Western River Steamboat Heroine by ggrieco - Scale 1:24 - 1838 as she appeared before hitting a snag in the Red River. - Finished

[WackoWolf]

I just found out about this build and went from the beginning to the last post. This is out of this world. Your work is outstanding. I guess I will be like everyone else and waiting every Saturday for the updates. Thank you for sharing this with all of us.

[ggrieco]

Thanks  Pat, Albert,Tom, Nils, and WackoWolf,

 

Sorry that I didn't get back here sooner.  It has been a crazy week.  In addition to the two Heroine models, I'm rushing to finish a model of the Serce Limani wreck for the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.  Heroine takes up more work days and Serce fills my nights and weekends. Hopefully, Serce will be completed soon and I'll finally have some free time again.

 

As for Heroine, this week I worked on the roof trusses.  Kevin wanted 15 inches of crown to the Hurricane deck so it didn't leave me with much depth to work with.  I decided to play it safe and go with something simple.  We wanted a light structure so the spacing between trusses is a little large but, they used tongue and groove planking that would have distributed the load and added a little strength (as well as making it a little more watertight).  The roof will be covered with tarred canvas.

 

 

 

 

 

The trusses haven't been fastened in place yet and are little out of alignment.  Started working on the floor of the pilot house.  The opening will be for a trap door to the cabin below.  I left the longitudinal timber a little long for support.  They will be cut off even with the forward edge of the corner pieces.

[Mirabell61]

excellent work Glenn,

 

Nils

[Mahuna]

Beautiful Glenn.  Everything you do looks so clean.

[Cathead]

I love the precision curves the machine-cutting makes. Produces a really clean run of the hurricane deck, much nicer than my hand-bent attempts.

 

I just noticed, did Heroine not have outhouses hanging off the stern like most later boats? Where were the facilities?

[albert]

Glenn, very very nice work.

[captainbob]

Thanks for showing this build.  I keep being fascinated by the differences between the narrow Heroine and the later boats.

 

Bob

[Cathead]

Bob, I agree. As a geologist by background, Heroine keeps reminding me of a transitional fossil, an unusual lifeform that helps us better understand evolution. Heroine certainly fits that role as a link between early rivercraft and the apex of riverboat design.

[druxey]

As everyone else has already said.... Thanks again for my Saturday 'fix', Glenn.

[BANYAN]

Simply stunning work Glenn, very inspiring.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[ggrieco]

Thanks everybody,

 

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the comments, suggestions and likes.

 

Cathead, I'm curious to see how the trusses would have actually been fabricated on Heroine. I first tried to assemble them by hand bending a lighter square sectioned top beam to a heavier base piece with three uprights in between. The base piece was twice as deep as it was wide and I hoped that it would be more rigid. Nevertheless, no matter how I bent the lighter piece to it it still cause the base to bend. I finally gave up and cut the top pieces with the curve. I wonder if they would have been cut with the curve for Heroine. As for the outhouses, we know Heroine had one on the port side of the stern. I still haven't framed it up but you can see the hole that was cut for it in the model. The opening of the outhouse would have faced to stern and on the wreck, the aft side of the hole was reinforced with several pieces of wood. Possibly a lot of deterioration in this area. As for the passengers on the hurricane deck, there doesn't seem to be a way to plumb any toilets so I'm assuming chamber pots would have been used. In Kevin's layout of the boiler deck cabins he shows the locations of a toilet forward for the men's cabin and one at the aft port corner of the women's cabin but both would have been in locations that would have prevented flushing the waste direct from the toilet.

 

Bob and Cathead, yes it is amazing the differences between this vessel and the later larger steamers. When we first started reconstructing the engine, I had a lot of difficulty making sense of the machinery when looking at what we knew about steamboats from the 1840's and 50's. there was an incredible amount of evolution that occurred in only 10 or 15 years. Cathead, I like your reference to Heroine as a fossil in Steamboat evolution.

 

Bearegalleon, thank you for your comments about the windows. I wasn't sure if I had captured the Federal style with the windows and door framing but now I feel a little more confidant about it.

