Civil War Ironclad USS ST. LOUIS by thorn21g - 1:24 - POF - Gateway Model Shipcrafter's Guild

[johnhoward]

Modelers of City Class Ironclads USS Cairo and USS St. Louis following this Forum,

For the past 6 months I have been trying to conclusively resolve a final mystery as to the location of the "Auxiliary Engine" depicted on Doug Ashley's 1981 National Park Service Drawing, Sheet 28 (Photo 1) below for the USS Cairo which he identified as  "Location Unknown". He referenced "National Archives RecordGroup 92" as his source for this drawing. When I contacted Elizabeth Joiner, who was the Vicksburg USS Cairo Museum Curator in 2014, she said " They had actually seen this item during the USS Cairo recovery, but unfortunately lost it in the river. Unfortunately although I have not been able to conclusively prove my research is correct, all circumstantial evidence leads to one conclusion so I will present it here for your critical review. PART (1) Also missing from Ashleys Historical Structural Report (HSR) is any indication of the Steam Powered Capstan as specified in Pook's original specification for his City Class Ironclads. Several years ago as we were building our large 1:24 scale version of the USS St. Louis and simultaneously coordinating with Gerhard on his NRG Forum for his "Live Steam" version of the USS Cairo I proposed that the Auxiliary Steam Engine was actually used to power the capstan which is located in the middle if the forward gun deck above the main coal store room. The Auxiliary Steam Engine is obviously a  twin 6-inch diameter piston engine driving something via a PTO shaft located in the chine of the hull. Since we were planking the gunlock at that time we had to immediately include the Auxiliary Steam Engine and PTO shaft in our model before losing access to the lower hull. (To be continued)

JOHNHOWARD

[johnhoward]

Part 2, Location of Auxiliary Engine/ Steam Engine Powered Capstan on City Class Ironclads

Attached is a photo of our mock-up made in 2017 for our model of the USS St. Louis of my proposed location for the configuration used by James B. Eads to provide the "Steam Powered Capstan" for the "City Class Ironclads" in accordance with Samuel E. Pook's original specification. In the near center of this photo is the "U" shaped top view of the "Auxiliary Steam Engine" which is described in great detail in Pook's  specification for the Auxiliary Engine and also on Doug Ashley's  Sheet 28 drawing of the Auxiliary Engine.  The PTO Shaft can be seen protruding from the Auxiliary Engine to the gears below the Capstan centerline itself which was recovered "intact" and is on display at Vicksburg.. This mock-up was later firmed up on our USS St. Louis model and most of the gun deac was planked in this area severely restricting observation. The actual Capstan itself contains the capability to disconnect it from the PTO shaft gears for manual operation via 8 bars in the Capstan head (one of which is shown protruding from the rear). The Auxiliary Steam Engine itself was controlled by a removable lever protruding thru a slot in the gun deck that operated a steam valve on the Auxiliary Engine. The third photo depicts a similar Civil War contemporary lever controlled capstan on a river boat.This arrangement would be required because the forward section of the gun deck must be cleared to safely operate the forward battery of cannons. The stub of the steam valve on the Auxiliary Engine to interface with this handle can be seen on Ashleys' Sheet 28 drawing.

We have so far tried unsuccessfully to physically verify the proposed location for this configuration on the USS Cairo remains at Vicksburg National Park and contact with original salvage participants, however I have found no evidence which contradicts this hypothesis.  [Next I will address some of the issues previously raised and solicit any additional ideas you may have.]

 JOHNHOWARD

 

[Roger Pellett]

John,  A related topic that might affect your steam capstan arrangement.  How were anchors handled?  I have a later drawing, not river related, where the steam powered windlass also drives the capstan via geared vertical shaft.  

 

If these gunboats used rope anchor cables, I can see how they could be easily handled with the capstan.  If they used chain cables then a windlass, possibly driven by the same auxiliary steam engine would have probably been used.  Another possibility might have been a toothed sprocket beneath the capstan.

[johnhoward]

Roger,(and FORUM Followers)

Thanks for your comment regarding chain or rope  cables for the City Class Ironclads. The capstan recovered with the USS Cairo appears to be designed for rope cables and not chains but I think the real reason for Pooks' specifying a Steam Powered Capstan was more likely for recovering the 500 ton Ironclad from grounding on a sandbar or in a river bayou than simply for raising the relatively small anchors. On many occasions the Ironclads were simply moored to trees along the river banks without using the anchors at all.The Mississippi River was notorious for such groundings of Passenger Steamboats during the Mid-1800's and various complicated techniques were used to re-float them. Thunderstorms and flash-flooding in the lower Mississippi River area were a serious threat to water levels that couldn't be ignored by a Naval Military vessel during the Civil War due to the possibility of being stranded and easily captured by the Confederate forces. In fact you could consider a "Steam Powered Capstan" to be a "Secret Weapon" for the Union Navy.

