“i saw parts of the hull frames being replaced and would like to know how were the frame parts attached to one another? were the frames sistered and attached to one another to form one double frame. How were the ends of each part attached to another? Is it possible each frame section was held in place by the planking ?”

Reply:
The frames are in fact held in place by the inner & outer planking. Unlike many boats where the futtocks are joined to each other side-by-side in a brick-laid fashion to create one solid frame, the whaling boat frames went up the hull, end-to-end with few if any fastenings at these butt joints. The height of the butts was staggered so that there were never two butts at the same level next to each other. We ran into the problem of having too many frames end at the same level at one point in our planking and had to replace a number of good frames so that the spacing worked out. The space between frames is often just a few inches, so the net effect of having one butt joint near the middle of the frames next to it is very much like having normal futtocks joined to each other. The payoff, from the builder and owner’s perspective, is that this type of construction is less fussy and can proceed more quickly than the standard joined futtocks.