USS/SS Leviathan 1914 by shipmodel - FINISHED - 1/200 - troop ship/ocean liner

[shipmodel]

Hi Lou - 

 

I looked at the plans again and found two large drinking water tanks all the way aft and down near the propeller shafts.  Near them are several washing water tanks, while the bilges aft of midships are all labeled as tanks for either washing or boiler feed water.  These would have to be pumped up for use, so the small tanks in the funnel would probably only be called on when the power went down.  If they used salt water for anything, it might have been pumped in directly from the sea, but salt deposition would be a major problem in pipes, I would think, so I am not sure that it was used. 

 

I am anything but an expert on ship design or maintenance.  I mostly concern myself with outward appearance only, so I could be completely wrong here.

 

Dan

 

 

  

[michael mott]

Hi Dan just catching up,  superb job as usual, Those funnels looked like they were a lot of work, nicely done!

Personally I am not a fan of laminating thin sheets of styrene and have had some issues in the past with blistering caused by temperature changes, likely caused because I was not able to get a complete surface adhesion even though the liquid cement capillaries a long way.

 

Michael

 

[Joe100]

What a beautiful model!

 

I find these early 20th century liners to be great subjects. The Germans always had an eye for liner design and it seemed they always pushed the evolution forward. From Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse to Bremen and Europa. Personally, I feel that Bremen and Europa, as built, were the best looking liners of the 20th century. Not my favorite ships, but they did look amazing considering what the Germans had to work with.

 

Anyway, this is a gorgeous model, I love every bit of it! 

[shipmodel]

Hi Michael - 

 

Thanks for the warning.  I haven't had that problem yet, and maybe the boiling and cooling will limit it.  I will think twice before using the technique again.  

 

Dan

[lmagna]

10 hours ago, shipmodel said:

I mostly concern myself with outward appearance only, so I could be completely wrong here.

Same here, just looking at pictures and speculating!

[Roger Pellett]

Some steam engineering:  This ship would have had a regenerative feedwater system in which waste steam and steam bled from different turbine stages was used to heat the feed water before it passed into the boilers.  This means that the water entering the suction side of the feed water pumps would be hot.  The design of the feed water pumps required a certain pressure in excess of the boiling point of the water to prevent cavitation at the pump inlet.  For those interested the technical term for this is “Net Positive Suction Head.”

 

The feed water tank in the aft funnel would have held heated water that had passed through the feed water heaters and was about to enter the feed pumps.  The height of the tank relative to the pumps  provided the necessary head to prevent cavitation.

 

Roger

[lmagna]

Hi Rodger

While it seems to me that you are describing a heat well, where the used condensed steam and water from the boilers is reheated and recycled back into the boilers, isn't the forward fresh water system in the plans pretty much a duplicate of the after fresh water system where they condense fresh water from sea water  for replacement of water lost in the almost closed system of the ship's power?

 

Sorry Dan not trying to high jack your build. 

[Mirabell61]

On 3/17/2019 at 4:04 PM, shipmodel said:

 

More soon.

 

Be well

 

Dan

Lovely work on the 3 funnels Dan,

you`re on the end straight with the model, wish you all the best with the remaining fitting out

 

Nils

[shipmodel]

Hi Roger -  Thanks for the info.  I may never use it, but it is interesting nevertheless.

 

Lou - Don't worry about hijacking my build log.  I find these little diversions, whether in my log or another's, to be one of the better features of this site.

 

Nils - Thanks so much.  I only wish that I was on the final lap.  There is a huge amount of detailing to be done, even before I get to the 70 boats with their davits and pulleys, plus over 100 life rafts on the troop ship side.  Then there are the masts, and the cargo cranes, and and and . . . 

 

Dan 

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, shipmodel said:

even before I get to the 70 boats with their davits and pulleys, plus over 100 life rafts

Dan - it is comments like this that make feel I never want to attempt a liner. I will be watching your production line with interest.

[Roger Pellett]

No Lou.  The condensate system in a steam plant is an enclosed system that returns condensed steam from the turbines back to the feed pumps where it is pressurized to boiler pressure and sent back to the boilers.  In theory this is a completely enclosed system with leakage neither or out.  This is necessary in ocean going vessels as any salt from salt water would eventually concentrate in the boilers.

 

In pracrice, fresh water from the condensate system is lost from various vents and drains and from blowing down the boilers to remove impurities.  Fresh water must, therefore, be added.  This “make up” water as well as water needed for “hotel services” is produced in evaporators that distill salt water.  This is a separate system.

 

In addition to providing necessary head for the feed pumps, the tank high up in the ship performed two other functions.  First as a daereator where air entrapped in the system could be vented off.  Second it served as a reservoir to control condensate/ feed water surges when the ship was maneuvering.

 

Over the years steam steam engineering has progressed where no usable energy is wasted.  I don’t know where Leviathan’s steam plant was on this spectrum but I would guess that space and money would have existed to include a lot of refinements.