By the way when,  in 2017 that I first suggested this location for Ashley's Sheet 28 Auxiliary Engine/Steam Powered Capstan on Bernhard's "Live Steam USS Cairo NRG Forum", you asked whether or not "Steam Powered Capstans"  were in use on the Mississippi at that time.  My answer "Yes"  to your question appeared to be a simple search for a US Patent date, which turned out to be anything but simple as I will soon explain.

Attached is a clearer drawing of my proposed location for the Auxiliary Engine and PTO Shaft driven Capstan that we included in our model of the USS St. Louis. This was determined by my "Reverse Engineering" of the issues provided to James Eads, when he built the ironclads. I found no indications of a windlass on the USS Cairo, but the US Supreme Court determined that "a capstan was just a winless turned upright!"

JOHNHOWARD

 

 

 

[Roger Pellett]

John,  Your arrangement of the capstan and auxiliary engine certainly looks logical.  I agree too that these boats did a lot of tying up to trees on banks and warping over and shallows and the capstan provided the power to do this.  Absent documentary or archeological evidence, I would tend to believe then that these boats did use rope anchor cables instead of chains.  This would eliminate the need for a separate steam powered windlass as the capstan could handle the cable.  A rope cable would also be much easier to carry out in one of the ship’s boats if the anchor was needed to kedge the boat off of a shoal.

 

Roger

[johnhoward]

Roger,

Thanks for your assessment of the steam powered windlass and capstan usage.

The steam engine was being perfected in the early 1800's and soon thereafter it was being proposed to replace manpower for everything in sight, which directly bolstered the Industrial Revolution in Europe and America. My search of the Steam Powered Capstan Patent History led to some interesting information as related to Patents for its use on the Mississippi Steamboats and Ironclads leading up to the US Civil War era. Attached are 5 excerpts from the "Decisions of the U. S. Courts in Patent Cases" that I used to establish a date for its introduction in the U.S. The applicable sections are highlighted in "Yellow". The earliest patents, startingbin 1855 were all rejected until "Letters" Patent No. 63,917 was granted to John S. McMillan on April 16, 1867 which appeared to be too late to support its use in time for Ead's Ironclads. However I discovered that a "Letter Patent" was really an "honorary award"  commonly bestowed on someone for unrelated personal services or favors provided to a European Monarch such as a King and not for any real technical achievement. John S. McMillan was a Mississippi Steamboat Captain at this time but I never determined who the United States Monarch was!?!  Regardless of this, the US Supreme Court in 1884 eventually "Voided" this "Letters Patent" which meant that it never really existed! It also ruled that "a Steam Powered Capstan was not Patentable as it was just a Steam Powered Windlass rotated upright and such devices were in general use since the 1830's!  No patent infringement claims were ever approved or paid. By far, the most common Steam Powered Capstans that I discovered during the Civil War erawere actually PTO shaft driven. High Pressure Steam was routed from the same main ironclad boilers which also powered the paddlewheel. This arrangement was also universally used in factories which ran on centralized steam power plants.

Later on, by the 1880's several patents were actually issued for Capstans with integral steam piston drives instead of PTO shaft drives. James B. Eads, who was the Chief Engineer responsible for the construction of the City Class Ironclads was also the owner of the shipyards and several industrial factories in the St. Louis area which undoubtedly relied on steam powered machinery such as the PTO Shaft drive in picture 6.  The Eads Bridge in St. Louis was named in his honor.

