Charles W Morgan Restoration; A Volunteer's Perspective-1

[Morgan Volunteer]

November 10, 2022

This morning, starting out in the shipyard, I find work is slowly progressing on Catherine Wedmore.

It appears that the deeper they dig the more they find to replace.

This is what was there some weeks ago.



Now, a lot is gone with notes tacked on to pieces that will need replacing.





More has been opened up on top. Also, you can see the winter cover frame is up.

[Morgan Volunteer]

In the DuPont barn, Morgan's windless has its iron shaft fitted.



The mating surfaces have been coated with linseed oil.



In the machine shop, Nate explained the water injection design on the Meitz & Weiss engine.

There is a U shaped tube running from the cylinder to what looks like an oil drip. That feeds water into the intake about one or two or a few drops at a time.



That small amount of water boils raising the pressure during combustion making more horsepower.

Cool engineering for 1900.

He has the timing chain back together. He has re-timed the engine hoping to get it running soon.

But not this day.



Over near Fire Fighter, a new stage has been put up.

Jake and I thought the same thing. "It couldn't be a gallows."



At the end of the day, everything was up.

I had a peek at a drawing that showed a short stairway on one side, so I'm guessing there will be a raised stage soon.

[Morgan Volunteer]

We found the Long Island crew working today.

Mostly what they were doing was winterizing the boat.



Nick is checking the fuel levels in the two aft tanks.



There needs to be enough oil to keep things from freezing. And there is.



Bill and I tried to rescue a name plate that Charlie accidentally kicked into the bilge.



I have a bore scope that works with my phone. In the right conditions, it works great.

These were not the right conditions.



The light is not bright enough for what we needed to do, and there is no good way to steer the probe as it gets deeper inside.

Down there, somewhere, I think.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Finally, Jake crawled in.



But he came up empty handed too.



This is the starboard engine plaque. We're missing the port side.



On the plus side of this, it's replaceable.

I have a friend who makes labels and other things like that. He can copy what we have and duplicate it perfectly.

I had it done years ago on a car restoration I was working on. It was an obscure car called Elva. Elva was an English sports car and mine was a 1965.

I needed a new VIN plate because the original was in such bad shape. When it was done there was only one place where you could tell it was not NOS. Side by side, there was a comma that was not exactly the same font.

I'm trying to convince Charlie to let me replace both of these. They'll look a lot better.



Last week a crew was driving in pilings that will support a deck where LA Dunton will be restored.

This week they are cut down to the finished height.



LA Dunton has been moved and her bowsprit was coming off.





This was just after lunch and we didn't wait for it to come off entirely.

By now, I'm sure it's sitting under a shed.

[Morgan Volunteer]

November 17, 2022

Nellie is in the DuPont Restoration barn for a rebuild. I'm not sure how much needs to be done, but being inside affords an easy place to work in any weather.








https://www.mysticseaport.org/explor...-oyster-sloop/





Eventually I'll get a better look inside.

The pad where LA Dunton will be rebuilt has concrete pads on top of the piles driven in last week.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Last week Dunton's bowsprit was coming off. Now it's in the shipyard.



The Catherine Wedmore, on the right above, will be 100 years old in three years. She was built here in Mystic in 1925.

Work has been going on, but when I was there, no one was around.

Her stern will be completely rebuilt

A look inside towards her engine.



Want to farm oysters? This will help.

file:///C:/Users/Carl/Downloads/noaa_36889_DS1.pdf

I keep my boat in a condominium complex where I own my slip. Out front I found Catherine's shipmate working.

Usually you can find oyster boats working all over the area.



Oystering is farming operation. Long gone are the natural oyster beds where you can just scoop them up. I'm not sure what they are doing here, but my guess is that it has something to do with seeding.

Back inside the barn, Morgan's windlass looks almost done.





Yet to be installed.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Last week the new stage was erected. This week the framing for the stage floor is going in.



