The evolution of the pirate ship

Here are some photos of the progress of the pirate ship from plywood laid on the floor of the shop of Nate Piper, our own shipwright, up in New Hampshire to the current form at YoYo Joe's. Nate and Krissy (my sister) are working on it right now. The second mast was raised an hour or so ago. Here's a photo of the plywood subfloor laid out at Nate's shop. Not too exciting, huh? But, that's the beginnings of our pirate ship. Next, here is a photo of the base of the ship - the deck of the ship. See, I wasn't kidding about how sturdy it is.

The next photo is of the two masts of the pirate ship. Each mast is nearly 16 foot in length. Yes, I mean the photo of the boards glued together. Nate constructed each mast of four planks glued together, then carved down to a round mast. According to Nate, using a single timber would be bad because the wood would dry, and split in time. (the photo shows the two masts on top of each other, each mast is four planks). This result is a square timber that is carved down to a round pole by first making an eight sided shape, then 16 sided and so on until it appears to be a round pole. If you check the masts at YoYo Joe's, you'll see that it is slightly flat on each facet, not a perfectly round shape. I think you'll also find it hard to determine that it's a laminated piece of wood and not from one solid timber.

This next photo shows the view of the ship from the front, with the sides attached. Obviously, it's not finished at this point, but you get a good idea of what it's shape will be like.






On the areas where the ship has been screwed together, there are slight recesses in the wood. These recesses have been filled by wooden 'bungs.' Each of these bungs is drilled out of wood. Here's a photo of Patty Piper, Nate's mom, drilling the bungs from a piece of wood stock. This next picture shows Krissy filling the holes with the bungs. And, yes, the hole that the bung fills, is......a bunghole. There you go, you learned something. Perhaps Beavis & Butthead dabbled in shipbuilding at some point.

And, finally, my family all gathered together last night at YoYo Joe's - all of em. My sister Wendy, her husband Ric, my brother Tom, his wife Elise and their son Graham, my father, Emily, Ethan and I all were here. My dad was kind enough to bring a pile of pirate gear to get us in the mood, and Ethan, never the shy one, was kind enough to sport it for us. Arrgggh, indeed!


Check in tomorrow for more pics as the ship evolves!