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

[Morgan Volunteer]

Once it fit, they turned the hose on it to put out the fire. This is also the method used to fit wagon wheels with steel tires.

At the other end of the room, Chris is making a new mast for one of the Boston Tea Party ships.



As it is so often done, he is starting with a square and is making it into an octagon. Later, he will make it sixteen sides. I'm not going to look that one up again. From there, planing and sanding will make it nice and round.



Outside, the Catherine Wedmore has made some progress. The first new part seems to be in place. The propeller shaft hole has been roughed in too.



Now it's been covered over so work can progress on her deck.

[Morgan Volunteer]

January 9, 2023

Regarding John Campbell's post from December 20th, Nate replied to me with this information.

Hi Carl

On December 20th , you got an inquiry on your blog, from John Campbell about an engine that he heard while visiting the Seaport many years ago. He wants to try and find a similar one to power the boat he is building. I'm offering a video of a Palmer NL-1 that I rebuilt, to see If this sounds like the one he remembers



These were very common and there may be some around for sale. There were at least 3 boats at the engine show this summer powered by these Palmer engines.


Hope this helps,


Nate


Nate sent a video of it running but it's beyond me how to make it work here.






I called John and he was thrilled to get this information. He promised to send pictures of the boat he's building.

[Morgan Volunteer]

January 12, 2023

Wayne, Jake, and I had a busy day. It's probably is not too interesting for wooden boat people, and I have to say it's getting a little old for us too. As we have done for three weeks now, we're trying to get the telegraph system for the Fire Fighter water pressure system running again.

This is the engineering station end of the telegraph.

The pilot or captain would call for more or less water pressure and the engineer would reply on this device.



As you can see, it registers as high as 300 PSI. But as with your car's speedometer, which won't really go 140 miles per hour, 140 probably the top number on your car.

Most gauges show about twice the average top speed, or in this case, top PSI. So my unofficial guess is that the pumps max out about 200 PSI.

The boat is getting on in years and I'm told we usually top out at 100 psi. Mostly because the almost 100 year old steel pipes are getting this from rust.

As you can see, the chain and cable system is hanging there.

We have spent most of the time trying to see where the cables go.

Charlie loaned to me the original prints to help out.



I took pictures of sections and made negatives from them. That made it a lot easier to read.



This is dated 1938.



In reality, I didn't do much for us. We had to climb into, over, and top of small and tight spaces.

Being able to see in these tight places helps too.

Jake is getting a drop lamp ready.



I started to climb.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Seen from where I am reaching, here is where the cable starts to go up to the monitor deck on top of the boat.

Every time a cable has to make a turn, a chain was added, and it runs over a wheel. The cables never bend, only the chains bend.



From here it goes up to the room we now use for the gift shop. This is where the huge mufflers are also located.

There have been twists and turns to get this far, but now in the gift shop, the cables go up on the aft bulkhead and then turn forward along the ceiling. About five feet forward, the cables take a right hand turn to starboard side of the room where they take yet another turn and go up through the ceiling and into the monitor deck telegraph.

Some one of the crew took cables apart some time ago because there was a problem. Our problem was that we didn't know what the problem was.

When we got to the point where the cables made a turn to go up top, I found that the chains were almost rigid. I believe that the heat for almost 100 years of running has dried out the grease enough to make the movement almost impossible.

Add to this, over the years someone painted some of the chains.



This is the top of the mufflers. In the center you can see the cables making a 90 degree turn up to the monitor deck. It's a small dark part with rivets right behind. Actually, the pulley is the easiest one to get to. It's right out in the open.



Between the engine telegraphs and the water pressure telegraph, there are twelve cables chains and untold numbers of pulleys.

Jake is trying a foam degreaser, but it didn't work very well.



Next week we will start trying to degrease the chains with a different product and lubricate them.

Then we start on the engine telegraphs.

[Thad]

Thanks for letting us see all this!

[nedL]

[Morgan Volunteer]

January 19, 2023

Attaboys are always appreciated.

The first thing in the shipyard, I found a couple of guys working on Catherine Wedmore.

The old fasteners need to come out before anything else can happen. He is grinding the rust off each piece so he can then weld a nut on top. With a nut on top he can either unscrew it or used a slide hammer to pull it out.





I didn't hang around for the welding.

Next stop, engine shop.

Nate is making new piston rings for his engine.



