Windships

Mike. I’ve not watched this last week. Great progress. One thing you might consider in the bow is to fill the area where the cant frames would be in POF with solid wood. You could use the waterlines to shape 2-3 “lifts”. They would give plenty of support to the plank ends. 

Guessing you have yet to cut those two bulkheads aft, to their Station shapes?

getting out a copy of the drawings so I can follow your comments better. You are inspiring me to get back to my model. Thanks!! 

Mike

can you post post a photo of the Stern region of your backbone please? I’m curious about how the Stern Board will be supported especially if you want the Great Cabbin to be open. 

Ill be out most of this morning. 

HOWARD STEAMBOAT MUSEUM - THIS JUST IN

04/14/2021

Did you ever want to know how the fabulous models in the museum came to be? Have you ever wanted to meet a person who builds maritime models? Would you like to attend lectures with some of the premiere builders of maritime models?

Then you are going to be interested in a very special day at the Howard Steamboat Museum.

River Ramblings 2021 - A Scale Model Symposium

Spend the day with us and become immersed in the world of scale modeling as you meet model builders who are sharing their hand-crafted models, listen to talks by some of the modelers, and peruse the Howard Steamboat Museum and its amazing collection of scale model steamboats.

We will have light snacks available for purchase, a River Rummage Sale of all sorts of unique river items, and the museum will be open for you to enjoy.

10, October 2021 from 12:00pm to 4:00pm EDT
The Howard Steamboat Museum
1101 East Market Street
Jeffersonville, IN. 47130
(812) 283-3728
info@howardsteamboatmuseum.org

Admission $10.00 per person

https://www.amazon.com/Steamboats-Colorado-1852-1916-Richard-Lingenfelter/dp/0816505675

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=steamboats+on+the+colorado+river+1852+-+1916&t=opera&page=1&sexp={"biaexp"%3A"b"%2C"msvrtexp"%3A"b"}&iax=images&ia=images

I see where I got that last image.

Thanks for that possible lead.

Coincidentally, I just received the newspaper scans I mentioned earlier in this thread.

No mention whatsoever of the Z. Biddle.

Her official documentation shows her home port as St Louis. I believe that is because her bare hull was towed there from Griggsville Landing on the Illinois, where it was built in August 1878 to install her machinery and stern paddlewheel, and there she was enroled and license issued. But, I know she operated from Phillips Ferry on the Illinois and not out of St Louis.

None of the research I did in and around St Louis bore fruit. It is nearly impossible to search St Louis newspapers though because a major street there is Biddle Street, which gets captured and returned in hundreds of looks.

Exasperating!

Thanks very much!

We're not far away here in Star, Idaho and intend a trip to Billings to see family, sometime this year.

Sounds like a great side-trip.

All best!

My thanks to both of you.

I'm not certain, but the collection sounded familiar to me, and I believe I checked as well.

During that period (1878-1892) we know that there were numerous portrait photographers active in the area (Pike County - Griggsville - Pittsfield) which suggests that even in very small towns (population under 1200) photographs were not unknown. Of course portrait cameras would have been less portable than one potentially used in the field. Regardless, we know of no photos of the Griggsville Landing area (east of Griggsville, and a bit south of Valley City on the Illinois River) where larger steamboats were constructed as early as 1845. One large warehouse there survives (2020). There are a very small number of structures at Valley City, now essentially a ghost town after the 1993 Mississippi floods. It is unclear, precisely where Phillips Ferry landing was located--the place from which our ferry would have operated to cross the river to Scott County. We have checked both sides of the river (libraries and historical societies) but no luck. A local Pike County newspaper ran an article I wrote asking for help, but it got no replies.

Within a few days I expect digital delivery of scans from microfilm newspapers (Abraham Lincoln Library & Museum) for dates of significance in the life of the ferry. After nearly seven months of searching, these pages are probably our last best hope of any contemporary description of the ferry. A request is outstanding to NARA in Kansas City, MO for a wreck report (if one exists) and anything else they might hold.

If these wells are dry, then the alternative is a speculative reconstruction. Might be fun, and probably the only effort that will result in a photo of the ferry surfacing...after the model is completed!! 

This ferry is very similar dimensionally, but built in 1914.

The Google Earth view was provided by a member of the Pike County Historical Society. The bridge used to carry Wabash Railroad trains (my Dad and his, both worked for that road as draftsmen.)

Yesterday I received my copies of Alan Bates' two books from the Howard Steamboat Museum.

Excellent new printing. I was mistaken though. It is the WR Steamboat Cyclopoedium which is now comb bound, and the Engine Room Cyclopoedium (a much shorter, but well-illustrated) volume is not. Speaking selfishly, I wish his primary fold-out drawing was for a sternwheeler rather than a sidewheeler.

If I ever find what I need for a responsible model of the ferry Z. BIDDLE, no doubt these two books will be invaluable.

Many years ago, my friend Richard (Dick) Boss built well-researched models of the various vessels employed by Lewis & Clark. There was at least one article in the Nautical Research Journal about that project. I don't know where the models went. Dick died not long after.

He also built the model of the San Francisco Bay scow schooner Robbie Hunter, which I believe is still owned by the San Francisco Maritime Museum, and an excellent model of USS Porpoise ("They came on Porpoise" was the name of the NRJ article).

We all remember (I think...) the Disney TV series about Mike Fink and the keelboat days.

I have a book about Keelboat Days (on the Mississippi?).

Nothing sweeter than a comely vessel in frame. She looks very good Maury!

https://www.amazon.com/Steamboats-Colorado-1852-1916-Richard-Lingenfelter/dp/0816505675

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=steamboats+on+the+colorado+river+1852+-+1916&t=opera&page=1&sexp={"biaexp"%3A"b"%2C"msvrtexp"%3A"b"}&iax=images&ia=images

I see where I got that last image.

