USS Cairo 1862 by MPB521 – FINISHED - Scale 1:48 - American Civil War Ironclad - First Scratch Build

[mbp521]

35 minutes ago, Cathead said:

Brian, my apologies, I completely and shamefully misinterpreted and misused terminology. Never mind.

No apology needed. It is typical of the military to take a normal term and make it their own by giving it a totally new definition. 😁 If they can’t come up with a new definition they’ll just give an acronym to confuse the civilian population. I definitely know this from experience. 
 

37 minutes ago, Cathead said:

The way you describe it, though, the use of pilots on these naval vessels sounds exactly the same as normal river practice, where the pilot was the de facto captain of the vessel, while the "real" captain was more of a business manager and had no say or authority over navigation.

I had no idea of this fact. I always thought that the riverboat captains and the pilots were one and the same. It totally makes sense though. You would want someone competent steering the boat while the Captain schmoozes with the passengers. 
 

-Brian

[Roger Pellett]

Brian,

 

The bell is an interesting question.  These bells on Western River Boats resembled what farmers called “dinner bells.”  Mounted on a post they were rung to call those working in the fields to dinner or to summon neighbors in an emergency.  They were rung by pulling on a rope to tilt the bell.

 

Naval bells were different.  They were hung from a fixed bracket and struck by pulling on a rope tied to the clapper.  This allowed the precise time keeping during the four hour watch cycle. Ding ding- ding ding, etc.  

 

I had assumed that a principal use of the farm type bell in the Western River passenger steamboats was to announce arrivals and departures.  Rung in an uncontrolled manner they were the steamboat equivalent to “all aboard.”

 

So what were these bells used for on the gunboats?  By tilting the bell it would seem difficult to accurately toll the half hours of the watch cycle.  Maybe a rope from the clapper to the Pilot house?  A fog signal?

 

Roger

 

 

[Cathead]

Brian, yes, pilots and captains were totally different. River pilots were licensed independently (they, along with the chief engineer, were the only crewmembers required by law to have any training or licensure) and had to complete rigorous apprenticeships to ensure they knew the rivers they would be piloting on. They were roughly equivalent to harbor pilots, but much more powerful since they controlled the entire voyage, not just entry to/from a harbor. Most boats carried two pilots so there could always be one on duty. Captains did not have the authority to overrrule pilots in any matter of navigation or operational matters. Captains essentially oversaw the business management of the boat and would naturally set the intended schedule/destinations, but the actual act of getting there was out of their hands.

 

Pilots also operated independently and were not tied to a specific boat in any way (unless they signed a contract). They took jobs as they saw fit. Because of this, competent pilots were a prized commodity and could often extract exorbitant fees from captains (boats could not legally or practically operate without pilots). There are lots of stories of pilots playing desperate captains off one another for higher trip rates or other concessions.

[mbp521]

2 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

So what were these bells used for on the gunboats?  By tilting the bell it would seem difficult to accurately toll the half hours of the watch cycle.  Maybe a rope from the clapper to the Pilot house?  A fog signal?

Roger, I am thinking that your second paragraph is correct. The plaque on the bell in the Cairo Museum states the same information.

 

2 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

Naval bells were different.  They were hung from a fixed bracket and struck by pulling on a rope tied to the clapper.  This allowed the precise time keeping during the four hour watch cycle. Ding ding- ding ding, etc.  

The only difference being that this bell was mounted to a bracket with a pivot. However, where it was mounted was pretty tight quarters so I would assume that the pivot feature was not used and that there was a rope tied to the clapper that was rung every half hour by the watch. Funny thing is, I am not sure that these bells were originally for these gunboats. I can't remember where I read it, but I do recall seeing something about the bells being requisitioned from somewhere when the boats were completed. Generally Naval boats have the names of the ship cast on the bells (please correct me if I am wrong about this statement) but the bell on the Cairo just had the name of the foundry, date and the manufacturing company. Also, the bell was cast in 1860, a tad bit before the ACW, so that kind of confirms that they bell was not initially intended for the gunboats. I'm going to keep researching a bit more on this, but if I run into a dead end, I think I'll just mount the bell on a pedestal, maybe incorporate it into a flag locker or something and install a rope on the clapper.

 

 

-Brian

[mbp521]

1 hour ago, Cathead said:

Brian, yes, pilots and captains were totally different. River pilots were licensed independently (they, along with the chief engineer, were the only crewmembers required by law to have any training or licensure) and had to complete rigorous apprenticeships to ensure they knew the rivers they would be piloting on. They were roughly equivalent to harbor pilots, but much more powerful since they controlled the entire voyage, not just entry to/from a harbor. Most boats carried two pilots so there could always be one on duty. Captains did not have the authority to overrrule pilots in any matter of navigation or operational matters. Captains essentially oversaw the business management of the boat and would naturally set the intended schedule/destinations, but the actual act of getting there was out of their hands.

