Bertrand by Cathead - FINISHED - 1:87 - wooden Missouri River sternwheeler

[chborgm]

As a paddle wheel enthusiast I really appreciate the in depth discussion. I am about to start the Mantua Mississippi Riverboat just waiting for the kit. This kind of info will help in the finish I use. I really don't want to do it like the kit pictures. It looks to "sanitary" .  

[Cathead]

Lots of progress lately. By the end of this post, Bertrand will be ready for the final bits of rigging and details. The end is in sight! Here we go:

 

Pilot house

 

 

Here I'm laying out pieces for the pilot house. Like the cabins, this uses pre-scribed wood, though I'm cutting & staining the window & door frames individually. I didn't have anything that small on hand, so split each piece manually from wider strips, using a hobby knife.

 

 

Here you see the pilot house partially assembled. You'll notice that I made the windows with two layers of wood, technically not accurate since a real window would have the panes and frames all in one plane. I decided that I didn't have the skill to make perfect square small-paned windows like these in 1:87, so went with the two-layer approach as a reasonable approximation. One reason I stained the windows dark, is to help hide their 2-D nature. The resulting shadow keeps the eye from seeing that, compared to if they were all white. And I think it looks nice. When you step back more than 6", it's hard to see the difference.

 

 

Here's the pilot house installed, with a beginning to the clerestory roof. I carved a series of roof braces with a gentle curve to support this area, instead of bothering with full rafters, as this can't be seen from any angle. Much easier. Then I just planked in both roof areas as I'd done the hurricane deck, using the same pre-coloring technique with pastels. If you look real close, you can see the wheel, which I made by cutting a hoop from the styrene tube soon to be used for the chimneys, and gluing thin styrene rods radially. I thought I took pictures of this process, but can't find them now. Oops.

 

Chimneys

 

 

Though the model railroader in me wants to call these smokestacks, apparently the steamboat world generally called them chimneys. In any case, these were built from two diameters of styrene tubing, one of which slides neatly into the other. I cut a series of hoops from the thicker diameter, and drilled holes in styrene sheet to create a kind of cover plate for where the chimneys cross the hurricane deck.

 

Middle photo shows the assembled chimneys. The thicker, lower section simulates the heat shields such chimneys used to protect passengers on the boiler deck from the hot chimney pipes. The various hoops simulate thicker iron bands on the chimneys, placed approximately where various plans and period illustrations suggest they should be. As styrene is too smooth and shiny to really simulate rough iron to my eye, I used a past trick of mine and wrapped the chimneys in layers of strong masking tape, making each seem a quarter turn from the layer below. These seams simulate the chimneys' construction from tubes of iron, and produce a nice rough texture. 

 

On the right, you see the painted and installed chimneys, weathered with rust-colored pastels. I think they look convincingly like frontier iron work.

 

Stairs

 

 

Three sets of stairs are needed to reach the pilot house from the boiler deck; one from boiler deck to hurricane deck (right), one from hurricane deck to clerestory roof (not shown), and one from clerestory to pilot house (left). I built these in the same manner as the main staircase from main deck to boiler deck, described before in this build. In the background, you see some hog chains, which I'll discuss soon.

 

Boiler deck railing

 

 

Probably the most fiddly part of this build. I'm not entirely happy with how these came out, but they look fine from more than a foot away. I started by building the internal railing that keep passengers from falling down the main stairwell (left). Then I glued a long, painted strip wrapped around all the stanchions on the boiler deck, as the upper rail (center). Then I hand-cut a whole whoppin'  mess of little railing posts to line the railing with, and carefully levered each one into place with tweezers and a dab of glue. Once again, step back a foot and it looks great. Up close, it looks like the work of someone still developing his fine-woodworking skills.

 

(Almost) completed steamboat

 

 

And here she is, very close to done. This is the best view of the hog chain system, the longitudinal iron trusses that keep the bow and stern from sagging in a ong, thin boat with no keel and lots of stern-weight. These I simulated with fine rigging thread painted black, run through holes drilled in the decks and stretched tight. They should have turnbuckles on them for tensioning, which I haven't decided how to simulate yet.

