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.

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.

Free Plans of Historic Lumber Schooner Wawona

A Subject for a Historic Ship Model

Wawona one of only two lumber schooners still preserved

Lumber Schooner Wawona

Scores of wooden three-masted schooners once plied the Pacific Ocean off the U.S. West Coast, bringing lumber from the Pacific Northwest to the growing cities of California. Two of them are all that remain of this vast fleet. Built in the 1897 for Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Company of Eureka, California,   the schooner Wawona is one of the two known to be preserved. She and the other 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.

Able to transport more than 500,000 board feet of lumber per voyage, 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. The free ships plans offered here are from a 1986 survey in preparation for a $2 million restoration.

Free Ship Plan: Steam Tug Hercules

Steam Tug Hercules

Recently, we've been concentrating on Oar-Powered Vessels and Sailing Vessels, so maybe it's time to come back to the 20th Century, and offer a free ship plan of a historic Motor Vessel.

Few motor vessels have more character or make a more handsome ship model than the steam-powered tug boat. As a model ship, these vessels offer a lot of appeal, especially for someone desiring a radio-controlled model. There are even working scale steam engines that can be built into a model tugboat for the ultimate in operating realism.
And what better choice for that ship model than a historic tug such as Hercules? The last remaining ocean-going steam tug on the West Coast, Hercules was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. She was was documented as part of the Historic American Engineering Record, a program of the National Park Service. We've brought together the photos and drawings from that survey on our Hercules Plan Page and Hercules Photo Gallery.

Great Site for Ship Model Plans

A friend of ours in Turkey has a great website for model shipbuilders. He also offers a wide selection of  free ship plans, but where our ship plans are prototype ship plans than can be adopted to model shipbuilding, many of his plans show the ships already adapted to models. Many feature full-size patterns that can be used to cut the keel and bulkheads, and some even feature info on motor installation for radio-controlled operation. This provides a valuable shortcut if you are not familiar with completing this process with a prototype ship plan.

J M Briscoe - Clyde puffer VIC32 moored at Corpach by  Jmb at en.wikipedia

Our all-time favorite of his plans is the Lochinvar Clyde Puffer, a typical Scottish coastal vessel from the early 20th Century. These little tubs just radiate personality. They are so much a part of the U.K. maritime history that a series of novels were written about the exploits of a fictional crew, and later a BBC television series was made based on those books.

This ship is a great subject for modeling because, while the prototype is not very large, it has the very "salty" looks of much larger freighters. With a Clyde Puffer model you can build to a fairly large scale and still have a model that is easily handled.

Another factor that makes this ship a great subject for modelling is that a huge number of these were made during World War II. Classified as "VIC" Victualling Inshore Craft, after the war they were sold off for private use and some still can be found afloat. There are a vast number of images of them available through a simple internet search, so an infinite number of details can be used to make your Clyde Puffer model distinct.

Clyde Puffers also have a very simple, boxy hull shape that makes it easy to plank the hull with sheets of wood veneer, and offers an easy way to learn some of the basic skills that will be needed when it comes to planking more complex hull shapes.

Free Ship Plan: Lettie G. Howard

Lettie G. Howard  under sail, photo by Nelson Micheal Chin

Lettie G. Howard sail plan

The last existing clipper-bowed inshore Fredonia model fishing schooner,  Lettie G. Howard was surveyed in 1989 for the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), which 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 that survey are maintained by the Library of Congress, and we offer them at TheModelShipwright.com:
Lettie G. Howard Plan Page
Lettie G. Howard Photo Gallery

Our Favorite Model Shipbuilding Book

One of the best all-around ship model building books for those contemplating building from scratch, Charles G. Davis' The Shipmodel Builder's Assistant also has tons of useful info ship model kit builders can use to improve their result.

Ship Plan of an Early British Steamship

Browsing through an old out-of-copyright book The Theory and Design of British Shipbuilding, I found this ship plan for an early British "Screw Steamer," a propeller-driven steamship (as opposed to paddle wheel).

While there is no superstructure detail, this would make a good freelance cargo ship project with deck details pulled from google image searches of early 20th Century British steamships.  This vessel is 320 feet long with a beam of 45 feet and a molded depth of 23 feet.

Clicking on the reduced size image here will bring up the original size document. Just right click and choose "save image as" to download this free ship plan.

320-foot early 20th Century British steamship hull

Free Downloadable Ship Plan

The Model Shipwright.com is offering a free downloadable ship plan for the 8,600 ton 1928 French cargo ship Le Mekong.

We're offering a number of plan sheets:

The Profile and Deck Plan, an 83" x 28.5" (size at 200 dpi) sheet showing the details of the ship's decks, superstructure, and deck hardware.

The Lines Plan a 123" x 27.5" (size at 200 dpi) sheet showing the sheer, body, and buttocks plans that are imperative for correctly shaping a model ship hull.

Take the TIFF files you download to a print shop that has a oversize-print capability, or you can downsize them in a photo editing program to print out at home. The lines plan is at 1/50 scale, you can easily scale it down to 1/100 and still have a sizable model.

If you'd like a full 15-sheet group of plans already printed, let us know through the contact page, and we'll send a price quote to ship them to you.