 

JOHNHOWARD

[johnhoward]

Part 3 of the evidence I used to locate the location for the Steam Powered Capstan:

Figure 1 is a revised drawing of the Auxiliary Engine and PTO shaft with its views properly realigned to each other and Figure 2 is a close-up photo  Following "of the resulting model of the Auxiliary Engine which we installed in our model of the City Class Ironclad "USS St. Louis" in 2017.. Following that are Pook's specifications for the Auxiliary Engine as provided to James B. Eads for construction of these ironclads with the most significant sections for this discussion highlighted in yellow. This specification reads more like an up close measurement of actual hardware than a design requirement spec and is a little difficult to follow precisely without detail drawings. Although Doug Ashley clams to have based his original Sheet 28 NPS drawing in 1984 on Data from the National Archives Record Group 92, he definitely appears to have superimposed the Engine on a City Class Ironclad hull. He also referenced Archives Record Group 92 as his source for other ironclad hardware such as the boilers and firebox which are not very accurate. I'm not exactly sure how data gets put into the Archives Record 92, but he is correct regarding this Auxiliary Engine, however the Record 92 also currently includes my personal photograph of my model Capstan and PTO Shaft Gearbox that I took in 2017 for the USS St.Louis and downloaded to Gerhadt's "Live Steam USS Cairo Scratch Build NRG Forum". One interesting fact concerning the Auxiliary Steam Engine in the Archives and NPS drawing is that it appears not to contain the feed water pumps or "Force" pumps described in Pook's Auxiliary Engine Specification as provided to Eads. As can be seen on the last attachment, "these pumps were "slowly phased out with advent of a small, independent, steam-driven flywheel pump in the early 1840's known as the "Doctor". (Photos of my model of the "Doctor"for the USS St.Louis are included earlier in this forum. It was positively seen during the USS Cairo recovery in 1964, but was also lost when the hull split in half.) The Doctor was much more practical for a feed pump and was located on the Ironclads centerline immediately aft of the Boilers rather under the fore gun deck in a coal bunker!

. PHOTOS TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 4

 

JOHNHOWARD

 

[johnhoward]

Part 4, Remaining Photos from yesterdays Part 3 text on Specs for the Auxiliary Engine as provided to James Eads.   JOHNHOWARD

[johnhoward]

Part 5 of Steam Powered Capstan for City Class Ironclads

From the data provided in part 3 & 4 I believe that Pook's original plan was to utilize the Auxiliary Engine to both power the Steam Capstan and to provide low water protection for the boilers, however he left the details up to James Eads and stated in his spec that the Capstan location would be located later. The specified Auxiliary Engine was clearly an early 1800's high powered "over-kill" solution prior to use of the more efficient "Doctor". The City Class Ironclads were built in the amazingly short time of 6 months just in time for the start of the Civil War which was one main reason that Eads got the Ironclad contract. Eads was undoubtedly aware of up to date technology by owning factories and ship yards on the Mississippi. Somehow Pook and Eads agreed to the practical solution of adding the "Doctor Engine" for the boiler water level protection and modifying the powerful Auxiliary Engine by removing its water pumps without much contract paperwork documentation to power just the capstan. Perhaps Doug Ashley was made privy to Eads personal files helping him to surmise this configuration on sheet 28 of his NPS drawings of the USS Cairo. It is also possible that salvaged Auxiliary Engines were simply repurposed since it would be impossible to design & build a  new engine in the time available.  "Doctor"  drawing and a photo my model of it for our USS St. Louis are attached.   JOHNHOWARD

[johnhoward]

Part 6  of Steam Powered Capstan Study,

One last issue to make this study complete is to determine how the high pressure steam was routed to the Auxiliary Steam Engine. which powers the capstan. Steam generated in the boilers is captured in the Boiler Steam Drum at the aft end of the boilers and then routed to the main Paddle Wheel Engines via insulated feed pipes amidship and then forward (on our model) of the USS St. Louis via the port side chine to the Auxiliary Engine control valve and piston drives for the PTO shaft which in turn powers the capstan via gears below the fore gun deck. We located the Auxiliary Steam engine on the Port side because this is where the only surviving City Class Ironclad the (USS Cairo) struck the Torpedo/ Mine and sunk, and possibly expelled the Auxiliary Steam Engine which was lost. Otherwise the Starboard  equivalent location would be equally possible. Last year Brian Pierce, builder of his outstanding scratch model of the USS Cairo, and his NRG Forum Log, visited NPS Vicksburg and took many outstanding photos of the USS Cairo's damaged area in hopes of finding some remains of the Auxiliary Steam Engine. But, in vain, it appears any tell-tale metal fragments or other damage that may have survived were previously cleared away.

We realize there was a lot of conjecture used to propose the location for various elements and perhaps we will never be able to positively claim our conclusions are correct. But since we started our research and scratch build model of the City Class Ironclad "USS St. Louis" in 2014, we haven't uncovered any "show-stoppers'" either, which is encouraging. We have just about exhausted all resources we can envision except for the records of the City Class Ironclad "USS Cincinnati" which was reportedly sunk twice and recovered, but finally destroyed by a river dragging operation. This is a"long shot" at best. but I wonder if any records survive of the 2 recovery operations.

