Keith Black

Thank you, Rick. I don't have years of technical know how to share with you guys, each build is very much a learn as i go effort. Consequently, I don't take myself too seriously and i try very hard to make my builds a fun experience for everyone who follows along.

Thank you for the comment, Tony. Research is our middle name.

Eric, I dunno? It's either that I'm not too bright or i love to mentally torture myself and everyone else.

Hear, hear.

Deleted due to the wrong link being posted.

Because of the below I would feel comfortable moving the mystery sternwheeler's location from Puget Sound to Lake Washington. https://mynorthwest.com/history/solving-the-1870s-photo-mystery-of-lake-washington-coal-shipping/3901509 From the above. "It was back in the 1870s when coal was being mined in what’s now the Eastside suburbs east of Lake Washington near what’s now Newport and Newcastle. Many of the mines were located in what’s now King County’s Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park near Newcastle. Extracting coal was one of the first large-scale industrial undertakings in this area, ahead of even large-scale timber extraction in many ways. The outfit doing the work was called the Seattle Coal and Transportation Company. The coal they were extracting from Newcastle was being sold as far away as San Francisco – but it took a complex system just to get the coal to the waterfront to be loaded on ships in Elliott Bay at the foot of Pike Street. In those long-ago days before the Montlake Cut, the transportation effort required barges on Lake Washington; a short “portage railroad” from Union Bay on Lake Washington to Portage Bay on Lake Union; barges on Lake Union from Portage Bay to roughly where MOHAI now stands; and then the city’s first railroad along what’s now Westlake Avenue."

I highly recommend any off model mast work. Bruce. The more one can do off model the better.

Thank you, Paul. When I line them up on my worktable they look as if they would display well together.

Because the Mosquito Fleet operated in Puget Sound I maybe changing the mystery sternwheeler's area of operations to Lake Washington. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Washington_steamboats_and_ferries The sternwheeler towboat Lena C. Gray was built in the 1870's and operated on Lake Washington towing barges. In my mind I see the Gray as being the type of sternwheeler towboat I'm most familiar with both in design (including knees) and operations. To my eye it appears the main deck is like those found on sternwheelers operating on rivers and harbors in the East. I took a shine to this particular sternwheeler because of it's quirkiness and it's boxcar red color. I'm also captivated trying to figure out what the heck the mystery object is on the mystery sternwheeler's pilothouse roof. The mystery object sits on legs, it's not sitting flush on the roof suggesting it's not very heavy. A ladder leads up the back of the pilothouse to the roof which suggest servicing. There appears to be a burner type mechanism atop the mystery object. I thought it might be some type of carbide lamp but there's no reflector and the history time frame of carbide doesn't coincide plus there appear to be running lights on the hurricane deck. In my research of the Mosquito Fleet and past research of ships in the East i've not seen another object like this. Keith

Thank you, mcb.

Thank you very much, John. Thank you kindly, John. Thank you, Jacques.

Congratulations on completing the wheels, John. 👍

Thank you to everyone for the comments and the likes. The wood portion of barge is basically done. I still need to add layers of weathering. I didn't plank the deck where the dredge material is going to be as it didn't make sense to use wood supplies needlessly. I made the barge smaller, 26 ft x 80 ft rather than the 30 ft x 100 ft i had originally considered for two reasons. 1) the feel of the 30 x 100 footprint seemed to overpower the towboat and 2) this is the same length as Lula and the pile driver and would make displaying the two side by side much easier. I'm leaning towards leaving the ends of the barge open. Thank you to all for following along. Keith

Yes they are, Keith. They were a passion that burned bright till I retired and the money dried up. That old passion bubbles to the surface when I watch episodes of Bangers and Cash. There's nothing like heating with wood, the smell and the warmth produced feels much better than gas or electric heat. I'm having a difficult time finding information on this subject as it relates to the Mosquito Fleet. Coal being more efficient and cheaper in the long run makes me wonder why coal wasn't embraced particularly considering it was mined right there. I can't find anything on coal tenders in the Puget Sound during that time period. Tis a mystery to me.

Amazing results thus far, Glen. I'm starting to clinch.

