old ship iron hull construction

tomarack · 04-07-2008

Hi,guys,
I bought some MM plans of Clochlight puffer by Cousins.( Thanks Robert from Clyde puffer forum)for next link too, it help me . .I need but some next help, please. When browsing through puffer pages,I found that the more pages,(ships and their models), the more basic questions appeared.
As to puffer construction details (maybe iron ships in general )I have several questions then .
Firstly..as to rivet size for hull plating , and technique of plating in particular.
How looked like the rivet heads in history..and size of metal plates(iron and steel) in, e.g. last years of 19 century, and in twenties last century??
Are there some big differences?
The rivet heads were mainly round, or flat??I believe flat under water part of hull of the ship.Where the rivets with round heads can be situated from ? How big were the distances between rivets(spacing)? I can see , it seems to me .., rather caricatures of rivetting at some models...I am not sure, but the rivet heads there are many times rather highly oversized.(As I can seee at the one model of Flower WW II class ships, which seems to be more caricature with big smallpox papulas ..How big the rivets were in reality????(diameter...?? ) maybe next questions appears yet . Thanks for help. Tom

bogstandard · 04-07-2008

I built the Clochlight at about 1/20th scale, double the size of the plans you have.

If you model it at 1/32nd, a standard sort of scale, a 1/16" (0.8mm) dot would give you a rivet head at full size of 2" (50mm), about right for that sized boat.

Ships of this era vary a lot from shipyard to shipyard. The Clochlight is based on the 'old' style of build, using curved plates, the later 'Vic' series were built like the TID tugs, mainly flat plate.

This was mine after being in storage for a few years. The white dotted lines show the position of the internal water ballast tanks. This one was built using a commercial f/g hull. As far as I know they are still available, but a bit pricey at over £100. The Pepsi bottle shows the true scale of this beast. It swallowed a 24AH battery and easily could have taken another one if I hadn't put ballast tanks in.

John

**Bunkerbarge** · 05-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by bogstandard

I built the Clochlight at about 1/20th scale, double the size of the plans you have.

If you model it at 1/32nd, a standard sort of scale, a 1/16" (0.8mm) dot would give you a rivet head at full size of 2" (50mm), about right for that sized boat.

Ships of this era vary a lot from shipyard to shipyard. The Clochlight is based on the 'old' style of build, using curved plates, the later 'Vic' series were built like the TID tugs, mainly flat plate.

This was mine after being in storage for a few years. The white dotted lines show the position of the internal water ballast tanks. This one was built using a commercial f/g hull. As far as I know they are still available, but a bit pricey at over £100. The Pepsi bottle shows the true scale of this beast. It swallowed a 24AH battery and easily could have taken another one if I hadn't put ballast tanks in.

John

Nice puffer John, what happened to that one?

I agree with the differences in rivet patterns from different yards and even different types of ship.

There are some exellent structural sketches in the CV Waine books such as "Coasters and Short Sea Traders", which I would recommend for such references.

bogstandard · 06-07-2008

Richard,

This one went the way of all the others when I had my large sale.
Every fitting had to be hand made out of brass, copper and plastic, except for the ships bell on the mast and the dummy hinges on the doors.
Even the ships boat was built as per the original clinker one. They were a slightly weird shape on the top, being totally flat. I used to have pictures of them transfering small cars like old Austins from ship to shore.

Here is another pic of it covered in storage debris, but showing the front ballast tank and battery bay.

John