Shipyards

Where boats are made and mended. Frames on the stocks, planks steamed and bent, caulking, rigging and sail lofts, moulds and vacuum bags, and the carbon shops that build a foiler. From plank-on-frame to the preservation yards that keep the survivors alive, including the long restorations people have filmed plank by plank.

Part of Sailing

123 moments in this segment.

1817 - 'Justitia' (1807) RMG J3054. Photographed 2010. Plank on frame construction sets the frames first and then planks over them, and it is still the traditional yard method worldwide. The alternatives arrived in order: cold moulding in thin layers laid at differing angles, strip planking glued up, welded steel and aluminium, then glass reinforced plastic.
1848 - Passengers being rescued from the burning 'Ocean Monarch'.. Photographed 1848. Composite construction from 1863 put iron frames under wooden planking so a hull could be copper sheathed without galvanic corrosion between the two metals. That is the method by which Cutty Sark was built in 1869.
1850 - Ariel with Josephine behind. the Ariel, a British Barkentine used for coastal trade, which was built in 1849 and was part of the Freeman Line, a well known English shipping company; and the Josephine, a British Brigantine, used for trans-oceanic voyages. Copper sheathing keeps worm and weed off a wooden bottom, and it is the reason composite construction was invented. A hull comes out of the water to be surveyed, recaulked, sheathed and painted.
1851 - Launch of the Yacht America. Print, wood engraving of the launch of the Yacht America from Brown's shipyard, New York City. ca 1851. A hull goes down the slipway once. Cutty Sark was launched on 22 November 1869 after Scott & Linton collapsed financially and William Denny and Brothers finished her; Vasa was launched in 1628 and sailed 1,300 metres.
1851 - Flying Cloud, clipper ship by Donald McKay, 1851 - Addison Gallery of American Art - Phil. Ship model in the Addison Gallery of American Art - Phillips Academy Andover - Andover, Massachusetts, USA. Eleanor Creesy navigated Flying Cloud on both record runs and her husband Josiah Perkins Creesy was the captain. The 89 day 8 hour New York to San Francisco record stood until 1989.
1854 - Lightning (clipper, 1854). Clipper Ship „Lightning“ & Pilot vessel. Two sailing ships in rough seas. Composite construction from 1863 put iron frames under wooden planking so a hull could be copper sheathed without galvanic corrosion between the two metals. That is the method by which Cutty Sark was built in 1869.
1857 - Yacht America by John Hansen-IMG 5878. Photographed as preserved, 1857. Copper sheathing keeps worm and weed off a wooden bottom, and it is the reason composite construction was invented. A hull comes out of the water to be surveyed, recaulked, sheathed and painted.
1857 - Nowrojee Jamsetjee Wadia, Parsi master shipbuilder RAS 01.007. Photographed as preserved, 1857. A hull is built on land and enters the water once, and it is the one moment in a ship life that a whole town turns out for. Vasa sailed about 1,300 metres from her launch before a gust heeled her far enough to force open gunports under water.
1860 - Jamsetjee Bomanjee Wadia (1756-1821) and Nourojee Jamsetjee Wadia (1774-1860), Shipbuilde. Photographed as preserved, 1860. A hull goes down the slipway once. Cutty Sark was launched on 22 November 1869 after Scott & Linton collapsed financially and William Denny and Brothers finished her; Vasa was launched in 1628 and sailed 1,300 metres.
1875 - Schooner Idler with Schooner Dauntless Leading, by James Edward Buttersworth, c. 1875, oi. Exhibit in the Peabody Essex Museum - Salem, Massachusetts, USA. Composite construction from 1863 put iron frames under wooden planking so a hull could be copper sheathed without galvanic corrosion between the two metals. That is the method by which Cutty Sark was built in 1869.
1880 - Old store Race St. Wharf, Phila. - William H. Rau, 1324 Chestnut St., Phila.. Photographed 1880. Sail lofts cut and seam cloth on a flat floor large enough to lay out a whole sail. The material changed from flax to cotton in the nineteenth century, to Dacron polyester, then to Kevlar from 1971 and Mylar laminates in the 1970s, but the loft floor did not.
1880 - Yacht Chiquita in a Race off Boston Light, by James Edward Buttersworth, c. 1880, oil on. Exhibit in the Peabody Essex Museum - Salem, Massachusetts, USA. Copper sheathing keeps worm and weed off a wooden bottom, and it is the reason composite construction was invented. A hull comes out of the water to be surveyed, recaulked, sheathed and painted.
1881 - Waterdichtmaken van de rompen van twee schepen Dertien scènes met schepen (serietitel), R. Photographed under sail, 1881. Carvel planking lays flush planks on frames and relies on caulking, oakum or cotton driven into the seams and payed, to keep the hull tight. It is the Mediterranean method and the one that made large wooden ships possible.
