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

[Morgan Volunteer]

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



Count down from five.

Launch.



It went off so fast I never did see it. With a cloudy sky and a white rocket, I never saw a thing.

But the pick up boat did.



I didn't hang around to see who won. They were all winners of course.

Over on Fire Fighter, Nick and I finished up tightening the bolts holding the intake pipes together. Last week we were not able to find a 1 1/2" socket so I brought one from home.



Up in the turn out room, Jake and Stan were prepping the bases of the intake filter/screens for painting.



Stan had red primer on this at the end of the day.

[Morgan Volunteer]

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

Nick is trying to tighten the packing gland on this pump. Naturally, the nuts were rusted and there was no moving it. So next week we're going to try a method that Scott suggested.

Heat the screw and nut and melt candle wax into the threads. We'll see.

WD-40 wasn't working.



I went up to the machine shop to get some wrenches for this project.

I found the Draken hauled out for hull maintenance.

https://www.drakenhh.com/

They have a Pod for storage.




Care to volunteer?

https://www.drakenhh.com/volunteer

[Morgan Volunteer]

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

A week or so ago I assumed the crew was going to pour new Babbitt bearings for the Dunton's donkey engine.



It appears to be the right assumption.



I don't know if this is any good because these guys work on Wednesday. Perhaps next week it will be back in the engine.

On Catherine, he is going to add another futtock. The other two joints are too close together so adding another will make it strong. Here, he is making a template.



The shaft bore needs to be straight so this rig will hold it true when they bore it to size.




I took a look inside LA Dunton to see how that job is coming along.



There were mostly storage bins used to hold fish in this area plus stairs so visitors could go below. Now all that is gone.

Looking forward.

[Morgan Volunteer]

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

Looking aft.



I asked Mike, the apparent lead on this restoration, if the keel was in good shape. He said he doesn't know yet. More needs to be uncovered.

More on this later.

Here is the tour boat that Mystic bought. The original owner took water tours up to and around the seaport all summer long.

Now, we own it plus 100 feet of dockage behind the S&P Oyster house downtown. (Another great place to eat.) Now volunteers will be able to get a ride to and from downtown for free if there is room.

[Morgan Volunteer]

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

May 11, 2023

It snowed last night? Really?



Well, not quite.

And it's not Christmas either.



Hallmark channel's, Mystic Christmas is being shot at the seaport and surrounding places near by.



The green trees make it look somewhat non-Christmas for those of us in the northern states, but those in Hawaii probably wouldn't even notice.







I didn't find anything on there website, but it's early.

[Morgan Volunteer]

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

We didn't do very much today.

There were hundreds of kids at the seaport with school groups. One thing I learned early on while giving tours on Fire Fighter, Do Not let a lot of kids on board in large groups. They are generally uncontrollable and don't pay attention. So, the closed sign stayed up until they disappeared.

So we played and cleaned in the turnout room.



That's it for our work for the day.

After lunch I walked through the shipyard.

Ann was working on Dunton.






Susan was painting Sabino parts.



Sabino's bottom caulking.



Trim work is going on inside.

[Morgan Volunteer]

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

Another Catherine Wedmore futtock gets a coat of paint.



It goes somewhere up there.



The Draken will be with us in storage again for the summer. The crew is pretty much done with maintenance and are getting ready to cover it up again.



The boat house crew is getting their fleet ready.



As I was leaving I found another school group lined up for a class photo.



Interesting. All day long and the snow never melted.

[Breakaway]

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

Thanks, as always, for these updates!

Kevin

[Morgan Volunteer]

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

May 19, 2023

You're welcome, Kevin.


Slow day yesterday. Jake and Stan were off and all I did was a few tours.

Nick was over from Long Island for the day.

He spent most of the time filtering the fuel and putting it into the tanks between the two big engines.

He and Jim spent most of the day together.

Nick on the left . Jim on the right.



Using a dip stick, Nick is measuring the fuel level.



They started the engines later on, but to get ready, Nick is starting the air compressor.



About this time I gave my first tour. It was easy because it was just one couple. As we made our way to the engineer's station I explained that the panel was live and we had to keep away.

They seemed to grasp that concept pretty easily.

Actually it's no big deal when there are only a few people. But when larger groups come down and we don't even go up there when it's live.

Later, because it was slow, I walked up to the shipyard.

On the way, Liberty was set to take off on a tour.



It's a very nice narrated tour of the water side of the seaport.

For an extra $5.00, it's certainly affordable. (Affordable? Been to a restaurant lately?)

Backing out.



A little farther on, LA Dunton is now on the hard and it will have some displays around her.

This is a fish drying table that has been used for years over between where Dunton is normally and the green.

[Morgan Volunteer]

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

Because the Catherine Wedmore is having work done in the yard, I explored a little on line about her.

I found this picture of the Thomas Oyster Company. It had been located next door to where the Catherine Wedmore was docked in the City Point section of New Haven.

https://www.mysticseaport.org/explore/village/oyster-house/

There was no one there at the time, but here are both sides of her stern.

Some work is still needed here.



But on the other side, nothing has been done yet.



Sabino was supposed to be launched today, but there were delays.



Susan got some time to do a little painting.




In the machine shop, Nate is back to work after a couple of months time off. He had a few new parts installed. He says it still hurts but he's doing much better now.

Here he is using a motor and belt to break in the new piston rings. He has done this on all the engines he's worked on. He's still a few weeks away from starting it up.

[Morgan Volunteer]

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

May 25, 2023

As I drove into the shipyard I spotted Sabino moving towards her home pier. Earlier in the week she was put on the lift dock and lowered to wet her bottom and swell the wood.

Several hours later it was found she needed a little more caulking so she was raised again.

Next time all was good and today she came home.





I walked over to her berth and found the guys anxiously waiting for her.



Time to go to work.





Next up will be electrifying the new motor and generators.

I have heard they are already taking reservations for cruises down the river so I guess the pressure is on.

[Morgan Volunteer]

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

For me, it was a very busy day. I spent most of the day giving tours on board Fire Fighter.

The museum was flooded with school groups and while I love kids, school groups can be a disaster. On Fire Fighter I was lucky when at the last moment they turned and went the other way. In large groups, kids seem to go wild. Trying to talk while giving a tour really doesn't work very well.

So, I got lucky. I had mostly adults.

And they were generous. T shirts sales and donations were up.

I used the acronym B.O.A.T (Break out another thousand.) But I also added that in Fire Fighter's case it would be, B.O.A.H.T. (Break out another hundred thousand.)

Hey, it seemed to work.

Oh yes, you can donate too.

https://americasfireboat.org/support/our-sponsors/

So we were flooded with kids.

This picture doesn't really show the density, but there were a lot of kids!



I did stop in to see Nate. He's been taking it easy. He's still a bit sore after getting a new replacement part.



Here he is doing two jobs at once. Here he is breaking in the new rings on his engine to the left and on the right he is making more wick used in starting the Wolverine engine. He rebuilt that engine a few years ago.

On the left is the engine where he has a gear motor slowly turning the flywheel. He is trying to seat the rings.

20 RPM +/-? Not very fast.



On the right is his Maypole machine. At least that's what he called it.



He gets to sit and watch them both.

This video if from a while back.

Lastly today.

Steve has been working at the seaport longer than most people have been alive. He has more five-year stars on his name badge that I can count.

He is one of the seaports gardeners. There are a lot of gardens at the seaport.

This is just across from the Morgan.




He is also a photographer. He always displays at the Mystic Art Show every year.

Or, look here.

https://stephensiskphotography.com/page/my-prints/#/gallery/ships-and-boats/charles-wmorgan-in-port/

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