 

All that remains is the "rigging", which in this case means a few support cables for the chimneys, and the various cables and tackles for the grasshopper spars, which I'll discuss when they're done. There are a few other details, such as hoists and tackles for two launches, and splitting some 1:87 firewood for the main deck. But she's close.

 

One question for you all: how would you go about lettering the name, which should go in large black letters on the engine-room wall just forward of the wheel? I've never done lettering before.

 

Hopefully within two weeks I'll post the absolutely completed Bertrand. In the meantime, just two days late, here's Dave Hum playing the Eighth of January, an old tune named for the British defeat at New Orleans that closed the War of 1812, just over 201 years ago:

 

[CaptainSteve]

Nice work, CH !!

 

For the lettering, may I suggest either scribing the letters with a sharp carving chisel, and then painting the now-recessed characters.

OR you could try Nenad's patented "dot-matrix printer" ... as used mostly successfully by myself to label the flour sacks in my Launch build.

[Canute]

CH, well done iron chimneys. Good technique wrapping the tape around the styrene tubes. Bertrand looks excellent!

 

Have you looked at Grandt Line or Tichy for turnbuckles? The HO ones are tiny, but they do make S (1/64) and O (1/48) scales, too. Or scratch them from thin tubing.

[chborgm]

Bluejackett has some nice turnbuckles in several small sizes. They used them on their Portland Model I built.

 

Somewhere along the line I missed the overall dimensions of your model. Especially the diameter of the paddle wheel. I have just started the Mantua Mississippi Riverboat and some of the dimensions look wrong when I compare it the "Chaparon" that I built. for example the Wheel scales to 28ft. 

[Cathead]

Cap'n, thanks, I remember that now from your build and will go re-investigate. I'm reluctant to try the chisel approach on a nearly-completed model, especially on a surface which has overhangs on two sides. Perhaps I should have done it very early on.

 

Ken, my original plan was to order turnbuckles from Grandt Line along with all the windows & doors for this build. When I decided to scratchbuild all the latter, it threw that order out the window and now I'm reluctant to pay shipping for just one tiny item. I think, at this scale, I'm best off as you say just using a really thin piece of material to simulate the effect. I think they'd be rectangular rather than tubular, though.

 

Chborgm, Bertrand's wheel was estimated at 18' diameter and 28' across. I honestly don't know how much variation there was in wheel size among boats of different eras, builders, and intended regions of use. I will say, for whatever it's worth, that every steamboat kit I've seen "looks" generally out of proportion to me in the photos, and was one factor driving me to try scratchbuilding. 

[Cathead]

Grasshopper spars

 

Western river boats often dealt with very low water conditions. The upper Missouri River, in particular, was characterized by shallow, ever-shifting channels among myriad islands and bars. Running aground was a fact of life, even for boats like the Bertrand with less than 5' draft even fully loaded. Boats needed to be able to cross bars, not just back off them, as the water simply wasn't deep enough for regular navigation. Thus, specialized equipment was developed for upper-river boats to handle these conditions. Louis C. Hunter provides a good general description of grasshopper spars, so-called because of their appearance like grasshopper legs on the boat: 

 

...the customary practice was to place spars on either side of the vessel by means of which the bow the bow was lifted as on crutches. The wheels were then put in forward motion and the boat driven ahead for a short distance, perhaps no more than a few feet. Then the vessel would be allowed to settle on the bar while the spars were reset...this operation was repeated as often as necessary to enable the boat partly to hobble over, partly to dig its way through the bar into the deeper pool beyond. - from Steamboats on the Western Rivers

 

 

Also, at times, the wheel would be reversed, sending a strong current of water forward under the bow, in hopes of washing away some of the bar and freeing the boat that way. Grasshopper spars could also be used to push a boat backward off a bar if desired. Hunter also notes that:

 

Sparring was a tour de force of navigation, to be classed with the moving of entire buildings as an early example of Americna ingenuity in handling large masses; both practices (freeing grounded boats and crossing bars) aroused astonishment and admiration from foreign engineers.

 

 

The hull shape of western river boats helped here, too, as the flat bottom slid more easily over bars and the long, flexible hull could actually slither over them in a way that would break a strong-keeled ocean vessel.

