USS Saginaw 1859 by catopower - FINISHED - 1/8" scale - paddlewheel gunboat - first ship built at Mare Island

[popeye the sailor]

very nice work Clare.  the way you arrived at the finished hull is unique.  love the deck planking and the features you've put into it......really superb stuff!

[shark bait]

Hey Clare,

 

The Saginaw is looking great!! I am impressed by your idea of sanding the edges of the planking for more definition and am going to steal that from you. I'm telling you about this one...all the other ideas I've stolen from you shall remain a secret.

 

Bill

[gjdale]

Looking great Clare.

[mtaylor]

Clare,

 

The planking is really showing off her lines. 

 

I'm following your research and the paths it's lead you down.   The dropdown panels on the stern might possibly have been iron and all the way around.  The Constellation (1854) had those all the way around the stern.  Makes sense that you'd want the maximum field of fire.  On the armament itself, there was an arms race going during the not-so-Civil War. It's probable that one or two of the intermediate configurations just didn't work out.  A 50 pound Dahlgren would be a monsterous gun.  They had planned a 110 pdr for the Constellation.

[druxey]

That's one elegant hull! Very nice progress, Clare.

[catopower]

Wow, I guess I hadn't set my preferences to follow my own topic. I just showed up and found all these great comments.

 

Thank you everyone. It's very motivating to see your great comments. Saginaw has been kind of on the back burner for many months, but I think it's time to push forward again. I'm still getting my build log caught up, so I'll try to put some more effort into that too.

 

But, thanks Michael, Bill, Popeye, Grant, Mark, Druxey, for your nice comments!

 

Okay, more soon...

 

Clare

[catopower]

Mark,

 

You may very well be correct about those panels running all the way around the stern. One of the reasons I didn't was the configuration of the tracks in the plans. It appears that these support the rear wheels when pivoting the gun. Since there are no tracks to support the gun being trained directly astern, I figured that the panels wouldn't have extended all the way around. 

 

 

One of the more confusing aspects of researching a subject is when you hit things like this sketch done by the Saginaw's captain showing life of the castaways on Ocean Island after the ship ran aground.

 

Maybe he just wasn't out to detail the ship as it was just a sketch, but the drawing shows no sign of a gun or tracks, but what looks like one small gunport. Could be one drop down panel open and the gun might have been hastily cast overboard in an effort to save the ship. Or, maybe he was just more focussed on the crew working to salvage what they could and survive.

 

 

Clare

Edited July 17, 2013 by catopower

[catopower]

More Hull Work

At the time I was planking the deck, I took some time to build up the structure for the main deck house. When the Saginaw was originally built, this included a pilot house at the forward end. For some reason, this was removed at the time of the 1863 refit. Perhaps it wasn’t high enough to be useful. Without the pilot house, the design was pretty simple, just a long rectangle with a half-round forward end. 

 

I had shaped the structure from thin plywood and basswood and cut a 1/2” diameter opening for the funnel. The outside was planked with thin, narrow, vertical strips of boxwood. Six doors would be added at a later stage.

 

 

About the same time, I also made a basic funnel from 1/2” brass tubing, about 3-1/2” long and cut a shallow hole in the deck to seat it in. I also drilled holes in the deck for the masts and cut to length the dowels I would need for the masts and spars.

 

 

Something I forgot to mention in my last post relates to those last two photos of that post. You’ll note that I added the channels at the same time as the main rail. Since the channels are in line with the rail, I went ahead and built them into the rail itself for added strength. An upper rail or hammock rail will go on top of this, so the channels should be quite sturdy. I’ll post one of the photos again here to illustrate.

 

 

At this stage, I also added scuppers, which were drilled through the bulwarks and then lined with thin walled brass tubing. I also added started work on the two large bits at the foremast. The plans show them to have what I assume to be iron rods run through them as cross-bitts. These bits might have actually been iron sheathed, but I chose to treat mine as wooden with a metal band that the rods are run through.