On Fire Fighter, we have a gift shop for shirts, hats, and mugs.

Charlie was concerned because the shirts were getting wet.




The back side of this is another door that now is permanently shut. But Charlie found that it too leaks in a storm.

You can faintly see the rust stains in back.



So my big job was to clean out the old caulk and reseal the top of the door.

This is after I cleaned the door top. I was alone at this point so you'll have to imagine me caulking it.



Bill came late today. He is cleaning some green stuff (?) off the helm.



Our friends from the Coast Guard Academy came by to help out.

Painting and cleaning.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Painting the door on the head.



In the bunk room, the three models of fire fighter are on display.



The model in the center is the same as the Revell kit on the left still in the box.

Charlie bought one on line and had it built. It's very nicely done. The box on the left is one I found on Ebay. That one I found is complete and unbuilt from 1962.

I find it amazing how many people have said they built the model years ago.



It was a beautiful day.

[Morgan Volunteer]

November 23, 2022

I heard that the tarp I put on the Century Coronado had failed. I had bought some shrink wrap a couple of years ago, but waited till now to put it on.

Before.



During.





All done.



On Saturday I drove out to help Charlie give tours on Fire Fighter. When it was time to go home, it was getting dark, and a bunch of boats showed up for the annual Christmas Boat Parade.

Since I live an hour away on I-95, I didn't hang around for the parade, but here are some of the boats.



Not all the lights were on yet and because it wasn't dark yet the lights didn't show up well here.

[Morgan Volunteer]

I received a text this morning from a friend consoling me about the fire at Mystic.

I had not heard about it so I went on line. As I read I was thinking that from the brief description that we lost the collections and research building.

Not so.

We're OK!!!!

It wasn't us.

Wayne said he and his wife could hear explosions and could see the fire across the river from his house. He called Steve and Steve said he was heading to the Mystic fire boat on the river. Steve has volunteered with the Mystic fire/EMT for several years.

Check this out.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/mystic-co...nts-from-homes

No fire is good, but where it happened should be mostly covered by insurance. But if the collections and research building had burned we would have lost thousands of one of a kind items such as the original log book from Morgan's first whaling voyage.

I have been in the building over the years and I can see that there is a very up to date fire suppression system.

[Thad]

I was in those buildings a few years ago when there were some great old boats inside. One, the Nicholas Potter SERENADE, at least, has since gone to the Med and been restored. Insurance wouldn't have helped and won't for the most part.

[nedL]

I understand the main engines in Firefighter were initially sat the Chicago exhibition of 1933-34(?) before being put aboard Firefighter.

I have heard water injection was quite common on WWII fighter planes to get that last bit of hp.

Also heard that the buildings that burned were mostly empty.

[Chris-on-the-Boat]

This thread is a national treasure. I can not tell you how much i have enjoyed it over the years.

Thank you.

[Morgan Volunteer]

December 1, 2022

To NEDL, I spoke to charlie about Fire Fighter's engines being on display in the Chicago Exhibition. He didn't have much on it but mentioned, in his words, "Mock up of engines were on display at the worlds fair in New York in 39."

I didn't find anything on this. Perhaps someone else has better knowledge.

To Thad, I believe you were speaking of the boats in the Rossi Mill Building. There are hundreds of small boats in there and hours can be spent looking at them.



To Chris on the boat, I've been called a piece of work, but never a national treasure. But thanks.


On to things Mystic Seaport.

We have a new boat to go into the collection.

As I walked into the yard I was surprised to see this.



Sort of sticks out doesn't it.



The seaports attitude towards boat's other than wooden ones has changed over the years. My little plastic dinghy was rejected the first time I offered it but years later it was accepted into the collection. Glass boats are with us now and as they age, their history deserves to be remembered.

So, while this is unusual, it's not the first racing boat in the collection.

Now, how do we fit it in the building?





The wing on a hydraulic lift.