I wonder if there is a book about them?

In the Needles, California Museum - near the Colorado River, there is a notebook containing photos of steamboats on that river. Apparently they were constructed up near San Francisco, knocked down, transported around Cabo San Lucas and up into the Sea of Cortez and the mouth of the Colorado River. There was a shipyard there, where they were assembled, and then worked up and down the river as far as Yuma Arizona.

The might river is  now silted in, but there are vestiges of that "port"

Not certain whether the last one below is from the Colorado.

The others I snapped from their notebook or off the walls.

In case Kurt hasn't been able to post this (he first told be about the book being available at the Howard Steamboat Museum) here is some very good news.

ALAN BATES - Engine Room Cyclopedium, and Western Rivers Steamboat Cyclopedium. - NEW COPIES AVAILABLE

On May 5, 2021, at 12:22 PM, Kadie Engstrom <kdsteamboat1914@yahoo.com> wrote:

I have just heard that the Engine Room Cyclopedium books will be in our hands tomorrow, May 6. That means I can send it out to you once I have your credit card number (with expiration date and security code) and your mailing address. It will probably be better to call me with that info, instead of putting it out on cyberspace, and I'm here all day tomorrow and Friday, 10 am - 4 pm EDT at 812-283-3728. I'll be most happy to do it!

We're also receiving some Steamboat Cyclopediums, in case that becomes an interest for your group. Both books are $25 each, plus tax and shipping. I hope if any of the people you'll send your message to are interested in inland waterways river steamboats, they will let me know how I can help them.

The Engine Room Cyclopediums are comb bound so they open flat for workbench reference.

The Steamboat Cyclopediums although bound the same as the original issue, also open flat.

These editions are being printed on demand. The museum has all of Alan Bates's originals and rights thereto.

Many, many thanks! I'm glad we're going to be able to provide what you've been looking for!

Kadie

Forgot to  mention...nothing better than having great photos.

Congratulations for persevering to locate everything there seems to be about her as a Schooner.

Maury

You're Flyin' and she'll soon be Floatin'!

Looks great. Should encourage me to get back to my bench!

RB

Hello Calvin,

A long time since you posted about this brig PILGRIM. But if you are still searching, perhaps I can help you.

Reply to my email at windships@earthlink.net, or by replying to this post.

All Best,

Randy Biddle

You mean the RITA B?

Here it is. 1:96, and one of the most difficult models I ever attempted.

Interesting coincidence about this ferry...she carries the same name as my great aunt, Edna (Rhodes) Biddle.

There are several USS Biddle's but I am not related to any of their namesakes.

Never found a vessel with a direct connection to my Mom's family, McLeans of New Brunswick along the Miramichi River.

But I do have some indications of them being in the ship building or ship timber business.

In one of the documents I got from NARA it specifies the height of the letters (10 inches I think it said) on the transom for the name of the vessel, and that in the case of the Z. Biddle, they are to be White on a Black background. Just the opposite of what we see on the Edna.

But here is a towboat "named after my wife" RITA... and then my model of the AD Story dragger named RITA B.

FUN

Thanks to Kurt for pointing me to the Howard Steamboat Museum, from where I was directed to their digitized photo collection at this link.

https://digital.library.louisville.edu/cdm/search/collection/howard/searchterm/edna/order/nosort

The EDNA seems a good archetype were I to try to reconstruct the appearance of the Z. BIDDLE.

They are very close in principal dimensions, with EDNA being slightly shorter, a bit wider, and a bit deeper. (64.7 x 19 x 3)

Of course without any detail description or photo of the Z. BIDDLE yet located, any model would just be an informed speculation.

When I enlarge it in Picasa (is there a better app for organizing photos? Looking for one.) I see almost a bark-like texture to that feature, and I don't see any vertical separations that you would see if it were sections of a rolled tarp, so, yes, it probably is a spar of some sort.

Other examples...

In another view, not pasted here, the weather cloth was painted as if it were a billboard.

I think we are looking at two different things?

If these are weather cloths, they would protect against rain/snow getting to the stowed firewood and any other cargo for which moisture might be a problem?  A deceased mentor of mine (Robert A. Weinstein) always encouraged us to ask "How is this used?" if we wanted to understand something in an image, or when we wanted to represent it on a model.

I have no idea what the lighter colored tubular feature might be.

If you figured out what the darker "tube" is, maybe I missed that post.

Thanks. Yes I have Ways. My Dad, his and my great grandfather were all born in Valley City. 

Im new to using MSW and steamboats but to an old post of yours about a tubular structure along the edge of the second deck... wondering if it might be tightly rolled up weather cloths?

Many thanks Kurt

I’ll ask and let you know 

That’s a resource I haven’t considered in the nearly six months I’ve been chasing this ferry

All best

Randy

Does anyone have a copy of Alan Bates - Western River Engineroom Cyclopeodium they would offer for sale?

As you probably know, this is the companion piece to his Western Rivers Steamboat Cyclopeodium (I have a copy).

Beginning to sketch up the Illinois River steam sternwheel ferry named for my 4th great grandfather Zachariah Biddle, as the Z. Biddle (1878-1892)

I have good data from the NARA in DC and more coming (I hope from NARA, Kansas, City) but so far no description or photos.

In addition to this book if anyone has info on the ferry, please contact me via personal email as well as posting here.

She was short and narrow - roughly (60 ft x 16ft x 2ft) plus whatever the size of the stern paddlewheel assembly might have been.

There are probably thousands of great images of steamboats, and several ferries for the Mississippi, Missouri and the Ohio, but very few for the Illinois River.

Thanks