dcicero

Brian:
 
I've with everyone else on this.  Thanks for the history lesson and your passion for the subject will keep you interested through a long build.  One of these days, I'm going to try my hand at Cairo or a similar vessel myself.  The naval side of the Civil War is overshadowed by the land war, but there's plenty there for the modeler, lots of technical innovation and experimentation, some of which worked out and some of which didn't.
 
 
Dan

Brian:
 
I've with everyone else on this.  Thanks for the history lesson and your passion for the subject will keep you interested through a long build.  One of these days, I'm going to try my hand at Cairo or a similar vessel myself.  The naval side of the Civil War is overshadowed by the land war, but there's plenty there for the modeler, lots of technical innovation and experimentation, some of which worked out and some of which didn't.
 
 
Dan

Brian:
 
I've with everyone else on this.  Thanks for the history lesson and your passion for the subject will keep you interested through a long build.  One of these days, I'm going to try my hand at Cairo or a similar vessel myself.  The naval side of the Civil War is overshadowed by the land war, but there's plenty there for the modeler, lots of technical innovation and experimentation, some of which worked out and some of which didn't.
 
 
Dan

Hello again everyone,
 
I'm back from a much needed vacation. 
 
Not a whole lot was accomplished this time around, haven't had a lot of build time having to playing catch up at work but I did manage to get a few post-worthy things done.
 
So with my change of mind to go ahead and do some of the interior of the model, I got the bulkheads cleared out from the boiler hold. This was a task that I wish I had thought about prior to building the hull since it would have been much easier to do with all of the glued hull planks. However, I managed to get them removed without too much damage. 
 
Here the bulkheads are removed and I am going in with the sub framing for the boiler decking. I figured that since the next forward bulkhead was further forward then the boiler hold that I would also build out the forward coal bunkers as well.

 
Floor planking going in.

 
Floor planking completed and the curved hull planking going in.

 
Curved hull planking completed.

 
Forward coal bunkers trimmed out.

 
And finally the deck sanded down and the boiler hold trimmed out. I am going to simulate the port and starboard coal bunker doors as closed since I don't want to cut into the false keel boards. I'm too afraid this will weaken the hull if I cut into them too much. Besides, they will be in a location where they are not easily seen.

 
I had started cutting out the hatchways and realized that it is very difficult to keep the framing lines straight, so one of my next tasks is going to build a cradle for the hull to sit in so that I can keep everything lined up properly. I've seen this methods done on several builds and it seems to have helped those builds. We'll see how this goes.
 
Until next time. Thanks for looking and all of the likes.
 
-Brian

I did a presentation on masts and spars for the club I belong to.  (Shameless plug for the The Nautical Research and Model Ship Society of Chicago.)  I've attached the presentation.  I use a small lathe made by Harbor Freight Tools, a digital caliper and a file.
 
Hope this helps!
 
 
 
Dan
Masts and Spars.pdf

My pleasure.  The Vicksburg Campaign is endlessly fascinating. I also recommend Vicksburg is the Key by Terry Winchell.  It’s a good read by a terrific historian.  I’ve heard him speak a couple of times and, before reading this book, thought his Triumph and Defeat was one of the best overviews of the campaign.
 
I’m also a fan of the U.S Army War College Guide to the Vicksburg campaign, but you’ve really got to be interested in this stuff to get through that one!
 
Dan

Grant Wins the War is a great, and underrated, book about the Vicksburg campaign.  It's one of my favorites ... and I've read a lot of them.  Another one that I highly recommend is Occupied Vicksburg by Bradley R. Clampitt.  I could not put this book down.  I'd often wondered what it was like for the civilians of Vicksburg.  Before the war, Warren County, MS, was the wealthiest county in the country.  Think of that!  The country was, if not unionist, anti-secession.  They knew which side their bread was buttered on.
 