1881 - Waterdichtmaken van de romp van een schip Dertien scènes met schepen (serietitel). Photographed 1881. Carvel planking lays flush planks on frames and relies on caulking, oakum or cotton driven into the seams and payed, to keep the hull tight. It is the Mediterranean method and the one that made large wooden ships possible.
1882 - Scheepstimmerwerf. Identificatie Titel(s): Scheepstimmerwerf Objecttype: prent. Plank on frame construction sets the frames first and then planks over them, and it is still the traditional yard method worldwide. The alternatives arrived in order: cold moulding in thin layers laid at differing angles, strip planking glued up, welded steel and aluminium, then glass reinforced plastic.
1884 - Reparaties aan de romp van een koopvaardijschip. Identificatie Titel(s): Reparaties aan de romp van een koopvaardijschip Objecttype: prent Serienummer: 12/12. Oakum or cotton is driven into the seam and payed over, and a hull that is not tight will not float. Carvel is the Mediterranean method and the one that made large wooden ships possible.
1887 - Waterdichtmaken van de romp van een schip Dertien scènes met schepen (serietitel). Photographed 1887. Carvel planking lays flush planks on frames and relies on caulking, oakum or cotton driven into the seams and payed, to keep the hull tight. It is the Mediterranean method and the one that made large wooden ships possible.
1887 - Stebbins-49-Stiletto & Now Then. Photographed under sail, 1887. Nathanael and John Brown Herreshoff founded their company at Bristol, Rhode Island in 1878, John running the business while blind and Nathanael the engineering. Every winning America's Cup yacht from 1893 to 1934 was built at the yard, and Nathanael designed five undefeated defenders.
1888 - Waterdichtmaken van de rompen van twee schepen Dertien scènes met schepen (serietitel), R. Photographed under sail, 1888. Oakum or cotton is driven into the seam and payed over, and a hull that is not tight will not float. Carvel is the Mediterranean method and the one that made large wooden ships possible.
1888 - Waterdichtmaken van de romp van een schip Dertien scènes met schepen (serietitel). Photographed 1888. Oakum or cotton is driven into the seam and payed over, and a hull that is not tight will not float. Carvel is the Mediterranean method and the one that made large wooden ships possible.
1889 - Het kalefateren van drie schepen, RP-T-1889-A-2123. Identificatie Titel(s): Het kalefateren van drie schepen Objecttype: tekening ontwerp. Composite construction from 1863 put iron frames under wooden planking so a hull could be copper sheathed without galvanic corrosion between the two metals. That is the method by which Cutty Sark was built in 1869.
1890 - Barque Noel, Halifax Graving Yard, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1890. Photographed out of the water, 1890. Plank on frame construction sets the frames first and then planks over them, and it is still the traditional yard method worldwide. The alternatives arrived in order: cold moulding in thin layers laid at differing angles, strip planking glued up, welded steel and aluminium, then glass reinforced plastic.
1903 - Shamrock III in Drydock.1. The America's Cup challenger Shamrock III in drydock at Erie Basin before the races. The dry dock is where a preserved sailing ship spends its long life: Cutty Sark went into a purpose built dry dock at Greenwich in 1954 and opened there as a museum. Hulls come out of the water to be surveyed, recaulked, sheathed and painted.
1903 - Shamrock III in Drydock.2. The America's Cup challenger Shamrock III in drydock at Erie Basin before the races. The dock is pumped out and the hull sits on blocks, which is the only way to work on the parts of a ship that are normally under water. Vasa was raised on 24 April 1961 after 333 years and has been in conservation ever since.
1903 - Yacht Reliance in Drydock. the 1903 America's Cup defender Reliance in drydock at Erie Basin, Brooklyn, NY in 1903. The dock is pumped out and the hull sits on blocks, which is the only way to work on the parts of a ship that are normally under water. Vasa was raised on 24 April 1961 after 333 years and has been in conservation ever since.
1903 - Yacht Reliance in Drydock-1. the 1903 America's Cup defender Reliance in the Erie Basin drydock, Brooklyn, on August 17th, 1903. The dry dock is where a preserved sailing ship spends its long life: Cutty Sark went into a purpose built dry dock at Greenwich in 1954 and opened there as a museum. Hulls come out of the water to be surveyed, recaulked, sheathed and painted.
1914 - Scheepstimmerwerf met mannen die een molen draaien. Photographed out of the water, 1914. Plank on frame construction sets the frames first and then planks over them, and it is still the traditional yard method worldwide. The alternatives arrived in order: cold moulding in thin layers laid at differing angles, strip planking glued up, welded steel and aluminium, then glass reinforced plastic.
1914 - Scheepstimmerwerf met mannen die een molen draaien. Photographed out of the water, 1914. Cold moulding lays thin layers at differing angles into a monocoque, strip planking glues narrow strips edge to edge, and welded steel and aluminium are efficient at scale. Glass reinforced plastic became dominant for sailing vessels built after 1950.
1921 - Clipper Donald McKay. Photographed under sail, 1921. Donald McKay built Flying Cloud in 1851. She set the fastest New York to San Francisco passage within weeks of launching and then broke her own record at 89 days and 8 hours, a mark unbroken until 1989, with Eleanor Creesy navigating on both record runs.