The diameter is set and here he is grinding them to the proper thickness.



Nate will be gone for a few weeks. He's going to Australia to take a week tour on a tall ship. He did it a few years ago from Tasmania to Australia. This time he's going the other way.

Nate, send pictures.

Then I found Anne working on Sabino's benches.

Slow tedious work.



In the DuPont barn, the mast for the Boston Tea Party ship is on the lathe.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Turning makes a lot of dust.





Then it was off to Fire Fighter.

We're still working on the water pressure telegraph. The chains are so stiff, they're very hard to bend in places.

I bought a gallon of this stuff to see if it would cut the grease as advertised.



I hung a gallon can and put as much chain in as I could.



It worked really well. It didn't take very long and the chain went from very stiff to very limp.

This is before we soaked it. Some of the links were so frozen I couldn't bend them at all.



If you look closely, you can see a few links that are not straight.

When it was loose, I oiled them. With luck it will be ready to go.

Jake is trying it out. It's still very stiff, but unlike last week, it is working. We're getting there.



Next week I'm going to try wrapping the chains in cloth and soaking them with the cleaner. This is only the water pressure telegraph. We still need to do the engine telegraphs. At least they work.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Charlie has a group he is leading that have taken a boat apart and now they are going to reassemble it.

Here is what I have found so far.



And the parts.



There is a lot of putty on the mating surfaces right now.



More later, I hope.

Wayne said it looked like the pictures of Shackleton's ship.

Jeez, I hope not.

[Morgan Volunteer]

January 26, 2019

Bill and I were very busy all day on board Fire Fighter.

We spent most of the day trying to free up the chain that makes the water pressure telegraph work. A week ago we cleaned up one area on the starboard side of the "gift shop" and now this is directly opposite on the port side.

This is the starboard side from last week.





A couple of things made the port side more difficult.

It's more cramped on the port side.

The starboard side chains bend 90 degrees and go straight up to the monitor deck. (See above) That made the chain easy to fold down into a can of cleaner.

The starboard side turns left, not up. The chain is laying on its side and it's not easy to get it into a can as we did on the other side.

Jake came up with an idea to cut a plastic hose along the side, put it on the chain, and fill it with cleaner. To seal it he wrapped paper around each end and tightened it with hose clamps.



Two problems. The plastic hose was not straight enough and the chain sagged to much. So most of the cleaner ran out.

I tried WD-40, but it didn't work.

On the port side, after doing some "magic," I got the chain to hang down so we could soak it in the cleaner again.



Some of these links are so stiff I couldn't move them at all.

So we hoisted the gallon can back up and left it to soak.





We went to lunch and when we came back an hour later, the chain was still very stiff.

So we put it back up again and now we'll see what a week of soaking will do for it.

It worked really well on the other side so our hopes are that this will too.

[Morgan Volunteer]

We never got into the ship yard today.

Nate is in Australia sailing a tall ship.

There is also a wooden boat show there to that he plans to go to.

I'm guessing this is the show.

https://australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au/

Nate, send me pictures.

We were so busy on Fire Fighter I didn't take the time to go the the yard.

Nick came over from Long Island for the day.

He is filtering fuel oil for the oil burner to keep things from freezing on board.

I found him here.





He was getting ready to add oil to a reservoir that is used to top off the engines.

He told me that each engine has 120 gallons in it.

Oil changes are expensive on Fire Fighter.

Above, he was opening a valve so he could add five gallons to the tank.

Up on deck is where the oil is filled from.





Back down below we all did another important job.

We hand cranked the engines.

A few years ago I left my outboard all winter and by spring time it had seized up. I think could have prevented this by just pulling the starter rope a few times over the winter. This would move the oil around on the mating parts. Fogging oil would probably done the job, but it was in a warm basement and I didn't see the need.

Wrong!

So we cranked over the big engines on Fire Fighter.

[Morgan Volunteer]

My turn




It takes 150 turns of the crank for each turn of the engine.

The crank is also used to set the valves.

Under the oval plate is the flywheel and it's marked in degrees.

I watched the engineer on the Boston trip reset a couple of valves by setting the flywheel on the mark for each valve.

It's a lot of cranking.

[Morgan Volunteer]

February 2, 2023

We have been so busy trying to get Fire Fighter's telegraph system working that I haven't been able to get up to the shipyard for two weeks.

So, here's the only shipyard picture I can come up with.