By the end of the war, the slave economy was gone.  Their town was destroyed.  The cotton economy had collapsed.  The railroads had taken a huge bite out of the steamboat trade.  The river would change course soon, leaving them landlocked.  A quarter of their male, military age population was dead and they got what for their efforts?  Nothing.  And they were petitioning the Grant administration to get the Army Corps of Engineers to reroute the Yazoo River to give them a riverfront again.
 
If I'd been a citizen of Vicksburg back then, I would have been furious at the people who brought all this about, the firebrands that got everybody worked up about secession!  But that's not what happened.  The people of Vicksburg were staunchly Confederate and worked for the Confederate cause during the war.  During the occupation, they worked against the Union troops constantly, even though it was in their best interest not to.  After the war, they still clung to their pro-Confederate positions.  This book details all of that, along with the impact on former slaves and how they reacted to the defeat of Pemberton's army, the occupation of Vicksburg and their new-found freedom.  It's absolutely fascinating.
 
 
 
Dan
 

My pleasure.  The Vicksburg Campaign is endlessly fascinating. I also recommend Vicksburg is the Key by Terry Winchell.  It’s a good read by a terrific historian.  I’ve heard him speak a couple of times and, before reading this book, thought his Triumph and Defeat was one of the best overviews of the campaign.
 
I’m also a fan of the U.S Army War College Guide to the Vicksburg campaign, but you’ve really got to be interested in this stuff to get through that one!
 
Dan

Grant Wins the War is a great, and underrated, book about the Vicksburg campaign.  It's one of my favorites ... and I've read a lot of them.  Another one that I highly recommend is Occupied Vicksburg by Bradley R. Clampitt.  I could not put this book down.  I'd often wondered what it was like for the civilians of Vicksburg.  Before the war, Warren County, MS, was the wealthiest county in the country.  Think of that!  The country was, if not unionist, anti-secession.  They knew which side their bread was buttered on.
 
By the end of the war, the slave economy was gone.  Their town was destroyed.  The cotton economy had collapsed.  The railroads had taken a huge bite out of the steamboat trade.  The river would change course soon, leaving them landlocked.  A quarter of their male, military age population was dead and they got what for their efforts?  Nothing.  And they were petitioning the Grant administration to get the Army Corps of Engineers to reroute the Yazoo River to give them a riverfront again.
 
If I'd been a citizen of Vicksburg back then, I would have been furious at the people who brought all this about, the firebrands that got everybody worked up about secession!  But that's not what happened.  The people of Vicksburg were staunchly Confederate and worked for the Confederate cause during the war.  During the occupation, they worked against the Union troops constantly, even though it was in their best interest not to.  After the war, they still clung to their pro-Confederate positions.  This book details all of that, along with the impact on former slaves and how they reacted to the defeat of Pemberton's army, the occupation of Vicksburg and their new-found freedom.  It's absolutely fascinating.
 
 
 
Dan
 

My pleasure.  The Vicksburg Campaign is endlessly fascinating. I also recommend Vicksburg is the Key by Terry Winchell.  It’s a good read by a terrific historian.  I’ve heard him speak a couple of times and, before reading this book, thought his Triumph and Defeat was one of the best overviews of the campaign.
 
I’m also a fan of the U.S Army War College Guide to the Vicksburg campaign, but you’ve really got to be interested in this stuff to get through that one!
 
Dan

My pleasure.  The Vicksburg Campaign is endlessly fascinating. I also recommend Vicksburg is the Key by Terry Winchell.  It’s a good read by a terrific historian.  I’ve heard him speak a couple of times and, before reading this book, thought his Triumph and Defeat was one of the best overviews of the campaign.
 
I’m also a fan of the U.S Army War College Guide to the Vicksburg campaign, but you’ve really got to be interested in this stuff to get through that one!
 
