THE SHIPWRIGHT'S LOG

Flute, fold, physics, and faith.

Dispatches from Capt. Dan Thistlewack's Newburyport yard: practical corrugated naval architecture, plain-spoken science, maritime jurisprudence, and selected doctrines that have survived contact with water.

FOUNDATIONAL RECKONING · 12 MIN READ

The Physics of the Floating Box

Archimedes and displacement. Metacentric stability. The corrugated sandwich. The slow, honorable war against water.

Read the field paper

CORRUGATED ADMIRALTY · NEW

The Five Unwritten Laws of the High Seas

International waters have law. Captain Dan has five additional laws that nobody wrote down and every decent mariner ought to know.

Enter the admiralty court

PATENT PENDING · EXPERIMENTAL OPTICS

The Glass-Bottom Cardboard Boat

Fried-chicken translucency, alleged tensile fortification, and the first hull designed to attract its own underwater audience.

Open the patent file

YARD MANUAL

The Thistlewack Building Method

Stock selection, cross-flute lamination, chines, bulkheads, seams, and inspection.

Enter the yard

FIELD INSTRUMENT

The Buoyancy Reckoner

Turn crew weight into minimum displacement, reserve volume, and a practical hull draft.

Do the reckoning