What is the latest news about the Calypso (Cousteau's boat)?

[Akimbo]

The work is being done in Turkey as there a number of specialised carpenteers, still used on working on wood shells, ara available.

That is a major issue. My grandfather was a shipwright at yards in San Francisco. I regret that I didn't pay more attention to his work when I had the chance. He learned the trade on a small island east of Trieste Italy before migrating to to the US. He did learn to work with plywood but there wasn't much call for it after World War II since everyone knew those boats had a limited life. Thankfully, he retired just before the wood boat builders shut down or switched to fiberglass or metal.

It is definitely a lost art in the US today for vessels anywhere near Calypso's size -- even though she was build here. It is very hard to obtain the quality of wood required even if the skills and large steam bending facilities were available. Not many naval architects here could detail it on their 3D CAD programs and you can't download CNC programming to eShipwright machinery.

 

[Erich S]

She was made of Oregon Pine I think.

 

[Erich S]

My small piece of Calypso.

 

[Akimbo]

She was made of Oregon Pine I think.

I believe you are right. There aren't many old growth trees left. Nearly all the wood here is harvested after 20-30 years, which is the most efficient for paper and wood-frame construction. "Young" lumber like this doesn't have the narrow and tight growth rings of older trees so isn't as strong or rot resistant. Old growth lumber is eye-watering expensive, when you can find it. We still have a lot of forrest between Northern California and the Canadian Border but virtually all of it is on it's 3rd or 4th harvest.

 

[Popgun Pete]

Here is a section of the layout which is slightly idealized for simplicity.

 

[Popgun Pete]

The era of one group monopolizing the public's attention on the oceans and being seen as a unique authority has gone. When Cousteau first started out with Calypso underwater footage on TV was virtually non-existent and in the sixties and seventies it was something that you had to watch out for, now any day of the week underwater action on TV is very commonplace. Even Cousteau had competitors in later years, albeit on a smaller scale such as John Stoneman, but now equipment and underwater cameras are available to everyone especially with the rise of digital recording and the virtual disappearance of film. Thus Calypso is the symbol of an era, but even if it had not been sunk would people still view it as being the same thing if it was stripped out and refitted as an interpretive experience and conference center with completely revised internal spaces? I don’t think so.

 

[АлександрД]

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fe/2b/d1/fe2bd17dc882870de7049910d0c5a536.jpg


HiRes: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/...443485-HEE4X41ITSNQ3A18ZZFC/RV+Calypso-01.jpg

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

I read that in Britain in old-type wooden naval shipbuilding, a shipbuilder would go with the lumberjacks into the naval oak forest to find pieces of tree where the grain went naturally in a curve or a sharp angle, to use in shipbuilding. For example, if a big oak trunk is cut through just above each big branch, according to circumstances that may yield one or more pieces of oak called a "knee" or "elbow" where the grain goes naturally in a right-angle, to use as a natural angle-bracket to join a deck to the ship's side. Such a piece was often cut off the still-standing tree and lowered to the ground, not dropped.

Sometimes a big oak stump was dug up, and split into a wedge for each big root, and each wedge was carved into a rib for a small boat, with the grain going naturally round the curve as it went from the trunk into the root.

 

[Storker]

I read that in Britain in old-type wooden naval shipbuilding, a shipbuilder would go with the lumberjacks into the naval oak forest to find pieces of tree where the grain went naturally in a curve or a sharp angle, to use in shipbuilding.

Not only in Britain.

Back before sawn lumber, finding the appropriate tree to make planks from was an important part of a shipbuilder's skill set.

And they say that those planks, cleaved from the appropriate log, were superior to the current sawn planks.

 

[Akimbo]

Not only in Britain.

Back before sawn lumber, finding the appropriate tree to make planks from was an important part of a shipbuilder's skill set.

I have read stories that poaching wood from Royal Forests was punishable by death because that timber was critical to national defense (shipbuilding). Then again, so was poaching deer... life was cheap.

I saw some HUGE steam bending equipment at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard south of San Francisco before it was shut down. It would have been quite a challenge to do anything like that before the 1830s. Even then, steam bent timbers are not as strong or stable as natural-grown timbers with the right geometry.