Dan

Grant Wins the War is a great, and underrated, book about the Vicksburg campaign.  It's one of my favorites ... and I've read a lot of them.  Another one that I highly recommend is Occupied Vicksburg by Bradley R. Clampitt.  I could not put this book down.  I'd often wondered what it was like for the civilians of Vicksburg.  Before the war, Warren County, MS, was the wealthiest county in the country.  Think of that!  The country was, if not unionist, anti-secession.  They knew which side their bread was buttered on.
 
By the end of the war, the slave economy was gone.  Their town was destroyed.  The cotton economy had collapsed.  The railroads had taken a huge bite out of the steamboat trade.  The river would change course soon, leaving them landlocked.  A quarter of their male, military age population was dead and they got what for their efforts?  Nothing.  And they were petitioning the Grant administration to get the Army Corps of Engineers to reroute the Yazoo River to give them a riverfront again.
 
If I'd been a citizen of Vicksburg back then, I would have been furious at the people who brought all this about, the firebrands that got everybody worked up about secession!  But that's not what happened.  The people of Vicksburg were staunchly Confederate and worked for the Confederate cause during the war.  During the occupation, they worked against the Union troops constantly, even though it was in their best interest not to.  After the war, they still clung to their pro-Confederate positions.  This book details all of that, along with the impact on former slaves and how they reacted to the defeat of Pemberton's army, the occupation of Vicksburg and their new-found freedom.  It's absolutely fascinating.
 
 
 
Dan
 

Grant Wins the War is a great, and underrated, book about the Vicksburg campaign.  It's one of my favorites ... and I've read a lot of them.  Another one that I highly recommend is Occupied Vicksburg by Bradley R. Clampitt.  I could not put this book down.  I'd often wondered what it was like for the civilians of Vicksburg.  Before the war, Warren County, MS, was the wealthiest county in the country.  Think of that!  The country was, if not unionist, anti-secession.  They knew which side their bread was buttered on.
 
By the end of the war, the slave economy was gone.  Their town was destroyed.  The cotton economy had collapsed.  The railroads had taken a huge bite out of the steamboat trade.  The river would change course soon, leaving them landlocked.  A quarter of their male, military age population was dead and they got what for their efforts?  Nothing.  And they were petitioning the Grant administration to get the Army Corps of Engineers to reroute the Yazoo River to give them a riverfront again.
 
If I'd been a citizen of Vicksburg back then, I would have been furious at the people who brought all this about, the firebrands that got everybody worked up about secession!  But that's not what happened.  The people of Vicksburg were staunchly Confederate and worked for the Confederate cause during the war.  During the occupation, they worked against the Union troops constantly, even though it was in their best interest not to.  After the war, they still clung to their pro-Confederate positions.  This book details all of that, along with the impact on former slaves and how they reacted to the defeat of Pemberton's army, the occupation of Vicksburg and their new-found freedom.  It's absolutely fascinating.
 
 
 
Dan
 

Grant Wins the War is a great, and underrated, book about the Vicksburg campaign.  It's one of my favorites ... and I've read a lot of them.  Another one that I highly recommend is Occupied Vicksburg by Bradley R. Clampitt.  I could not put this book down.  I'd often wondered what it was like for the civilians of Vicksburg.  Before the war, Warren County, MS, was the wealthiest county in the country.  Think of that!  The country was, if not unionist, anti-secession.  They knew which side their bread was buttered on.
 
By the end of the war, the slave economy was gone.  Their town was destroyed.  The cotton economy had collapsed.  The railroads had taken a huge bite out of the steamboat trade.  The river would change course soon, leaving them landlocked.  A quarter of their male, military age population was dead and they got what for their efforts?  Nothing.  And they were petitioning the Grant administration to get the Army Corps of Engineers to reroute the Yazoo River to give them a riverfront again.
 