Those chainplates turned out super, Steve. 👍

Thank you for following along, Keith. Maybe you could help me out of this sternwheeler rut by popping over to Mathewsons and see what they have in the way of prewar cycle wing sports cars.

Thank you, Eric. i've mulled this over in my mind all morning and maybe, it purely physiological. Everywhere one looked in the PNW, there was a ready supply of fuel. Coal on the other hand was buried deep underground and had to be dragged to the surface and often times brought to a stop because of striking miners. That was never the case with wood as it was too easily had. When I lived in Kittitas County in the 70's we bought a house in Thorp, Washington where we used wood for heating, cooking and for making hot water for bathing and washing. And yes, I was a hippie living the dream. It took ten cords of wood (primarily Doug fir) a year for our fuel needs. There was a great feeling of freedom standing next to ten cords of split wood when frost covered the windows on early October mornings. keith I've inserted links throughout this log thus far, if I've posted this one before, my apologies. https://blackdiamondhistory.wordpress.com/2023/09/08/when-coal-was-king-on-puget-sound/

Glad to see you posting once again, Johann.

@mdulaney, MD, first i want to thank you for showing Ed Brown this thread and posting same. Second I want to thank Ed for the write up. The following facts derived using Douglas Fir as the wood species. The size of a cord of wood is 128 cu ft, 4 x 4 x 8 feet. A cord of dry Douglas Fir weighs approximately 3,000 pounds. It requires two, 12 inch diameter x 20 foot logs to produce a cord of wood. The size of a ton of coal is 36 cu ft, 3 x 3 x 4 feet. The cost of a cord of wood in Seattle in 1890 was between $2.00 and $4.00. The cost of coal in Seattle in 1890 was between $5.00 and $7.00 per ton. The heat energy of a ton of coal equals 1.5 cords of wood. Fuel usage: A 100 foot sternwheeler operating in Puget Sound would require approximately between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds of coal or 1.5 to three cords of wood per hour. 24 hour operations using coal at a rate of 1,500 pounds per hour equals a weight of 36,000 pounds per 24 hour period with a storage requirement of 648 cu ft. At a cost of $6.00 per ton, 24 hour operating cost equals $108.00 24 hour operations using wood at a rate of two cords per hour equals a wood weight of 144,000 pounds per 24 hour period with a storage requirement of 6,144 cu ft. At a cost of $3.00 per cord, 24 hour operating cost equals $144.00 The Bailey Gatzert could use up to three cords of wood per hour. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey_Gatzert_(sternwheeler) Based on the above, coal was the better choice of fuel both practically and economically. I don't understand why a sternwheeler built in 1890 would be designed to use wood as a fuel source? Seattle's first railroad was built specifically to transport coal from mines to the port. . The Seattle Coal & Transportation Company built the first line, a tram and ferry system, which began operating in March 1872 to haul coal from the Newcastle mines. This was followed by the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad, the first proper steam-powered railroad, which also hauled coal from the Newcastle mines to Elliott Bay and was highly profitable. Seattle Coal & Transportation Company: This company built the first railroad in the area, a system of trams and barges, to move coal from the Newcastle mines to a dock on Lake Union and then to bunkers at the foot of Pike Street by 1872. Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad: A steam-powered railroad that began operating in 1873, extending 21 miles from Steele's Landing on the Duwamish River to the Newcastle coal mines. It was highly profitable from transporting coal to Elliott Bay piers and helped establish Seattle as an economic center.

Oh my, Glen. This is gonna take hours of open bottle surgery.

Allen, I doubt anything you try will make it worse. keep at it till it either straightens or you give up. Worse case scenario is you have to purchase another piece of dowel.

Would you please provide the reference source from which you derived this conclusion as my research indicated that once coal was discovered and developed, coal became the primary fuel source for the Mosquito Fleet. Early coal development. https://www.historylink.org/File/5158 From https://www.historylink.org/file/869 "Initially, wood was the fuel of choice, but it was replaced by more efficient coal and later by oil. (In the 1890s, King and Pierce counties produced about a million tons of coal annually. " Thank you for posting. Keith

I agree, John. I meant AFTER the repair/repairs were made.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Having said that what you don't want to do is make it worse than it is. if you plank bender works I'd still weight the end and hang vertically for a few days.