The Experimental Schooner William G. Shattuck of Boston - East Boston Advocate - May 1874

The Experimental Schooner William G. Shattuck¹

This vessel, to which frequent allusion has been made by the press while in course of construction and when launched, is now completed ready for sea. She is 122 feet 6 inches breadth of beam, 12 feet 2 inches depth of hold, with 4 inches dead rise at half floor, and a lively sheer graduated her whole length. Her register is 357 tons. It will be readily remembered by those who take an interest in nautical affairs that she is built of spruce logs, 12 inches square, place on one another, bolted every six inches with inch iron bolts three feet long and is caulked and payed outside and inside. The flat of her floor is crossed by timbers of 7 by 12 inches, covered with ceiling, and these are the only timbers in her. The vertical fastening is a substitute for timbers. In her constructions 27 tons 500 lbs. of iron were used. She has sharp ends, with concave lines, a light square stern and is of a fine model for sailing and carrying. Her bottom is painted green, and all above it is yellow relieved with a red ribbon along the waist. The bow is ornamented with a carved billet head along the sides of which the American ensign is neatly painted. Her chain plates are painted red, but is without channels, for her rigging sets up on the rail.

She has a trunk house forward set off into two divisions; that on the starboard side contains the galley and stateroom for the steward, and a storeroom, and on the other side the sailors have their quarters, with separate entrances.

The cabin-house is also sunk below the deck with a trunk, and is divided into two apartments, with a neat pantry and two staterooms in the forward cabin; two staterooms etc., in the after cabin; both cabins are connected, and each has an independent entrance from the deck. Both are tastefully painted and grained and neatly furnished. Such is a brief outline of her hull and accommodations.

The style of her rig is somewhat different form that in general use. She is a three-masted schooner, her lower masts raking one-half inch to the foot, are 83, 84 and 85 feet long with 10 feet heads; the foremast 25 inches in diameter, the other two 24-inches each; the topmasts are 50 feet long; the bowspirit is 20 feet outboard, and jibboom is divided at 17 and 18 feet outside of the cap; the fore and main booms are 32 1-2 and 33 feet long, the mizzen boom 50 feet long, and all three gaffs are alike, 32 feet long. She has chain bobstays and bowspirit shrouds; her crosstrees, trestletrees, and all her caps are iron. The standing rigging is of inch iron rods, the rods 6 feet long, linked together and served over. The shrouds set u p with screws on the rail, and the setting-up parts pass through gutta percha, true to its nature, gives and takes, so that her rigging can never be slack. The heels of her top masts rest on the trestletrees, and are secured with iron clasps to the lower masts, so that the doublings of her masts are close together. In other words her topmasts are without fids. She has no triatic or horizontal stays from one lower mast-head to the other, but instead, from each lower mast-head, on each side, there is a stay which sets up on the rail before the lower rigging. The whole fore-and-aft spread of her lower rigging and topmasts backstays on the rail is about 14 feet. The stays setup with lanyards and deadeyes. She has a fine set of spars, well made, and neatly rigged. Mr. Albert Low rigged her in his usual faithful style. She has cotton duck sails, Manilla hemp cordage, patent blocks, good ground tackle, two sets of pumps, two boats, and all the other equipment of a first class vessel.

She is owned and was designed by Mr. Nehemiah Gibson, of East Boston, under whose direction Mr. D.W. Lawler modeled her and Mr. Benj. Chellis built her. Capt. George E. Thatcher commands her. Mr. Gibson contends that she has nearly 30 per cent less timber in her than a vessel of the same size built in the usual style will carry more cargo in proportion to her register, and is much stronger than if she had timbers, planking and ceiling. She is certainly a fine-looking vessel, ingeniously constructed rigged and liberally fitted out in every particular.

Mr. Gibson has named her as a compliment to a personal friend of long standing who is one of the most enterprising citizens of East Boston.

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