If I'd been a citizen of Vicksburg back then, I would have been furious at the people who brought all this about, the firebrands that got everybody worked up about secession!  But that's not what happened.  The people of Vicksburg were staunchly Confederate and worked for the Confederate cause during the war.  During the occupation, they worked against the Union troops constantly, even though it was in their best interest not to.  After the war, they still clung to their pro-Confederate positions.  This book details all of that, along with the impact on former slaves and how they reacted to the defeat of Pemberton's army, the occupation of Vicksburg and their new-found freedom.  It's absolutely fascinating.
 
 
 
Dan
 

Grant Wins the War is a great, and underrated, book about the Vicksburg campaign.  It's one of my favorites ... and I've read a lot of them.  Another one that I highly recommend is Occupied Vicksburg by Bradley R. Clampitt.  I could not put this book down.  I'd often wondered what it was like for the civilians of Vicksburg.  Before the war, Warren County, MS, was the wealthiest county in the country.  Think of that!  The country was, if not unionist, anti-secession.  They knew which side their bread was buttered on.
 
By the end of the war, the slave economy was gone.  Their town was destroyed.  The cotton economy had collapsed.  The railroads had taken a huge bite out of the steamboat trade.  The river would change course soon, leaving them landlocked.  A quarter of their male, military age population was dead and they got what for their efforts?  Nothing.  And they were petitioning the Grant administration to get the Army Corps of Engineers to reroute the Yazoo River to give them a riverfront again.
 
If I'd been a citizen of Vicksburg back then, I would have been furious at the people who brought all this about, the firebrands that got everybody worked up about secession!  But that's not what happened.  The people of Vicksburg were staunchly Confederate and worked for the Confederate cause during the war.  During the occupation, they worked against the Union troops constantly, even though it was in their best interest not to.  After the war, they still clung to their pro-Confederate positions.  This book details all of that, along with the impact on former slaves and how they reacted to the defeat of Pemberton's army, the occupation of Vicksburg and their new-found freedom.  It's absolutely fascinating.
 
 
 
Dan
 

Grant Wins the War is a great, and underrated, book about the Vicksburg campaign.  It's one of my favorites ... and I've read a lot of them.  Another one that I highly recommend is Occupied Vicksburg by Bradley R. Clampitt.  I could not put this book down.  I'd often wondered what it was like for the civilians of Vicksburg.  Before the war, Warren County, MS, was the wealthiest county in the country.  Think of that!  The country was, if not unionist, anti-secession.  They knew which side their bread was buttered on.
 
By the end of the war, the slave economy was gone.  Their town was destroyed.  The cotton economy had collapsed.  The railroads had taken a huge bite out of the steamboat trade.  The river would change course soon, leaving them landlocked.  A quarter of their male, military age population was dead and they got what for their efforts?  Nothing.  And they were petitioning the Grant administration to get the Army Corps of Engineers to reroute the Yazoo River to give them a riverfront again.
 
If I'd been a citizen of Vicksburg back then, I would have been furious at the people who brought all this about, the firebrands that got everybody worked up about secession!  But that's not what happened.  The people of Vicksburg were staunchly Confederate and worked for the Confederate cause during the war.  During the occupation, they worked against the Union troops constantly, even though it was in their best interest not to.  After the war, they still clung to their pro-Confederate positions.  This book details all of that, along with the impact on former slaves and how they reacted to the defeat of Pemberton's army, the occupation of Vicksburg and their new-found freedom.  It's absolutely fascinating.
 
 
 
Dan
 

Brian,  very nice, careful work!  I always look forward to your posts.  I just finished reading a great book about the Vicksburg Campaign by an author whose last name is Arnold.  It appears that these boats were almost impossible to navigate in the Mississippi’s swift currents.  One of the Navy’s objections to running the batteries both at Vicksburg and Island No. 10 was a concern about getting back upstream to their base for coaling, supply and maintenance and repair.
 
Roger

Got the mast and sails installed. Almost done.
 
Over this weekend, we went to cookouts both Sat & Sun, no little modeling time. I did manage to make a knife to put on the cuddy. It would be used to cut the line if the whale sounded and threatened to take the boat with it. Next will be the compass, then it's done!

