Cathead

I believe the boats used by the British on the Tigris and Euphrates were the Insect class gunboats as well as barges and other local craft that were available.  I can't remember where I saw it but there was a book on the the first world war in Mesopotamia that has several pictures of the British boats on the rivers.

Back again from a short search, here comes a bit more. The Oscar Huber, a big river tugboat, he is still alive, located in Duisburg as a museum ship https://www.google.at/search?q=raddampfer+oscar+huber&client=firefox-b&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7gcmXlZbNAhWMIMAKHZ7-BY4QsAQIKA&biw=1272&bih=902#imgrc=_
 
And there was the "Le Rhone" an even large tugboat, she had a turbine instead of a usual steam engine, and side wheels, her general plan is on digipeer http://www.digipeer.de/index.php?id=648324079
I cant show the photos, I am not sure if they are copyrighted.
 
Regards
Gerhard

Most of the austrian wheelers are gone, just the Schönbrunn is in use for public or for charter tours. http://www.oegeg.at/schifffahrt/
Switzerland has a lot more of this old ships still at the lakes, even the worldwide oldest existing ship, the RIGI is still alive but not floating. She is at restoration on front of the "Verkehrshaus" in Zürich, I build (beneath my others) a 1:50 scale model of her in her first appearance from  1848 https://www.verkehrshaus.ch/de/museum/schifffahrt/ds-rigi. She was a postship in her early days, used for goods and personal transport.
The photos show the RIGI in her first appearance.

 

 
I will try to find more about the european steamers but lots of infos were lost during WW2!
Regards
Gerhard

Wow,
how was it working with that poplar? All that squirrely grain on curves looks daunting.
Sam

That is gorgeous.

That is gorgeous.

That is gorgeous.

That is gorgeous.

Thanks Buck, Nils and for all the likes.
 
I finished up with the planking above the waterline as well as the planksheer on the fore and aft decks. Now comes the process of planking the decks. I took a bit of time also on getting the transom fine tuned a little better, it looked a little wonky.
 

Thanks for the website address.  Hope your engine works as well.  Lee wrote that it was hard to overcome the spring pressure of the poppet valve.  In Alan L. Bates book, "The Western Rivers Engineroom Cyclopedium",   He shows the design of the balanced poppet valve the riverboats used.  Hardly any force was needed to operate it.
 
Bob

Yeah, hog chains didn't come along until later.

Yeah, hog chains didn't come along until later.

Yeah, hog chains didn't come along until later.

I love the raw wood. That cherry almost looks like copper. Beautifully done.

Thanks Patrick and Pat,
 
Cathead, yes the trusses and camber would have made things a lot more difficult. I wonder how much problem Heroine would have had with water on deck with the flat beams. Although, we have evidence that her beam ends were sagging outboard -- would have shed a little water. I'm also amazed at how her upper structure was supported only by rows of 5 or 6 inch square posts. I can't wait to put them in place. It is going to look like it is supported with toothpicks. Thanks for the good luck wishes!

Wow, I'm jealous. Bertrand had hog trusses, sheer, AND camber to her main & boiler decks. I eliminated the camber on the boiler deck for sanity's sake, but still felt I had to build it in place. I cannot wait to see how your deck drops in. Having the CAD skills is a really nice piece of your toolkit. Good luck, if that's the right phrase!

Wow, I'm jealous. Bertrand had hog trusses, sheer, AND camber to her main & boiler decks. I eliminated the camber on the boiler deck for sanity's sake, but still felt I had to build it in place. I cannot wait to see how your deck drops in. Having the CAD skills is a really nice piece of your toolkit. Good luck, if that's the right phrase!

Wow, I'm jealous. Bertrand had hog trusses, sheer, AND camber to her main & boiler decks. I eliminated the camber on the boiler deck for sanity's sake, but still felt I had to build it in place. I cannot wait to see how your deck drops in. Having the CAD skills is a really nice piece of your toolkit. Good luck, if that's the right phrase!

Wow, I'm jealous. Bertrand had hog trusses, sheer, AND camber to her main & boiler decks. I eliminated the camber on the boiler deck for sanity's sake, but still felt I had to build it in place. I cannot wait to see how your deck drops in. Having the CAD skills is a really nice piece of your toolkit. Good luck, if that's the right phrase!

Wow, I'm jealous. Bertrand had hog trusses, sheer, AND camber to her main & boiler decks. I eliminated the camber on the boiler deck for sanity's sake, but still felt I had to build it in place. I cannot wait to see how your deck drops in. Having the CAD skills is a really nice piece of your toolkit. Good luck, if that's the right phrase!