1923 - The „Glory of the Seas“. Photographed under sail, 1923. Copper sheathing keeps worm and weed off a wooden bottom, and it is the reason composite construction was invented. A hull comes out of the water to be surveyed, recaulked, sheathed and painted.
1930 - USS Constitution Rigging Plan. The spar and rigging plan depicting all of the lines and rigging for the refit work of the USS Constitution (starting 1925). Cutty Sark's 2007 fire consumed much of her centre section; an investigation concluded that an industrial vacuum cleaner left running over a weekend ignited it, compounded by the absence of a night watch. About half the original fabric had already been removed for conservation and so survived. She reopened on 25 April 2012 after a restoration costing between £35 and £46 million, the sources giving a range rather than a figure.
1931 - Felukk utenfor Castellammare title. The drawing is probably used in the painting 'View of Castellamare from the Shore' (Q55421719). Amerigo Vespucci was built at the naval shipyard at Castellammare di Stabia near Naples in 1930 and launched on 22 February 1931, a full rigged ship of 82.4 metres hull and 101 metres overall including the bowsprit. She carries three steel masts, 26 traditional canvas sails and roughly 2,635 square metres of sail area, and still trains Italian Naval Academy midshipmen. Her complement rises to about 450 with cadets aboard.
1931 - Partie von Castellammare am Golf von Neapel. Photographed 1931. Amerigo Vespucci was built at the naval shipyard at Castellammare di Stabia near Naples in 1930 and launched on 22 February 1931, a full rigged ship of 82.4 metres hull and 101 metres overall including the bowsprit. She carries three steel masts, 26 traditional canvas sails and roughly 2,635 square metres of sail area, and still trains Italian Naval Academy midshipmen. Her complement rises to about 450 with cadets aboard.
1947 - Scheepstimmerwerf te Nieuwpoort. Identificatie Titel(s): Scheepstimmerwerf te Nieuwpoort Objecttype: prent. Cold moulding lays thin layers at differing angles into a monocoque, strip planking glues narrow strips edge to edge, and welded steel and aluminium are efficient at scale. Glass reinforced plastic became dominant for sailing vessels built after 1950.
1949 - Oak Ships (1949). Carpenters work on the frame of a large oak ship at Rock Channel shipyard in 1949, hacking timber with the adze. The adze was the shipwright's primary shaping tool before power planes and is still used for hollowing. Plank-on-frame construction sets the frames first and planks over them.
1950 - Boat Building (1950). A Pathé item on boat building from 1950. This is the last decade in which wooden construction was the default for small craft. Fibreglass gained acceptance during the 1950s and became dominant for sailing vessels built after that.
1958 - Firefly Racing Dinghy (1958). Firefly racing dinghies are built from veneer at Hamble in 1958, laminated layer by layer. This is cold moulding, in which two or more thin layers are laid at differing angles to form a strong monocoque. The Firefly was a British one-design that also served as an Olympic class.
1962 - Macroplastic te Utrecht, de boot wordt uit de zogenaamde moedermal gehaald, Bestanddeelnr. Photographed 1962. The invention that changed the sport was the reusable female mould rather than the resin, because the mould is what made mass production possible.
1962 - Macroplastic te Utrecht, de firma Zaco geeft demonstratie met de Multi Purpose s, Bestand. Photographed 1962. Ray Greene of Owens Corning produced the first composite boat in 1937 but abandoned it over brittleness. Fibreglass composite boats have been built since the early 1940s and the material gained acceptance in the 1950s, becoming dominant for sailing vessels built after 1950.
1969 - Sewing palm. Photographed as preserved, 1969. A sail is cut from panels seamed together, and the shape is built into the cut rather than pulled in afterwards. The loft floor has to be big enough to lay a whole sail out flat.
1974 - Concrete Yacht Launched. A schooner-rigged ocean racing yacht built of concrete, New Freedom, is launched on 23 September 1974, and the material makes the launch itself awkward. Ferrocement hulls had a following in the 1970s among builders who wanted an ocean boat without a shipyard. Movietone reports that she was intended for the 1975 round the world race.
1983 - Bateau de pêche sur le rivage du Leirpollen. Photographed 1983. Clinker or lapstrake construction laps bevelled planks over one another, riveted or nailed, and is the Nordic method. It builds a light, flexible hull without the caulked seams that carvel construction requires.
1983 - Bateaux dans le port de Kirkenes. Photographed alongside in port, 1983. The laps are fastened with rivets or nails through the overlap, which needs no caulking at all. Norse boatbuilding is the tradition it descends from, and it is still practised around the Baltic and the North Sea.
1991 - Waterdichtmaken van de romp van een schip Dertien scènes met schepen (serietitel). Photographed 1991. Oakum or cotton is driven into the seam and payed over, and a hull that is not tight will not float. Carvel is the Mediterranean method and the one that made large wooden ships possible.