 

Roger

 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2019 by Roger Pellett

[Roger Pellett]

I wish to correct yesterday’s post responding to Lou’s post.  Upon further examination of the drawing there are two tanks in the third funnel marked “F and S water gravity tanks,” not “Feed Water Tanks”.  Lou is, therefore, correct.  These are storage tanks for fresh and salt water probably intended for “hotel” services such as drinking water and sanitary drains.  The feedwater expansion tanks do not appear on the drawing.

 

Roger

[lmagna]

2 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

The feedwater expansion tanks do not appear on the drawing.

I think there may be a lot of drawing that we have not seen yet. The expansion tanks may be located much closer to the actual boilers further forward, under stacks one and two. 

 

The only drawings that I ever got that were this detailed  was the set I got from the Smithsonian for the USS Panay years ago. Made building the Oahu, (Sister ship) much more enjoyable when you knew what the different structures contained.

[shipmodel]

Hi Roger, Lou - 

 

If you send me your email addresses I can send the file with the entire cross section plans.  Reproducing it here will not have the kind of resolution that you want.

 

Dan

[lmagna]

PM sent

This should be interesting. It will be a little like being a ghost wandering the dark hulk of a sunken ship. Like I already said this amount of detail in a set of plans is not required for building but is almost as interesting as the build itself. At least to me.

[shipmodel]

Hi all - 

 

Another Sunday – well, Monday – another building installment, after a nice diversion into engineering.

 

Working now from the middle funnel down, I began with area between the middle and forward funnels.  Here is the relevant section of the plans.  Photo analysis provided the rest of the information needed.

I started with the bases of the funnels themselves.  Here are shots of the middle funnel and the forward one.  The colors changed from the troop ship to the liner, but the fittings were the same.

There are two types of small vents that had to be made, one with two tapering round plates, the other with a flared cross-head.  Of the two, the flared head of the second made it harder to make, so I started with it. 

After a bunch of failed experiments, I found that I could make a flare in a tube with a pencil.  A tea light gave me enough heat to soften, but not melt, the plastic.  I held the pencil steady about two inches above the flame and rotated the plastic for even heating.  The picture is a bit off, since I found that heating more of the pencil gave me a flare just on the very end of the tube.

The flare was cleaned up a bit with sandpaper, then cut to the desired length on the Preac.  A short length of brass tube was cut and glued into the flared tube, then a shaft was dished at the top and attached.

There are two sizes for these vents and lots of different heights.  After measuring and cutting the shafts to length the open ends were filled with toothpicks which also acted as handles for painting.   Then the wood was cut off flush and drilled for a soft iron wire that will secure it to the model along with white glue.

The round top plates of the other vent were made by punching out three sizes of plastic disc and stacking them so it looks like there is a gap between the top and bottom plates.  This was attached to a length of dowel, which was used as a handle to sand down the top plates to a flat angle.

Here are those fittings at the base of the forward funnel.  I am a bit unhappy with the slightly crude look of the round vents.  I could not get that edge as sharp as I wanted, since thin plastic will not take the same detail as metal.  But to worry about that level of detail I would have to have 9 years to finish the model, not 9 months.  All of life and art is a series of tradeoffs.

Next was the area of deck just forward of the middle funnel.  Here is the plan.  There are a number of structures, but they are all too short to show up on any profile plan that I have, although an artist’s rendering of the cross-section of the ship gives some idea of their shapes.

Photos of the area were studied closely to make out the shapes that fit the plans.  But most of them are from the liner period, and some seriously creative interpretation had to be done to fit what was seen in the few troop ship photos showing this area.

For the most part, the structures here are rectangular, though of different heights and a few with sloped roofs.  Most have rectangular or square skylights which will be represented with dark decals.  However, in the center of this photo there is a ducted fan that I call, for obvious reasons, a snail.

This and other photos show this type of machinery in lots of other locations around the upper deck.  They come in several sizes, with varying details, but they all follow a similar pattern.  There is a round flat body with a motor on one side sitting on a motor mount.  There are intake and exhaust ducts coming off at various angles, with various end caps or fittings. 

    I experimented with styrene and resin, but I am basically a woodworker.  Each body was sliced from a hardwood dowel, as was the motor.  I did not try to do any detailing of the motor except in the largest sizes.  When lying down the disc has its grain running vertically, so it is easy to line up a knife blade and press down vertically.  The wood splits cleanly away.  Ductwork the width of the body is glued to the cut face and rounded to curve into the disc.  It is topped, in this case, by a rounded square cap.

After priming, sanding and painting these snails were located, secured and attached to the ductwork shown on the plans or photos.  There are two here, along with my best interpretations of the houses, skylights and vents.  More than most other areas of the ship, this one shows the changes from the troop ship to the liner.

I try to check my progress regularly against photos to be sure that I am not getting too far away from reality.  Here is the developing troop ship from a low angle.  I think I am on the right track.

Just forward of this area there is a large belfry.  This houses the largest of five bells on the ship, and the one left over from the SS Vaterland.   It was built up from 1/16” scale I-beams.  The pieces were gently bent around a form and rubber banded there.  A dip in simmering water and a dunk in cold set the U-shapes which were joined at the top at an angle.  Cross supports were added and welded in place with liquid plastic cement.  After painting the bronze cast bell was mounted.