The yard delivered the Morgan's windless during the week.



This is how it started in October of last year.



It's good for several years to come.


We got a late start today because we listened to an an hour long Zoom talk for a First Thursday Lecture. Once a month the seaport puts on a lecture on seaport related issues. This lecture was led by Chris Gasiorek, Senior Vice President of Operations and Watercraft at Mystic Seaport Museum.

He talked about how both Coronet and Dunton were moved for their restorations. He also added more on other shipyard projects.

This talk may be available to see next week and I have asked permission to get a link so you can see it too.

I'll post it here if it happens.


So on to Fire Fighter.

I let part of the chain soak in the Purple Power cleaner over the last week.

It worked so well on the first chain and I though we had a winner.

Not this time. It did nothing.

Jim is a newer volunteer and he brings a electricians license to our list of skills.

I have no idea what he's working on, but it involves DC power, so here he is starting up the DC generator. It's an AC motor driving a DC generator and it is started on this panel.



I told him our troubles.

He said "Have you tried Kroil penetrating oil?"

I have heard of it but never tried it. You know one snake oil is pretty much the same as another.

He said, "No, no, this is good stuff. I have a can you can try, but it's expensive. It's $17.00 a can."

So after lunch we went to the local hardware store and bought a small spray can of it.

Not $17.00, $26.00!

But it worked! And it worked well!

The second I sprayed it on, the chain was dripping a black mess of "stuff."

So, between Jake and I we sprayed all the chains.

Right now, it's not perfect, but it's much better than it was.

As far as loosening a rusty bolt, I'm not sure, but it is perfect for our needs on this project.

[Morgan Volunteer]

The chains are part of the engine telegraph and the wires above are the water pressure telegraph.

Paint on this does not help.




Over my head is a tray that protects the chains and cables. That had to come down to get at the chains.



Paint doesn't help.



Taking down a tray.



To get at this.



You can see how dry the chain is.

But when we were done there was a great improvement. We're not done, but it's getting close.



Is all this work worth it?

Sure, some times they even let me drive.

[gray duck]

Thanks for the updates!

[Morgan Volunteer]

February 9, 2023

Work seems to be going slowly on Catherine A Wedmore, but today I found some progress.

The lower half of a shaft log has been set in place.





In the barn I found the other parts that will be going in.

This looks like the upper half of the shaft log.





Here's another part that is being duplicated.

Part of the stem.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Before in the back.



In the upper left corner of the picture above you can see two new masts for the Boston Tea Party ships.

One is still square and the other on the lathe is almost finished and round.







Out side, I went on board Sabino.



It's been a while.

The guys are installing two diesel generators that will power the electric drive motor.

In the reality of this world, running a steam boiler is hugely expensive compared to the diesel electric set up. In a perfect world people would pay their share to go with steam, but that is never going to happen. Who can afford it?

I climbed down into the bow where the two engines will be. The far one is in the right place, the near one needs to be pushed around and back.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Toward the stern the motor bracket is almost in place.



I have shown this before, but here again is the motor and gearbox.



On to Fire Fighter.

We picked up a new volunteer for the day. Stan was with us in the beginning when we were working on Morgan's restoration. Later he found a home in the seaports facilities department. He was building and repairing all manner of parts of seaport things.



There is a new facilities manager who seems unsure of the direction to go, so Stan has been without much to do for a while. So he came to give us a try.

We worked on the engine throttle for the big starboard diesel. The lever works very hard. We finally traced it down to the governor. When the engine is running, it's the adjustable governor that sets the speed.

So far, it looks like it's just a matter of lubricating the linkage.

We don't have a manual, so it' hard to know what is going on.



Mr Woodward, do you have a manual for a 1938 model S1?

I looked on line, and they appear to still be in business. But if it is the governor that is binding up rather than the linkage, we will defer to the other crew who knows more about this than we do.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Fourth week in a row, we worked on the telegraph for the water system.

The engine telegraph was getting a little tight too, but all it took was a bit of oil on the chains and now that's working well.

On the water telegraph, I took two pairs of pliers and worked the tight links back back and forth to a point where I could move them by hand. Not loose yet, but much better.

A little oil once a week, and by spring they should all be fine.

I hope.



I think if I get a chance I'm going to measure this thing out to see how much cable and chain there is.

Jake is taking up the tension.

[Morgan Volunteer]

February 16, 2023

Nate is home from Australia and Tasmania and his sea voyage between the two ports.