1991 - Sri Lankan laborers build a dhow, the primary boat used by fishermen and merchants in the. The original finding aid described this photograph as: Country: Saudi Arabia (SAU) Scene Camera Operator: PH2 Milton R. Savage Release Status: Released to Public. Plank on frame construction is still the traditional yard method worldwide, and the sources used here illustrate it with a working Vietnamese boatyard. The reachable English language record documents these yards far less thoroughly than European and American ones, which is a gap in the record rather than in the work.
1992 - Defiant, Bill Koch's 1992 America's Cup Contender. Photographed as preserved, 1992. The Herreshoff 12½, a 16 foot keelboat, is still built and raced, and the Herreshoff Marine Museum occupies the former yard site.
2006 - Het te water laten van drie schepen op de werf van de Oostindische Compagnie te Amsterdam. Photographed under sail, 2006. Cold moulding lays thin layers at differing angles into a monocoque, strip planking glues narrow strips edge to edge, and welded steel and aluminium are efficient at scale. Glass reinforced plastic became dominant for sailing vessels built after 1950.
2007 - Castellammare di Stabia Panorama. Castellammare di Stabia seen from the south with Mount Vesuvius in the background. Amerigo Vespucci was built at the naval shipyard at Castellammare di Stabia near Naples in 1930 and launched on 22 February 1931, a full rigged ship of 82.4 metres hull and 101 metres overall including the bowsprit. She carries three steel masts, 26 traditional canvas sails and roughly 2,635 square metres of sail area, and still trains Italian Naval Academy midshipmen. Her complement rises to about 450 with cadets aboard.
2010 - Museum of Science, Boston, MA - IMG 3197. Diorama of Donald McKay's Shipyard (East Boston, July 1852) in Museum of Science, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Note that there was no prohibition against photography in the museum. Cold moulding lays thin layers at differing angles into a monocoque, strip planking glues narrow strips edge to edge, and welded steel and aluminium are efficient at scale. Glass reinforced plastic became dominant for sailing vessels built after 1950.
2010 - Reparaties aan de romp van een koopvaardijschip Quelque navieres (serietitel) Enkele zeil. Quelque navieres (serietitel). Enkele zeilschepen (serietitel) Objecttype: prent Serienummer: 2/8. Carvel planking lays flush planks on frames and relies on caulking, oakum or cotton driven into the seams and payed, to keep the hull tight. It is the Mediterranean method and the one that made large wooden ships possible.
2010 - Post-Medieval Palm Guard or Sailmaker's Glove from West Halton. Photographed 2010. Sail lofts cut and seam cloth on a flat floor large enough to lay out a whole sail. The material changed from flax to cotton in the nineteenth century, to Dacron polyester, then to Kevlar from 1971 and Mylar laminates in the 1970s, but the loft floor did not.
2010 - Tvoroyrar Hornorkestur 2010. Tvøroyri Brass Band is performing at the Sail Loft in Tvøroyri, Faroe Islands on 21 May 2010. The conductor is Tróndur Enni. Sail lofts cut and seam cloth on a flat floor large enough to lay out a whole sail. The material changed from flax to cotton in the nineteenth century, to Dacron polyester, then to Kevlar from 1971 and Mylar laminates in the 1970s, but the loft floor did not.
2010 - TurkuA497. Sailmaker's tools on exhibition in Forum Marinum, Turku, Finland. Mystic Seaport used them on the 2010 to 2013 restoration of Charles W. Morgan.
2011 - Segelmacherhandschuh 01. Photographed 2011. A sail is cut from panels seamed together, and the shape is built into the cut rather than pulled in afterwards. The loft floor has to be big enough to lay a whole sail out flat.
2011 - Dorunda (ship) docked at Port Said, Egypt. Photographed alongside in port, 2011. The contract for Cutty Sark was signed on 1 February 1869 with Scott & Linton of Dumbarton on the River Leven, to a design by Hercules Linton that borrowed hull characteristics from Willis's ship The Tweed. The firm collapsed financially and William Denny and Brothers completed her; she was launched on 22 November 1869.
2011 - 78321 Almora (ship). Carried immigrants from Plymouth to ports in Queensland. ). Cutty Sark measured 212.5 feet on the hull, 36 feet in the beam and 21 feet depth of hold, at 2,100 tons displacement on a 20 foot draught. She went into a purpose built dry dock at Greenwich in 1954.
2012 - Le voilier Mamadou. Photographed alongside in port, 2012. Ray Greene of Owens Corning produced the first composite boat in 1937 but abandoned it over brittleness. Fibreglass composite boats have been built since the early 1940s and the material gained acceptance in the 1950s, becoming dominant for sailing vessels built after 1950.
2013-01-03 - Wooden Boat Building - How to Caulk Wood Planking with Louis Sauzedde. The shipwright Louis Sauzedde demonstrates caulking wooden planking. Caulking drives oakum or cotton into the seams between carvel planks so the hull swells watertight. It is a hammer-and-iron skill judged by sound as much as by eye.
