Hull planking question

No problem at all.  I should have specified.  It shows how much I know, I didn't realize there was a Weehawken minelayer!

Sorry, perhaps I made a mistake... I was thinking of the minelayer Weehawkin, not the Civil War monitor!

I was speaking with Gary Kingzett about this and judging by the picture it looks like the lower hull is covered in hammered wrought iron, evidently something that was not unheard of in the time period for barges and the like.  A barge hull explains what these monitor hulls looks like pretty well.

There is the possibility that, since the Camanche is on the ways in this photo, (fifth photo down, I have an original scan of the shot from the archives with better detail) that the lower hull isn't finished, but who can tell. What the photo shows is a smooth hull with a seam or two approximately 8 or more feet apart, and no sign of typical planking or copper plating anywhere.

 

If the bottom is covered with metal, then it is either copper plates (as a means of protecting the wood from marine growth and teredo worms), or possibly lead, as a way of counteracting magnetic mines...... In either case, scale copper plating is available for doing the bottoms of model boats from a variety of sources....

Thanks for the info, guys.  From what I've read here, on other boards, and from direct emails, I think I can sort out how to do the planking.  Someone pointed out, though, that from the photos of the Camanche in drydock right after the war, it doesn't appear as if she's planked externally, but rather covered in hammered iron or steel.  I must say that this makes the whole process that much simplier to replicate, and even though my Weehawken might not have had that covering, I can't find any other photos, plans, or written text to disprove it, so in the sake of finishing this build in my lifetime I think that's where I'll go.

 

In my experience, and I'm open to correction here, before a hull is planked, it is "faired". Strips are fastened to the frames, such that they "appear right" to the eye. They are use to determine the width of each strake, at each frame (plank edges are almost never straight lines, and the shape of the hull determines where and how much the width of each strake varies). In many cases, strakes would become so narrow that they could not be fastened (at the stem, and at the sternpost). In these cases, "stealers", short strakes that run aft from the stem, or forward from the sternpost, take the place of the "too narrow" strakes, butting against the ends of the long strakes. Generally, a stealer widens to two plank's width. Using the fairing strips, makes determining where, and how often stealers will have to be used, and what their shape should be. Scribing planking, would be best done following the process used to cut and shape each strake, and would allow for the same number of strakes between the fairing lines at each frame, until the need for stealers is reached. That said, again, in my experience, the first plank applied to the hull, is the garboard. This is the strake that lays to the rabbet in the keel, stem, and sternpost. The rest of the strakes, can be layed up from the garboard. The fairing strips can also allow planking to procede from the gunwhales down. I know of at least one hull where the strake, at the turn of the bilge, was the last strake fitted in. In the case of scribing the planks on a model hull, you could use thinly cut strips of masking tape as fairing strips, and taping a scribing guide (thin strip of hardwood?) in place as needed, for each plank line.

You will have to scarf in some elongated triangular planks at the bow (and maybe the stern as well).  However, I'm not sure how you are going to blend this in with the existing scribed planking in a way that will not be immediately noticeable.  Might be better to plank the whole hull to achieve consistency.

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