 

The next photo shows the upper rail nearly complete. At the bow, notches were cut for the catheads and the rail is still in progress. Gunports were lined and I had started working on the hawse pipes which I made from brass tubing. A small piece of sheet brass was soldered onto the end of the tube and then was filed to shape for the lips. I did something similar for the inboard end of the hawse pipes, though they are completely separate pieces.

 

 

 

 

Clare

[mtaylor]

Clare,

 

I'll bet those were "double-pinned" guns judging from the tracks.  With he pin was in the rear of the gun it rotated to face the stern, track "A" could be used.  Pull it, rotate it, re-pin from the front and either "B" or "C" could be used.  This would apply to the forward gun also.

 

Google "pivot guns".  You'll have sort through some junk to find the good stuff... but there was this type and also a "center-pinned" gun that rotated about it's center.  The bigger guns seemed to be of the double type, the smaller were center-type.   I marked what looks to be the pivot pin recievers (holes) "1", "2", and "3".  They weren't a hole but a bushing like shape set into the deck and the beam under it.

 

 

 

[catopower]

Hi Mark,

 

I agree the carriages were double-pinned and it seems pretty clear on the plans I have (the ones I posted here are pretty low-res) that those small circles are pivots as you pointed out. 

 

I gathered several reference photos including the one below which I got courtesy of Bill Emerson who wrote a couple great articles for Ships in Scale on his Civil War era gunboat models which are very similar to the Saginaw.

 

This is the USS Mississippi. Clearly, much larger than the Saginaw, but it does show the same double-pinned pivot carriage and also drop down panels for the forward gun ports.

 

 

The next thing I'm looking at is whether the forward gun port was one large panel that possibly drops down so it's horizontal or if it drops all the way down. In the only photo of the Saginaw, the gun port opening is apparent, but the configuration of the gun port cover/panel(s) is not. As far as I can tell, the insides of panels would have been painted white, like the inside of the bulwarks. If the port covers were panels that dropped down all the way, then there should be a light colored area under the gun port opening. If we're looking at a single panel that hinges down until it's horizontal, then we may be looking at it edge-on, which is what I'm assuming unless I can find some good info to the contrary.

 

From a photo I pulled off of Bluejacket's website some time ago. Bluejacket built this custom model for a client and went with the single hinged panel for the forward gun port. I'm considering going with this configuration, though the actual mechanics of hinging a slightly curved panel is a bit complicated and questionable.

 

As long as I'm studying photos here, I might as well mention the boat gun broadside mounts. There were four 24-pounders at this time. These will look pretty much like those in the following photo pulled from the web.

 

Porter shown aboard the USS Malvern next to the Dahlgren mount. The only issue I'll have is that the gun ports on the Saginaw are pretty low and I'm going to have to use a little creative modeling to make the guns fit. 

 

I'll also mention that I'm building the Saginaw with a Hurricane Deck, similar to that shown in the background of this photo. They are not shown on the plans, but I've found anecdotal references to one in George Reed's account of the loss of the Saginaw.

 

Clare

Edited July 17, 2013 by catopower

[mtaylor]

Clare,

 

Pictures I've seen from that era show small sections for the port panels.  Probably about 4 to mayby 6 feet.  The problem would have been one of man-handling them to the open and the closed positions.  I'll do some digging, but a couple of vessels had iron for the panels instead of wood.  

[catopower]

Hi Mark,

 

I had located this on the Internet at one point, but don't recall exactly where. This is what I was figuring on for the aft pivot gun. I'm still open to configuring the forward gun ports this way, but I'd like to not simply ignore the only known photo of the Saginaw.

 

I think this is what you're referring to though, correct?

 

 

The small inset photo shows one of the panels open horizontally flat (mostly flat). Not sure what's holding it up – it looks a little more like it's hung-up on something. I might assume this for the Saginaw and then use the panels. The only thing is that the panels on the Saginaw would be short, starting about a foot-and-a-half above the deck on bulkwarks that aren't all that high on this small ship.