Any other suggestion would be gladly appreciated. Another possibility could be Archives of James B. Eads if any exist.

Thanks to those following or participating in this Forum and good luck with your own projects. My personal goal is to increase participation in  the "Research" portion of the Nautical Research Guild.

JOHNHOWARD

 

    

[mtaylor]

Excellent work.   I used to live in the St. Louis area and the landing/Arch area was a favorite place to visit.

 

I do have a question...  there's no records/archives for Eads?   I find that surprising that the US Government has required drawings, etc. for every boat, ship, armament, etc. since just about Day 1.  It's possible they do have them stashed somewhere as they have over the years found a lot of records mis-recorded or received but were never recorded so it possible they have them but they'll never see the light of day again. Or maybe in private hands? 

 

One more curiousity.... was t the Navy or the Army that contracted for the ironclads?  

[johnhoward]

MTAYLOR,

Thanks for your comments and questions.

Regarding records/Archives for James B. Eads: There are indeed so many pages of archive web sites on the internet for Eads many endeavors that my searching for the related details regarding the related ironclad details has proved to be overwhelming. Our first attempted archive search in 2014 was a Model Shipcrafter Team visit to the Carondelet Library/ Museum set up for us by the Library Curator, Ron Bendett , in downtown St. Louis adjacent to the Shipyard where the ironclad "USS Carondelet" was constructed. This gave us a pretty good idea of the massive research effort we were facing. We were building our model of the USS St.Louis for the Missouri Civil War Museum which provided us with the National Park Service Historical Structural Report (HSR)  which included Doug Ashley's 28 Sheet drawing of the ironclad, "USS Cairo" which was used as the primary source for its display in Vicksburg, Mississippi. When we contacted NPS Vicksburg for technical guidance we were advised that NPS Denver was manager of the USS Cairo display at Vicksburg. Our St. Louis Ship Modeling Team at that time consisted of many experienced 1800 era ship-modelers. however, only one of which had ever modeled the "USS Cairo". We immediately began to discover some blatant basic wooden ship construction & missing detail errors in the NPS USS Cairo plans which would be obvious on our large model scale of 1/2" = 1 ft {1:24]. We were advised by the NPS Denver that we should refer to several other National Park Service survey plans for the required corrections however Doug Ashley's plans were never corrected. Our secondary goal was then to document the errors we found. This included adding deck and Hurricane deckhouse roof cambers to our model. Hopefully more research will reveal or verify answers to other confusing construction features which include rudder control, internal access to the Hurricane Deck, and the location of the auxiliary steam engine. 

The Army was originally responsible for the Ironclad contract under General McMlellan via Brig. Get M. C. Meigs, Quarter-Master-General'and initially launched under Army command, but then transferred to Navy Command for active service upon which time some had to be renamed due to existing duplication already in the Navy .

I agree that there must be Government Records and hope someone can retrieve them.

 

JOHNHOWARD

 

 

 

[mtaylor]

Thanks for the explanation. I didn't realize plans, etc. were scattered all over the country.  Nor would I have ever thought that Denver would a part of this.

[Roger Pellett]

These river gunboats were hybrids:  warships built by civilian contractors using western rivers steamboat technology.  To further complicate matters, they originally came under the jurisdiction of the Army.  And, these guys were in a hurry!  It therefore makes sense that few of the usual Navy or even Government design practices applied and at least some engineering happened on the job.

 

Doctors for pumping feedwater might have been available or at least there were mechanics locally who knew how to quickly build them.  Such might not have been the case for a combination Doctor/Auxiliary Engine.

 

There are also some unknowns involved in building ship models and the more details the more unknowns.  Both you and Brian Pierce have done an excellent job of untangling snarled information to build excellent models

 

Roger

[mbp521]

Playing catchup on the build log entries. There seems to be a lot of information posted lately, 

On 12/31/2022 at 11:27 PM, Roger Pellett said:

Absent documentary or archeological evidence, I would tend to believe then that these boats did use rope anchor cables instead of chains.

