First Planks Steamed 9th December 2011

First Planks Steamed

It was still dark when I arrived at Knowl St at 5 past 7. I opened up the container, switched on the lights and started to gather fire lighting materials and get them arranged in a crude fireplace. At 7.30 I put a match to the pile of paper, cardboard, shavings and sticks. When I could hear crackling noises, indicating that the wood was starting to catch, I started piling on bigger pieces of wood.
When Stuart arrived at about 8 AM the flames were climbing up and licking around the old oil drum that serves as a crude boiler. I climbed on top of the pile of scrap wood and started throwing pieces down to Stuart who piled them on to barrows for transporting to the fire. I learned my lesson about not keeping the firewood near the fire many years ago at Ellesmere Port where the fuel pile once caught fire when I was steaming a plank for Lilith.
I had asked volunteers to try to get there for 9, and people started to show up from 8.30 onwards. Wisps of steam began to rise from the steambox at 5 minutes to 9, so the time for bending the first plank was set at 5 to 11. A plank has to spend an hour in the steambox for every inch thickness.
Soon a goodly crowd was assembled, though with little to do except stoke the fire, fetch more wood and drink tea. Steaming planks requires a good crowd for just 10 minutes per plank, when it’s actually being fitted. The rest of the time there’s not much to do except be sociable.
Stuart had the excellent idea of doing a dummy run, using one of the planks for the fore end. We manhandled the plank through the boat and then carried it back from the steambox then forward into the hoodings, the people at the other end of the plank having to walk on a temporary platform sticking out over the water. Stuart clamped the plank into the hoodings and everyone pushed the other end towards the boat to bend it. I was just expressing concern about the amount of pressure being put on an unsteamed plank, when a bang from the sternpost end confirmed my worst fears. A bit of short grain near the end had failed and about a foot had broken away. I looked at the broken plank in horror, but Stuart was smiling. “It’s OK” he said “The plank starts behind the broken bit, I haven’t cut the end yet”.
We put the plank away near the bow where it belongs and got on with getting clamps etc ready. As the water boiled away in the oil drum boiler and the fire grew steadily more intense so the steam rising from the steambox grew thicker and hotter. Rather than using the electric kettle we brewed up by placing an old kettle on top of the brick furnace next to the boiler where tongues of flame were constantly playing.
Time ticked by, and at 10.50 everyone assembled around the plank. When time was called,Stuart undid the tarpaulin shroud that was stopping too much steam from escaping at the steambox entrance. We pulled the plank out and dropped it on to a row of trestles while Stuart screwed a block near the end to hold the clamp. We then picked up the plank, pushed it into the hoodings and, once Stuart had it clamped up, bent the plank so that it touched the knees. Getting the bend is not as tricky as getting the twist. Ryan manoeuvred the heavy planktwister into place and screwed it against the lower part of the plank to bend it into the V shape between the moulds and the bottom. The plank then had to be forced downwards by bonking it with a big rubber mallet. This didn’t quite do the trick, so we tried forcing the plank down with a hydraulic jack pushing on a piece of wood screwed to the knees for this purpose. It was to no avail, the plank stayed with a stubborn gap under it, which will have to be removed by planing away some of the lower edge of the plank where it does touch the bottoms. Other than this, the plank fitted really well.
With the first plank in place we began to prepare for the second one. Ryan unscrewed the small bung from the oil drum, producing a jet of steam. This soon settled down and, once some priming problems with the pump were resolved, it was refilled with cut water, the bung screwed back in and more wood put on the fire. We then had to carefully move the steambox to the other side of the boat, insert , the plank and steampipe, then close up the steambox entrance and wait for the water to come to the boil.
With a good fire already in the hearth and everything hot we had steam up in half an hour, and the time for bending the second plank was fixed at 5 past two. Time for everyone to have lunch and enjoy more beverages. As Steve the Viking had arrived there was proper coffee for those who wanted it.

The second plank was more straightforward than the first and, with the day’s tasks accomplished by 2,30, people started to drift away. A few of us stayed and enjoyed potatoes and sausages cooked in the embers, before packing away the tools and dousing the fire.