A Great Subject for a Scratch-built Ship Model

Lumber Schooner Wawona

Would be suitable for solid-hull, plank-on-bulkhead, or even plank-on-frame construction

Scores of wooden three-masted schooners once plied the Pacific Ocean off the U.S. West Coast, bringing lumber from the Pacific Northwest to the growing cities of California. Two of them were all that remained of this vast fleet when these free ship plans of the lumber schooner Wawona were drawn. Built in the 1897 for Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Company of Eureka, California, the schooner Wawona was finally broken up in 2009. She and the only other surviving lumber schooner, C.A. Thayer (National Maritime Museum, San Francisco), were built by Hans D. Bendixsen, who was well known in his time for the superior construction of his vessels.

Able to transport more than 500,000 board feet of lumber per voyage, like most ships in her day, Wawona’s hull was lofted from a carved wooden half model rather than a detailed set of engineering drawings. The free ship plans offered here are from a 1986 survey in preparation for a $2 million restoration.

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