We got to the ship around 9:45 amidst a blowing snow and 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun was the only thing that made it reasonable in the boat shed along with the shelter from the wind. It had snowed the night before leaving the ground with a dusting of white and a foretaste of what working during the winter might bring us.

Tony, Joe, Donna, and Linda and I were it for the day. Linda had made a lovely pot of split pea soup the night before, thinking that it would be welcome for lunch. She took up her endless task of cleaning the ship out, with Donna’s welcome help.

After the previous two weekends when Gerald was here, this most recent one was much more sedate. We arrived to find that the bilge ceilings had been cut out, shaped and laid in place, but we are unsure if they are being fastened down yet, as they have not been pine-tarred.

As the bilge ceilings sit on top of the futtocks, they need to be put in with blind trunnels. This means that a hole is drilled in the futtock, but it does not go all the way through. Then the end of a trunnel is tapered a bit and the trunnel split for an arc. The arc, or wedge, is placed in the split but not all the way. The trunnel is then hammered into the hole in the futtock. When the arc in the end of the trunnel hits the bottom of the hole in the futtock, it forces the arc into the split and expands the end of the trunnel, firmly locking it into the futtock. This is exactly like a blind tenon jointin cabinet making.

Note: It has been a while since I posted, and I wanted to give some current news about the Onrust. I will be back filling as time allows.

This weekend’s work on the Onrust was really exciting as the deck shelves were completed and several of the deck beams were installed. The futtocks at the bow, called the “Apostles” are in as well, so the Onrust has a real bow now.

The deck beams are very impressive: Most are five inches by five inches and over thirteen feet long. The main mast deck beam is seven by seven and will help support the mast. The mast will be mounted in a “tabernacle” which means that it will be able to rotate on a pivot at deck level to allow it to be lowered for passing under bridges. The lower end of the mast will swing down and rest against a support on the keelson down in the bilges when the mast is upright. Since the key anchor point for the mast is at deck level, the deck beam at that point has to be very strong, hence the seven by seven beam.

Gerald was here this weekend, and will be for the next as well, so the boat-shed was a very busy place. With all the futtocks in place, the next task is to put in the deck beams that run overhead. I was surprised to learn that these do not sit on top of the futtocks. A moments thought would make this clear, as the futtocks extend beyond where the deck starts, up to the level of the side railing, or around waist height for someone walking on deck.

Instead of attaching to the futtocks, the deck beams will rest on thick planks (about 2-3 inches thick and more than a foot wide) that run horizontally along the futtocks. These planks are called deck shelves. Dovetail joints will be used to allow the deck beams to lock into the deck shelves. Currently gravity working on the futtocks and planking already in place exerts a pull that tends to make the futtocks spread outwards and downwards away from the center line of the ship. The dovetails in the deck beams and deck shelves prevent the futtocks from spreading outwards and make the structure of the ship much stronger.

While the ship looks imposing and substantial as it rises from its keel resting on blocks, in reality is is very fragile, and will be until it is completed and in the water. The whole structure is designed to resist the inwards compressive forces that the water will exert, and is much less able to support its own weight while out of water. Lacking the planking that ties the futtocks together, the whole skeleton of the ship can be twisted along its axis pretty easily, like wringing out a dish-rag.

Hammering on the wrong portions in the wrong rhythm can actually set up an oscillation that could splinter or fracture the futtocks and keel. This is why we often have to “back up” the far side of the part being pounded on with a heavy weight to minimize the shock transmitted through the fabric of the ship. The addition of the deck shelves and deck beams will reduce this risk a lot. The planking and deck planks will serve as horizontal stiffeners that will help the ship resist the twisting action found in a heavy sea.

Last Saturday was a long day. Gerald was on site, his last day here for a few weeks. Linda got a lot of painting done, putting both beetle-proofing solution on timbers and painting others with a pine tar formula. Donal and I laid out and cut a floor timber. We were not very pleased with our results, as we had a hard time finding a good piece of wood that was wide enough to fit the curve we needed, even though it is one of the middle timbers and not one of the more extreme ones near the bow.

We are working with slabs of white oak that are four inches thick, two to three feet wide, and seven to ten feet long; heavy enough to need a forklift to horse them around. This makes even locating a good candidate slab in the stacks of lumber a drawn out process. Given that we have a limited amount of wood, we have to avoid being profligate with the lumber, and must try to find the smallest slabs that will meet our needs for a timber, leaving the best slabs for the more difficult bow timbers.

Time passes, and all the innumerable details of life clamor to be addressed. Summer in the Hudson valley is a busy time, and as June unwound the Onrust faded from the forefront of our minds. We were saved from apathy when last week Greta Wagle, from the Onrust Project, called and asked if we could come out and volunteer for the weekend since Gerald DeWeerdt, the shipwright from Holland, was going to be in town all week. Mabee Farm was hosting a public event as well, so the sight of a lot of eager volunteers swarming over the ship would be a great publicity boost.

We showed up at 9:00 on Saturday and did not leave until around 5:00 pm. We were a bit worried that there would not be enough for newbies like us to do, but everyone was kept busy. Linda ended up painting ribs and planks with wood preservative on Saturday, and worked at the information booth on Sunday, freeing up other staff to spend time filming and interviewing Gerald. Don Rittner, one of the originators of the project, is making a detailed audio-visual record of the construction process and is combining video of volunteers at work and extended interviews with Gerald covering both the design process for the Onrust and detailed instructions on Dutch construction techniques that date back over 400 years.

My wife, Linda, and I visited Mabee Farm last week for the first time this year. As part of a week-long celebration of the Erie Canal there was a Revolutionary War reenactment scheduled, including a recreated cavalry unit which we had not seen before, so we were excited about getting out to the farm. Mabee farm is located on the south bank of the Mohawk river west of Schenectedy. The farm is the oldest remaining farm in the Mohawk valley, dating back to before 1700. As it is brick, it survived the Loyalist raiding parties that scorched much of the Mohawk valley during the war when England was trying to capture or destroy the food supplies the Colonists depended on.

As we walked around the grounds, visiting the blacksmith’s shop where I took a class last year, we noticed a large pole barn where none had been before! Hoping that we both were not addled enough to have forgotten such an obvious feature, we walked over to see if the barn held anything of interest. Inside the barn was a ship! (Or at least enough of one to recognize it.) People in navy blue tee-shirts were busy measuring patterns, cutting out frame timbers, hauling them in and out of the ship checking them for fit, and finally fastening them into place.