2013 - Sail Loft Photo Don Ramey Logan. Inside a Sail Loft. Photo Don Ramey Logan. Sail lofts cut and seam cloth on a flat floor large enough to lay out a whole sail. The material changed from flax to cotton in the nineteenth century, to Dacron polyester, then to Kevlar from 1971 and Mylar laminates in the 1970s, but the loft floor did not.
2013-07-11 - Charles W. Morgan pushed to lift dock at Mystic Seaport. Charles W. Morgan is moved to the lift dock at Mystic Seaport. She served eighty years and made thirty-seven voyages, returning 54,483 barrels of oil and 152,934 lb of whalebone. She was nearly destroyed in 1924 and moored at Mystic on 8 November 1941.
2013-12-13 - Selecting wood from a sawmill for wooden boat building with Shipwright Louis Sauzedde. Louis Sauzedde selects wood at a sawmill for wooden boat building. Grain direction, knots and moisture content all decide whether a board can be used in a hull. Choosing timber is the first skill a shipwright learns.
2014-02-08 - Saving the Swedish warship, VASA. How the Swedish warship Vasa was saved. Anders Franzen rediscovered the wreck in 1956 and she was raised on 24 April 1961 after 333 years underwater. The Vasa Museum opened in 1990.
2014-05-29 - Wooden Boat Builder. A portrait of a wooden boat builder at work. Traditional building survives as restoration work and as a small custom trade. The tools and sequence have changed little in two centuries.
2014-07-10 - Charles W. Morgan: History at Sea and at Home. Charles W. Morgan at sea and at her berth, from Mystic Seaport. She was restored between 2010 and 2013 and relaunched on 21 July 2013, the 172nd anniversary of her original launch. Her 38th Voyage followed in the summer of 2014.
2015 - Frachtschiff Niedersachsen 22, Hamburg-4894. Photographed alongside in port, 2015. Laeisz bought her back from Italy in 1924 and sold her to Gustaf Erikson in 1931.
2016 - Blohm & Voss BV246 Hagelkorn - RAF Museum Cosford. Photographed as preserved, 2016. Pamir was launched at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg on 29 July 1905 as a four masted steel barque of 114.5 metres carrying 3,800 square metres of sail, one of the Flying P-Liners of F. Laeisz named for the Pamir Mountains. Pamir was one of the Flying P-Liners of F. Laeisz, working the South American nitrate trade until the First World War.
2017 - 2017 Piers Park Sailing Center, East Boston and Logan Airport Control Tower from Boston H. Photographed alongside in port, 2017. Donald McKay built Flying Cloud in 1851. She set the fastest New York to San Francisco passage within weeks of launching and then broke her own record at 89 days and 8 hours, a mark unbroken until 1989, with Eleanor Creesy navigating on both record runs.
2017 - 2017 Piers Park, Donald McKay Memorial, and Adams Elementary School, East Boston. Photographed alongside in port, 2017. Eleanor Creesy navigated Flying Cloud on both record runs and her husband Josiah Perkins Creesy was the captain. The 89 day 8 hour New York to San Francisco record stood until 1989.
2017 - Eagle Maintenance -G-G0105-1009. 2017, photographed out of the water. The dock is pumped out and the hull sits on blocks, which is the only way to work on the parts of a ship that are normally under water. Vasa was raised on 24 April 1961 after 333 years and has been in conservation ever since.
2017 - Eagle Stops for Repairs -G-G0105-1004. 2017, photographed out of the water. The dry dock is where a preserved sailing ship spends its long life: Cutty Sark went into a purpose built dry dock at Greenwich in 1954 and opened there as a museum. Hulls come out of the water to be surveyed, recaulked, sheathed and painted.
2017 - Eagle Prop -G-G0105-1007. 2017, photographed out of the water. The dock is pumped out and the hull sits on blocks, which is the only way to work on the parts of a ship that are normally under water. Vasa was raised on 24 April 1961 after 333 years and has been in conservation ever since.
2017 - ZuiderzeeMuseumWorkshopsSailingMakerH1c. Photographed under sail, 2017. The Henry B. du Pont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport works with traditional tools and techniques, and it carried out the 2010 to 2013 restoration of the whaleship Charles W. Morgan. Adzes, planes, chisels and caulking mallets are the same tools a nineteenth century yard used, because the job has not changed.
2017 - 2017 Donald McKay obelisk, Fort Independence, Castle Island. Photographed as preserved, 2017. Eleanor Creesy navigated Flying Cloud on both record runs and her husband Josiah Perkins Creesy was the captain. The 89 day 8 hour New York to San Francisco record stood until 1989.
2018-05-01 - Yarmouth 23 gaff rig topsail cutter restored by Morgan Marine in Essex.. Morgan Marine of Essex restore a Yarmouth 23, a gaff rigged topsail cutter, for an owner who wanted the boat brought back rather than replaced. The hull was found structurally sound, so the work went into everything above it. A topsail cutter carries a topsail above the gaff and two headsails forward.
