February 2022

Our second meeting of 2022 was quite a success with a record membership of 77 people from across Canada, the USA and the UK.  Another record of 41 members having registered for the virtual meeting, and yet one more record broken with 35 having attended!

The meeting kicked off with Robin showing us a short video of his V2 engine model (introduced last month) actually running.   ​ The video is much too large for us to attach here!

Tijs presented two coins from his collection.  First was the Spanish Real or Pieces of Eight that he picked up on a trip to the Caribbean.  These were regularly cut up into halves, quarters and eights which is where the term Pieces of Eight originates.  His coin has a "TS" mint mark showing it was rarer type minted in Boliva, not the more common Mexico mark "MO".  Only a few of these coins were minted as the emperor Carolus III was replaced by Carolus IV in 1789, so only a few were minted.  The two Pillars of Hercules are displayed with a ribbon flowing around them.  It is said that this image is where some believe our present day $ dollar sign came from.  The stamped markings on the coin show it was used in the opium trade, which was the reason smugglers from China buried them to avoid inspectors discovering the trade they were practising.

Tijs then showed us a $10 copper coin from the East India Company recovered from the Admiral Gardner.  These could only be used in the east where trade was conducted by the company.  On the back of the coin are three languages, English, Latin and Persian.  Persian was the dominate language in India at the time.  The Admiral Gardner, a three master , 118 feet long, 36 foot beam, with 23 guns, set off on her 6th voyage from the Port of Dover, on the 24th of January 1809 she was caught in a violent storm and got caught in the shifting Goodwin sands off South Foreland, beaten by the storm, and eventually broke up.  Some coins were found in 1976 when the sands were dredged for the Dover Docks.  In 1983 a fishing boat had her lines caught on a wreck.  Divers confirmed to be the Admiral Gardner by divers in 1984 and about half the coins recovered.  In 1985 a 300 mile radius around the area was declared off limits which has forbidden any further disturbance of the wreck and cargo through some coins continue to wash up.

There are no drawings of the Admiral Gardner but Tijs has some from a sister ship and hopes to build a model someday soon.
​
We were then shown an image of the manually operated press which was later automated.

​Derek showed us the state of his present build of the Canadian Schooner Bluenose.  The ship was built in 1921 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, as a fishing/racing schooner.   In 1942 she was sold to the West Indies Trading Company and converted to a coastal freighter and in 1946 she stuck a coral reef and was left to rot.  Derek's model depicts both the aspects of fish and racing.  He made sure he had the correct vibrant hull colours.  He presently is looking for a supply of Silkspan to make his sails... one member has a supply and volunteered to drop some off to him.  Many of the deck furniture pieces are made from solid pieces of wood.  The fishing dories were 3D printed.  He will be adding thwarts to them or covering them with canvas.  His fasteners were not blackened which now is a concern to him... it was suggested he could use a black permanent marker to colour them in place, masking the surrounding features to keep them clean.  Gun Black (Gel in a tube) was also suggested.  Derek has 3D printed some crates and barrels to place on the deck and dowels shaped with sandpaper while rotating it with an electric drill.  He has just started on his topmast.

​Joe has been restoring a Florida Sharpie fishing schooner and has been struggling with the tiny ships wheel.  Having found a wheel that was similar he was able to get dimensions and photos to try to replicate it from a similar build on the MSW forum.  He is considering 3D printing it but has found there is a considerable learning curve.  Joe was hoping for some comments to help him decide what to do next.  Ray followed up by email with suggested methods of how he had made a few tiny wheels with ABS tube, brass wires and JB Weld.  We then had two other members contact Joe and offered to review his .STL file, so he may get his ship's wheel 3D printed after all!

​Ray presented the 1:840 (1 inch =70 ft) scale model of the Bismarck that had been made by a Prisoner of War in 1944 at Prison Camp 133 in Lethbridge, Alberta.  The 13 inch long case unlocks with two rotating knobs and folds open to expose the 12 inch long model that slides out of the case.  The case top and bottom is fine grain spruce and the sides which are curved are steamed oak.  The top and sides were separating and the model had considerable damage and dust.  The base is marked with the place made, date, and possibly the modeller's initials: W.St.  There was a Wilhem Schmidt, Lead Machinist, who was one of the 155 survivors of the Bismarck's sinking.  The mounting base is Birdseye maple.  Ray described all the damage done to the miniature model and then showed all the repairs he made to it to bring it back to pristine condition.  He will be making a display case for the model to keep it dust free and safe.

Ron gave a short update on his Scottish Maid (1839) first shown to us in May 2019.  He has dusted it off and made a small number of corrections which he became aware were necessary and intends to get back to her!  We look forward to seeing some progress in the future.

Alan gave an update to what has been keeping him busy the last two months.  He completed the install of all square frames for his build of HMS Bellerophon (1786) and is presently installing chocks between all the frames and gunports to stiffen her up before cutting out the gunports and installing the sills.  He built a height gauge with hemlock and maple strips and a finishing nail.  This will be used to fine tune the location of the gunports before any cutting is done.  And he made himself a thickness gauge to use on his Byrnes table sawn to cut the thin strips for the chocks mentioned above.  This was modelled after what he considered the best of both Kurt's and John's gauges.   Alan mentioned he had tried the WHEELER BLOCK idea to keep his fingers safe and also hold down the wood being cut, and it worked great.  This idea was discussed by Kurt at the NRG "using the table saw" virtual seminar held last December.