Making a Plan

Every plan starts with an idea and my idea for the next ship is a lightship.

Lightships are ships placed at the entrance to harbours to guide ships in and out of the harbour. They frequently are not named but have the name of the harbour written on the side of the ship - very practical - with lights to guide ships in and out of the harbour.

I found the following public domain images on the Historic Naval Ships Association web site. The images will be used to make a drawing for a model boat. Bookmark the HNSA website for the future because many ships are illustrated there.

This is US Lightship #83 in profile.

This image tells me the shape of the keel.

The location of features along the keel.

This gives an idea of the cross sectional shape and where the main elements are located on the keel. Accurate cross-sections are very helpful - see the next image.

The contour lines of the ship.

The sectional lines give the shape of the hull. This information is used to make the pattern for the hull.

Detail of the lights.

This detail helps find the dimensions and details for the masts and lights. Photographs will help here too.

The superstructure.

This is the superstructure, and also a bird's eye view to help locate the masts properly!









Next... making drawings of the keel and station sections.