 

Here are the grasshopper spars I built for Bertrand. No one knows exactly how hers were rigged, but these are based on contemporary examples:

 

 

 

Each spar is suspended from a boom, which in turn is supported by two lines to the hurricane deck. These lines, with blocks and tackle, could be adjusted horizontally and vertically to place the spar as needed. A separate line with blocks connects the spar to the boom; this line runs back to cleats near the chimneys and is used raise and lower the spar. Finally, a fourth line runs from the spar down to a block on the deck; this line is used to raise the boat on the spar. There is a steam-driven capstan at the bow, whose engine is below-decks, connected to the boilers, used to run these various lines. So to use the spars, one would:

 

·         Position the booms away from the hull, with the spars suspended over the bar.

·         Lower the spars until they rest firmly in the river sediment.

·         Connect the lowest lines to the capstan, and haul in to hoist the boat up onto the spars, while driving forward with the wheel.

·         Lower the boat, then use the capstan to raise the spars again, repositioning them manually, going back to step one.

·         Repeat as often as needed to get over the bar. Repeat for however many bars you strike on the way to Montana.

 

Rigging these spars was really tricky, as both the booms and the spars essentially hang in mid-air from their lines. I used a few clamp to balance the booms in place, as shown below, until I could get their lines tightened. Once I hung the spars, I attached clothespins to their base to add more weight and ensure they hung down properly (the wood is pretty light). All of these were shaped from square stock and stained.

 

I also hand-made the blocks, the first time I’ve tried this. They’re not real pretty, but they get the job done and have about the same optical accuracy as the rest of the model; within 6”  you can tell things are hand-made, beyond that it looks great. Good enough for my purposes.  Doing this took forever, though, lots of fussy adjusting of blocks and lines to get the two dangling booms and spars into comparable orientations. At the end, I glued the spars to the side of the deck for more stability; I just don’t trust them dangling out there on their own, and they’re not heavy enough to  hand properly anyway.

I’ll include the chimney braces in this chapter, too, as they’re pretty straightforward and the photo also shows the coils I made on the hurricane deck for the boom lines. I did these by carefully coiling line onto double-sided tape, which held each loop in place until I got the diameter I wanted. Then I brushed each coil with wood glue and let it dry before peeling the coil off the tape and gluing it in place. You’ll see another example of this when I write about rigging the yawls.

 

Grasshopper spars are a pain, but they really add visual interest to the model. And it’s something that makes this kind of upper-river boat unique; I haven't seen any steamboat kits out there based on boats with these spars; they’re all lower-river packets that didn’t have to worry about shallow-river navigation. But grasshopper spars were essential to the river traffic between St. Louis and western Montana, so they’re a fun detail to add and understand.

 

One other detail to discuss here: the jackstaff. Seen in the first photo, this is the large white pole mounted at the bow, with a ball partway up it. I’ll let Louis C. Hunter explain this, too, as I can’t improve upon his words:

 

The function of the jackstaff was not, as illustrations of many steamboats might suggest, to support a flag or pennant but to provide the pilot with a sight which served as an indispensible aid in steering.  Seen against the background of riverbank and landscape, the jackstaff enabled the pilot to gauge his position and the direction of the boat’s movement.

 

 

 

If you look carefully, you’ll see that the red ball is at about the same height as the pilot house. I made the jackstaff by shaping a long square piece of stock, rounding it at the top and middle, while leaving a square section at the ball’s location, and at the base. Then I glued chunks of wood all around the ball’s location, creating a big box, from which I carved and sanded the final ball. 

 

In the next update, I'll add the yawls, letter the name, cut & stack some firewood, and so on.

[kurtvd19]

Nice work on the Grasshopper spars Cathead.  I have seen them on only one other model that I can remember.  A very nice touch and great explanation on their use.  The only way I can think of to make them hang realistically would be to weight them like you did while coating the rigging with very thin white glue and letting the glue set up with the weighted spars hanging.  I did this with the landing stage on the Chaperon - hanging off the bow and not heavy enough to weight down the rigging w/o help. 