2018 - 'Sir Robert Peel II' Metropolitan Police Boat near Bankside Pier, River Thames 01. Photographed alongside in port, 2018. The invention that changed the sport was the reusable female mould rather than the resin, because the mould is what made mass production possible.
2018 - 'Sir Robert Peel II' Metropolitan Police Boat near Bankside Pier, River Thames 02. Photographed alongside in port, 2018. Ray Greene of Owens Corning produced the first composite boat in 1937 but abandoned it over brittleness. Fibreglass composite boats have been built since the early 1940s and the material gained acceptance in the 1950s, becoming dominant for sailing vessels built after 1950.
2018-08-11 - Building Boat Frames using Traditional Tree-Nails - Rebuilding Tally Ho EP28. Boat frames are built using traditional tree-nails during the Tally Ho rebuild. A tree-nail is a wooden peg driven through a joint and wedged, used where a metal fastening would corrode. The technique predates screws and is still specified in traditional restoration.
2018-08-25 - Installing New Oak Frames into a 1910 Wooden Boat - Rebuilding Tally Ho EP29. New oak frames are installed in Tally Ho, a 1910 wooden yacht, with the bevels calculated frame by frame. Every frame in a plank-on-frame hull sits at a different angle, so each bevel must be worked out individually. Steam bending makes oak pliable enough to take the curve.
2019 - VIP Garage. Originally a sailmaker's loft, It is a listed building. The Limehouse Cut is at the rear. A sail is cut from panels seamed together, and the shape is built into the cut rather than pulled in afterwards. The loft floor has to be big enough to lay a whole sail out flat.
2019 - Truro Harbour and quay, River Allen, Cornwall. Photographed alongside in port, 2019. A sail is cut from panels seamed together, and the shape is built into the cut rather than pulled in afterwards. The loft floor has to be big enough to lay a whole sail out flat.
2019 - Tønsberg Norway Sæheimr (Fjørtoftbåten) Viking ship row sail boat replicas Harbour Havn P. Photographed alongside in port, 2019. The laps are fastened with rivets or nails through the overlap, which needs no caulking at all. Norse boatbuilding is the tradition it descends from, and it is still practised around the Baltic and the North Sea.
2020-01-11 - 3 methods of Spiling for a Boat Hull, Carvel Planking Part 1, S2-E17. Three methods of spiling for a boat hull, in carvel planking. Spiling transfers the true shape of a plank from the hull to a flat board so it can be cut. Every carvel plank is a different curved shape.
2020-05-15 - Tips from a Shipwright Season 3: The 23' V-Bottom Skiff Episode 1 - Shop Intro. The first episode of a shipwright's series building a 23 ft V-bottom skiff. Small craft carry the same construction logic as large hulls at a scale one person can manage. The series is taught by a working shipwright rather than a presenter.
2020-05-24 - TIPS Season 3 - Episode 2: How to choose the best lumber for boat building and more. How to choose lumber for boat building, from a working shipwright. Timber for boats is selected by species, cut and grain for each part of the structure. Oak for frames and cedar or pine for planking is a common pairing.
2020-11-28 - Planking Tally Ho! (Wooden Boatbuilding / EP86). Planking Tally Ho, laying carvel planks over the completed frames. Carvel is flush planking on frames, caulked with oakum or cotton, and is of Mediterranean origin. Its alternative, clinker or lapstrake, overlaps bevelled planks and is associated with Nordic building.
2021 - Clinker built dinghy awaiting restoration. Photographed in detail on deck, 2021. Cutty Sark's 2007 fire consumed much of her centre section; an investigation concluded that an industrial vacuum cleaner left running over a weekend ignited it, compounded by the absence of a night watch. About half the original fabric had already been removed for conservation and so survived. She reopened on 25 April 2012 after a restoration costing between £35 and £46 million, the sources giving a range rather than a figure.
2021-06-19 - Rebuilding a wooden boat - 4 years in 29 mins! (Tally Ho EP100). Four years of rebuilding the 1910 gaff cutter Tally Ho compressed into twenty-nine minutes. The boat was reconstructed from a near-derelict hull using traditional plank-on-frame methods. The project has been filmed episode by episode from the start.
2021-06-28 - Sail Boat's Hull Launch, 1900s - Film. An early film of a racing yacht hull launched at a Gosport yard, sliding down the slipway from a covered workshop with men standing on deck and a towing boat, Dundee, flying the Union Jack. Huntley Film Archives date the footage to the 1900s and record the yard as Camper and Nicholson. The launch is filmed twice from different angles.
2021-07-21 - The haul to restore the hull, in Mystic work on the Charles W. Morgan begins. Hull restoration work on Charles W. Morgan at Mystic Seaport. She was built in 1841 at Jethro and Zachariah Hillman's yard in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She is the only surviving wooden whaling ship of an estimated 2,700 built in the American fleet.
