This was a 'three winter' boat. Not that it was more complicated, just more interesting. It is built at the standard 1/12th scale and weighs about 53 pounds. It represents a 50 foot long boat.
The Provider is a commercial fishing boat model of a seiner. The plans were purchased from the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington, and are part of the H.C. Hanson collection.
Operational Features of the Provider
The Provider runs in the water with two six volt commercial batteries with an electric motor for power. The radio controls speed, forward and reverse, and direction, for the maneuverability of the boat.
There is a pump that takes in water which circulates through coils around the motor to keep it cool. The water is then discharged on the starboard side of the boat. The pump is activated when the motor is running.
The horn is modeled after a Kahlenberg horn which was heated for use in the Arctic. A tape recording of an actual Kahlenberg horn was dubbed repeatedly and a tape recorder with the tape is mounted inside. The horn sound is activated with the remote control radio.
All lights are functional and include cabin lights, spotlight, port and starboard lights, running lights, and interior hull lights. All are powered with the same six volt batteries used to run the boat and lights are controlled with the radio and on-board switches.
To make the engine sound like a diesel, an apparatus was constructed and is activated by the motor, thus the sound increases or decreases with the speed of the motor.
The anchor is similar to a Danforth anchor. It can be lowered and raised with the windlass using the remote control radio.
On the model, the turntable and the rollers move as on the original vessel. On the real boat, the nets were set from the stern and were picked up from the side.
The winch behind the cabin moves and was used to assist in pulling the purse lines of the seine after it was set.
The throttle handles inside the pilot house and on the flying bridge are both moveable.
The knobs on top of the propane tanks may be turned off or on.
The two wheels may be rotated manually and are built with the construction method of real steering wheels still found on boats today.
The life preservers may be removed from their holders.
The compass rotates on gimbals.
The turnbuckles function like full sized turnbuckles.
The only 'purchased' items on this model are the propeller, coffee pot and cups, and the crew. Everything else was made with one of the following: scroll saw, metal lathe, band saw, grinder and lots of ingenuity. The toilet and sink are made of wood. The propane tanks - wood. The anchor is brass and the winch and windlass are wood. The mast is made from an old piece of fiberglass fishing pole. The lights are constructed from a plastic flower watering tube, grooved on the metal lathe. All brass components were fabricated using the scroll saw and the metal lathe. The netting was obtained from the attic of the Carron Net Company of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, with lead line, purse rings, and floats added.
Historical Account...
The Provider is an example of the table purse seiner boats commonly used from the 1930s to the mid 1950s. This boat would have seined for salmon along the southeast coast of Alaska and the northwest coast of the United States.
One of the biggest boat builders in the area was the H. C. Hanson Company located in Seattle, Washington. H. D. Hanson was also the Naval Architect who designed the boats. Anyone working with a set of Hanson plans soon realizes that Mr. Hanson put 80% on paper and the rest came from his head while the boat was under construction. The 20% of missing information meant a lot of research on the Internet and a trip to Bellingham, Washington to browse through boat photographs.
Table seiners were not used in the Canadian waters because Canadian law allowed large reels on the boats to pull in the nets. U.S. Law did not allow reels. The regulations against them meant that U.S. fishing boats were smaller and usually family run. Seiners needed a crew of five to six men to manually pull in the nets.
The size of the seiner was determined by government regulations. As these regulations changed over the years to allow bigger boats, the older boats were altered or abandoned.
The seining season lasted from six to nine weeks in the early spring, depending on zones. The captain was responsible for finding the crew.
The boat left at the beginning of the season and didn't return until the season was over. Seiners transferred the salmon to a packer or a cannery tender every day. Fish were sold by the fish and not by the pound because the fish were very close to all being one size. A days catch was between 1,000 and 10,000 pounds of salmon.
At the end of the season, the seiners crew was paid a share of the catch. The captain received a share; the boat received a share; and the seine received a share. So, if the captain owned the boat and the seine, he would have three shares of the catch. Expenses such as fuel and food were then subtracted from each share.
In the early days of fishing, there were no individual quotas. The U.S. Government set one quota per zone. The season ended when this quota was reached. This made competition fierce, forcing fishermen to go out in any type of weather, risking their lives to beat the closing of the season. Today there is a quota for each boat, eliminating the competition between boats, and making the industry much safer.
Provider...