 

Pilots also operated independently and were not tied to a specific boat in any way (unless they signed a contract). They took jobs as they saw fit. Because of this, competent pilots were a prized commodity and could often extract exorbitant fees from captains (boats could not legally or practically operate without pilots). There are lots of stories of pilots playing desperate captains off one another for higher trip rates or other concessions.

Eric, thank you for the very useful information. This opens up a whole lot of questions and discussions. I am now curious as to what these gunboat pilots would have been paid given that they were prime targets for enemy snipers. This was one of the reasons for the port flap modifications to the pilot house on the Cairo. Snipers were picking the pilots off though the original port openings, which were roughly 12"x12". Iron flaps were fashioned to cover the ports during patrols in hostile waters. The pilots view was diminished considerably since now they were only able to peer through a hole in the flaps roughly the size of a half dollar. Talk about having to know the waters you were in.

 

Other thoughts that come to mind on this are, where did the pilots loyalties lay? Would they pilot boats for whatever side paid the most, or whichever side they felt has the best cause? Also, given that they were working for the military, were they conscripted into service and fall under the command of the ships captain? I'm not sure of how much military strategy these pilots had, so some direction would have to had been under the Captains orders in times of battle. And don't get me started on the Rams. What experienced riverboat pilot would purposefully want to drive his boat into another. I'm sure this goes against all of their training and natural instincts to dodge oncoming craft. I can just hear the first pilot that was ordered to ram another vessel. "You want me to do WHAT!" 😁

 

Looks like I have some more research to do.

 

-Brian

[Cathead]

Given that lots of riverboat pilots were from divided border states like Missouri and Kentucky, along with the southern-most tier of Union states like Ohio and Indiana, it wouldn't surprise me if there was a fair amount of diversity in where their support went. Weren't a lot of, say, die-hard Mainer Unionists with decades of experience on the lower Mississippi.

 

On the pay front, commercial steamboat traffic crashed during much of the war, so pilots may have been employable at more affordable rates than usual since there wasn't as much normal work. Plus, the Federal government had money to throw around, so may even have paid them pretty well. I'm reading a new book on the 1865 Sultana disaster right now, and it documents quite a lot of graft in the way contracts were used and abused for the shipping of freed Union POWS upriver. The Feds were paying good money for shipping services at a time when river traffic was low, and everyone wanted a piece of the action. Pilots could have been the same.

 

Definitely a good question on the chain of command, wish I knew. It certainly had to be more structured than in civilian life, no way a pilot could refuse military orders the way they could a regular captain. Honestly, the same question goes for pilots on the various regular steamers used in government service as transports. So much to know!

[Roger Pellett]

The federal Govt. had real money to pay them vs Confederate script.

 

[FriedClams]

Nice update Brian - great work all around!

 

On 7/7/2022 at 3:21 PM, mbp521 said:

I am having trouble getting the lighting right on these pictures. For some reason they are not picking up all of the colors and tend to look a little light. I am going to play around with taking pictures at different times of the day to see if I can get better results. They actually look pretty good in real life, just not in the pictures.

 

I'm no expert on the matter, but I often find that when the color or overall look is wrong, it's because the white balance is off.  Often the camera is confused by a mix of lighting conditions such as artificial light mixed with natural lighting.  Try manually setting the white balance on the camera or correcting it software by pointing to what you know is a white or neutral gray spot in the image.  Also, because there is a lot of black on your model, the automatic exposure may be overcompensating and washing out the colors.  Try stopping it down.  My two cents anyway.

 

Like Eric, I too admire snakes - but I wouldn't want them in the house.  If it happens again, show real dominance and make a pair of carpet slippers out of him.  Then walk around outside with them on.

 

Terrific work on this model - very nice, clean and exacting.

 

Gary

[mbp521]

On 8/8/2022 at 12:10 PM, FriedClams said:

I'm no expert on the matter, but I often find that when the color or overall look is wrong, it's because the white balance is off.  Often the camera is confused by a mix of lighting conditions such as artificial light mixed with natural lighting.  Try manually setting the white balance on the camera or correcting it software by pointing to what you know is a white or neutral gray spot in the image.  Also, because there is a lot of black on your model, the automatic exposure may be overcompensating and washing out the colors.  Try stopping it down.  My two cents anyway.

 

Like Eric, I too admire snakes - but I wouldn't want them in the house.  If it happens again, show real dominance and make a pair of carpet slippers out of him.  Then walk around outside with them on.

 

Terrific work on this model - very nice, clean and exacting.