[Morgan Volunteer]

https://www.soundingsonline.com/news...r-four-decades

Elsewhere, I found Ann in the paint shop with Sabino's benches and she was removing the varnish with sand paper.



They looked great before she started.



In the DuPont Barn, Nellie has a lot of work done.



The interior is being gutted.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Walking over to Fire Fighter, Morgan presented a nice shot.



On board Fire Fighter, Jim was redoing the lighting in the gift shop.



I helped Charlie put up the Christmas tree. Traditionally, if a boat was to be in the harbor over Christmas, the crew would put up a tree somewhere high on the boat.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Wayne and Jake were both away today.

I did tours. But winter is coming and visitors are few. So I gave one tour with only one visitor was on it.

I had a lot of time to do nothing.

Oh, I did see another bald eagle.



Oops, that's not an eagle. I think it's a turkey buzzard. Oh well.

As I was leaving for the day I stopped into the membership building where members can stop in for a cool glass of lemonade, or now it's a nice hot cup of cocoa. It's a nice place to take a short break and sit a while.



I sat and sipped my cocoa and watched the tree being decorated.

[Thad]

Rossi Mill collection is a great resource, but I was talking about the Mystic Shipyard building that burned. Thanks for the picture though, always good to see those boats!

[ulav8r]

That was a black buzzard. The black has the fan shaped tail similar to the wild turkey. A buzzard with a straight tail is the turkey buzzard. Those are the two buzzards found in the U.S.

[Morgan Volunteer]

December 5, 2022

Steve took these two pictures of Coronet arriving at the seaport.

https://www.mysticseaport.org/press-...ay-december-5/





https://www.mysticseaport.org/press-...yacht-coronet/

[Morgan Volunteer]

December 8, 2022

L A Dunton will be coming out soon. I hope to be there when the cranes come to haul her out, but the holidays may interfere. I'll be in Colorado for the week before Christmas.

Some of the hardware related to the lift have been delivered.

My guess is that the long parts are spreaders that will allow the hull to be lifted without crushing it.



Ballast is coming out now.



Coronet is tied up next to the ship lift.







She is bigger than I thought.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Jake and I took another look at Miss Budweiser.

Some of the details are interesting.

On the rudder are two tubes facing into the stream. At 200 miles an hour, that's a lot of stream.



Note the erosion on the leading edge.

On smaller boats one might be for the speedometer. But???



The rescue hatch if she turned belly up.

Also, see the wings on the left. My guess is that they keep the bow down and level.



The boat runs on the black surface.

Turned up on her side, in this picture it's a little hard to see that this is the bottom of the starboard pontoon. (Pontoon?)



I did a little photo shop editing here, but it's still hard to see.

The prop and rudder are offset from the center line.



With one side pushing and the other side dragging, it would seem like it is unbalanced. Wouldn't it want to go in circles?

Anyone know about this?

Anne stopped by with a Mayflower model.



She asked if I wanted it. I passed.

[Morgan Volunteer]

On Fire Fighter, Roseway has been tied up on the starboard side for a while now. There are two fenders on our port side. With the heavy winds at times and the extra pressure exerted on the fenders and hull, a small leak has opened up on our port side. She is 84 years old after all.

So we were putting out extra fenders to spread the load.

Charlie asked for an extra eye bolt in the center to help getting the truck tire on and off. They weigh about 100 pounds each.

So, this is me installing the third eye.





With the wind so strong this day, we couldn't get the boat away from the pilings to lower the tire down to the rub rail. So we tried to pull in the stern to let the bow out. The new fender (tire) is going nearer the bow.





It didn't work. We'll just have to wait for a calmer day.

Two weeks ago I was giving a tour when a lady dropped her sunglasses. Jake was away last week so today was the day to see if we could retrieve them.

This is sort of like calling the fire department to rescue a cat from a tree.

I was there when she dropped them and I heard them go. So I knew about where they should be.

So Jake and I started to look.



It's tight down there.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Jake tried from another angle.



