Broadside - Pitcairn Wooden Longboat Model

The recent publication of “the Broadside” has a very interesting article about a model of a Pitcairn Island wooden longboat modeled on the 1830s era. This wonderful wooden longboat model was crafted and designed and made by James Norton, who has also previously made a ship model of the HMAV Bounty. Norfolk Online News editor Alison Christian shared the “Model Shipwright Guild” January 2023 issue of “the Broadside” and I have enjoyed reading the publication and amazing details of the model of a wooden longboat which has been design off the 1830s Pitcairn Island longboats used to unload cargo ships and boats.

It was fascinating learning about the research by James Norton, as he learnt about the small wooden boats, and teaching himself the techniques to assemble the boat to match that of the original boats.

He was also assisted by Pitcairn Islanders who shared old photographs and even sent him timber from Thursday October Christians old house on Pitcairn Island. Thursday was the first-born son of Fletcher Christian, the mutineer on the HMAT Bounty.

James’ article also shared information about an online site which was helpful with the research, the Pitcairn Islands Study Center (PISC) at Pacific Union College, with a wealth of information about Pitcairn Island, the Bounty mutiny on the 28 April 1789, and the Bounty mutineers’ descendants who still live on the remote Pacific Island. Herb Ford, the director from PISC, was very helpful, knowledgeable, and supportive during the planning and designing of the wooden longboat, also teaching James about the connection between Pitcairn Island and the Pacific Union College (PUC), which is a Seventh Day Adventists college. During the early Pacific missionary years, the Seventh Day Adventists missionaries visited Pitcairn Island on the ship St John in 1876 and by 1890 all of the Pitcairn Islanders were baptised Seventh Day Adventists faith. The schooner the Pitcairn made six more voyages between Pitcairn Island and San Francisco and a number of islanders returned on the schooner to study at what was then Healdsburg College just north of San Francisco, and eventually became Pacific Union College and moved to the present location in Angwin, California, USA. PUC maintains a world class study centre focusing on the Bounty mutiny and the settlement of Pitcairn Island within its library system. The college is in constant contact with the island’s inhabitants.

Their web site is https://library.puc.edu/pitcairn/index.shtml

Pitcairn Island is like Norfolk Island, it does not have a safe harbour for ships to unload the cargo, but use the traditional method of unloading cargo from freight ships to lighterage or longboats, which then transfer the items to shore. All goods and visitors to Pitcairn Island are ferried back and forth between the visiting ships and the island’s only landing site at Bounty Bay. James’s article describes the boat history of Pitcairn Island. During the early years on Pitcairn Island, they used Polynesian outrigger styled boats. In 1880, Queen Victoria donated two double ended lifeboats to the island. The skilled industrious boat builders on Pitcairn Island then modeled their own wooden longboats on the basic lifeboat pattern, with several modifications due to the heavy surf with launching and landing the boats. The last wooden boat was built in 1983, forty years ago, and the wooden longboats have since been replaced by much larger, motorised aluminium boats made in New Zealand.

In 2012 James Norton decided to build a model of one of the old Pitcairn Island wooden longboats and he obtained plans of the 20^th century 30 foot British lifeboat. He then began work, altering the design to reflect the changes incorporated by the Pitcairn Islanders, with the higher bow and more angled stem and stern, following images in early photographs which he found on the internet.

The published article in “the Broadside” described his detailed work and showed images of the steps in constructing the model, from assembling the keel , stem and stern-post, with notches and mid-line of each of the stations, and followed with a planking process with removable pins, plus a mould which the boat would need to be able to be lifted off for work inside. James had not build models in this style before so said it was all theory and at times it was very complicated when overlapping the longboat planks. There were five strakes, starting with the gar-board strake, and the local Norfolk Island lighterage boat builders will understand the construction challenges. The article shared images of the keel of the boat, the ribs along the keel and the completed keel, he also mentioned he made 1/32” think basswood strips which were steamed an bent and glued in place. Then he painted the interior a light gray and added the basswood planking floorboards and built small bow and stern compartments.

James continued to search for more photos of images of inside the wooden longboats, and via the PISC director was able to contact the Pitcairn Island residences via email and a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian sent him 1/2” thick Miro plank about 18” long and 4” wide, also a crescent shaped cross section of an old Miro log. These pieces of timber had been cut off the ruins of an old Pitcairn house once occupied by Thursday October Christian, Fletcher

Christian’s first born on Pitcairn Island. The timber in the crescent shape became a base pedestal to display the Pitcairn wooden longboat and other pieces of Miro crafted into the thwarts, rudder, masts, and oars. He also made some examples of cargo, such as crates, mailbags and oil barrels which were examples of cargo the boat carried. In return for these generous pieces of timber from the Pitcairn Islanders, James sent educational and art supplies to Pitcairn Island for the school children and community.

Finally, James built and rigged a mast and sewed some sails, the 1930s wooden longboats were able to be rowed or sailed. He was unsure of the final appearance of the model, would the sail be up or down? After finding an old Pitcairn Island postage stamp with an image of the Pitcairn wooden longboat, James decided to present his model as the longboat being launched with a triced rudder, several rowers, a person at the bow with a long pole to keep the boat off the rocks, and another at the stern with a long steering oar. The sail was wrapped around the mast and placed along the thwarts in the centre of the boat, he stored the supplies under the thwarts and crafted eight figures from Magic-Sculpt two-part epoxy clay over wire armatures. The figures were based on the poses and clothing of the Pitcairn men depicted on the postage stamp, one figure on the boat was a white-haired avatar of James Norton’s father standing at the stern holding the steering oar. James said it was a tradition that he always placed a figure of his father on his boat and ship models.

Once the model was completed, he made a custom oak case, finished with tung oil and shared photographs of the Pitcairn wooden longboat model with the PISC director and thanked him for his help and assistance.

Considering the importance of the model of the Pitcairn Island wooden longboat, James decided to donate his model to the Pitcairn Islands Study Centre, to be displayed in their library dedicated to Pitcairn Island in the company of other relevant ship models, artifacts, papers, books and memorabilia. The PISC staff built a custom-built pedestal for the display case, and the model is now displayed with the longboat of the Bounty and the Seventh Day Adventist missionary schooner the Pitcairn.

This is extracts for the eight-page article which James Norton published in January 2023 issue of “the Broadside”. The publication is also filled with articles relating to other models and meetings and competitions the guilt members attend.

I enjoyed learning about the process of building a wooden longboat and the hours of detailed work and research that is needed to complete the challenges. I could imagine the local craftsmen building models of the Norfolk Island Lighterage boats, I am sure that locals and tourist would love them.

If you wish to learn more about the Broadside

Model Shipwright Guild check out USS Constitution Museum, www.usscm.org,

or email The Broadside designed by USSCMSG greej829@gmail.com

Thank you, James Norton, for sharing your article and photographs of this very special model of the 1930s Pitcairn Island wooden longboat

Betty Matthews

February 2023