 

The only problem with what I did, (and you took the precaution that will make sure you don't have a similar problem by attaching them to the side of the hull) was that when the cased model was dropped about 6 inches at the NRG St. Louis conference the landing stage broke loose from one of the lines as it was able to swing freely being held only by rigging.  It was very difficult to reattach the lines after they were cut to size - I had to resort to using some C/A in place of a knot on one line.

 

Kurt

[chborgm]

Nice work and explanation. It shows that need is the mother of invention.

[Cathead]

Crackers, no, the two are very different riggings and incompatible. Any landing stage (hoisted gangplank) would interfere with the grasshopper rigging. Louis Hunter states that landing stages only came into use in the 1870s, and Bertrand was built in 1864. Also, I've only ever seen such stages on lower-river boats, where they probably partially served as an accomodation to fancy passengers. Most boats heading up the Missouri probably had grasshoppers.

 

It is an interesting question whether Bertrand was initially built with grasshoppers, as it was originally intended for the Ohio River trade. It was later purchased by a new owner and placed into the Missouri trade, so it's possible it was refitted with grasshoppers at St. Louis before heading up the Missouri. I've found no discussion of that anywhere in literature about Bertrand, so we'll never know. In any case, my model represents Bertrand as she might have appeared on her final voyage in 1865, so the grasshoppers are certainly accurate for that.

 

As stated above, most steamboat model kits focus on lower Mississippi or Ohio River boats, from a later era when photographs and records make designing the model easier, and so those are far more likely to have landing stages, like Chaperon does.

[Cathead]

Kurt, that's a good point, I should probably coat my lines anyway to help them hold up. Redoing them would be...distressing.

[Jim Lad]

Not only a great model, but some very interesting discussion on the operation of American river boats, which differ markedly from our boats here in Oz.

 

John

[Cathead]

Thanks, Jim. I sure don't know anything about Australian river craft. The most obscure steamboat reference I remember came while reading a history of the Ottoman Empire. The author, in passing, mentioned the British using shallow-draft steamboats both as gunboats and troop transports on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers during their WWI Mesopotamian campaigns against the Ottomans. 

 

Crackers, I've never heard that, and a quick internet search didn't turn up anything, so can neither confirm nor deny.

[mtaylor]

Cathead,

 

I seem to recall seeing those grasshoppers on model at the St. Louis Arch museum many years ago.   No explanation, etc. but it sure didn't look the same as the models with the landing stages.   Now I know what they did.   A very clear and lucid explanation.

 

You're right... the Missouri and even the upper Mississippi (above St. Louis) are totally different than the lower.  Or perhaps, "were" is more appropriate ever since the Army Engineers added dams, locks, and levees.  

[dgbot]

A great history lesson about Riverboating up the Great Muddy.  And This the first time I have heard of grasshoppers. Thank you Cathead for a great lesson and wonderful discussion.

David B

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Really wonderfull. The old river steamers have an own fascination

[Cathead]

And the Missouri is very different from the upper and lower Mississippi. The Missouri is sediment-dominated for most of its length; hardly any bedrock in channel anywhere. Whereas the Mississippi north of the Ohio has a lot of bedrock; there are (or were) numerous choke points and rock-reef rapids as you go north; one major reef is just north of St. Louis (look up Chain of Rocks). This is one reason why there's a lock-and-dam system on the Mississippi from St. Louis north, to flood the reefs and let river traffic cross them safely. But it also means the upper Mississippi is now effectively a set of lakes, not a river. The Mississippi south of the Ohio is also sediment-dominated, but was so big by that point that it didn't affect river navigation as much, since the channel was generally deep enough year-round, which is why there aren't dams down there.

 

Of course, today the Corps of Engineers has dramatically changed these rivers by constraining them to a single, deep, dredged, sometime dammed (damned?) channel completely different from their natural ecology, but that's another story. People should understand, though, that none of these rivers looks much like they did during the steamboat era.

[Cathead]

Here are the final details added to Bertrand.