 

Clare

[mtaylor]

Clare,

 

You found one of the Constellation pics that I found...    Those "supports" are iron bars.  I never did find out what held those sections up when they were open..

 

By all means go with what info you have.  I'm just musing along on such things.

[catopower]

Mark, by all means please muse. I still have a lot of issues to work out so discussions are extremely helpful.

 

I've never built a model of a ship of this period and certainly not an early steamer. A lot of changes were going on in ship building around this time in history and it's hard to keep track of them. This project has been the most analysis and guesswork I've ever had to put in on a model, so it's a bit taxing at times and slows the whole build. I think I have some things worked out, but then some time later, I start rethinking things. Still, I really enjoy doing the research.

 

I can't remember where I found that image of the Constellation, but it was a major find for me. It certainly helped me decide on the configuration of the stern gun ports. I think you're right about how heavy a single, wide gun port cover would have been – lifting it back into the closed position would have required an enormous effort. It would have made sense to have separate panels.

 

Thanks for keeping me thinking 

 

Clare

[catopower]

The Saginaw had a non-collapsing type of funnel that is quite tall. I think this is a feature that make the ship really stand out to me. Something about that look on a ship with sails I found very appealing to the eye.

 

Luck had it that I the dimensions of the needed tubing was very simple. At 1/2” diameter, I could just pick up the brass tubing from the K&S stand at the local Ace Hardware. And, as it turned out, I could also get tubing 15/16” in diameter there which made a perfect fit inside the 1/2” tubing, making for a sleeve that could help me a little in construction.

 

The funnel tubing was cut 3-5/8” long with a slight angle at the base to accommodate the rake of the funnel. The length was measured for the funnel to sit atop the deck house. I used a length of 15/16” tubing to serve as an inner sleeve that would extend up into the funnel part way and down through the deck house and seat into a shallow hole in the deck.

 

The stack itself is supported by a pair of eye bands, one at the very top and one 15/16” below that. The top band has four eyebolts in it for support guys, the lower one has only three and are offset from the ones above and are centered aft.

The diagram shows the two eyebands and the locations of the eyebolts. 

 

 

I went through two funnels trying to attach the eyebands nicely. The first attempt was done by soldering the eyebands into place. However, I did such a poor soldering job that I had to do a lot of filing, which just resulted in a bad looking funnel.

 

On the second attempt, I ended up just using CA glue and that made a very clean attachment. Once in place I drilled out the eyebolt locations and ran the eyebolts into place. By running the eyebolts through the bands and into the funnel, it seems to help  further secure the eyebands from pulling out of position.

 

 

Finally, I sprayed the whole thing with primer and painted using a few coats of Testor’s semi-gloss black acrylic paint.

 

Clare

[popeye the sailor]

the funnel looks great Clare    your overall bulwark layout looks really nice as well.......I wish I knew something of those gunport sections.

 

      perhaps knees were utilized......either affixed to the port sills or the sections themselves,  to act as stops for them.   it might even be that those braces that support them are pivoted,  with turnbuckle screws that when retracted  {or otherwise}  only allow the section to pivot in a 1/4 radius?   figured I'd take a stab at it anyway 

[captainbob]

Clare,

 

Nice clean looking stack. 

 

Bob

[shark bait]

Clare, that stack looks great!

[catopower]

Popeye, thanks for the ideas on the gun ports. 'Tis a puzzlement!

 

Cap'n' Bob, Bill, thanks for the nice comments on the stack. It sure beats the heck out of the first attempt at the stack, which I am too embarrassed to show. Anyway, I destroyed all copies of photos of the original for good measure 

 

As it is, I'm really happy with the second attempt. Now, if I can only get other parts of the model to come out as nicely...

 

Clare

Edited July 23, 2013 by catopower

[captainbob]

 

 

thanks for the nice comments on the stack. It sure beats the heck out of the first attempt at the stack, which I am too embarrassed to show. Anyway, I destroyed all copies of photos of the original for good measure 

 

 

Clare

 

WOW, I thought I was the only one that did that.

