Free Ship Plans of R-boat Pirate

Award-winning R-class Sloop Pirate

Now Best Existing Example of its Type

Pinnacle of West Coast Yacht Design

R-class Sloop Pirate

For a change of pace from our ship plans, we've put up construction drawings for the R-class sloop Pirate.

Presently owned by The Center for Wooden Boats, R-boat Pirate is the best existing example of the R-class yachts.

Constructed in 1926 by Lake Union Dry Dock of Seattle, Washington, from plans by L.E. “Ted” Geary, Pirate embodies the pinnacle of yacht design and construction in the Seattle area in the early 20th century.

Photo Gallery of Historic Lumber Schooner Wawona

Once Lumber Schooners Plied the Pacific in the Scores

After Breakup of Wawona Just One Historic Lumber Schooner Exists

Documentary Photos of Schooner Wawona

Lumber Schooner Wawona

From the scores of wooden three-masted schooners built in the 19th and early 20th centuries for service in the West Coast lumber trade, the schooner Wawona was one of only two known to be preserved when she was surveyed in 1986. She was dismantled in 2009. She and the one surviving lumber schooner, C.A. Thayer (National Maritime Museum, San Francisco), were built by Hans D. Bendixsen, who was well known in his time for the superior construction of his vessels.

Wawona was designed for the Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Company of Eureka, California to transport more than 500,000 board feet of lumber per voyage from from the Pacific Northwest to ports further south on the coast. Like most ships in her day, Wawona’s hull was lofted from a carved wooden half model rather than a detailed set of engineering drawings.

Her official dimensions at launch were:
Length: 156.0 feet
Beam: 36.0 feet
Depth: 12.3 feet
Gross Tonnage: 468.42
Net Tonnage: 413.94
Wawona was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

Our photo gallery offers documentary photos of Wawona taken during a survey for the Historic American Engineering Record.

Free Ship Plans of Italian Barque Erasmo

Early 20th Century Sailing Ship Erasmo

Demonstrates Pinnacle of sailing design

With Steel Hull and Four-masted Barque Rigging

Built in Genoa, Italy in 1903, the four-masted, steel-hulled barque Erasmo (Erasmus) sailed from Europe to Australia and to America.
We have massive downloadable ship plans of her as well as quite a bit of info on our page about her.
By the end of the 18th Century, the term ‘barque’ referred to a specific sail plan of three or more masts with fore-aft sails on the aft-most mast and square sails on the others. Barques could nearly match the speed of ship-rigged clippers, and surpassed the performance of schooners and barkentines. They could operate with smaller crews than a full-rigged ship as well, making them more economical to operate.

Photo Gallery of Fishing Schooner Lettie G. Howard

Photos of Lettie G. Howard

Offer Insight to Model Ship Builders

Details abound in documentary photography of historic fishing schooner

Starboard bow view, Lettie G. Howard

Readers of our site have asked for photos in addition to the Lettie G. Howard Plans we used to illustrate our page The Hull: Heart of a Ship, so, we are now offering them in high resolution.
Our Lettie G. Howard Photo Gallery of the last existing clipper-bowed inshore Fredonia model fishing schooner come from the 1989 Historic American Engineering Record survey, which was completed when she was de-masted and undergoing restoration, but still offer the ship model builder tremendous detail. HAER documents historically significant engineering, industrial, and maritime works in the U.S. The project is administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The drawings and photos from those survey are maintained by the Library of Congress.

Midwest Model Products’

Chesapeake Bay Flattie

A great first ship model kit!

Midwest Products Chesapeake Bay Flattie

Because of their shallow draft, flat-bottomed work boats called “flatties,” were popular around the turn of the century along the Chesapeake Bay from Virginia to North Carolina.
The simple lines of these boats that made them ideal for locals to build from locally-available lumber also make this an ideal ship model kit or a person with no prior wood ship model building experience. The kit comes with die-cut and pre-cut parts, as well as fittings, rigging line, sail material, and a well-done set of instructions and building plans.
Follow along as we document the step-by-step ship model kit construction with plenty of photos on our Midwest Flattie Kit Build pages.

 

Free Ship Plans Chapman's Galley of 16 Pairs of Oars

Fredrik Henrik af Chapman

Galley of 16 Pairs of Oars

A smaller oar-powered vessel suitable for a ship model

Chapman's Galley of 16 Pairs of Oars

Thinking of building an oar-powered ship model, but don't relish making a gazillion pairs of oars?

Fredrik Henrik af Chapman’s Architectura Navalis Mercatoria offers this Galley of 16 Pairs of Oars, with two men on every oar, rigged with Lateen sails. Her length stem to stern is 114′ 6″; Beam is  17’0″; Draft is 6’3″.

Check out the free ship plans of Chapman's Galley of 16 Pairs of Oars on TheModelShipwright.com

Full-size Patterns to Scratchbuild a Revenue Cutter

Downloadable Patterns for 19th Century Revenue Cutter
And Instructions on Creating a Solid Hull Ship Model

19th Century Revenue Cutter

On our page Creating a Solid Hull Ship Model we have full size patterns for a 1/72 scale model of the 51 Ton revenue cutter illustrated in Howard I. Chapelle’s The History of American Sailing Ships.
We offer illustrated step-by-step instructions for using the patterns to cut the rough hull from a single block of basswood.
Finished model will be about 16 inches in length, and is a great starter project for scratch-built ship modeling.

Free Ship Plans Victory Ship U.S.S. Gage

U.S.S. Gage is the last of

more than 100 Attack Transports

created from the Victory Ship class

Victory Ship U.S.S. Gage

Toward of World War II, military planners requested that the U.S. Maritime Commission construct a new class of attack transport ships.Converting the recently designed Victory class ships into a troop transport, designers created the Haskell class.
Of 414 Victory ships built during the war, 117 were configured as attack transports. The U.S.S. Gage is the only remaining ship afloat in its original configuration.
We have her plans on our Victory Ship U.S.S. Gage page.

Essential tools for Model Ship Building

Start small, and build your collection

Model ship building only requires basic tools.

Model ship building, whether from kits or from scratch, does not require a vast array of exotic tools. In fact, most – if not all – of the tools you need can be found at your local hardware store.

For a review of the basic tools you need to start model ship building see our page Tools for Model Ship Building 

Free Ship Plans U.S.C.G. Cutter Mackinaw

U.S.C.G. Cutter Mackinaw

Queen of the Great Lakes

U.S.C.G. Cutter Mackinaw Queen of the Great Lakes

Built specifically for service on the Great Lakes, when Mackinaw was launched, she was the most powerful icebreaker in the world. She went on to a 62 year service career, becoming an icon to the Great Lakes mariners and residents of coastal towns that depended on her to clear a path through the lakes’ thick ice. When she was decommissioned, she became a museum ship in Mackinaw City, Michigan. Our Mackinaw plans page offers six ships plans: outboard profile and inboard profile, upper deck plans, lower deck plans, cross section plans, ships lines plans, and shell expansion plan. The Mackinaw would make a beautiful scratch-built ship model, and at a large scale, an impressive radio-controlled ship model of the "Queen of the Great Lakes.