 

Thank you Nils, Frank, Albert, John, druxey, and Pat for your kind comments

[Cathead]

Glenn,

 

Thanks for the detail on shaping your trusses; it's interesting how much force the upper beam placed on the lower. When I built Bertrand, I bent my upper beam in place on the model so that the entire structure of the hull or cabin was there to push back against the curve. I wonder if the original builders did something similar; building the frames in place instead of pre-assembling them? Isn't that how older buildings were constructed, with pre-built roof frames being a relatively modern invention? I think your method produces an excellent model, as it allows you precise accuracy in the curve; at a model scale even the slightest variation shows up as "wrong" whereas in the real thing there could probably have been a bit more tolerance. Just a thought, I don't know much about this.

 

As for the outhouse, I do see the port-side hole, thank you. It's really interesting that they didn't provide more facilities for cabin passengers (I assume you meant "passengers on the boiler deck" unless Heroine has a second deck of cabins above this one?). I feel sorry for the steward who had to empty two large chamber pots from the boiler deck every morning. It does seem to work out nicely that the main deck outhouse has a staircase leading right to it from the boiler deck, and that it's essentially isolated from the engine room and working areas, which would allow cabin passengers (even ladies) to reach the facilities with minimal contact with crew, machinery, cargo, and deck passengers. On the later boats, with outhouses on the boiler deck, I've wondered what the "lower classes" did; were they allowed up on the boiler deck with the "better classes" to use the facilities, or what?

 

That's enough taking this thread off the rails again. Think of Heroine as archaeopteryx, the steamboat with feathers.

[kurtvd19]

Glen:

I sure wish I had been with Mitch when he visited the INA and your shop the other day.  It would have been great to see you and Kevin again - and these two models in person.  Mitch told me just how cramped the model shop is with both of the models taking up most of the floor space.  I understand he had to borrow your optivisor to see the end of the ball mills you used to do the doors and that he's really sort of taking your word that there is actually a ball at the tip of the mill.

Kurt

[WackoWolf]

Is something wrong, I am waiting for my fix. Hope everything is alright.

[Louie da fly]

Glenn, as usual a brilliant piece of work.

 

By the way, is there any chance you'll be putting up a build log of the Serce Limani ship, or is that impossible because it's for work rather than play?

[ggrieco]

Hello Everybody,

 

Sorry for the lull in posting, I'm still playing catch up on the second model and progress has slowed on the first.  I've also been wiped out with Ragweed alergies for the last two weeks.  I'd rather have the flu!

 

I was able to assemble the pilot house and notch the roof trusses in place. 

 

Cathead, I wonder as well how the original was done.  This method seems to work but it is only as guess.  With the trusses notched in place, they seem very rigid although I wonder if I should have added two more vertical timbers midway between the center and the ends.  I'm with you about the poor stewards that had to deal with the chamber pots.

 

Yes Kurt, I wish you could have been here as well.  I'm also dissappointed that I will have to miss the NRG conference this year as well.  I will miss seeing everybody. 

 

WackoWolf, thanks for the comment,  except for the ragweed, everthing is fine, just a little slow with Heroine 1.  I think things will pick up this next week so I should have much more to post.  I'll be taking a break from the Glass Wreck on the weekends so I should have some time for posting.

 

Steven,  I wish I had the time to do a build log of Serce as well.  The shape of the reconstruction has evolved a bit and we'd like to get the info out there.  Maybe when the Heroines are done I can post what I have.  I hope no one minds that I put up two photos of the model.  I was a little light on Steamboat photos.

 

 

The pilot house.  The four moulded panels were milled and the planking added.  This is only a test fit.  It will sit slightly higher when the hurricane deck is planked and canvassed.

 

 

Test fit of the roof trusses.

 

 

Two photos of the Serce Limani vessel (Glass Wreck) 11th  Century Byzantine Merchant vessel.  Possible preview for future Build log.

 

[Jack12477]

Beautiful workmanship, Glenn. Love the Serce model also (and the carved boatman figure).

[ggrieco]

Thanks Jack,

 

I have to mention that I didn't carve the figure. Dr. Fred Hocker carved him many years ago for the first Serce model. He's only on loan for the photos.

[Jack12477]

Wish I could carve that well. Dr Hocker is a talented carver.

[druxey]

Lovely work on both subjects, Glenn. I can't be at the Conference this year either, but hope to catch up with you next year, circumstances allowing.

