Mary Taylor (Part 1) Modeling the New York Pilot Schooner, 1850 Photo 1. Finished model. By Clare Hess Predecessor to the racing yacht America any of us are familiar Isle of Wight, winning a prize No doubt, the story of the with the story of that would eventually become yacht America is full of romantic Mthe yacht America. the America’s Cup. Her radical flourishes and patriotic fervor. This yacht, the “Low, Black design was said to have prompted But the fact remains that she Schooner”, sailed across the the comment by the British was a very fast ship using Atlantic to challenge the British yachtsmen that “If she is right, design concepts that parted from Royal Yacht Squadron in 1851. then we are all wrong.” And she traditional ship design. Still, in America, built for a syndicate won by such margin that it is said the United States, she wasn't of the New York Yacht Club, that when Queen Victoria asked entirely an unfamiliar design, beat the fastest yachts that the which vessel came in second, the particularly among New York and British had in a race around the reply came “there is no second.” New Jersey pilots. 6 Ships in Scale March/April 2013 Pilots are those special breed the America. Even Mary Taylor's in the fine, graceful yacht-like of sailing master who know the sails were used by the America lines that have always caught ins and outs of local waterways. on her transatlantic voyage, my eye. I’ve built other models For incoming and outgoing saving her own for the race. that, interestingly enough, were ship captains unfamiliar with either pilot boats or based on the local shoals, tides, currents and Side Note pilot boat model, such as Model obstacles, these local pilots Shipways’ Phantom, Artesania would come aboard and guide The original Mary Taylor Latina’s Virginia Pilot Boat and their ships through safe passages, plans were done by Charles their Revenue Cutter Dallas, keeping them from running Davis for the Boucher Ship and North River Scale Models’ aground. Model Company in 1937. That Private Armed Schooner Lively. company became BlueJacket In many places, such as the Shipcrafters sometime in the I didn’t choose these subjects so American Northeast coast, it 1970's. The BlueJacket plans of much as they seemed to choose was an extremely competitive the Mary Taylor are essentially me, and it’s funny that I never business, requiring very fast the same as the old Boucher realized my interest in this class boats to beat other pilots in the plans with a few modifications, of boats until I stopped to take a first-come-first-served business. though the original Boucher kit look back at what I’d done. They This is where the yacht America's was made in 1/4in = 1ft scale.] were all pilot boats or vessels design developed. based on the pilot boat design. Not only did she carry the So, it seems natural that this common pilot boat rig, but her Choosing the Mary Taylor lovely pilot boat model in the immediate predecessors were as a subject BlueJacket catalog also beckoned two New York pilot boats well I was first taken by the beauty to me. known for innovations in their of the Mary Taylor from the Now, I’m at a point in my ship design and for their speed. These photos of BlueJacket ship model modeling life where I’m trying earlier boats, built less than 2 catalog, which offers a 1:64 scale to build more from scratch. So, years before the yacht America, solid hull kit of the vessel. when it came time to choose a were also designed by the same I’m not sure just what it suitably straight forward and young naval architect who built is about the American pilot appealing subject, Mary Taylor the America, George Steers. boats that I find so appealing, seemed an obvious choice – The first of these pilots boats particularly those of the mid relatively small size, simple rig, was the Mary Taylor. This vessel, 19th century. There is something a nice look of a coppered hull, named for a popular entertainer of the time, was Steers’ first attempt to incorporate some of the design changes that would later show up in more extreme in the America. Mary Taylor proved to be very fast, and under the command of her part owner Captain Richard Brown, she was known to be a very successful pilot boat. So much so, that when the New York group needed a new racer, they approached Steers asking for essentially a bigger Mary Taylor. This "bigger Mary Taylor" is what became the yacht America. But the relationship between the America and her workboat predecessor doesn't end there. Mary Taylor's owner, Captain Richard Brown, Photo 2. Basswood lifts and the lift patterns made from the BlueJacket was chosen to be the skipper of plans. This photo contains an image of copyrighted plans. March/April 2013 Ships in Scale 7 which has always appealed to my eye, and an easy deal to think about when it came to diverging from curve of the hull, which simplifies planking. I called the BlueJacket plans. up BlueJacket to order their plans (Photo 2) and The book and email exchanges with its authors their always friendly and helpful staff made sure Tom Cunliffe and Stephen Canright led me to other the plans were suitably detailed resources. One of these is a fine for scratch building, which they collection of articles on pilot were. yawls in the Nautical Research They were based on drawings Journal. Another is two sets done by the late Charles Davis, of plans in the Smithsonian and I decided that I would use collection. The first of these them to build a model in the is from the Historic American same scale as the plans, 3/16in = Merchant Marine Survey 1ft or 1:64 scale. (HAMMS), another is by former As the actual vessel measured Smithsonian curator Howard I. about 67ft on deck, the final Chapelle. The Chapelle plans model would be relatively small, were also redrawn, essentially only about 18-1/2in long and unchanged, in the Pilots book, 18in high. Still, she would be but as far as I can tell, were considerably larger than the first unpublished up until then. wood ship model I’d ever built, In addition to advice from the pilot boat Phantom, and at a fellow ship modeling friends, I slightly larger scale, a bit easier sought out some guidance from to detail. ship modeler Rob Napier, who had done extensive research on The BlueJacket plans include Figure 1. An excellent resource. waterlines, so I decided to the subject of American pilot build a solid hull model using the “lift method” boats and was gracious enough of construction. This basically calls for stacking to provide me with much information. Jeff Marger layers of solid wood that have each been cut to the of BlueJacket Shipcrafters Inc. also was kind outlines of their corresponding waterline and then enough to answer some questions about the design carving the hull down to shape with the help of of his company’s own kit and plans and his own templates derived from the body plan. thoughts on the works of Chapelle and Davis. Research Researching On-The-Fly This project turned out to be as much a research While it’s best to do all your research well before project for me as it was a modeling project. touching wood, I’m fairly new to the kind of Probably the greatest resource I found is an research I found myself doing for this model. It was excellent book from Wooden Boat Publishing, really not my intention to delve as deeply as I did Pilots vol. 1, Pilots and Pilot Boats of North and I had initially planned to build my model based America and Great Britain (Figure 1). I highly strictly on the BlueJacket plans. So, I’d actually recommend this beautifully illustrated book to started the model before I dug up much of the anyone researching the American pilot boats and information I eventually found. Therefore, many of service. This was my first piece of research material the decisions I made were at the last minute, using and was my main starting point for all my pilot boat what information I found up to that point. This questions. This book seems to be so definitive in made for a lot of pauses as I tried to sift through its coverage of the subject that nearly every person materials to come up with the best course of action. I contacted to get more detailed information on Not the ideal method of tackling a project, but it the subject would invariably refer me back to that was all part of a big a learning process. book. It contains really only about a page of material Finding Historical Trends specifically about Mary Taylor. This includes hull Whether you can loft your own from a table of and deck plan drawings and a painting that looks offsets or purchase them or copy them from a book, like, but may not actually be, Mary Taylor. But the having a basic set of plans are a must. But, when it volume of material on her contemporaries, as well comes to deciding on deck details and masting and as those that came before and after, gave me a great rigging, it’s important to look at other materials, 8 Ships in Scale March/April 2013 and without a great deal of access to museum plans for this model.