He showed me a couple of pictures.



It sounded like they had awful weather with only a few days under sail.



He was part of the passenger/crew so was able to take on several jobs as a volunteer.

Steering was somewhat difficult with the small rudder. He had to steer by the compass and holding the course was not easy. He said an hour at the helm was about all most could handle.

This was his second time on board this boat.

---

Last week the bottom half of the shaft log was in place on the Catherine A. Wedmore.

The hole for the shaft was a v shaped and not complete. During the week the log was taken out and completed.



The one on the right is the one taken back out to be finished. On the left is the other half.



A soon to be hidden??? What ever???



The donkey engine off the L. A. Dunton and Ann is getting it ready to be repainted.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Dunton will be covered soon.



Stan is carrying one of Fire Fighter's port holes. More on that in a bit.



Almost back to Fire Fighter, I went on the Morgan to see the new windless.

It's almost finished here.



Now, back on Fire Fighter, our job for the day was to replace the cracked port hole glass.

Removing the hinge pin.



You can see the crack in this picture. The glass is thick. I didn't measure it, but I think it's around 5/8 to 3/4" thick. It's not tempered nor is it laminated. The new glass is on the right.

[Morgan Volunteer]

The first job is to get the old glass out.



Easy with a hammer.



The glass seems to be secured in place with a large threaded retaining ring which was painted and corroded firmly into place.



Stan is trying to get it out with no luck yet. So the job will have to wait until next week. In the meantime we covered the hole.



Nick was over from Long Island for the day.

Here he is filling what he calls the day tank. Apparently there are two day tanks, one for each engine. They are fed from one of two main tanks and the oil is filtered before it goes into the day tanks.

Between the engines is a rise where the two tanks are. Behind him are the two steps down off the tanks.

Here, he's checking the level.



Here, he is shutting off the filler line from the filter system.



There are valves all over the place. The fuel valves are painted red and they are all over the place. It's amazing one person can know them all.

[Morgan Volunteer]

February 23, 2023

Catherine A Wedmore.



The shaft log is in place. The bottom part is secure and the top will be soon.





These "Nails" will hold it together. Nails is not correct, but I have no idea what is correct. They are bronze shafts with barbs along the outside. The barbs look like they were made with a chisel and hammer.



While I was there with the guys I gave them each a small plaque that has a spike taken from the hull.

It's a simple plaque with the name of the boat and on the back is a brief history about it. A friend has a laser machine that engraved the name and message on it. The nail is held on with 12 pound fishing line. I started out with 6 pound, but I couldn't see it to work with it.



I know it's no big deal, but I was touched how much they appreciated it.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Nate is making piston rings. He material is steel pipe and he's making it fit.

The rings overlap where they meet, so this is how he accomplishes it.

He mills two slots, one on each side of the ring.



If you look closely you can see the other slot just to the right of the nut in the foreground. The nut and clamp hold down the spacer that locates the slot so the opposite side can be cut in place.



When done, it looks like this.



The next step is to saw the center out.





Next he will turn the outside diameter using this fixture.

The inside of the ring is located on a boss. The outside diameter is not concentric yet, but once turned to size, it will be perfect.

He uses a hose clamp to bend the ring down onto the boss. Then he tightens the cover down.



Next step is turn the OD, and that will be next week.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Scott has a new project for the seaport's engine collection.

These are Palmer, T-head engines. There is a three cylinder and a four cylinder engine here.

There is a good four cylinder engine already in the collection, but not a good three cylinder. This three cylinder is trash, so Scott is going to try and rebuild the three, with good parts from the extra four.

Three is on the left.



Step on, take off the head.





The engine has two spark plugs per head.



I've seen him fix worse.



This cylinder looks OK, but the other two do not.



A light tap with the hammer and this just fell apart.

This is just the beginning.

[Peerie Maa]

February 23, 2023


These "Nails" will hold it together. Nails is not correct, but I have no idea what is correct. They are bronze shafts with barbs along the outside. The barbs look like they were made with a chisel and hammer.

Depending on where you are from, those nails are either drifts or dumps, the barbs are indeed made with a hammer and cold chisel. They are called "rags" which is where rag bolts got their name in masonry work.

[Morgan Volunteer]

As I walked out of the machine shop I realized what a great place this is to play in.

