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

[Morgan Volunteer]

He did get it free.

The Mystic Seaport Modelers had a display of model tugboats. The show will run until Sunday, so time is short.

[Morgan Volunteer]

This one drew my eye. Only because it's a fire boat. All the models were great. Really great!







Charlie borrowed my generator to light and heat a garage where he is teaching some students about rebuilding a small boat. With spring near by, he no longer needs it. So I brought it home.

Pardon me, but I want to vent!

I bought this truck new in 2017 with two wheel drive. There are two reasons for two wheel drive for me.

One, I don't need four wheel drive, and number two, four wheel drive trucks are too tall.

Well this one arrived and it's just as tall as the four wheel drive version.

So now I have a truck that I can't even reach over the side to grab things out of the center of the body. Chevrolet took care of that by installing a built in step in the bumper.

What a lot of work to just pick up a tool laying in the center of the body.

So last night I got my generator home and I needed a forklift to get it out. I just happen to have one.

I do have ramps but the grade is way too steep.

For that reason I can't get my snowblower into the body either.



I wanted a smaller truck but no one builds them anymore.

Grrrr.

Thanks.

[schoonerpacket]

The FB Duwamish can still be found afloat to day in her home city of Seattle. https://fireboatduwamish.com/

[Morgan Volunteer]

March 16, 2023

The seaport held an all volunteer meeting so we volunteers could be updated on upcoming seaport issues.

President Peter Armstrong led off with some news.

The Rossie Mill building which houses the collection of boats and marine artifacts is going to be modified so visitors can see what is hidden inside.



Not everything will be displayed, but much more than ever before.

The southern end of the building will modified with the addition of a visitors entrance.



The left hand side of the building will have two windows removed and the entrance way added.



The main part of the display will be in Hall 1 where some of the boats will be on display. Right now, Hall 1 is where the retail warehouse and shipping department for the seaport is located.

Hall 2 and 3 is where the marine engines and boats are kept now. Some of the boats will be moved into Hall 1.

It's a complicated move so we'll have to wait and see.

He also talked about the possibility of a parking garage in the south lot. During big events, parking can be tough.

Another change.

For several years there has been a boat taking tourists out on the Mystic River. They come up river to see the seaport from the water.



Of course this is of no benefit to the seaport. So a deal was made and now the seaport owns the boat and 100 feet of dock. It will be a free ride for volunteers when there is room on board.

I like that.

Many other things were talked about, but more than I can report on here.

So onto boats.

Amistad needs some work.





Now just add more wood.

Easy

[Morgan Volunteer]

Jake and I finally got one door repaired on a electrical panel for the two cranes on board.

Like everything else on board, it has been far too long between days of maintenance .

The hinges were broken so last week we ground them off.

Today we put on new ones. But the old hinges were riveted but we don't have the rivets or the tools to install them. So we had to drill holes to clear the heads of the bolts.

Crude, I know, but there is only so much we can do here.



We used washers to space the hinge out from the case so it didn't distort the hinge.



I plant to buy cap nuts to dress it up some.

I'm not really sure how this works, or even if it does work.



I took a rotary wire wheel to the rusty cabinet door. I did enough to show that it will clean up.

But that's for another day.


After lunch, Jake and I took a ride down town to see the damage done last November's fire in Mystic.

This is the local news report.

Scroll down for pictures.

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

https://www.google.com/search?client...id:A2zPC8Zaqws

We had not seen it so here is what we found.



Someone's treasure is now just a pile of soot.

[Morgan Volunteer]

The tires are completely burned off.





This was a boom truck. These tires are gone too.



Yesterday, though a very unofficial source, it is believed that someone left and electric heater on in their boat to drive off the dampness.

If true, I'd hate to be that guy. It's gonna be expensive.

So back to the shipyard.

Tom is still building masts.



He's on the other end.



When Warren first started volunteering at the seaport, the shipwrights were very leery about letting him sharpening their tools.

Now, the is a line out the door.

Here he's working on a broad axe.

[Morgan Volunteer]

This old ship's saw has been scavenged for parts. Where it goes from here is anyone's guess.





I took a look in the Sabino new engine room.



This is the base of the motor mount.



On board Catherine A. Wedmore I found a picture of Catherine Wedmore. But if the boat if named after her, why is her middle initial not A, instead of the M in the picture?





The plot thickens, but I'll find out.

[heimlaga]

Even in it's scavenged state that ship saw is a treasure. A few home made parts and t will be ready to go. If you want a new ship saw theese days you must build it from scratch.
I really hope they don't scrap it!

[Morgan Volunteer]

March 23, 2023

Walking in, the drive was covered with "art"?