[Landrotten Highlander]

Two photos of the Serce Limani vessel (Glass Wreck) 11th  Century Byzantine Merchant vessel.  Possible preview for future Build log.

Yes please

Slainte

 

p.s. really enjoying  this build - lots and varied inteesting information

[WackoWolf]

I Love the updates on the Pilot House, but I am glad that your alright your health is more important. I know we will all be waiting for the next updates so until then Thank you.

[Cathead]

Wait, so Heroine's pilot house was accessed only from below, not from the hurricane deck? That's also different from later practice. I wonder why?

 

Looks great as always, thanks so much for sharing all this.

[mtaylor]

You have been busy then with all those models, Glenn.  Beautiful work on both.

[ggrieco]

Thanks everybody,

 

Jack, yes, carving is only one of Fred Hockers amazing talents. He ran the model shop before me and I was always amazed at his abilities. I miss having him around but he moved on to better things at the Vasa museum.

 

Druxey, hopefully we can both make it next year. I will look forward to it.

 

 

Peter, I'm happy you're enjoying the build and I'll see what I can pull together for the Glass Wreck.

 

Joe, thank you for the kind words. The ragweed symptoms have subsided a bit and I should be a little more productive this next week. Hopefully, I'll have some good photos next week.

 

Cathead, once again, good question. We have different drawings and paintings showing both arrangements. There is an illustration of the Yellowstone without stairs from the boiler deck. I think this might be where Kevin got this idea. If I remember correctly, there is a very good representation of the Delphine where the stairs run from the boiler deck right into the front of the open pilot house. Kevin also showed me a drawing of a side wheeler with the pilot house on the boiler deck - an arrangement that was common in the 1820s. When Heroine was built, the pilot house on the Hurricane deck was a fairly new improvement. without archaeological remain from this area, I don't think we will even know for certain.

 

Thanks Mark, sometimes I loose track of which century I'm currently working on. The Bodrum Museum may be surprised when their Byzantine ship shows up with a steering wheel.

[Louie da fly]

That is so beautiful, Glenn. And your usual exquisite workmanship. Interesting with the masts coming up through the hatches like that.

[ggrieco]

Well, I started the week off with a major mistake.  I had hoped to finish the engine this week but, while adding the spreaders to the paddlewheel flanges, I realized that I had them reversed on the port side.  The inboard flange was on the outside and outboard on the inside.  It was pretty frustrating heating and desoldering the blackened parts with the spokes in place.  I always lightly peen the end of the bolts so that the nuts won't back off over time.  Makes for a secure hold but impossible to ever disassemble without cutting the heads off.  After finally resoldering the flanges and burning some of the spokes, I noticed that the notches on the after edges of the ends of the spokes were now on the wrong side.  I spent a good part of the week making new spokes and I'll have to wait for a new batch of 00-90 screws to arrive.

 

 

 

 

 

After several attempts at different methods to make the chimney segments, I finally came up with a method that works well.  The tubes taper upward by less than a degree which allows each one to fit tightly inside the one above.  Using AutoCAD, I calculated the the upper and lower radii and the angled sides of the plates needed for the segment.  I added 1/8 inch on one side for overlap.  Printed on label paper and applied to the brass, I cut out the .01 thick plates.  As long as the rigth edge lined up with the inner line on the left, the shape came out accurately.  The individual segments mated perfectly giving me a nice straight tube.  I was able to make four segments in less than thirty minutes.  Unfortunately, I ran out of brass before I could make a complete tube. 

 

Kevin's drawing of Heroine's chimney.

 

Paper patterns for the chimney segments.  The edges look straight but, the sides taper less than 1 degree and the top and bottom have a extremely large radius (152.36 inches for the bottom 149.86 inches for the top)

 

 

 

 

[hexnut]

The chimney segments are great.  Did you use a slip roller, or hand-form them?

[captainbob]

Yes, make it the way the real ones were made.  Well done.

 

Bob

[druxey]

Lovely brasswork. However, it sounds like an extremely frustrating week for you. As a character in a Feydeau farce says, "A reverse today - a revenge tomorrow!" Hopefully the reassembly will go correctly and smoothly.