 

Bob

[catopower]

Finishing the Bulwarks

 

The next step in the build was to finish the bulwarks construction. I built the upper rail which is simply a thick basswood strip which I later planked over to match the rest of the hull. I installed the caprail everywhere except at the bow, which I had to leave until after the catheads were installed. 

 

I constructed a pair of catheads from boxwood and drilled out the sheave holes. Notches were cut in the bulwarks just forward of the gunports, which you can see in a previous image of the Saginaw model, and the catheads were installed.

 

 

 

 

 

Deck Furniture and Paddle Wheel Axle

 

At the same time, I started doing all the easier things, like making the hatch coamings, bitts, and shaping the bowsprit. I also spent some time on figuring out how I was going to fit the axle for the paddle wheels.

 

The paddle wheels on the plans were centered just above the deck line, but I’d never actually seen a ship with an exposed axle. Models and plans of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane show a similar configuration, but it seemed odd to think of how this would affect movement of the crew on deck.

 

Was the axle enclosed? Was there a box of some kind fitted with steps to make it easier to climb over it? Did one hop over the top of it or climb over it while it spun? 

 

In the previous incarnation of MSW, someone posted a pic of a British steamer where the axle was enclosed by a box and it might have had a couple steps on it. 

 

Don’t know what I’m going to do on this yet, but it’s interesting that I’ve found very little on this subject.

 

One thing that added a bit of confusion was an arched beam right at the paddle wheel location. It almost seemed like the deck might have been arched over it. But, I discarded that idea, figuring it more likely that the arched beam was part of the wheel house design and maybe provided addition support strength for the wheel and the wheel house.

 

 

Clare

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2014 by catopower

[popeye the sailor]

I did a bit of looking around...I found this for you.  from what I see,  there is a cabin that covers this area,  attatched to the bulwark and the central structure.

 

Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument

 

 

 

[catopower]

Hi Popeye, thanks for posting that - it's a neat painting that seems to capture the scene of the wreck well.

 

Where did you find it? Any idea who the artist was or when it was painted?  It looks fairly contemporary, but it's nice to see that if it is supposed to be the Saginaw, they seem to agree to some kind of hurricane deck structure, but it's kind of hard to tell from the image. I didn't see it on the link you posted, but I recognized the site as one connected with the NOAA office of Hans Van Tilburg, one of my main research resources.

 

Anyway, I'd love to know more about the painting if you have any more details.

 

Clare

[catopower]

Brass Etching

 

The next issue I dealt with was the tracks for the pivot guns. Having recently purchased a brass etching kit from Micromark, this was one of two perfect opportunities for making use of it, the other item being the wheel house fan decoration (My first test was actually to make some trailboard decorations for the Yacht America, but that’s another subject...). The Micromark kit contains pretty much everything you need to get started right away. It is a chemical etching process that uses a photo resistive material to transfer your artwork onto the metal. 

 

 

 

 

You begin by creating your artwork as a negative image printed onto clear transparency using an inkjet printer. By negative image, I mean that the metal will remain where the page is blank. The areas to be etched away are the areas where ink is printed onto the page. Of course, you will have to have software to create the artwork on your computer. I used Adobe Illustrator for this - a very old education edition that still works well on an old computer.

 

 

 

Here, I made the fan pattern for the wheel houses

 

 

 

The next step is to clean the metal you are going to etch really well to get the photoresist film to stick well to it. This is a critical step as any dirt or oxidation may cause  bubbles in the photoresist film and the process will not be satisfactory. Note that the photoresist is light sensitive so all work with it must be done in very low light conditions.

 

The kit includes a laminator to get the photoresist to adhere to the metal. If all goes well, the next thing to do is to sandwich the artwork and the photoresist-coated metal between two pieces of included acrylic and clamp them together using provided clips.