2021-07-26 - Building ORCA - Episode 2: Cutting the keel and other large timbers. Cutting the keel and other large timbers for a boat named Orca. The keel is the backbone from which the whole structure is laid out. Everything else in a plank-on-frame hull references it.
2022-01-29 - Pouring a Lead Keel (Pt 1) (Tally Ho / EP117). A lead keel is poured for Tally Ho. Ballast is high-density material placed as low as possible to lower the centre of gravity and generate a righting moment against the heeling force on the sails. Lead is used because it is dense and workable.
2022-02-18 - Mystic Seaport Museum \"Shipyard\". A film about the shipyard at Mystic Seaport Museum. The Henry B. du Pont Preservation Shipyard uses traditional tools and techniques on the museum's fleet. Mystic Seaport was founded in 1929 as the Marine Historical Association and is the largest maritime museum in the United States.
2022-03-25 - Final Deck Beams & Scouting Launch Sites - Episode 206 - Acorn to Arabella: Journey of a Wooden Boat. The final deck beams go into Arabella and launch sites are scouted. Deck beams carry the deck and tie the two sides of the hull together. A wooden hull is a structure in tension and compression rather than a shell.
2022 - Herreshoff Marine Museum's Hall of Boats. A large hanger full of a wide range of historic Herreshoff sailing boats. Nathanael and John Brown Herreshoff founded their company at Bristol, Rhode Island in 1878, John running the business while blind and Nathanael the engineering. Every winning America's Cup yacht from 1893 to 1934 was built at the yard, and Nathanael designed five undefeated defenders.
2022 - Perinneveneidein purjehdusta. Perinteiset limisaumaveneet kilpailevat joka kesä Kustavissa. Clinker or lapstrake construction laps bevelled planks over one another, riveted or nailed, and is the Nordic method. It builds a light, flexible hull without the caulked seams that carvel construction requires.
2022-07-09 - Introducing \"Victoria\" a New Sailing Tender S3-E1. A new sailing tender named Victoria is introduced at the start of a build series. Tenders are the smallest sailing craft a yard makes and are often built to traditional lines. They are also how many builders learn.
2022-07-15 - The Long March to Launch - Episode 222 - Acorn to Arabella: Journey of a Wooden Boat. The final push toward launching the wooden schooner Arabella. Amateur and semi-professional wooden builds run for years because the work is done by very few hands. Strip planking, glued and requiring no complex jig, is the method most often chosen by amateur builders.
2022-07-23 - How to Design a Half-Hull Model S3-E2. How to design a half-hull model. Half models were the traditional method of designing a hull before drawn lines plans, carved and then measured off. Yards kept them on the office wall as a record of every boat built.
2022-10-31 - Find Your Sea Story - The Shipyard. An introduction to the shipyard at Mystic Seaport Museum. The yard maintains the museum's historic vessels rather than building new ones. It is a working shipyard the public can walk through.
2022-12-23 - Personal News Affecting Launch Plans - Episode 245 - Acorn to Arabella: Journey of a Wooden Boat. Personal circumstances affect the launch plans for the schooner Arabella. Long amateur builds run on the builders' own time and money. The Arabella project ran for more than a decade.
2023-02-03 - Launch Update and Navigation Panel Build - Episode 251 - Acorn to Arabella: Journey of a Wooden Boat. A launch update and navigation panel build for the schooner Arabella. Fitting out follows the hull and often takes as long again. Electrical and navigation systems are the last work before launch.
2023-02-11 - Building the Mast (rebuilding Tally Ho ep146). Building the mast for Tally Ho. A hollow wooden spar is glued up from staves and then shaped round, a process that takes weeks. Solid and hollow wooden spars remain standard on traditional gaff-rigged yachts.
2023-06-16 - Arabella Leaves Granby For The Coast - Episode 270 - Acorn to Arabella: Journey of a Wooden Boat. Arabella leaves Granby for the coast ahead of her launch. Boats built inland must be moved by road to the water. The transport is often the most anxious day of a long build.
2023-06-17 - Arabella’s Launch - Launching a Wooden Boat. The launch of the wooden schooner Arabella after years of building. Launching is the moment a hull first takes the water and swells its seams tight. The build was documented from the felling of the timber onward.
2024-01-13 - Preserving the Vasa | Shell Historical Film Archive. Archive film on preserving Vasa. Conservation problems continue: wood deterioration, iron corrosion, and damage from the salvage itself and from harbour construction. The museum recorded over 45 million visitors between 1961 and early 2025.
2024-05-14 - Day in the life of a Shipwright. #maritimemuseum #maritime #history #diml #shipyard. A day in the life of a shipwright at Mystic Seaport Museum. Museum shipwrights work to historical methods because the vessels require them. The trade is passed on by apprenticeship.
2024-08-30 - Charlie Enright, Skipper of the 11th Hour Racing Team: Raising the Bar in Competitive Sailing. Charlie Enright of the 11th Hour Racing Team speaks at Mystic Seaport Museum. Enright skippered the team to victory in the 2023 Ocean Race in an IMOCA 60. The museum runs a public talks programme alongside its collection.