Thank you Gary for the kind words and the pointers. I to am no expert on photography. I stick to the simpler things when it comes to picture taking. If my iPhone had more than two buttons required to take a picture, I would be lost. I look at my daughters digital SLR and I might as well be trying to solve the answers to the universe and world peace. I'm sure it's pretty easy to use once you use it a few times, just never really had the ambition to learn it, and I never thought that model shipbuilding would lead to photography. Kinda missed that one.

 

I do like the idea of the snakeskin slippers. 😁 However, he was a bit small. I'll need a few more of his cousins to make a good pair. He might have made a nice hat band though.

 

-Brian

[mbp521]

Hello again everyone,

 

I'm back with another update. This is truly a brief one. Lot's of pictures, but not a lot of work over the past month. We have been caught in the midst of a major drought here, no rain locally for over 50 days, and coupled with triple degree temps for over 30+ days has made our area a veritable tinder box outside, I am on our towns volunteer fire department and we have been up to our ears with grass fires. So, needless to say, between the grass fires and work life, not a lot of time has been spent in the shipyard.

 

So, picking up where I left off last time. I managed to finish up work on the mess kits. I found a simple solution to making the padlocks for them. I had a bunch of #8 lead bird shot that I used for cannon balls on a previous build. I took these and flattened them out and used a nail punch to form the shackle. I drilled out a hole in the shackle and looped it through a small eyebolt and I think the results look pretty convincing.

Once these were all completed, I staged them up for placement on the deck.

 

All glued together.

 

Glued into place on the deck.

 

 

Next up, I finally gave up on trying to find information on how the ships bell was mounted and went with my intuition. I know that salvage divers place the bell in front of the wheelhouse structure, but there is no documentation on what it was mounted on. It was too big to just hang on the wall, so I went with the flag locker theory. 

 

Simple construction of the locker. I used some leftover grating for the dividers and made up a small box to form the locker. 

 

 

I then painted the locker up, printed out a set of signal flags to stuff in the cubbies and mounted the bell to the top of the locker.

 

All flags in place 

Flag locker in place.

 

After the flag locker was completed, I wanted to add some more details to the deck, so I made up a stack of crates that are covered by a tarp. I built up a bunch of scrap blocks and added some trim to them to give the tarp some shape and detail.

Next, I used the same method of soaking a tissue with some 50/50 water and clear Elmer's glue that I used on the hammocks.

Once it was all dry, it was time to add some weathering.

Here we have a nice dingy tarp. 

 

This looks like a good location to store these crates.

 

More deck details. I installed a couple of the forward mooring ropes. First, I soaked the ropes in a 50/50 water/glue solution to help hold the ropes shape.

Soaked ropes were then installed on the deck and laid out and left to dry. I used some Press-n-Seal to keep the glue from getting all over the deck.

Starboard side was then installed.

The Press-n-Seal was then removed and the ropes were then glued into place. Finally, a little weathering was added to the ropes to give them that '"muddy, used" look. The contemporary photo of the Cairo has what looks to be a longer mooring rope attached to one of the bitts and thrown up over the forward casemate where it would have been stored along the hammock nets. My guess is that there wasn't much room on the foredeck to store a lot of rope, so they made use of the space on the hurricane deck and stored the longer, bulkier rope there. I am going to add this feature as well, just because.

I also, finally trimmed up the anchor chains and attached the anchors to them. Still haven't decided exactly how I am going to display these. I may have one in place on the deck and the other just hanging overboard. I'll figure it out eventually.

 

Next was the installation of the center, forward and aft masts. 

Aft mast being secured to the stanchion.

 

Center mast. I didn't have any black scale rope on hand, so I used tan and dyed it black.

Center mast complete. Now the challenge is to see if I can finish up working around these masts without breaking them off.

 

Next up was the smokestack for the cookstove. Just some brass tubing for the pipe, the hood was made from copper sheeting and brass strips for the hood supports.

 

Smokestack installed.

Finally. I finished up the port side hammock and tarps and added some more deck details. I built up the hammock net walls that would have been installed between the last set of stanchions, but were removed to provide easier access to the ships boats. On one of the contemporary photos of the St Louis (Baron DeKalb) you can see these walls stored on top of the aft roof of the wheelhouse structure, so that is where I placed mine. I also threw on some additional crates and tarps scattered about and weathered them up. I think I need a few more details on the deck, so I'll give it some more thought and see what else I can come up with.

 

Lastly, as she sits right now. Please pardon the messy workbench, I forgot to tidy things up before taking the as-is picture.

 

Well that is all for this update, I hope to have more next time around. Thank you so much for stopping by. As always, I do appreciate all of the nice comments and likes.

 

-Brian

[French Mr Bean]

Superb work. The profusion and quality of detail is extraordinary.

