Glen McGuire

Idle hands are indeed the devil’s workshop, so it’s time to get busy on another SIB project. My dear friend that had the major stroke last year suggested that I do a paddlewheel ship for my next build. I told her that I only do sailing ships. She told me to find a paddlewheel ship with sails. DUH! I didn’t even know if there was such a thing but figured I would start digging around and see what I could find. Turns out that ships with paddlewheels and sails were not uncommon back in the mid-1800s during the long period of transition from sail to steam. Apparently, the early steam engines that were used to turn the paddlewheels could be unreliable, so many of the ships were equipped with sails as a backup source of propulsion. As I was reading about the various sail and steam ships from that mid-1800 period, one group of vessels in particular grabbed my attention – the daring blockade runners hired by the Confederacy that stealthily roamed the Atlantic and Gulf coasts during the U.S. Civil War. I like to build my ships with full sails (personal preference because I like how it looks) but it seemed like every picture I found of these sail and steam blockade runners did not have sails deployed. I finally found one that did (the Ella Anne), so now I was ok with doing one of these blockade runner ships. For those who may be interested, here’s a very brief history of the Confederate blockade runners and the one I chose as the subject for this SIB project. The Union Blockade In the run-up to the U.S. Civil War, the Union army’s commanding general, Winfield Scott, devised a broad land and sea-based strategy for defeating the South. It became known as the “Anaconda Plan” and was mocked by some pundits as “Scott’s Great Snake” for its vision of slowly squeezing the life out of the southern states rather than trying to hit the South hard and fast for a quick victory. Shortly after the first shots were fired on Fort Sumner, in April 1861, Lincoln’s secretary of state William Henry Seward pressed for a naval blockade of southern ports used by the Confederate states. Lincoln agreed and by July of 1861, while not fully adopting the Anaconda Plan, the Union Navy established a blockade. The Union’s blockade focused first on the South’s Atlantic seaboard ports and effectively shut them down early in the war. It was extended to the Florida keys and resulted in the South abandoning all major ports except for Mobile, Alabama, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Galveston, Texas. New Orleans fell in April of 1862 and Mobile two years later. Galveston remained the only major port defended and held by the South until the end of the war. The Blockade Runners The South had no real factories to produce machinery and weapons for the war. But they did have cotton, which was of high value to Europe and especially England. An unofficial partnership of sorts was formed between the Confederacy and England (who had an official stance of neutrality for the war). Blockade running ships of British design were manufactured in British shipyards. The ships were built for speed, with shallow drafts and steam power plants. Privateers were hired to captain the ships. The captains operated under a Letter of Marque granted by the Confederate government which authorized them to cross international orders and take action against attack or injury. They made daring runs through the Union blockade to trade arms and supplies for cotton, thus providing key commerce for the South’s war effort. Here are a couple of the typical blockade running ships – the Advance and the Teaser. The Banshee II In Gaelic legend, the Banshee is a female spirit whose shrieking or wailing warns of an impending death in a house. There were actually two blockade runners named Banshee that were used by the South during the war. The original Banshee was a steel-hulled 533-ton side-wheel steamship built in Liverpool, England, in 1862. It was the first ship designed specifically for penetrating the Union blockade and was the first ever steel-hulled ship to cross the Atlantic (over 200 more British-built blockade runners followed over the next 3 years). After 8 successful blockade runs, the Banshee was captured in 1863 and converted to a Union gunboat. The Banshee II was launched in 1864 and considered state of the art in ship design. Like her predecessor, she was built with a steel hull. She was 252 feet long with a 31 foot beam, grossed 439 tons, and had a draft of only 11 feet at full weight. The Banshee II was driven by two sidewheels and could achieve a remarkable 15 knots. She was manned with English officers and Confederate pilots and crew. As it was late in the war when the Banshee II entered the fray, her wartime naval career was short, consisting of a single run from Havana to Galveston and back. But what her career lacked in duration, it made up for in excitement. She will be the subject for this SIB project. Galveston, Texas Captained by Englishman Tom Taylor, The Banshee II left Havana, Cuba in March 1865 fully loaded with munitions and supplies for a blockade run to Galveston. As the ship approached the Texas coast, Taylor described the first night and blockade encounter as such: “It was a comparatively calm and very dark night, but within an hour all had changed and it commenced to blow a regular ‘Norther.’ Rain came down in torrents, then out of the inky blackness of clouds and rain came furious gusts, until a hurricane was blowing against which, notwithstanding that we were steaming at full speed, we made little or no way. Suddenly we made out some dark objects all around us, and found ourselves drifting helplessly among the ships of the blockading squadron, which were steaming hard to their anchors, and at one moment we were almost jostling two of them. Whether they knew what we were, or mistook us for one of themselves matters not; they were too much occupied about their own safety to attempt to interfere.” Taylor allowed the Banshee II to drift clear of the Union fleet and drop anchor. Later in the night, Taylor eased slowly up the coast till he caught sight of the blockade ships. At daybreak, he ordered a risky but successful dash through the blockade. Momentarily clear of the blockade and nearing the Texas coast, but still 11 miles from Galveston, the Banshee II developed mechanical problems and spent an anxious night effecting repairs just out of sight from Union ships. Moments before sunrise, the Banshee II raised anchor and steamed forward towards Galveston Bay. As daylight broke, Taylor found his ship in close quarters with the Union fleet. They came under immediate fire and Taylor had to make a life or death decision – go for a short but perilous dash to the bay or bail out and head for the open waters of the Gulf. He chose the perilous dash and described it like this: “With two leadsmen in the chains we approached our fate, taking no notice of the bursting shells and round shot to which the blockaders treated us in their desperation. It was not a question of the fathoms but of the feet we were drawing: twelve feet, ten, nine, and when we put her at it, as you do a horse at a jump, and as her nose was entering the white water, ‘eight feet’ was sung out. A moment afterwards we touched and hung; and I thought all was over, when a big wave came rolling along and lifted our stern and the ship bodily with a crack which could be heard a quarter of a mile off, and which we thought meant that her back was broken.” The Union fleet rained fire upon the Banshee II, but the rough waters around Galveston played havoc with their accuracy. Miraculously, the Banshee II made it to the bay with only one crewman wounded and the ship suffering only from shell splinters. Captain, crew, and ship received a hero’s welcome from much of the town that had gathered on the city’s wharf to watch the fireworks. The Banshee II returned to Havana without incident, but by the time Captain Taylor reached the Cuban port, the War Between the States was over and the Banshee II’s military career came to an end. In the next post, I’ll start getting into specifics of the SIB project.