Thanks everybody,
 
Greg, I've never tried this before and hope it works. It helps that I don't have any crown to the deck to deal with and Heroine had no hogging trusses that would have made alignment very difficult. The shear is minimal and the two decks run parallel with a nine foot separation. I have selected a couple of post locations that I consider crucial and have worked in a slight fore and aft allowance for the rest to adjust them as needed. It all seems to work well in AutoCAD, I just hope there are no surprises.

I'm not sure about the initial aspects of the procedure, but as far as removing the hot material safely from the boat, many boats had a special ash trough that allowed the hot coals & such to be swept/washed away from the boilers, either over the side or through an opening in the guards. Here is a picture of the brick-lined ash trough from my Bertrand build.
 

 
As for boiler explosions, they were quite common on western riverboats, due to a combination of high-pressure boilers, limited or no safety equipment (such as dial pressure gauges), limited knowledge/training of the engineers running the boilers, and a commercial (and passenger) culture which favored speed and power over safety and caution.
 
For a long time, the only safety valve on riverboat boilers was a simple weighted lever, which was very easy for an ambitious engineer to over-weight or even tie down, increasing the pressure in the boilers. With no clear testing or standards, no one really knew what pressure boilers could hold, and there was no calibrated way to measure pressure. Water levels in the boiler also couldn't be measured easily (again, no gauges), so this too was guesswork and instinct. Thus, if water levels got too low, or levels fluctuated as suggested for Sultana, boom with no warning.
 
All of this was made much more likely by the river culture of the time, in which the fastest boats received premium rates and reputations, regardless of safety concerns. In addition, river conditions could lead to explosions, as when boats attempted to force a bar or round a bend under high-water conditions, needing every ounce of steam in the attempt. One particularly deadly explosion in central Missouri happened after a boat repeatedly tried to round a bend in front of a towns-worth of onlooker, failing over and over and being swept back downstream in embarrassment, before the engineer apparently tied down the pressure valve and went for it all. The boat blew up mid-bend, sending debris into the onlookers on the bluff and killing many passengers.
 
Glenn, I'm curious how you know the Heroine had four boilers. The number varied from boat to boat; I was surprised to learn that Bertrand only had two. Also, do you know what kind of pump the water supply used?

Another interesting question is how to judge responses. Does a post with X likes show the same level of interest as X different people saying the same thing? I know I agree with several other suggestions here and have "liked" them, without wanting to clutter up the thread by saying so out loud (so to speak). If the thread is read in a linear fashion, lots of similar posts will feel like they have more weight as opposed to an older post that piles up likes that aren't noticed unless one goes back and looks.
 
For example, I love the idea of more exploration ships (especially Beagle and Endurance) but felt that liking the initial suggestion was sufficient. Is that how it's read by those who want the input?

Hello Everybody,
 
I didn't get a chance to post last week.  I took a few days off to take the family to the beach before the Memorial day weekend.  We had a great time but returned to Tornadoes and floods in College Station. 
 
Since my last post, I spent three days framing the boiler deck and two days tearing it apart and rebuilding it.  One incorrect measurement threw several of the beams out of location.  I think everything is finally correct and I should be able to drop the deck on the model in the coming week.
 
The deck before the rebuild.

 
After rebuild.  The shifting of the deck beams is difficult to see but, I also found it necessary to extend the overhang of the walkway by a few inches.  The notch in the doubled beam amidships will fit around the two posts supporting the feedwater pump lever.

 

 
I've been putting off securing the paddle wheels in place -- it's easier to move the model with the wheels off.  Now that the boiler deck is going on, it's time to assemble the clutch mechanism for the paddle wheels.
 
Milling the pocket for the shaft end.

 
Before and after milling.

 
The final contour was hand filed.

 
Test fitting one of the throw-out bearings.

 
The original throw-out bearing weighed over 300 pounds.  Amazingly, when we reassembled the the original pieces, the heavy bearing slid easily and smoothly along the shaft end with only the moderate pressure of one finger on each side.

 
 
 

Chuck,
 
If there was sufficient interest there, I would like to see a series of quality mid 1800's American merchant sail.  This is an interesting period of marine history and it played an inportant role in developing the United States economy.  Additionally, the brigs, brigantines, packards, and clipper ships were beautiful ships.
 
Key attributes for these kits would include: quality plans, quality instructions, quality fittings, and prime wood.  Hull construction could be POB or POS.  Fabrication of deck furniture, masts, spars could be left to the modeler.
 
Regards,
Pete