I realize it has been a long time since my last post but I will try to be better going forward.  The lower deck has a fore and main hatch, a pad for the stove and a pad for the base of the capstan.  I do not see any evidence of mast partners on the plans.  There are also openings in front of the main mast for the pumps. The hatches are constructed next.  Because this is a POB model, the frame construction is simplified from the prototype.  A more complete description of hatch construction is located here:
 
The gratings were made first and the frames made to fit the gratings.  On a ship of this size, the ledges (the notched part of the grating) were 3.5" x 1" and the battens (the strips that fit into the notches) were 2.5" x 3/4".  In order to maintain an even spacing between the notches, I CA'd a strip of wood the same width as the batten onto my Preac.  Then, using a blade the same width as the batten (0.05") it was a simple matter to cut the strips of notched wood.  I generally use two hands when cutting the notch but needed one hand to take the photo.

The pictures show both hatches in position on the paper template.  I simulated the treenails in the hatch grating by making a depression with the point of a compass and putting the tip of a sharp pencil in the depression.



The pad for the stove was installed next, just in front of the fore hatch.  This will be covered with an "iron" plate later.

It has been a while since I updated the log but installing bulkheads and fairing a hull just is not very exciting.  The fist step in permanently installing the bulkeads is making a building board.  This will secure the keel so that the bulkheads (hopefully) will be installed plumb and square.  I was able to reuse my building board from Atalanta and simply glued Swallow's waterline plan to the board.  I secured two strips of wood on either side of the midline with oversize holes to that they could be snugged against the keel.

The bulkheads were cut from 1/4" basswood plywood.  I plan on constructing the lower deck amidships so the center of bulkheads F through 14 only extend to the level of the lower deck.  The other bulkheads extend to the upper deck.  

The bulkheads were installed using the same technique seen in the half hull project, clamping them to machinist squares.  I also keep a small level on the bulkhead while the glue sets.  This becomes most important with the bulkheads that only extend to the lower deck; there is only a narrow slot so it is easy to get them out of plumb.  Once all the bulkheads were in place, spacers were installed to stiffen the hull in preparation for fairing.


I use a combination of techniques to fair the hull, including sanding discs on the Dremel, sanding blocks and files.  One thing which is very helpful for the concave surfaces in the stern is rolling sandpaper around one of the rubber sleeves from my spindle sander.  Before I owned the spindle sander I would use a shot glass.  The key in fairing a hull is taking a lot of breaks.  It is too easy (for me at least) to remove too much wood otherwise.  On this hull you can see a few places that happened.  Those spots were built back up with strips of walnut from the scrap bin.  One techniqe I use to check for a fair run is to take strips of masking tape and run them along the hull.  Another useful technique is to run a marker along the bulkhead.  As the hull approaches fair, the marker is gradually sanded away. 
 
At this point I am reasonably satisfied with the shape of the hull.  Several of the spacers become loose during the fairing process.  Rather than replacing them, I ran a ribband along the hull, gluing it in place and then securing it more with zip ties.  The red marks represent the wale and the bottom of the rail.  The plans show the gunports extending to the rail but the model shows an additional row of planking above the ports.  I have not decided which direction to go at this point.  Neither the plans nor the model are "as built" and it was common to add the extra row of planking to help protect the crew.  

A few years ago, I was looking at some of the models posted on the RMG website and came across Swallow 1779.  I instantly was attracted to her overall appearance and the fact that she was clinker-planked.   The model is listed as SLR0540 and the plans are ZAZ4719.