This area is where there are play ground boats for young children to play on and also a play area for kids 7 and under. So seeing this was no surprise except for the skill need to create the "art."




It was covered from one end to the other.

I don't think this was done by a young child.



Our guess was that it is an image of the Phoenix.

Who knows.

Looks like an owl.



No Idea.



A narwhal.



Perhaps a seven year old.




I only show this to demonstrate the variety of things the seaport will do to educate and inform all of it's visitors. This shows that one of the museum staff was leading a group.

We see this sort of thing all the time.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Anne is almost done cleaning up the L A Dunton's donkey engine.

She's down to the last few specks of paint.



There is still color behind the bolts.



Nate has reassembled his engine and is rigging up an electric motor to break it in very slowly.

He has done this on several engines he's worked on.



At lunch I asked how it went and he said it didn't.

The motor ran hot and smoked. It was not overloaded, something was bad in the motor.

So after lunch he was going to get it ready to start. I never got a call to come and see it running, so I guess it will happen next week.

Some of the Long Island crew came over to do some work on Fire Fighter.

Brownie is getting ready to mount one of several of Fire Fighter's spot lamps.



This didn't get finished today.

He also brought over some parts to build the air intake housings for the 16 cylinder main engines.

This is as far as this went today.



We continued work in the turnout room replacing hinges on electrical panels.

Stan is vacuuming.

[Morgan Volunteer]

The shelves above and on the left will have its door replaced.

I painted the door with primer.



Stan's suspenders let go so Jake is helping out.



All of my afternoon duties were limited to escorting visitors though the boat.

I meet some wonderful people.

Most have interesting stories of their own to tell.



Actually we were so busy there was hardly time for pictures.


Charlie has been ill for a couple of weeks so some of us are stepping up to do extra duty.

This Sunday, Wayne and I will be giving tours.

I live and hour away and commute on I-95. So normally one rush hour trip a week is all I want to deal with.

Stop by and say hello.

[Morgan Volunteer]

March 30, 2023

Since Charlie has been ordered to only do light duty by his doctor, Wayne and I are putting in some extra time on board Fire Fighter.

We were there on Sunday to do tours while Charlie did "Light Duty."

He put together a new little red wagon. It's Fire Fighter's new dock cart.



Yesterday we helped to rebuild this 1500 watt lamp.

Lil' Red Wagon had it's first job.





We needed a 1 1/16" wrench in the machine shop to get the fitting off the lamp.



It came out much easier than we thought. A pair of vise grips wouldn't budge it.

Then we rewired it.



As with most jobs, perhaps we can finish it another day. This was as far as we got today.

If you look above Nick's head above you can see the new home for Miss Budweiser.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Last Sunday the Coast Guard Cadets were aboard to help out. Some of them were in the turnout room removing the old paint and cleaning.





Here they are working on an extension cord reel that mounts on a bulkhead in the turn out room.




They put in a great effort and it really helps.

Back in the shipyard I found one of the guys removing part of a plank from the hull.



I believe he is exposing a futtock for replacement.

This is a futtock, I'm just not sure it's going to be that futtock. But when you get close to the hull you can see there are more that need replacing.



This is part rudder on Catherine. The wood is purple heart.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Most of you know how expensive a boat is to run and maintain.

Here is a small part of that expense.

The ship lift needs new lift cables. Just from the size of the cable reels, it looks very expensive.



Scott and some of the guys were replacing them.

On the left is a forklift holding a reel of cable.

Below the cable is an air operated grease pump on a orange pail of grease.

The grease goes into an applicator that is the green thing at the base of the winch.

As the cable pays out, grease is applied. And the grease is special. It ecologically end environmentally rated for in water use.

That sounds expensive too!







It was cold and windy yesterday, but spring flowers were not informed.



This is the entrance to the Anchor. One of the places at the seaport where you can get something to eat.

It's outside of the seaport just to the left of the south entrance.



https://anchormystic.com/

[Morgan Volunteer]

April 6, 2023

Nate is rebuilding the fuel injector on his project.

I'm not sure how it all goes together, but I'm sure we'll see it running soon.



Nate has installed a starter motor. The flat belt hanging there goes around the flywheel.



The Dunton's donkey engine is starting to go back together.



This is a "Wednesday Crew" job. Nate found there were too many people on Wednesday because you almost had to wait in line to use a wrench. So he works alone on Thursday and loves it that way.

More parts.



On board Fire Fighter, this is the base for the air intake filter. (And possibly an air intake muffler.)

It's broken into several parts so it may be patched up enough for a copy to be recast from it.



Behind Stan, Jim is remounting one of the 1,500 watt lamps on board.

[Morgan Volunteer]

The biggest job for the day was getting the port engine started in preparation for next week's Pirate Days.

