The Royal Research Ship 'Discovery'. Part 20.

Restoring the Sharp End

References to the bow and stern of a ship to the landlubber simply mean 'the front end' and 'the back end'. Why not? That is how understanding is and forever will be! Spare a thought for those of us that were weaned on the language of the sea. The bow is the bow, not 'the front end', the stern is the stern not 'the back end'. Port is 'left' and Starboard 'right', except to my American friends who prefer right and left in their usual fashion of being always nearly right!! Oops! Diplomacy has never been my strong side. The deck is the deck, not the 'floor'; the deckhead is the 'ceiling'; the 'ceiling' is the inner hull planks of a ship. Confused? Good! I could confuse you more but I will leave that until later.

The 'sharp end' is a universal term that is well understood for the bow of a ship and it is there we turn our attention to next in this story of the Discovery. The forecastle head is a structure that rises above the upper deck of a ship at it's forward end (now I'm really stretching your mind!). Generally in old sailing ships its length was about one sixth of the total ship's length from forward. Its function was threefold; to provide reserve buoyancy; to shelter machinery and equipment; to provide accommodation. The latter two are easily understood but the former deserves a short explanation.

Reserve buoyancy is that volume of the watertight outer hull above the waterline when a ship is afloat; or, put in its simplest terms, it is the buoyancy that the ship has in reserve. Add forecastle accommodation to the natural hull above the waterline then that reserve buoyancy is increased. There is a fourth reason, one that soon becomes obvious in heavy seas when a ship is pitching into a large wave. If a forecastle structure was not present then it is possible that the bow would plunge into the wave deep enough to allow solid water to be shipped over the foredeck (the forward end of the ship). Add a forecastle then the ship has to plunge deeper into the wave before solid water is shipped over the foredeck.; added to this is the increased downward pressure exerted upon the wave by the reserve buoyancy provided by the forecastle, forcing the bow back upwards. There is more but this story is not a lesson in ship stability. Our focus was the main support beam in the forecastle that had suffered severe degradation.

Looks not too bad from the outside.

Inside is a different story.

Decay obvious.

Gets worse!

Removing original.

Removal nearly completed.

Ready for replacement.

The beam had to be replaced, there was no doubt about that. Opepe timber again would be used but to restore the beam using a single length of timber meant substantial interference into the original structure. That was not acceptable since it meant lifting an area of the forecastle deck, disturbing the fittings of the foremast and interfering unduly in the structure of the main aft bulkhead (the main end wall of the forecastle). The removal of the old beam did not present many difficulties and it allowed us to assess how best to make good the restoration. It was decided that the new beam could be constructed in two lengths using the original plans available, each formed exactly to the contours of the original. In order to leave all of the original fittings of the structure untouched the first section of the beam would be inserted on the port (left) side. after securing that section in place the second section would be inserted from the starboard (right) side, married to the first piece and finally secured. The following sequence of photographs show how that was achieved.

The port side section of the beam in place

Securing the new section inside.

The delicate operation of fitting the starboard section
 of the beam to scarf into the new port section.

Just a touch more please!

Done!

The work on deck that ad been planned to take place during the better weather months of a Scottish year went well and the results were pleasing. Below decks new and unobtrusive methods of telling the story of the ship were being evolved and put in place and those changes will be recorded here in a later part of this series. In the meantime the more unseen but no less important matters were being attended to, such as what to do with the waste water that accumulated from sources within the ship, such as the kitchen, galley, toilets, bilges and the like. The ship had been used, and with the improvements made would be put to much greater use, to host revenue generating events such as weddings ( a change in legislation now allowed for wedding ceremonies to be conducted on board), meetings, lunch parties, cocktail parties and dinners served in a unique historic setting, the Wardroom.

On the surface all of this may seem like good news. It is! However, the health and safety of the guests and visitors had to be given the highest priority and it was this that gave us another challenge. Toilets had to be clean and able to discharge waste to suitable holding tanks. When meals or snacks were served, plates and utensils had to be washed; the latter being the source of fatty liquid deposits that needed to be collected, contained and treated before being pumped into a final holding tank on board. When the waste water in this final holding tank reached a predetermined level, it was automatically pumped ashore into the City's wast water system. When the Project started in 2007 it was known that the waster water systems on board the Discovery had become unfit for purpose. The following pictures tell their own story.

An open intermediate holding tank open to air.

The interior of the same tank showing the pump.
Fatty deposits collecting on the surface of the water and ferment.

Horrible! You might say. You would be right, it wasn't very nice but at least the pump room where it was situated was sealed off from the main inboard spaces so the noxious odours could be contained within that space and allowed to vent slowly to air.

What did we do to bring the system up to a suitable standard is another story, one that will be told in the next part of this insight into the restoration and conservation of historic wooden ships. Discovery is not a typical example, she is a unique example!