Swallow did not have a long career.  According to Rif Winfield, in his book “British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792”, she was purchased on the stocks in 1779 and was originally designed to be a cutter.  On the sheer plan one can see where the original mast (located at the dead flat) was erased from the plan.  She was registered as a sloop and originally carried fourteen 4pdr guns.  The following year, four 18pdr carronades were added.  There is no mention of swivel guns, although the plan shows mountings for twenty-two of them.  With Lively, Swallow captured the US privateer Black Prince in 1779.  She was coppered in 1780 and on August 26, 1781,, Swallow was run ashore and burnt to avoid capture by US privateers off Long Island.
 
The first order of business was to develop a set of plans.  Comparing the plans with the model revealed several inconsistencies.  Starting at the bow, the model has a much larger stem with cheeks, rails, a false rail and a figurehead.  The bowsprit come out of the hull in the midline.  The plans show a simple stem and the bowsprit exits the hull to the port side of the stem.  The model shows the capstan at midships but the plan has it aft of the main mast.  The locations of the various hatch covers also differ between the model and the plan.  There is a difference in the deadeye configurations and the swivel guns are not modeled.  Finally, although the gold detailing is stunning, this little boat certainly would have never been decorated in other but the simplest schema.  To make things even more confusing, in small print on the plan is the following..."a copy of this was given to Mr. Ladd for finishing two cutters the Board bought of him when half built 9 Feb? 1779".  And, yes, the question mark was in the sentence as written.  So the plan is actually the proposal for finishing and not as-finished.  
 
I had to decide whether I was going to model a model or model a ship.  Because the model is most likely a presentation piece, I decided to use the plans layout rather than the model's.  This still left me with concerns.  The biggest one was whether to model the swivels.  Since the model does not show them and Winfield does not mention them, I decided to leave them off.  There is also no "proper" access to the lower deck on the plan but a companionway is visible on the model.  I have added a ladder and companionway.  If any of you have additional information or insights to the contrary, please let me know.  Things are easy to change at this point.
 
This was going to be a plank on bulkhead model.  My reason for this construction style was that the beauty of this ship will be in the clinker planking; therefore, both sides of the hull will be completely planked.  I will be installing the lower deck and its associated fittings in the mid-ships area as I plan on making the hatch covers removable.  Plans were developed using the tutorial written by Wayne Kempson which is found in the Modeler’s Database. 
http://modelshipworldforum.com/resources/plans_and_research/DraftingShipPlansInCADwayne.pdf  TurboCAD 18 was my CAD program. 

Once the plans were developed I made a half hull in 1:96 scale to make sure that I did not have any glaring errors in my rendering.  

 
 
 

I am embarrassed to say I have made a real rookie mistake.
 
One of my newsletter recipients informed me that whaleboats only had 5 oarlocks, not 10. I went back to the plans, and realized that I only looked at the side view, saw 5 oarlocks, and assumed that it was 5 per side. If I had paid attention to the plans top view, I would have noticed that there were only 3 oarlock pads on the starboard, and 2  on the port side. Now I have to rip out half of my work.
 

USS Cairo is a fascinating vessel and I'm thrilled to see a build log for her.  I visited the Vicksburg NMP for the first time about 20 years ago.  I've been back twice since and it's an amazing place.  Grant's Vicksburg Campaign was the most complex and successful of the war and the more one learns about it the more amazing it becomes.  Outside of professional military circles, I don't think it gets the attention it deserves.  Inside military circles, it does.  The U.S. Army used the campaign as a model of operational warfare until the first Gulf War when it was replaced in the field manuals with General Schwarzkopf's campaign in Iraq.
 
I'm really looking forward to your build!
 
 
Dan



 
 

What a wonderful model!
 
Are the plans available from The Trireme Trust?  I looked at their website and saw some pictures, but didn't see where you could buy a set of plans.  And are those the plans you used?
 
I would love to build a model of Olympias.  Maybe someday...
 
 
Dan

What a wonderful model!
 
Are the plans available from The Trireme Trust?  I looked at their website and saw some pictures, but didn't see where you could buy a set of plans.  And are those the plans you used?
 
I would love to build a model of Olympias.  Maybe someday...
 
 
Dan