It's a complicate project starting this engine.

First, the air compressor needs to be turned on. A tug on the belt shows it has not frozen due to lack of use.

Next to Nick's left knee is the motor driven DC generator.



The electric panel needs to be set.

A lot of motors on board run on DC current. This is where the generator is started.



Then the raw water valves to cool the engine need to be opened.



Then another switch needs to be turned on.



It turns on a fuel pump, I think.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Fresh water needs to be added to the coolant system.

The valve is on top.



The water pump bearings are tested to check for water in the oil.



All good.

Water for the monitors comes through these valves.



And this one.



And this one.



Now make sure the pumps are free.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Then open the valves to get raw water into the pump.



Since we will be only running one engine and two pumps, the two right knife switches need to be engaged. The knife switches run the 600 HP water pumps.



The wheel needs to be set to the configuration we will run today.



The pre-lube oil pump was now on and Nick is checking to see there is oil seeping out of the bearings on the rocker arms.




More valves for fuel and oil.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Priming the injectors.



It needs to be at 22 PSI. Here, it's only 18 PSI.

It's the gauge on the right.



Opening up the stack.



Close the valves. These valves allow the engine to turn over without starting. They open the cylinder to dump the air pressure.

The open valves also allow the engine to blow out any thing that might cause damage such as water or liquid fuel.



A close up from the above.



Okay, it's time to go.

Only it didn't go.

It was a cool day.

Diesels compress air and that raises the temperature enough to ignite the fuel. The temperatures were not cooperating.

The engine starts with compressed air. The air pushes the piston down and starts the flywheel turning.

After four tries with timeouts for the air compressor to catch up, we went to lunch. Nick tried a couple of times while we were gone.

When we got back I asked Nick if I could try it. It was my first time.

So I did!

And it started right up!!!

I must have magic fingers!

[Morgan Volunteer]

This is what it will look like. This is from our trip to Boston last June.

[Morgan Volunteer]

April 11, 2023 Pirate Days

This is the week most kids have off from school in Connecticut, so this is the week to hold Pirate Days.

As I have said so many times, living an hour away and commuting on I-95, one day a week is enough. Okay, it's Pirate Days. Two days this week.

Fire Fighter was scheduled to put on a water display at 11:30.

There is a lot of prep work needed. All the monitors needed to be aimed off the starboard side. I found the forward monitor was too stiff so Nick greased it up.



Jim is opening the exhaust cap



After an hour of opening all the right valves, Nick is starting the engine. We only used the port engine and the two port pumps for this display. The pipes are very old and rusty inside, so we only used 60 PSI. It's enough for a dock display.







This was at 460 RPM. Red line is 750 RPM with a 600 RPM operating red line, so there is a lot more power available. Right now, there is more power than boat.

[Morgan Volunteer]

At 11:30 I walked over to the end of the new floating dock to get a better look.








It's only a minor leak. Right?






Some day I would love to take them apart to fix the seals.

[Morgan Volunteer]

What's another thing we should see during Pirate Days?

Pirates, of course!!!

Here's a couple.



Their cohorts are getting ready for an attack.



"Aim true, and we'll take her for a prize of gold and silver, matey!"



Barbara The Barbarian.



Another fierce group.



Out on the green, there were period children's games.

[Morgan Volunteer]

On the new stage, pirate tales we told.



With many pirates helping.





A large audience.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Including Barbara the Barbarian.



Well, it was a long day.



On the way out, I stopped in the membership lounge and found more.



Overall, all the kids seemed to have a ball and all were having fun.

I know I did.

[Morgan Volunteer]

April 13, 2023

After Pirates day on Tuesday, I thought I would have an easy day today.

Wrong!

As usual, I looked around the shipyard first.

The engine engine crew on Wednesday appears to have finished the LA Dunton's donkey engine.



It looks great.



I didn't notice that there is no spark plug on the head.



I'm guessing that this is a magneto and the spark is in the side of the cylinder.




The Catherine Wedmore.



A lot of new futtocks on the port side.

[Morgan Volunteer]

The futtocks aft look pretty good.



Not much has happened on the deck.



I haven't climbed down into the engine room yet. Soon?





After morning coffee I made it over to Fire Fighter and found the guys working on Amistad's rigging. They were at it all day.



It was a tough day on Fire Fighter.

I hung the camera on a hook and never had a chance to touch it all day.

Jake was away for the day and I was mostly alone. Charlie was on the grounds, but not on board.

I planned to give tours all day. But with only me on board, there wasn't time to take a break.

Normally we like to limit tours to 12 to 15 people. Even 12 is a strain, but it still works.