 

Then one of the parts that takes some experimenting to get right. The photoresist must be exposed to a light source, like a 100watt lamp shining close to the work for about 10 minutes. When done, the metal is washed in a diluted solution of Sodium Hydroxide, otherwise known as Caustic Soda or Lye and it’s nasty stuff. It will burn your skin. Believe me, I know. 

Carefully, the unexposed parts of the photoresist are washed away, leaving bare metal exposed for the etchant to do its work.

 

Next step is to actually immerse the metal into the etchant. This is the easy part as it’s mostly a matter of waiting and periodically checking progress.

 

 

 

 

The kit uses Ferric Chloride as the etchant and includes a plastic tank for the etchant bath with an air pump used to keep the etchant circulating. The stuff is good for several uses, but takes longer with each use as the etchant is expended. The bad part of all of this is that the expended etchant has to be disposed of properly, and legally, taking it to a hazardous waste facility.

 

 

A close up of the “Witches Brew”

 

 

Rotating the work every 10 minutes, the metal will finally etch through

 

 

Checking the progress of a project

 

 

Once the etching is done, the piece is removed and the photoresist is removed using a full strength bath of Sodium Hydroxide solution, and it’s done.

 

 

The completed etched fan decoration for the Saginaw’s wheel houses

 

 

Next time, getting back to the pivot gun tracks.

 

Clare

Edited April 20, 2014 by catopower

[captainbob]

Good job, Clare.   That's some of the best etching I've seen.

 

Bob

[catopower]

Thanks Cap'n'Bob. I was very happy with the results on the fan design. I did have to make two separate attempts at it as I think I underexposed the first one and the fine parts of the design near the hub weren't making contact. I adjust the art a little bit and redid the etch and it came out perfect. 

 

But, I have to say that after this batch of etching of the fan and the pivot gun tracks, I started to notice some some unevenness in the final product. I started trying to make adjustments to the way I did the etching and then next thing you know I'm having a hard time getting anything to come out right. So, I experimented with other methods of etching. Then, I got tired of having nothing but failures and then burned out on it for a while.

 

Every now and again I get the nerve up to try it again and then failure, failure, failure.

 

It's about time to go back to the beginning now and see if I can repeat some of the early success.

 

Clare

[mtaylor]

NIce etchings, Clare. It's probably a good idea to revisit your process with the eyes of a newbie. I think most of us, after having an early success either miss a step or aren't as careful as when we were first trying a process out.  I hope it works out and you can get some repeat success.

[captainbob]

Thanks Cap'n'Bob. I was very happy with the results on the fan design. I did have to make two separate attempts at it as I think I underexposed the first one and the fine parts of the design near the hub weren't making contact. I adjust the art a little bit and redid the etch and it came out perfect. 

 

But, I have to say that after this batch of etching of the fan and the pivot gun tracks, I started to notice some some unevenness in the final product. I started trying to make adjustments to the way I did the etching and then next thing you know I'm having a hard time getting anything to come out right. So, I experimented with other methods of etching. Then, I got tired of having nothing but failures and then burned out on it for a while.

 

Every now and again I get the nerve up to try it again and then failure, failure, failure.

 

It's about time to go back to the beginning now and see if I can repeat some of the early success.

 

Clare

That's about where I am also.  But I never got the first yet.  I keep telling myself, "Someday I'll make it."

 

Bob

[janet bode]

Wonderful build, i want to build her too perhaps sometime in the future,

   please carry on with the pics its very inspiring for me good luck.

                                                    Kind regards: janet b

[catopower]

Thanks Mark, Cap'n'Bob,

 

Thanks for your support. Before I try again, I set it aside for a moment and I just took a diversion to use the Sherline lathe I bought a couple months back and finally started trying my hand at turning cannon. In this case, one of the 30-pdr Parrot Rifles of the Saginaw's later days. It was quite fun and interesting and I have lots to learn.

 

Hi Janet, 

 

Thank you for your nice comments. They are very inspiring to me and help keep me motivated when things aren't going so well on the project. Much appreciated!

 

Clare