First Bents Up

It was a big day at the Freight Shed today.  The first two bents went up onto the knee-walls of the boat shed.  With the help of many adult volunteers and Peter (student shipwright), Shipwright, Will West lifted each of the two bents, made up of two bows each and they were screwed to the knee-walls.

The Last Student Day

A knee-wall and a shovel

Part of the ditch

It was the last student day and everybody was very busy. Some of the students were working on digging ditches for the boat shed's knee-walls. The ditches are for the knee-walls, so they can be connected and not bow. Speaking of bow, a few students were trimming the ends of the bows so they will fit on a board on the bottom because some of them were too big. We had a pizza party today to celebrate everyone's hard work and accomplishments.

Courtney working on Maine Memory Network

The media group went to Bath City Hall and worked on the Maine Memory Network online exhibit.

Meggan with her new frame

The first of the patterns for the frames of the shallop was sold today to Meggan Henerlau. There are still patterns for sale for a $25 donation. 

Blog post by Bianca and Courtney

Bents and Knee-Walls

Trimming the ends of the bents

 Today in the shop, we worked on constructing the knee-walls.  The knee-walls are three feet high, and sixty feet long.  They support the bents, which were also worked on today.  The ends of the bents were cut to size, so that they would fit on top of the knee-walls.  Also, the lofting floor was rotated so that we will have enough space to lay out the Virginia on the floor.

First Post Found at Pophan Colony
(image from Maine Maritme Museum)

History: The reason they knew that the Popham colony had ever existed was that they found a posthole where a piece of wood was that had been burned. Burned wood gets preserved better then regular wood.

Vocabulary: Gusset- a bracket strengthening an angle of a structure.
Wesley Blum

Blog update

Transom for VIRGINIA

Blog readers,
Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately.  Patti has been on vacation, many students began fall sports training which takes up part of the morning and we are trying to complete some demanding goals in the shop.  Unfortunately, the progress in the shop has not been posted for a while, but I will try to catch you up to date.

Floor of Two Frames

We have four beautiful mid-ship frames all completed and ready to put on the keel.  Will has been

Bows Piled Ready to Construct Shed

busily working on the transom, which is starting to look like a wooden puzzle on steroids.  It has many bevels and mortise and tendon joints that are beautifully crafted.

Knee-wall

The knee-wall boards have been cut for the boat shed and the students are nailing them together.  These sections will hold up the bows that we have been making for weeks.  We now have all 44 completed.

Courtney and Patti went crazy and got almost all of the twelve descriptions of the Popham artifacts written, which we will be putting on the Maine Memory Network.  Courtney also presented some videos that have been made at the annual meeting on Saturday at the Freight Shed, which will be on upcoming posts.
Thanks for your patience,
Patti

Transom

Trunnels in Frame

Getting the Measurements Correct

Today we had three things going on. One was the making bows. We have 6 more to go before we can set up the shed over the keel. Next was the boat frames. We have about four of them up and ready to go. And the last job was lofting the transom. once the lofting of the transom was done the group went out side and moved some wood to make the transom crown. The measurements were 8ft and 6ft.
    For history today at first 120 people went to the new world. When December came around 70 people left. There were only 50 people by the time the VIRGINIA was built.
    The vocabulary for the day is transom. It means the back of the boat.


Blog by Charles

Third Frame

Today we finished the third frame of the boat, and finished another bow. That’s all we did, but it was pretty productive.

Vocab word(s)
Double sawn: When two pieces of wood are cut into the same shape and stacked on top of each other to make a stronger frame.
Loose futtox: a piece of wood nailed to planking so more planking can be put on.

History lesson: The original Virginia had a loose futtox design, but the new model will be completely double sawn.

Joey

Frames and Trunnels

The Busy Freight Shed

Today at Maine’s First Ship we made one frame, cut out at least 9 floor timbers and patterns, and made 2 bows in total which equal out to 1 bent. I think that we worked pretty efficient today by the looks in the shop. Boat-shop videos will be released on Maine’s First Ship blog on August 19. Be sure to give them a look soon!

History-Twenty people left on the Mary and John on October.  Mary and John was the ship that brought supplies and many of the colonists.  After the storehouse was finished the Mary and John was unloaded and she went back to England to continue with her work and go on another voyage.  Yesterday, we said that 50 people left the colony in December to save supplies.  Therefore, there must have been about 50 remaining colonists.


Trunnels- Trunnels are wooden nails that we are using in the frames.  They got their name from "tree nails"
Blog by Mike