But it was of no use.

There is a lot of water in the bilge and we might be able to find them by feeling for them, but getting close enough to probe is hard.

When we are able to pump out the bilge in this area, perhaps they will show up.

Morgan has her tree up.



A close up.





Jake and I little to do so we polished the donation fire extinguisher.



It's not great, but it's better. We hope to make it better yet.

[Peerie Maa]

Jake and I took another look at Miss Budweiser.

Some of the details are interesting.

On the rudder are two tubes facing into the stream. At 200 miles an hour, that's a lot of stream.



Note the erosion on the leading edge.

On smaller boats one might be for the speedometer. But???

Turned up on her side, in this picture it's a little hard to see that this is the bottom of the starboard pontoon. (Pontoon?)

Possibly the cooling water intake?

Those are sponsons.

[Morgan Volunteer]

December 15, 2022

Working on LA Dunton is starting to get serious.






The last I heard is that she is coming out on Tuesday next week. I'll be in Colorado next week so I am relying on friends to take pictures. At this point the weather looks good for Tuesday.

Parts are still coming off Nellie.



There is are three layers of plywood around the hull. I suppose it's there to maintain the original shape of the hull.





Morgan's windlass.

[Morgan Volunteer]

For the last few weeks, not too much seems to have gone on with Catherine Wedmore.

Between Catherine, LA Dunton, Sabino, Nellie, the New Haven Sharpie, and now Coronet, I'm guessing there are job openings that need to be filled.

So nothing seems to have happened here for a while.

I don't know what it is, but it's in tough shape. The notes on it say, demo and replace.



She will be covered over eventually.



In the paint shop, Sabino's benches are looking better all the time.



Pete, on the left, is a new volunteer at the seaport. Right now he is working in the boat shed, but he and Jim are friends. So perhaps we can lure him over to Fire Fighter. He's an electrical engineer and the moment I heard that I said, great, fix this.

I didn't get a good picture of it, but it's a communications system of some sort and it doesn't work. He's our man, I hope.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Jake and I worked on the telegraph system for controlling the water pressure to the monitors.
They work on chain and cables.

It has been broken since we started on Fire Fighter.




Job one was to trace where the cables go. Ultimately, they run from the bridge to the engineering station and to the upper most deck where most of the monitors are located.



The engine control telegraph wires are on the left and the water controls wires are on the right.



Chains go around corners.



And up to the bridge.



We had to look into the telegraph on the bridge to see if there is a problem here. There is not.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Buried way up over the engines I may have found the problem. This looks like where the chains split up between the upper deck, bridge, and engineering station.



It looks messed up.



But we'll have to go up top and open up the telegraph on the upper deck. This will have to wait for the spring or if we get lucky, a winter thaw.

The wind and cold are not conducive to good work and me.

[Bill Perkins]

My brother in law Dick sent these from the shipyard this morning .

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1671548354

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1671548900


https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1671549168

[John A. Campbell]

I am writing this message with the sincere hope that I am not intruding on anyone's "turf"........several years ago ( 8 or maybe 10, I believe) my lady friend Barbara and I were at the Woodenboat Show at Mystic Seaport and were visiting with Pat Atkin, whose father-in-law was William "Billie" Atkin who designed (in 1932) a little inboard motor dingy called "Newt" . I purchased a set of plans for "Newt" that same day from Pat and I am building this boat now. On that day the three of us were observing a small wooden inboard motorboat on the water ......it was close enough to shoreline so we could hear the engine running and that sound has "been with me" ever since......I believe it was a "hit or miss" engine (ka-pop.....ka-pop.....ka-pop) but it also had a bell-like quality about it....a really beautiful sound coming across the water. I deeply regret that I didn't take the time that day to get the owner's name and information about that boat...especially the engine.......as I really want to power my "Newt" the same way. Restoration of the Charles Morgan was very much in progress at that time so here's hoping that someone reading this may have a lead on my search........MANY THANKS!........John A. Campbell, 6300 Campbell Hill Rd., Belton, TX 76513....cell 254 493 8493

[Morgan Volunteer]

January 5, 2023

It's been a while due to the holidays and I was away.