The problem comes with smaller children. To go below, the ladder to the bunk room is steep and for a six year old, somewhat (Very) intimidating. Once in a while a child will start to cry and refuse to even try. There isn't much I can do about it, but it takes up time.

So when we get a few adults and the rest are smaller kids, it takes a long time to get them all below.

This doesn't leave a lot of time to talk and answer questions.

At the end of the day I was exhausted.

We make do.

Wanna volunteer? We could sure use the help.

Might even let you play with the plumbing.

[Morgan Volunteer]

April 20, 2023

This week I climbed into Catherine's lower engine room area.



It is a Caterpillar engine with two fuel tanks, one on each side.



Looking down at the new work.





It's a little hard to figure what it will look like when it's done right now.



More work is needed on the stern.



There are still futtocks to be replaced here.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Over on LA Dunton, Mike is opening up the lower part of the hull.



Somebody was inside banging away on something, but I couldn't see what.



The ice eaters are coming out from around Morgan.



Finally, on Australia Beach, the small boat guys are launching their fleet.

[Morgan Volunteer]

The only comment I heard was "No leaks!!!"



Finally for today, Simon Lake was a pioneer in submarines here in Connecticut. He built a boat in 1907 and when it went unsold, he scuttled it off Saybrook in Long Island Sound.

Some divers recently found it and are holding off announcing details and the location until it can be secured.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...907-simon-lake

[Morgan Volunteer]

April 27, 2013

I took a brief look at Catherine Wedmore and the futtock I heard them discussing last week is in place.

Both the long and short pieces are new.



The port side of the hull has been opened up and several futtocks have been replaced. I asked about the starboard side.

The starboard side will not be done this summer. She will be back for more work, but for now the yard is too busy to finish everything right now.



The crew is here from Europe working on the viking boat.

I talked with the captain for a bit. He said the boat will not be leaving this summer and I got no answer if it will be open for tours later on this year.





In the machine shop the Wednesday engine crew has taken the Dunton's donkey engine apart again. My guess is that the connecting rod bearing needs to be rebuilt.

[Morgan Volunteer]

On fire Fighter, the air intake screen for one of the two main engines has been off. It needs rebuilding.

Charlie is concerned that even though we have all been careful to keep things from falling it, that something might have. So we took off a flexible pipe and flanges to see if the blower is clear.

Using a hammer to loosen a nut by hitting the wrench.



Giving up on this, I walked back to the machine shop to get a proper wrench. All I could find was a 1 1/2" open end wrench, but it worked.

Once all the bolts were out we tied a line around it and lowered it.





It wasn't all that easy. What's easy?

After an hour of struggling we got it down enough.

[Morgan Volunteer]

Here is the top of the blower and all is well.



It turns out that Nick has never walked around the seaport. He only has worked on Fire Fighter. So going out for lunch we gave nick the tour.

On Australia beach another boat launch.



Roseway is now where Dunton is normally docked. A school group was getting a tour.



I'm guessing this is a tour he won't forget.

The student is on top.



Then we took Nick into the rigging loft.

[Morgan Volunteer]

In the restoration barn we found Trevor. He is making an instrument panel of Sabino.



Then we climbed on board Sabino.

The electric motor is in. I didn't see any evidence of wiring yet.



It looks like the steam engine will turn with the electric motor.



First picture last.

This was this morning as I was driving in.

[Morgan Volunteer]

May 4, 2023

We started out with a First Thursday Lecture, held once monthly. Our friend Paul gave a talk on the economic importance of Gloucester back in the late 1700's to the late 1800's. Long before fish sticks and Mrs Paul's, Gloucester was a port of major importance.

Paul collects stamps and covers and has put together a large collection of them telling the story of the commercial aspects of Gloucester. He has found letters and artifacts, to and from Gloucester, from all over the world.

He is an amazing man and has traveled the world. He is a retired professor of Latin American History at the University of Connecticut. Go Huskies.

His volunteer job at the seaport includes reading log books, where he will transcribe them and interpret them. He recently took a painting and was able to identify what ship was in the picture and where it was painted and when. At breakfast when we all meet the first question is, "What are you working on?"

This is not too interesting picture wise, but it shows how these lectures are given.



These envelopes tell a story that most of us would never see or understand.



There were more people in the room than show here, but you can see the mural of Mystic from the late 1800's.



If it had been built at the time you could see Wayne's house on the other side of the river.

Outside after the lecture, a group of model rocket builders were setting of their rockets. NASA funded this and other groups to build and compete. In each group a team built the rocket. Then they had two on the team go out in the recovery boat, one fired the rocket, and one timed the duration of the flight. The longest flight would be the winner.



She found her teams rocket in the box.