 

Yawls

 

Bertrand likely carried two small boats (called yawls in my sources), based on comparable boats of the time. These weren't lifeboats, but served a similar role as in sailing ships, like a small car towed behind a recreational vehicle for light-duty use. My understanding is that these weren't lowered from davits, as on a whaling ship, but rather lashed to davits that themselves were lowered. Thus the two white spars seen here were actually hinged at the bottom; to lower the boat, the crew loosened the lines holding the davits to the deck and rotated them 180 degrees until the yawl hit the water. The length and position of these davits matches this procedure perfectly.

 

I had considered trying to make these small boats from scratch, but also had two castings in my scrap box that were the perfect size and scale, so just went with that. I painted them white, then gussied them up with hand-carved benches, oars, and rudders. Then I just glued them to the hurricane deck and lashed them to the davits, using the same method to coil the rope ends as described for the grasshopper spars. Pretty straightforward, really.

 

Lettering the name

In the previous photo you can see the lettered name on the pilot house; I also had to add the name to the engine room wall. I decided to use a fine-tipped marker to do this, and practiced multiple times on pieces of painted scrap wood. For the pilot house, I just went ahead and made the sign on a separate plank before attaching it, which looks good to me. For the engine room, it was a bit trickier, as the real boat had the name painted on the side, and I wasn't at all sure I was up for that. So, again, I made several practice letterings on painted scrap, reasoning that I would choose the best one and glue it in place, sacrificing a bit of realism for a better overall look.

 

Then Mrs Cathead pointed out that, if I was going to glue something over the place anyway, I might as well give a shot to lettering it in place, since if I messed up it could be covered anyway with my initial plan. So that's what I did. 

 

In the photo above, you see my best lettering attempt on a separate plank (better wrist angle and control) and my attempt actually on the model. The separate one is definitely a bit better, but the in-place version does have a more authentic feel. I'm not thrilled with any of them, they're all a bit shaky in a really close-up view, but as with so many things, when you step back just a little it blends right in. So I'm going to leave the on-model version, and save the plank version in case I change my mind. This is a case where photography really highlights flaws which don't really show up in an overall view. You can judge for yourselves when I post photos of the finished model.

 

Firewood

Western river boats were voracious users of fuel, burning anywhere from twelve to 75 cords of firewood DAILY. Wood was plentiful along the rivers, and quickly became a cash crop for farmers or dedicated woodcutters who stocked landing places with piles of firewood for sale. Boats took on fuel once or even twice daily, sometimes having to stop and cut their own if no sale point could be found. 

 

I wanted to display firewood on Bertrand, but wasn't up for hand-cutting and splitting 75 cords of 1:87 firewood. So I settled on just a few small stacks to give the idea; apparently Bertrand is actively looking for wood to buy! To make these, I just rummaged in the kindling box next to my wood stove and selected a variety of straight, smooth twigs that looked about right for scale tree trunks. I cut them to length with a small saw, then split them with a hobby knife. I laid out  piece of double-sided tape and put down a first layer of wood, then a layer of wood glue, then a layer of wood, and so on until I'd built up a proper pile. Two of these line the area next to the boilers nicely and get the idea across.

 

Stanchions

Just how Bertrand's boiler deck was supported from the main deck is apparently an issue of slight disagreement. The archeology reports clearly document finding sockets along the outer edge of the main deck guards, into which stanchions would have been placed, leading up to the boiler deck. They also found one of these iron stanchions during the dig. Yet the large-scale model the museum, and several other illustrations, show Bertrand without stanchions, but with knee-like braces curving outward from interior posts; see photos here. I decided to follow the archeologists' reconstruction, and installed stanchions all along the outer guards. These are wooden strips, painted black and rubbed with pastels to hint at a little rust, making them more metal-like. I saved this detail until the very end, to ensure access into the deck in case I needed it.

 

Cargo

Bertrand was loaded heavily with cargo, probably piled to the full height of the main deck along every square foot it could be stored. One successful run to Ft. Benton in western Montana could pay the entire cost of the boat's construction. But I decided to forgo that detail for now, for two reasons. One, I like the open view of the full structure, and two, right now it would be cost- and time-prohibitive to either buy or make the sheer numbers of scale crates, barrels, sacks, and more I'd need to do this. I think at some point, I'd like to go back and add some cargo detail, but right now I actually like the fully open deck really showing the boat's structure and layout. So that's where that stands for now. 

