by Gene Andes
Categories:
- Build type: [Scratch]
- Scale: [1:64 (3/16" = 1')]
- Subject Type: [Whaler]
- Era: [1815-1914]
- Nationality: [United States]
- Propulsion: [Sail]
Daisy is best known for a 1912-13 voyage to South Georgia Island. Her captain Benjamin Cleveland, was also majority shareholder in the vessel. On that voyage, the American Natural History Museum paid for a naturalist, Robert Cushman Murphy, to sail aboard “Daisy” to document the marine animals, especially the birds, in the Antarctic. Murphy wrote extensively about the voyage and took many photos, particularly of the whale hunt and the processing of blubber. His two books “Logbook for Grace” (1947) and “Dead Whale or a Stove Boat” (1967) are important sources for my reconstruction of the plans for this vessel, along with information on other ships and the whaling industry in general from multiple sources.
Links
The model is scratch-built in 1:64 scale. The plans are reconstructed by myself using contemporary sources and practices of the day, as to my knowledge no plan of Daisy survives.
The model is 33 inches long overall, with the hull about 22” long and 6” wide. It is 33 inches from the top of the “water” to the main mast head.
The diorama shows the “cutting in” of a sperm whale. The crew on the cutting stage is cutting though the blubber to assist as the heavy cutting tackle, driven by the windlass, rips the blubber from the carcass. This is the third piece to be removed and other crewmembers are busy on the main deck cutting the prior piece into smaller parts to be stowed below in the blubber parlor until the next day, or later, when they will set up the try works to boil the blubber to release the oil. There are another ten men working the rocker to drive the windlass and managing the hauling ends of the cutting tackle ropes, as only the starboard tackle is in use at this point. When the tackle reaches the limits of its travel, the third mate (with the boarding knife) cuts two holes in the blubber, the crew attaches the port side blubber hook and tackle, and the mate slices the starboard side piece free. And the port windlass is used to continue to remove the blubber. And so on, until done.
Robert Cushman Murphy is on the quarterdeck with his Graflex camera, and Captain Benjamin Cleveland, in his white hat, is in the waist, signaling the crew on the forecastle deck to keep hauling on the cutting tackle.