During that time the LA Dunton was hauled out and several friends saved pictures for me to share.

However, Bill Perkins, (above) covered it well enough during my time off that I don't really need to add more to it.

Thank you, Bill.

So, onto my vacation pictures.

I was in Boulder Colorado visiting family for the holidays.

I bring this up because one of my favorite places to visit in Boulder is the local hardware store, McGuckin Hardware.

Wooden boat people usually like hardware stores.

But this one is special.

Aside from being huge...





Homer's and others don't have this.



I have been out there a couple of times for the holidays and each time they have a lady playing Christmas music on a harp.

This store is worth a trip to Boulder.

We drove up to Estes Park where my niece lives for Christmas.

Along the way we ran into a traffic jam. It took twenty minutes to get through.



There were hundreds of them.

Nosy too.



So, we had a great time. Family and food and wine were great.

Normally I wouldn't be caught dead in this outfit, but what the heck, it's Christmas.



Happy New Year.

[Morgan Volunteer]

One last thing on Christmas.

A friend of Barbra's sent her this card.



I guess they know Barbara pretty well, it was a hit.

On to the seaport.

Our job on Fire Fighter was to continue trying to get the water pressure telegraph working.

In the engineering station we took this unit apart to see if we could find the problem.



This is the unit that captain uses to tell the engineer what he wants for water pressure during a fire. The large arrow will go back and forth a couple of times ringing a loud bell and the pointer will stop on the desired number. The engineer will respond with his handle and smaller arrow to let the bridge now that he will comply.



It looked fine inside so we put it back together and moved on. There are four chains involved and we were able to label each one as to what they do, and where they go.

We took a look at the station on the top deck again, but again, it was too cold to work outside with small screws and old hands.

Spring is coming.

We went to a lecture on future displays at Mystic and the ecology of the sea. I, unfortunately, am quite hearing impaired and should have been closer to the speakers. One thing I was able to hear was about this boat.

Lost during an earthquake and tsunami in 2011 in Japan, it turned up on the Beach in Oregon ten years later.

There was a lot to learn from it. Tidal currents and the variety of things growing on and in the boat are of great interest.





Now it is sitting next to the paint shop in the ship yard.



I haven't heard what the long term plans are. I wonder if the owner would like it back.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Up in the engine shop Nate showed me his pictures of Dunton's haul out.





I don't know if this will work, but give it a try.

Nate's Dunton move.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/05ipe33pqg...20-22.mp4?dl=0

After lunch Jake and I were done with anything we could accomplish on Fire Fighter so we closed up and walked up to the shipyard.

I was carrying my rather heavy tool bag so I stopped into the Buckingham House and asked if I could just put it out of sight for a little while. The shipyard was up to the right and parking was over to the right.



We were greeted by the interpreter who allowed me to leave my bag.



Because we are volunteers, were are allowed to taste what the interpreter has made over the fire. State law will not allow visitors to try anything made in "unsanitary" conditions. I get it, and it is what it is. There are no stainless counters, no refrigeration, no running water, and the list goes on.

But we're volunteers! Dig in!

There is a dish to her left on the table that contains a treat made with salt cod and mashed potatoes. Not too bad. This is exactly what might have been made back when using dried salt cod and potatoes.

We made it up to the shipyard.

Dunton takes up a lot of space.



She's well supported.

[Morgan Volunteer]

It doesn't look like there is too much hogging in her keel.



We walked into the DuPont barn and found one of the steel bands being knocked off after it was tried on the Morgan's windless. You can see the shipwright knocking it off on the left.



Once off, the windless was raised and the ring was reheated to expand it with heat.





Meanwhile back inside, the high spots, where the wood is charred, were ground down.



Another try.