Roger, to answer your question about whether the Cairo use rope or chain to attach the anchors, I would say that it was chain. The below pictures were screenshots that I took from a conference Edwin Bearss gave just before he passed away. In his presentation he had these photographs taken during the recovery efforts up on the screen. I searched in vain to find the actual photos and finally settled on just taking a picture of my computer monitor (hence their graininess). One picture shows the starboard chain going through the hawse pipe and the other shows the chain draped across the foredeck. The port hawse pipe empty so it would somewhat be hard to tell if there was a chain or rope attached to the portside anchor.

 

 

There is documentation from journal entries of sailors aboard the Cairo and the other boats in the flotilla, at the time she struck the torpedo that tell when the explosion occurred the port anchor was launched from the deck. If I remember correctly, one of the flukes from this anchor is on display in the Cairo museum. So the possibility of the port chain being broken and with the force of the explosion could have cause it to recede through the hawse pipe and would not have been visible during salvage. Or this hawse pipe could have simply been strictly used for rope to tie the boats off to the shore.

 

During my build, I struggled with the same question, how did they haul in the anchor with a capstan that was designed for rope. I came up with one possibility that they would use a length of rope attached to a hook or a loop. They would secure the hook through the chain loop and run the rope through the hawse pipe and around the capstan and haul the chain up a little at a time. This by no means would have been an efficient method of doing it, but as with John Howard and the rest of the St. Louis team have stated, documentation is scarce. So with the limited information on this subject, this is the way I incorporated it into my build. As also stated previously, most of the time these boats were tied up to the shores of the rivers, but there were times that they were at anchor. Given that many of the Western Rivers were not known for their great depths at the time, there was the possibility that there would not have been much anchor chain to haul in.

 

Just my two cents.

 

-Brian

 

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by mbp521

[johnhoward]

Roger,

Thanks for the clarifications and nice comments, but as you can see by the photos on Sheets 1 and 4 of our Forum, that at least 8 members of our St. Louis Gateway Model Shipcrafters organization who participated over the 10 years of construction of our " USS St. Louis" Ironclad Model deserve the credit, and unfortunately, partially due to the "Covid 19 Virus",  only a few are still actively involved in its completion. This also includes Brian Pierce who has been sharing his research on his "USS Cairo" with us. I've included a drawing of the "USS Cairo" torpedo damage that I discussed earlier. 

JOHNHOWARD

[johnhoward]

Brian & Roger,

One obvious answer to the Chain vs Rope question is that the Rope Type Capstan they used on the USS Cairo display at Vicksburg was not really recovered with the USS Cairo as originally claimed or since the last crew on the Cairo was in the Mississippi Bayou when it struck the mine they were using temporarily using a  rope capstan instead of a chain type without realizing the difference at that time. Or maybe they just wanted to confuse us!  Still having fun!

We were planning to use chain on the USS St. Louis, the last time I checked. Elizabeth Joiner, Cairo Museum Curator in 2014 told me they didn't have any Maritime experts at Vicksburg to answer my questions. She put me in touch with NPS Denver which managed the USS Cairo display who also said the didn't have maritime experts but they consulted with James P. Delgado who was a maritime archeologist, explorer and author to finally answer my questions.

JOHNHOWARD

 

[Roger Pellett]

I am acquainted with Jim Delgado.  He has attended a couple of our Gales of November maritime history conferences here in Duluth.  One year I was his duty driver and spent the afternoon with him touring the whaleback Steamship SS Meteor.  He also reviewed my book about whaleback steamships and his favorable “blurb” is quoted on the back cover.  He’s a nice guy.

 

My impression is that he has a good understanding of maritime history and of course specialized knowledge of projects that he has been involved with.  He is not a Naval Architect or Marine or Mechanical Engineer.  The last that I heard, he had left Government Employment (NOAA) and had joined SEARCH, a private maritime Archeology firm.  I would think that your group and Brian Pierce are now the Civil War Gunboat experts.

 

Roger

 

 

[Roger Pellett]

Brian,

 

The wreck photos are interesting.  Note-  in keeping with the hybrid nature, the chain is not stud link.  I agree that your rope claw idea would work.  At least for the upper rivers, the maintained depth is only 9ft.

 

Roger

[johnhoward]

Brian and Roger,

As a follow-up to our discussion on rope vs chain for the City Class Ironclads:

Brian's Posting #285 mentions the use of a "Traveler or Carrier" loop of rope around the "Rope type Capstan"  which then was temporarily incrementally tied and untied to/from the anchor chain to raise/ lower the anchor. This was a standard practice on large sailing vessels of this time period. I believe this is exactlly what they did on the Ironclads. We had planned to use this method on our USS St.Louis and  had "mocked it up," but I couldn't find our photograph of it. The attached photograph is a section of Geoghegan's drawing cross-section of the forward casement which includes a small pulley for the carrier loop and the anchor  "Chain Locker" immediately below it as the chain was cut free from the loop as it cleared the hawse hole in the casement. 