2024 - Yacht Alibaba 2024-09-02 (B&W). Yacht Alibaba ( ) at the Blohm+Voss yard in the port of Hamburg, Germany. Pamir was launched at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg on 29 July 1905 as a four masted steel barque of 114.5 metres carrying 3,800 square metres of sail, one of the Flying P-Liners of F. Laeisz named for the Pamir Mountains. Pamir was one of the Flying P-Liners of F. Laeisz, working the South American nitrate trade until the First World War.
2024 - Yacht Alibaba 2024-09-02. Yacht Alibaba ( ) at the Blohm+Voss yard in the port of Hamburg, Germany. Laeisz bought her back from Italy in 1924 and sold her to Gustaf Erikson in 1931.
2024-09-02 - Yacht Alibaba 2024-09-02 2. Yacht at the Blohm+Voss yard in the port of Hamburg, Germany. Laeisz bought her back from Italy in 1924 and sold her to Gustaf Erikson in 1931.
2024-09-19 - A Sunken Treasure: The Warship Vasa. An account of the warship Vasa, built between 1626 and 1628. On her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628 she sailed about 1,300 metres before a gust filled her sails at Tegelviken, heeling her far enough to force open gunports under water. Her centre of gravity was too high and reportedly thirty people died.
2024-09-26 - World Maritime Day: Setting the Sails on the CHARLES W. MORGAN. Setting sail aboard Charles W. Morgan for World Maritime Day. Setting square sails on a whaleship needs a large crew working aloft and on deck together. The museum sails her rarely and under close supervision.
2024-09-26 - World Maritime Day: Restoring the L.A. DUNTON. Restoration work on the fishing schooner L.A. Dunton at Mystic Seaport. She was built in 1921, is a National Historic Landmark and was among the last of the larger sail-only fishing vessels. The museum acquired her in 1963.
2024-09-26 - World Maritime Day: The Next Generation of Sailors. The next generation of sailors at Mystic Seaport Museum for World Maritime Day. Youth sailing programmes are attached to most maritime museums. They are how the trades and the sailing both continue.
2024-09-26 - World Maritime Day: Discovering the Planetarium. The planetarium at Mystic Seaport Museum. Celestial navigation was taught to merchant officers under planetarium domes before satellite positioning. The museum keeps that teaching alive.
2025-03-05 - From Sailing to Symphonies: Matt Forte’s Life on the Water & in Music. A profile of Matt Forte from Mystic Seaport Museum. Museum staff profiles document who keeps a working collection sailing. The museum's shipyard employs full-time shipwrights.
2025-04-17 - Tour of the Shipyard Exhibit! #shipyard #ships #tour #restoration #maritime #history. A tour of the shipyard exhibit at Mystic Seaport Museum. The exhibit explains restoration methods alongside the live work. Visitors see the same techniques used on Charles W. Morgan.
2025 - Katara, State yacht of Qatar, IMO , in the dock of the Blohm + Voss yard-9538. Photographed alongside in port, 2025. Pamir was launched at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg on 29 July 1905 as a four masted steel barque of 114.5 metres carrying 3,800 square metres of sail, one of the Flying P-Liners of F. Laeisz named for the Pamir Mountains. Pamir was one of the Flying P-Liners of F. Laeisz, working the South American nitrate trade until the First World War.
2025 - Yacht Luna, IMO , moored at the Blohm + Voss yard-9342. Yacht Luna, , moored at the Blohm + Voss yard. Arrested since 2022 by Germany due to sanctions against Russia. Pamir was launched at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg on 29 July 1905 as a four masted steel barque of 114.5 metres carrying 3,800 square metres of sail, one of the Flying P-Liners of F. Laeisz named for the Pamir Mountains. Pamir was one of the Flying P-Liners of F. Laeisz, working the South American nitrate trade until the First World War.
2025 - Yacht Luna, IMO , moored at the Blohm + Voss yard-9537. Yacht Luna, , moored at the Blohm + Voss yard. Arrested since 2022 by Germany due to sanctions against Russia. Laeisz bought her back from Italy in 1924 and sold her to Gustaf Erikson in 1931.
2025-07-09 - SeaClass | Maritime Navigation and Nautical Instruments Explained. Mystic Seaport Museum explains maritime navigation and nautical instruments. Sextants, chronometers and charts were the working tools of ocean passage until the late twentieth century. The revived Golden Globe Race puts sailors back on them.
2025-07-16 - Haul out day for schooner VIRGINIA #schooner #shipyard #restoration #maritime #history. Haul-out day for the schooner Virginia at Mystic Seaport. Hauling exposes the underwater hull for inspection and repair. It is the start of every major restoration cycle.
2026-08-29 - Tally Ho sails into England after 59 years overseas!. Tally Ho sails into England after fifty-nine years overseas. The 1910 gaff cutter was rebuilt in the United States over most of a decade before crossing back. She was originally built in England.