Look at all this stuff! I could get lost in this pile of treasure. Actually I have on occasion. Raw materials galore!

Not everyone could see what I mean here, but I think most Wooden Boat Forum people can.





I didn't even go near the wood pile today.



I love this place!


Coming back from lunch I saw Coronet for the first time from the out side of the gate.

I have yet to go aboard. I was surprised to see her so high in the water, but I was told that there is nothing inside.



One last picture. It's a leftover from last weekend's winter festival. The remains of an ice sculpture. I have no idea what it looked like a week ago.

It was just sitting on the pavement in front of the planetarium.



We were on Fire Fighter, but no pictures are worth posting here.

[Morgan Volunteer]

March 2, 2023

I stopped by to catch up on Catherine Wedmore's progress.

This was being installed.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Nate continued with his piston rings.



He's getting close to finishing them. The engine has been together but the compression was low, so new rings were in order.

On board Fire Fighter.

In the bunk room Charlie was tending to something in the bilge.



To the left is the plastic grey water holding tank and the sewage tank is left of that. The bulkhead behind Charlie is actually one of the fuel tanks on board. He is facing the potable water tank.

I'm not sure what he was up to.

Our task for the day was to finish the Gold Room porthole. I'm not sure if I have mentioned the Gold Room by name before and I don't have a recent picture of it. The Gold Room got it's name from the beautifully polished brass and bronze fittings for the monitors. This room is where they are stored.

The Gold Room allows access to the bunk room below and from there, to the engine room.

The Gold Room is located just below the bridge.

On to our porthole.

For a clean and smooth surface to work on Stan took us to the facilities building to assemble the porthole.

I have been volunteering here since 2009 and this is my first time here.

This is only a small part of the building.



In the back of this is another room where we worked.

We had a lot of discussion about how to install the glass. It was mounted using glazing compound as we found it. We were not sure that was proper so we asked around.

After a lot of opinions were offered, we went to the marine outlet near by and bought adhesive backed foam rubber.

It was too wide so it was cut in half lengthwise.

Stan is marking half.



Now cutting it.



Installing it.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Assembling it.



This was the hardest part. The retaining ring is threaded as is the port hole frame. Getting the 15" threaded ring to screw down all the was around without having it pop out on one side or the other was really difficult. It took many tries and lots of hands holding it down.

Stan made the spanner which worked quite well.

Done.



So back to Fire Fighter to install it.

All we need now is a little Windex.



From the outside.



The next one is in the "gift shop."



Charlie had the glass we just put in, but this is smaller and now we need to find a source for 3/4" glass.

The adventure continues and on to the internet. (Or a local glass shop.)

[Rich Jones]

In post # 3206 it appears that the bow of the Dunton has been chopped off.
Is that correct?
Thanks for the updates.

[Thad Van Gilder]

That is just the perspective

[ronyboy]

Great piece of information you might as well try our fire alarm system

[Morgan Volunteer]

March 9, 2023

There has not been too much done on LA Dunton as of yet and the hull is still all in one piece. Yes, that looks like something is missing, but it is just the perspective. With the bow sprit removed the bow does look a little blunt.

In the machine shop Nate is checking the size of the rings he made by installing them into the cylinder.



The gap looks too large, but in previous posts you can see that the ends overlap due to the cutout portions.



I stopped by Catherine Wedmore for a minute and met this man (on the left) who works for the company that owns her. He said everyone loves this boat. At almost 100 years old, they have no plans for retiring her. As a matter of fact, they are having another larger boat built in steel at this time.

I'll bet that one doesn't last 100 years.



In the DuPont Restoration building, aka the barn, Another mast for the Boston Tea party ships are on the lathe.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Amistad is coming to life again. Spring is near.



Not so much in the above picture, but below is a good sign.



On board Fire Fighter we spent more time talking than working.

Or so it seemed.



That is Stan on the left, Charlie in the center and Jim on the right.

We finally got to work replacing hinges on an electric panel used to control one of the cranes on either side of the boat. Right now, neither one of the cranes work.

Some day.

All it takes is time and money. But not in that order.

Well, at least the door will work eventually.

Job 1, take off the broken hinge that is riveted in place.

Grinding off the tops of the rivets.



Now grinding off the rivets bodies flush.

Looks impressive in the picture, but a slow shutter speed made it look more drastic than it was.



On the other panel the hinges were okay, but the latch was rusted solid.

So Jake oiled and hammered.