If it was me, Micha, I'd write off the first effort as a learning experience and start over with the second kit. We can all learn from the trials and tribulations of others. So yes, I like your suggested approach.

Very nice work! And happy birthday!

Just found your build log, Harvey. Fantastic modeling job on such a unique ship. Love the diorama setting. Well done in every respect!!

That wheel looks great, Steven!

Incredible work, Gary (as usual!).

Just found this build log (thanks to a head-up from @Ian_Grant) and got caught up our your progress, Peter. Looks great so far and very good explanations of your work! This is going to be fun to watch it come together!

Ditto what Keith said. Fantastic job! A well deserved keg of Kraken rum for you, the first mate, and the twins!!

Yes, Please! That would be fascinating (and helpful).

You and me both, Ian! Strainer body, booster pumps, vapor return, bursting discs...my head is spinning! I do have a question, Roel. I may have missed it in an earlier post, but what is your guide for such a complex piping layout? Do you have plans from the ship, are you going off pictures, are you designing it on your own?

Beautiful work on that decking, Grant!

I don't know about that, Bob. I think ol' Nessie may have somehow made it half way around the world and found a new home in your water. And BTW, really nice job on that water as well as the painting of the sail. Well done on both!!

Great vacation pics, Ian! I need to go there and see if I can snag some of those bottles!!

Just ran across this log, Steven. A very cool project and amazingly well done in such a short time. Like Pat, I doff my hat. I hope that "chuffed" means the people that run the museum liked your model!

How can you have fires up there? I thought there was snow and ice everywhere?? Choco Taco was fixing to head your way but he changed his mind now.

A blacksmith supervising a card model build? What could possibly go wrong? 🔥🔥🔥 You are a brave man, Phil!!

