Tall ship to have 19th-century look, modern gear

If only Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry had this ship in his battles with the British during the War of 1812. The ship bearing the Rhode Island native’s name now under construction will pack two 400-horsepower engines below its three masts that will boast 18 sails that combined would cover about three basketball courts.
The steel hull would have been a blessing in the days of cannon bombardments.
From the outside, this tall ship will generally resemble ones skippered by Perry during his career with the U.S. Navy during the early 1800s. But inside, the ship – based on a British ship captured by Perry – will be decidedly 21st century with state-of-the-art electronics, two generators, sophisticated navigation equipment, synthetic sails and modern bathrooms.
The Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island organization says work on the ship is progressing after years of organizing and design work. By 2013, the nonprofit organization hopes to deploy the ship for educational cruises and to serve as a goodwill ambassador of the state.
“This ship, when she’s operating all over the place, will be a really prudent symbol for Rhode Island,” said Bartlett Dunbar, chairman of the organization’s board of directors.
With two decks plus room for the engines, the ship will accommodate 49 people, including 11 professional sailors, on overnight educational trips. On shorter day trips, 100 people can fit onboard.
Dunbar said the organization intentionally stayed away from building an exact replica of the HMS Detroit, the wood-hulled, Royal Navy ship that the Oliver Perry is loosely based on. Captured by Perry during the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813, the 20-gun sloop would have resembled something more akin to a ship in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” than a vessel that a mother would let her high school student board, Dunbar said.
The ship also needs to meet U.S. Coast Guard requirements, hence the addition of certain modern technologies. Plus, Dunbar said a historical replica would not generate enough money to keep the ship’s parent organization afloat. Attempts to build a replica of the HMS Detroit already sank once. A Canadian group attempted to create a replica, going so far as to design and build a steel hull. But the financing collapsed. Dunbar saw an opportunity and organized his group to purchase the hull from creditors.
The hull arrived in Rhode Island in 2008 and it was christened the Oliver Hazard Perry. The group expects designing and outfitting the ship will cost about $6 million, with half already secured, including a $200,000 loan from Dunbar’s company and financing from BankNewport.
The hull now sits at Promet Marine Services Corp. in Providence, where it is undergoing minor metalwork. By the summer of 2012, organizers hope to have the ship outfitted with engines so it can make the trip to Newport, where work will be finished along Louis Jagschitz State Pier.
Dunbar said the very public setting along the pier should raise the profile of the ship and its organization, which helped organize the tall ships’ visits to the state.
Overseeing the design will be representatives from the organization and Dave Bonney, a ship designer and president of Bay Marine Inc. in Barrington.
To design the ship, Bonney relies on tools that the original designers of the Detroit could never imagine. He uses computer-drafting software to design the layout of the ship’s decks and other software to calculate how the ship will behave in the open ocean.
Bonney can also rely on experience designing similar ships. His firm designed the Friendship tall ship now berthed in Salem, Mass.
Designers needed to add a third deck not found on the original Detroit, to ensure the new ship could float. The original ship was built to sail on a lake and the shallow water required ships of less weight. But in the open seas, the Oliver Hazard will need the extra deck to provide the proper balance.
To accommodate modern passengers, designers are working to make much of the ship accessible to those with physical disabilities. &#8226