JOHNHOWARD

 

[johnhoward]

Further information on adapting Chain Linked Anchors to Rope Style Capstans such as for the USS Cairo::

The attached sketch shows how the continuous loop "Messenger" rope and "Nipper" ties were rigged to anchor chain to raise and lower anchors using a rope type Capstan on  large sailing ships into the Mid-1800's. This is how we planned to rig our USS St. Louis Ironclad model. The continuous Messenger rope passes around two rollers behind the ironclad forward casement and is wrapped around the Capstan about 4 turns. The "Nippers are used to secure the anchor chain to the "Messenger" as it emerges thru the Hawse Hole in the forward casement and are un-tied as the anchor chain reaches the deck hatch above the Chain Locker for stowage. Raising the port-side anchor is depicted in this sketch. Simply reversing the Capstan/Messenger rope rotation direction will lower the port anchor or raise the starboard anchor. We successfully "Mocked-up" this arrangement in Mid-2018 but unfortunately have mis-placed the photograph. 

JOHNHOWARD

[johnhoward]

I found my photo!

Attached is a "Mock-Up" photo of our "USS St. Louis" Ironclad Model Forward Gun Deck with its Anchor Chains and continuous "Messenger Rope" wrapped around the Capstan and the front casement rollers, with the anchor chain itself entering the "chain locker access door" just in front of the Capstan. Either port or starboard anchor could be individually raised or lowered by adding the "Nipper Ropes" to secure its chain to the "Messenger Rope" and then rotating the capstan either clockwise or counter-clockwise, as required. 

JOHNHOWARD

[timboni]

Hi all,

 

Again apologies for my delay in posting entries from the Gateway Ship Crafters for some time. We've made a lot of progress since February of 2020, and indeed we're (maybe) getting close to the end, we'll see. So now we start with March of 2020

 

As the photos show, much progress has been made in designing and installing the micro-LED track lighting strips to illuminate the interior of the USS St. Louis. Stanchions for a canvas cover and the fashioning of pots and pans for the cook stove are also being planned. Work will also be done on building the launches plus other side projects.   

 

    (Note that photos and captions are by Bill Kammermeyer)

 

      

Making posts for a canvas cover on the Hurricane Deck. 3/16" dowels were cut into the ends of the posts for a centered, snug connection for the posts.  This was the same procedure that I used for making axles on the axle trees of the cannons

 

 

[timboni]

(continuing with March 2020)

 

        

 

        

 

                                                            

                                 Making track lighting: Extra hands needed to hold 1/8-inch-wide LED light strips for tiny lead attachment.

                                                                              

                                    Detail of tiny lead attachment to 1/1000" thick foil strip on 1/8" wide LED slight strip.

                                                                 

LED strip is immobilized in wooden track by glued block at foil contact points and glued 1/16" wood strubs between lights. Block covers heavier wire and protects the thin foil contact points from being torn from the light strip during installation.

 

 

                                 

       These 3 shots were just to determine what illumination level that would look best with cannon and propulsion equipment in place.  (sorry for the fuzzy images)

 

                  

More light testing, this time in a darkened room.  Center line of lights was in three parts.

Connecting wires went to the starboard track under the Hurricane Deck planking and then as a common line to the Hurricane Deck terminal. One line went from here to a junction box on the Gun Deck. The long wood channels were screwed to the underside of the Hurricane Deck and then the LED strips were installed with glued wood blocks at the connection points and glued wood stubs between the LEDs.

 

      Lighting the forward storage room.

 

Illumination in the steam capstan gear room.

 

Illumination in the bulk coal storage bunker.

 

 

Illumination of loose coal in wheelbarrow and bagged coal in coal bunkers of boiler room.

 

Posting now so as not to lose the photos. More March 2020 coming below.

 

 

 

 

 

[timboni]

(more March 2020)

 

    

Illumination in the Captain's Quarters

 

Making water and steam valves in 1/24 scale: 1/4" Macrame Beads, 1/8' and 3/8" dowels, plus 16-gauge copper wire, and you are ready to become a steamfitter!

 

 

 

 

Live steam pipe layout; Steam pipe elbows and T's measured, cut and assembled to form the live steam loop.