Forward of the belfry is the curved roof skylight over the Social Hall with the individual lights represented by a custom decal.  The camouflage scheme was carried up and over since it could be seen from the side.  Photoetched railings and ladders were fitted in place as seen in the photos.

From the angle of the port bridge wing the model closely resembles the ship and is starting to get the busy look that she had.  Nothing draws my eye as being off and, as they say, “If it looks right, it must be right. . . “

Another segment next Sunday, god willing and the creek don't rise.

 

Till then, be well.

 

Dan

 

[druxey]

Love the 'same angle' photos of the ship and comparison to the model, Dan.

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, shipmodel said:

A tea light gave me enough heat to soften, but not melt, the plastic.  I held the pencil steady about two inches above the flame and rotated the plastic for even heating.

Dan - Wish I had such sophisticated tools. Enjoyed the update - as ever. Lovely work.

Edited March 25, 2019 by KeithAug

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, shipmodel said:

I am a bit unhappy with the slightly crude look of the round vents

Dan - I think they look fine - however in the past when I have needed mushroom shaped domes I have used plastic screw caps (dirt cheap on eBay and come in many sizes). 

[Jim Lad]

Beautiful work on the details, Dan.

 

John

[FriedClams]

Hello Dan,

 

Your Leviathan built is coming along great and a real pleasure to follow.  Beautiful work.

 

You probably already know this, but perhaps not all of your readers do.  The snail shaped fans are called “centrifugal exhaust blowers”.  Mounted directly onto the motor shaft inside the spiral housing is a squirrel cage impeller.  The intake to the blower is always into the center of the impeller on the side opposite of the motor.  The exhaust is out the end of the spiral.  So what appears to be an end cap is probably an elevated cover or hood protecting the blower from rain while still allowing the blower to exhaust.  And just like the name implies, they are installed to exhaust a given space or area.  Here in the US, the capacity rating is in CFM (cubic feet per minute) and its application is sized according to the volume of space to be evacuated and how many air changes per hour are required.

 

Here is a photo of a few blowers sitting on the manufacturer’s production floor.

 

So, that’s all the irrelevant air handling minutia that I know. 

 

Looking forward to the continuation of your build.

 

Gary

[shipmodel]

Hi Gary - 

 

Thanks for the quite relevant information.  I was hoping someone would know the actual name of those things.

Now that I know how they work it will improve my construction of the rest a bit.

 

Dan  

[michael mott]

Beautiful Work Dan.

Michael

[shipmodel]

Gary - 

 

If I am reading the photos correctly, some of the blowers seem to be set up to move the air into the ship, rather than being an exhaust.

Would they have been done that way?  It matters to the way I build the ductwork.

 

Thanks

 

Dan

[Jim Lad]

Gary, some fans would certainly be sucking air into the ship to ventilate engine and boiler spaces and also accommodation by forced draught rather than natural air flow.

 

John

[FriedClams]

Hello Dan and John,

 

Yes, the blowers can exhaust or supply air.  In your photo above it is being used for exhaust because the output of the blower is going to atmosphere.  If fresh air is supplied to the intake, the output of the blower at the spiral end can be ducted to wherever the fresh air is needed.  But the air can only move in one direction - from intake at the center of the impeller then out the spiral.  Reversing motor rotation will not move air in the opposite direction.

 

So I should have called it a “centrifugal blower” being used in an exhaust application. Sorry that I caused some confusion there.

 

Gary

 

 

[shipmodel]

Gary, John - 

 

Thanks, Now I won't have to redo any blowers.

 

Dan

[Roger Pellett]

Hi Dan,

 

Nice work on the model continues.  In a much earlier post, I commented that U.S. Navy Naval Constructor Edward Ellsberg was loaned to US Lines by the Navy to solve a problem of inadequate ventilation in passenger spaces and the fire rooms. It is therefore possible that these large centrifugal blowers were added while serving as a US Lines passenger liner and were not present while she was a troopship.  Addition of mechanical ventilation might have also been the reason why the slots in the third stack were plated over.

 

Did Leviathan burn oil or coal as a trooper?  The fire room ventilation problems were apparently related to conversion to oil.

 

Roger

[Bob Cleek]

33 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

It is therefore possible that these large centrifugal blowers were added while serving as a US Lines passenger liner and were not present while she was a troopship.

If those blowers were added for passenger liner use after she was a troopship, just imagine what the ventilation situation must have been below decks when she was packed solid with troops who hadn't showered for the duration of the voyage, not to mention the seasickness issue!

[shipmodel]

Hi Roger, Bob - 

 

From careful analysis of the photos, it looks like most of the conversions took place from the Vaterland to the troop ship.  This included closing off the openings in the third funnel and adding a number of new blowers around the top deck.  There was also a very large ventilation unit built on top of the bridge.   Lookout posts and a rangefinder platform were built on top of that. 

Bob is right that the troop ship needed lots of additional air movement.  On one trip she carried over 14,000 people at once.   After the war the conversion actually reduced the number and size of the vents, as well as modernizing some of the rest.  At least that is how I interpret the images.

 

Dan