long-haul British passenger liner.    We sailed on a fixed route every voyage.    (Cruise ships are not liners as they wander about all over the place!).      Our main purpose was to carry passengers and general cargo to and from the island of St. Helena, that had no airport until last year.     Even so, the new airport is not much help, as it is too dangerous for large aircraft to use because of "wind shear."      Because of that, the present RMS St. Helena has had her life extended for a further year while they decide what to do.   I spent my last two years at sea in the present ship that carried 136 passengers and is now very famous (you can find it by searching Google).

Bob

 

[DSiemens]

I guess its the novelty of it.  You know it's funny.  I met a guy who did a transatlantic cruise and said the ocean was the same f $!#ing blue the entire way.  Us landlubbers see it as some crazy adventure but often I hear its just life.

 I guess its like me living just beneath the Rocky Mountains.  Been there seen them, climbed a few.  Even been to the golden spike for the railroad buffs that know what that is.  To me it's normal.  

That is interesting though.  I didn't know there were places you still had to travel by boat to reach.  

[Shipbuilder]

We went to three places where there was no airport - St. Helena - Tristan da Cunha and South Georgia (Falkland Islands).     Not by boat though!   It was definitely a ship!    Built in Vancouver, Canada in 1963 as the Northland Prince for the Vancouver - Alaska coastal passenger cargo service.        Every voyage was differnt and we had numerous adventures, fgair winds & foul, fire at sea, stuck in West Africa for a month for repairs, 13 months in the Falklands in 1982/83 with the British Task Force.   Even had our honeymoon voyage aboard in 1987.     In my youth, I had sailed in some of the finest passenger liners in the world such as RMS Windsor Castle, 38,000 tons, 250 first class passengers and 600 more in tourist.     Sailed in 7 of the castles between 1965 and 1976.      But my favourite of all was the battered and diminutive RMS St. Helena.    Here we are smashing through heavy weather in the early 1980s.

Bob

[exwafoo]

Hi Dan,

I've sailed the round the world and can assure your friend that the sea is most definitely not all the same blue.  A scientist will tell you its a combination of sky colour, time of day, cloud cover, salinity, temperature, etc. To us it was just warm, cold, rough or not so rough something 'ogin'. 

Alan

[Chasseur]

Hey Bob,

my wife and myself were married in 1987 as well. My experiences at sea were 100-200 miles off shore on a man made island in the middle of the Beaufort Sea working for Esso Resources Canada. We had the Dutch Dredge up the ocean floor and build an island of sand sticking out of the ocean. Then we placed a drilling rig on top and drilled for crude hopping from island to island.

Noteables:

• Hit by a sunami in 82 and the island we were on was washed away completely
• Lived on a class 4 icebreaker
• Had a soviet submarine surface in the dead of winter and check us out
• Had two crew members eaten alive by polar bears
• Saw tons of whales and Orcha's
• Almost poisoned by some drinking water that got contaminated 
• Had 10 crew members die in a helicopter crash (transmission seized up in mid flight) BTW I was supposed to be on that crew change but was injured the day before and couldn't even walk as an operator fell asleep and dropped a sea line I was welding onto my right foot
• Got to fly in a Sikorsky Sky Crane
• Coldest temperature experienced -60 degrees Fahrenheit with the windchill
• Best part of the experience were two things: blasting around on the ocean on a Zodiak and one of the chopper pilots was an ex Vietnam vet who gave us all scary chopper rides ( we used to play chicken with iceberg's) he also got us off the island just before the wall of water hit the island
• Looking at that shot from midship port side brought back a lot of memories!

Thanks for posting ...

Jeff

[JesseLee]

 " Had two crew members eaten alive by polar bears"

That is just awful!

 

Jesse

 

[Chasseur]

Yeah pretty traumatic and the worse part is we had a bear watch in place. The Polar Bear is the only bear known to stalk a man with the intent to harm or kill.

[DSiemens]

My father in law did some work with microwave communication on oil rigs just south of Louisiana.  He flew with a few Vietnam vet helicopter pilots and has some crazy stories about them.  They were incredibly skilled pilots and loved to terrify passengers.  

Some one made the mistake of letting the pilot know it was his first time flying.  So mid flight the pilot cut back the motor and the helicopter dropped like a rock.  The pilot was screaming were all going to die all the way down.  Then at the last second he hit the throttle and stopped the helicopter with its landing gear in the water.  The poor newbie was white as a ghost.  

[Shipbuilder]

I dislike flying, and my life-long rule has been to avoid it if at all possible, and if unable to avoid it, someone else must pay the fare!     I don't have a fear of flying, but I have never been as uncomfortable at sea as I have in aircraft on long flights.    Now I am retired, I never intend to fly again!     Here I am being litfed off the St. Helena by a Wessex helicopter in 1983 at Ascension Island (I was going on leave).    We had a temporary flight deck for the Falklands, 1982/83.    It was a  novelty, and not at all scary!

Bob