 

Portside view of live steam loop.

 

Main river water intake port through the hull. Valves control the direction of the river water in, and cleaning water out of, the system.

 

Turned wooden support for goose pen valve just to add interest and color versus a block of wood.

 

(Left Picture): Main water valves for the boiler and doctor engine: Inflow valves and water pipes to the doctor engine.

(Middle Picture): Main in-flow valves and tap between them through the hull for river water. By opening and closing specific valves, this system could also be used to clean out a mud drum as well as the doctor tanks.

(Right Picture:): Overview of the river system.

 

Mud drum connection to main water valve and offshoot to water supply for goose pen.

 

Valve to control flow of water to structure under the hot fire boxes (goose pen). Goose pen (loose brick in a tray with water circulation) kept the deck from being scorched by the high heat of the fire boxes.

 

Quarter-inch dowel center drilled and cut in jig to fit at a right angle to a quarter-inch dowel making an elbow or a "T".

 

Simple teeth cut on the end of a quarter-inch (O.D.) brass tube makes an excellent cutter when used with a simple wooden jig.

 

 

 

Wooden jig and brass tube cutter cutting dowel. This was a demonstration cut. The real ones were center drilled first on the lathe with an 1/8" bit. Penny for scale.

 

That's all for March 2020. The next entry will be from June or July of 2020. The Club did not meet as such for the next year or so due to COVID. However, Bill Kammermeyer posted photos and captions from work he did on his own. These will be posted in the next entry. Hope you enjoy these.

 

Tim Jovick

 

 

 

 

[mtaylor]

Wonderful work and photos.  Thanks for letting see them.

[mbp521]

Tim, Thanks for posting more photos of the build. This truly makes me miss working on my Cairo. I am envious of the details you guys have put into this model. If these pictures are from three years ago, I can only imagine the progress that has been made since. Looking forward to the next installment. Keep them coming. 
 

-Brian

[timboni]

The following entries are from about June or July of 2020. Again there were not meetings due to COVID, but Bill Kammermeyer continued to work on his own. Pictures and captions are by Bill.

 

Making Internal Lanterns:

 

                                          

Using my pattern duplicator on my Sherline lathe, I cut 25 lamps from 5/16" dowels. The ends were countersunk to make the internal taper. I finished their shape with files and sandpaper.

 

                                              

                            Leaving them on their dowels made it much easier to varnish, re-sand and paint the lamps.

 

                                         

      A 1/2" punch was used on a strip of brass weather stripping to cut the reflecting backs for the hurricane lamps.

 

                                                               

Pins were pushed through pre-drilled holes in the lamps as well as the reflective plates and super-glued in place. This made not only the wick-adjusting knob for the lamp, but also the attachment for the back plate as well as a mounting fixture to go into the walls along the inside of the ship. Penny for scale.

 

                                        

Painting and drilling accurate pin holes were easily done while the lamps were still on their dowels. Cutting them on the bandsaw table was also easy with the dowel rolling on the surface of the saw table.

 

Constructing Ship's Boats/Cutter:

 

                                           

There were two different methods I was considering for making the ship's boats. The top shows a solid mold over which the ribs would be bent. The bottom one has lifts to which the ribs were bent. in both cases, the longer ends of the ribs woul be glued to the boat jig.

 

                                                     

To form the solid mold shown in the previous picture (top), I took the plan lifts and glued them to 1/2" wood boards that were cut and then glued together. The high edge of the top board was removed down to the high edge of the next lower board in a fair fashion. this transformed the plans into a 3-D shape.

 

                                                       

                                                      Lifts stacked and glued on center line with keel, stem and stern slots cut.

 

                                                          

                                                        Lifts filed and planed almost to completion. A boat form is developing.

 

                                                    t was cut on each edge of the 1/16" basswood strips thaA 1/2A A 1/32" rabbet was cut on each edge of the 1/16" basswood strips that I cut as strake stock for the cutter. Penny for scale. This shallow rabbet was enough to position the edge of the plank in a uniform fashion to the curved edge of the previous plank. It also gave a good surface for gluing. It was very simple to do on my 7-1/2' saw with the rip fence and a thin carbide blade. I put a block of wood over the plank back at the cutting point to keep it in contact with the saw table.

 

                                                                                                                          

The run  of the planks was at the lower plank edge. With the building of each boat, I became more adept at fitting the planks. Even at that, my first attempt turned out to be pretty good.