Mahalo, Ron!! Yes, some folks call it a Texas Tattoo! I appreciate you following along. 🤙!!! Thanks for following along, Micha! Your comments were greatly appreciated and I sincerely hope that you take part in all my future builds! Thanks, Mike! And yes, I finally caved to the pressure and found a way to get a penguin in the bottle. No doubt they will now want a polar bear or Canadian rat or something in the next one! 😁 Thanks, Gary. As a fellow Austin guy, I'm sure you are way too familiar with those cedars trees! Hope you don't suffer from the allergies like so many around here do. Thanks, Keith. I was worried about how much the poly darkened the wood, but you make a really good point about the contrast with the white ice and snow. Thanks you, Phil! Always appreciate you following along. Thank you, Paul! And many thanks for following along. Thanks, Ken! I appreciate you being part of this project. Thanks, Bob! Not sure about the next one yet but hopefully something will come to mind soon. In the meantime, I'll enjoy checking out you and Captain Marvin on your dual builds! Thank you so much, Steve! I'm really anxious to see my niece's reaction to it (she knows nothing about it yet). Thanks, Grant! Same comment as above to Steve!! Thank you so much, Mark and Johnny! I'm always grateful to hove y'all following along on these projects. Hey Pat! So glad you found this but I certainly did miss your excellent commentary and suggestions along the way. I've grown accustomed to them on my build logs! However, as I mentioned to Landlubber Mike above, I don't think the "stalkers" (LOL!) are going to be satisfied with that one tiny penguin! Thank you so much, Gary! And thank for following along!

Dang! That's 2 pieces of great news for us. Maggie is making a wonderful recovery and you are fixing to get back to work on the Tennessee. That's an even better update than I was hoping for!

I just went thru this build log from start to finish. What an incredible journey, Gary, with the destination being a true work of art. Congratulations on overcoming a myriad of challenges and producing such a beautiful model!

The Ghost Ship Jenny is complete! Before I get to the final update, I want to give sincere thanks to everyone that followed along on this short but entertaining journey: @Keith Black, @Knocklouder, @Ian_Grant, @gsdpic, @gjdale, @Scottish Guy, @FriedClams, @Canute, @Javelin, @mtaylor, @GrandpaPhil, @Thukydides, @Bryan Woods, @JacquesCousteau, @John Fox III, @hollowneck, @Landlubber Mike, @ccoyle, @Coyote_6, @BLACK VIKING, @CiscoH, @Rik Thistle, @Ryland Craze, @Paul Le Wol, @Mike Y. I can never thank y'all enough for your support, suggestions, critiques, and humor! Now the final update. To finish up the Jenny, I wanted to mount the bottle on something that would look a bit spooky, maybe a little eerie - something that would add to the mystique of a ghost ship. A while back, I found this root ball from a fallen cedar tree that looked cool (actually a juniper tree, but we call them cedars in Austin). I kept it knowing that I’d eventually find a use for it. The bottle and the root ball turned out to be a perfect match. The root ball rests stable and level on its side, and the bottle fits right in between the “tines” of the roots. The cedar wood is very hard, weather resistant, and lasts forever. They are commonly used for barbed wire fence posts around here. However, they will still flake off strands of thin bark so I decided to seal the surface, trying to keep as much of the natural color as possible. I ended up doing a 50/50 mix of Minwax semi-gloss poly and thinner. The mix kept the poly from darkening the wood too much and allowing the natural variations to show through. Here’s the completed project.

Job well done, Bob! You are a helluva lot better at ship modeling than you give yourself credit for!

Let Captain Marvin know that Choco Taco and I are on board and ready for the action! Let's Git R Dun!!!

Best MSW comment of the year!!! 🤣🤣🤣

Count me as a simpleton too, Gary! I was also mesmerized even though most of the eclipse, including the 90 seconds of totality here in Austin, was obscured by clouds. Your pictures are fascinating. As for your build, superb work and detail as always. I particularly like how the ageing on your bulkhead planking turned out. So well done!

Congratulations on a fantastic build, Bob! She looks truly magnificent. Job well done. And Choco Taco gives it 2 wings up and says he can't wait to see it in next year's NRG calendar!!