Building the Oneida's Fore Castle Deck

Building the Oneida's
Fore Castle Deck

The fore castle deck sits on a ledge made up of deck clamp material. The first plank rests on top of the waterway, and notches into the first gun port sill. You will find it necessary to soak the end of the plank in hot water for a few minutes, clamp it in place and allow the wood to dry before gluing in place. The plank has a natural tendency to curve upward so the first clamp holds the plank down against the waterway, while the other three clamps bend the plank to conform to the hull.

A second plank is set on top of the first one and the same steps were followed to bend and secure the plank. When the second plank is in place a measurement is taken from the main deck to the height of the fore castle. A thin plank is bent to the marks, a pencil line is drawn, and the top plank is cut down to the correct height.

A piece of cardboard is used to get the proper shape of the bow. This will be slightly different on each ship because it depends on the builders placement of the bow timbers.

The breasthook parts are laser cut larger than needed so the card board template is used to mark out the final shape. This is a cut and fit process, you have to trim a little and try the fit, then go back and refine the fitting.

Once the part fits nice against the hull the laser burn is cleaned from the edges and the breasthook is fit on top of the clamps.

Deck beams 1 and 4 are set in place. Beam one fits against the breasthook and beam four sets directly above deck beam four on the main deck. Placement of beam number four is important because you don’t want it to obstruct the forward mast.

Beams two and three are now set into place. You don’t have to follow the exact layout on the plans. I moved beams two and three a little closer together. The reason being the heavy 32 pound long gun rests on these two beams, I didn't want the gun to rest on a thinner ledge. By doing this, the knees are cut and adjusted to fit between beams. The knees provided are once again cut larger than needed to allow for fitting. Notice there are no carlings or hanging knees on the fore castle deck. Ledges are run across the deck from lodging knee to lodging knee.

On the main deck the deck beams are set directly on top of the deck clamp. On the fore castle deck the deck beams are notched into the deck clamp.

The notch is cut to a depth so the top of the beam and the knees are even.