 

This evening I hope to post a variety of photos of the now-completed model.

[kurtvd19]

Cathead:
Congratulation on completing a great model.  Can't wait to see the rest of the photos.  The name board and name on the side look great.

Kurt
 

[mtaylor]

Congratulations on a great build and for giving us an education, Cathead.   This has been a fascinating trip.    

[Jim Lad]

Congratulations on getting her completed - she's really a fine looking model.

 

I think you've made a wise decision in leaving off the cargo and showing just some token fuel wood.  You want people to see the ship, not the cargo!

 

I'm looking forward to your further photos.

 

John

[Cathead]

Below are final photos of the completed Bertrand. In this post are basic shots from different angles, then another post follows with a few special photos. 

 

I am incredibly grateful for the interest and support shown by all of you for this rather obscure project. I don't think I could or would have undertaken this without the motivation and community of a build log to keep me focused. So thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cathead]

And now the special photos. I initially got started in this whole wooden model adventure because I am also a model railroader. My layout is centered on a Missouri River port town during the Civil War, roughly based on St. Joseph, MO, where the first railroad across Missouri connected the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers in 1859. Abraham Lincoln rode this railroad, the Hannibal & St. Joseph RR, while considering different options for the route of the first American transcontinental route. In any case, I knew I wanted a steamboat at the levee in my railroad town, to capture the feel of many fascinating images of railroads and steamboats interacting during this era.

 

So my first-ever wooden ship/boat model was a primitive scratchbuild of the famous sternwheeler Far West, which among other things carried Custer's troops to and from the Battle of Little Big Horn. To get ready for that project, several years ago, I built a cardboard mockup of Far West to have something three-dimensional to refer to as I built the real model. I enjoyed the project so much, I built two more Missouri River craft from scratch (see my signature) and was so addicted I ordered a kit, and so on. That's about when I found MSW and the infection spread. 

 

In any case, I put together a lineup of these three models, to show the evolution of my still-quite-amateur skills. I think it's neat to see them side-by-side; I named the cardboard mockup after my wife, though there really was a steamboat called Arkansas Belle:

 

 

Today, for the first time, I placed Bertrand on my layout. It's larger than Far West, for which the river portion was designed, so it hangs out over the edge. But it's also period-accurate; Bertrand was built in 1864 and certainly stopped in St. Joseph on its final trip upriver in 1865. Most of the buildings on the layout are scratchbuilt, including several based on real period buildings which remain today. When Bertrand left St. Joseph, her crew and passengers had no way of knowing she'd soon be a wreck, buried beneath the ever-shifting river sediment for over 100 years, until being rediscovered and excavated as a rare time capsule into this pivotal period of American history. At least this model will help preserve her memory in some small way.

 

So here are three photos of Bertrand in her natural habitat, at a Missouri River port town where all period modes of transportation came together. The western-most railhead in the country was here for a short time, wagon trains left from here for the West (including many Mormons), and steamboats lined the levee on their way too and from Montana. Here's one vision of how that scene might have looked:

 

 

My deepest thanks again to all of you. It's been a pleasure.

[Jim Lad]

Mate, it's been a real pleasure following your log and seeing this wonderful piece of America's history evolving.

 

John

[mtaylor]

A beaut of a setting for displaying her Cathead.   I'm thinking about that cargo.. I would add any as it will definitely detract.  One sees pictures of these vessels loaded and heading up or down river and all sense of difference is lost.

 

BTW, I love the Black&White shots... very period looking.

[CaptainSteve]

Congratulations on an excellent build, Cathead.

And, as many have said, thanks for the accompanying history lesson ... 'twas most insightful !!

[Elijah]

Congratulations! She looks fantastic!

[dgbot]

You have done a marvelous job Cathead.  I would love to see it at Manitowoc for everyone to see.it.  

David B 

[Burroak]

Cathead your steamship looks fantastic. Great job!

 

Greg H.

[gjdale]

Congratulations on completing an outstanding model and equally fascinating build log / history lesson, Cathead. I have really enjoyed the journey - thank you for sharing this with us all.