 

More to come on the building of the ship's boats/cutter in the next entry. Please to enjoy.

 

Tim

 

 

 

[timboni]

OK, here we go with the continuation of the building of the ship's boats/cutters. Again, pictures and text by Bill Kammermeyer.

 

                                                  

Strakes were cut from the rabbeted stock and attached to the ribs. Each set of strakes was wet and tied to the form The next day, they were glued to the ribs and each other, port and starboard at the same time. Tapered bamboo chopsticks were used through the jig to hold lashings while the glue dried. The tapered chopstick ends were used under the lashings as wedges to add force to glue contact points, making for a tight fit.

 

                                                                                     

                                             Cutter on mold was given three coats of varnish, more as an adhesive to the rabbet joints than as a finish.

 

                                                                                                

                    I cut the ribs as the sheer line and the cutter came off the mold just as advertised. It has virtually no flex or spring and will finish nicely.

 

                                                                                           

I now have to add the gunwales, seat rails and decking, to finish the build. All of this seems so reasonable, now that I have results of my first attempt at this type of boat building. So not bad for a first try!

 

                                                                                             

Making oarlocks; Brass strips 0.12" wide were cut from a 0.03" thick brass sheet. These strips were center-drilled with a small centering bit and then again with the #56 bit to match the diameter of the brass rod for the stem. They were bent into a rough U shape using a jeweler's pliers. The hole was re-drilled with the #56 bit. Brass rod 3/64" in diameter was soldered into the hole.

 

                                                                                           

Pin vises were used to hold the oarlocks for final shaping and finishing. Grinding with a burr in a moto tool was used to remove rod tip inside the oarlock. 329 bit was used as a center mandrel.

 

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                                                                                             Oar locks, before and after finishing. Penny for scale.

 

                                                                                         

                                                                                            Oarlocks as they appear on the gunnels of the cutter.

 

                                                  

Boats ready for painting: Boat at right and in the center were made on the solid bread-and-butter mold. The boat to the left was made on the open rib form.

 

                                                                         

                                         Using the rabbet on the straight side of each plank before cutting them to shape made for a very stable glue joint.

 

                                                                                                       

Rudders under construction. They are of mortise-and-tenon construction so that the tiller tenon may slip in-and-out of the mortise, so it may be stored when not in use.

 

                                                                                         

The finished rudders with early stge of gudgeons (the socket) and pintles (the pin), still in manufacturing stage. I made extras while I was at it, in case I build any more boats in this scale.

 

                                                                                             

                            The rudders were attached by inserting the pintles into the gudgeons, which were then mounted to the hull of the boat and the transom.

 

                                                                                                                

 The tillers were cut with an angled tenon and set into an angled mortise in the rudder. They may be removed for storage by pulling the holding fid on the top starboard side of the rudder. The rudders are prevented from floating free of their gudgeons with the use of a swivel block above the top pintle. It is moved up and to the side so the rudder may lift off for storage. The bottom lift clearance slot is left open. When the swivel block is in place, the rudder is locked to the sternpost. All straps are held in place by 0.026" brass pins cut and drilled into the hull and rudder. Super thin cryo was used as a last bath to hold the pins in place.

 

 

                                                                                       

Checking for height for the boat supports from the casement to the davits, with temporary supports in place. Measurements are made for the V supports for the boats that go from the casement to each davit. The horizontal supports will be installed into the casement permanently and will not be affected by removing the Hurricane Deck.

 

 

                                              

                                       (somehow this got rotated in the process of transferring to this build log; turn the picture 90 degrees clockwise)

The V supports were joined to the casement with 3mm tubing slid over their bars on 3/32" pegs in the casement. This made the lower portion rigid while the upper curved portion of the davit could swivel freely. This made all of the davit support/boat support arms the same height. Note the Y support in the casement accommodating the sleeves from the center davits.

 

                                       

                        One of the primed launches resting on its supports. Two timbers will run parallel to the keel to support the weight of the boat.

 

                                                                               

Starboard launch and cutter resting on their storage supports. They also will have a beam on each side of their keels on which to rest when in storage. The portside launch is for demonstration purposes only. It would block too much of the ship's interior if left in place.

!

WHEW! That's all for the ship's boats. The next entry will be from January 2021. And again, please to enjoy.

 

Tim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mbp521]

Still loving the updates Tim. Beautiful work as always. Glad to see that some of my research matches up with your groups on the launches. 
 

-Brian