[Keith Black]

Brian, fantastic and I do mean fantastic work! The bell and flag locker are super nice and the padlocks are ingenious. 

[BANYAN]

Absolutely stunning detail Brian; looks great!  Don't worry about the desk, there is plenty of eye candy to distract from that

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Keith Black]

14 minutes ago, BANYAN said:

Absolutely stunning detail

Pat, what's crazy is there is as much hidden detail as there is the obvious. 

[Louie da fly]

This is the most amazing work. It's been quite a while since I looked at this log and the progress you've made is unbelievably good.

 

Steven

[mbp521]

Mr. Bean, Keith, Pat, Steven, thank you all for the great comments. They truly mean a lot.

 

Keith, like you said, there are a lot of hidden details, and it's almost a shame that I covered them up. Thank goodness I have this build log to go back and look at some of them. When I started this build, I didn't really have a clear picture as to what I was going to do other than build the boat from the plans that I found on the NPS website. As I went along, the more conversations I had with fellow shipbuilders and the more research I did on the subject, helped provide me with the inspiration to do more. It seems like every time I look at the old photos of the City-Class boats, or read something else about them, I find an interesting new detail about them that I want to add. The only problem with this, that I can see, is when do I stop? I want to make the model as historically accurate as possible so I'll need to draw the line somewhere but it is just so much fun adding each piece to the build. Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there, but until then I'll just keep on keeping on.

 

-Brian

[Nunnehi (Don)]

Brian, that’s simply stunning - beautifully done! Do you have any plans to show it at any of the model shows? Would very much like to see her in person. 
 

Don

[Keith Black]

23 minutes ago, mbp521 said:

there are a lot of hidden details, and it's almost a shame that I covered them up

 Brian, when you finally finish  you could have photocopies of the images showing the internal details displayed alongside/with the Cairo. Some of my favorite remembrances of your Cairo build are the engine room with the boilers and engines.  

[mbp521]

1 hour ago, Nunnehi (Don) said:

Brian, that’s simply stunning - beautifully done! Do you have any plans to show it at any of the model shows? Would very much like to see her in person.

Thank you Don for the kind words. As of right now I don't have any plans to show it and to be honest I haven't really checked to see if there are any shows locally. I'm kind of stuck between two major metropolitan areas that I think would host any kind of model show, DFW & OKC, which are both 80-120 miles away. If I could find one a little closer, I might consider entering it. My dream would be for it to be shown in the Cairo museum. But that will probably remain just that, a dream.

 

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

Brian, when you finally finish  you could have photocopies of the images showing the internal details displayed alongside/with the Cairo. Some of my favorite remembrances of your Cairo build are the engine room with the boilers and engines.

Keith, now there is a good idea. I could place a binder next to the boat display with some of the interior pictures in it. I am proud of the way my boiler and engines came out, but so far my favorite piece has to be the paddlewheel. This was one of the hardest parts of the build, covering that piece up. When I get to building the display case, I am going to mount the boat up on pedestals high enough to place a mirror under the hull so you can see the paddlewheel. I even put lights in the wheel house to make sure it could be seen.

 

-Brian

Edited August 11, 2022 by mbp521

[Nunnehi (Don)]

Brian,

 

I would certainly support the Cairo Museum as it’s an easy 300 mile Interstate trip for me through sparsely populated parts of Alabama and Mississippi over to Vicksburg. The city itself is a classic, small, quaint southern town with some good restaurants, but the Vicksburg Battlefield and the attached Cairo Museum is the real attraction - we visit on a regular basis. For most, though, it’s kind of out of the way and off the beaten track. Another venue would be the Mariners Museum near Norfolk Virginia with its USS Monitor preservation center. Ryland Craze, who posts here on a regular basis, would be able to give you more information. 
 

Don

[Keith Black]

 Brian, you might be able to find a place to display the Cairo in the bustling megatropolis of Tioga. 

[mbp521]

8 hours ago, Nunnehi (Don) said:

I would certainly support the Cairo Museum as it’s an easy 300 mile Interstate trip

Looks like Vicksburg is a good meet between place. It’s right at 300 miles from me as well. I love the nostalgia of the town, and you are correct, the battlefield and the Cairo are the main attractions. When I was there back in May, I had a lengthy conversation with the Cairo supervisor, he had mentioned that the Cairo exhibit is the main draw to the park and that if had been located closer to the park entrance, there would be hardly any traffic through the rest of the park. And I highly recommend Tony’s Seafood for lunch or dinner the next time you make it there. 
 

As for Norfolk, that would be quite the haul from Texas, but I might touch base with Ryland to see what it takes to get a model on exhibit in a maritime museum. 
 

2 hours ago, Keith Black said:

you might be able to find a place to display the Cairo in the bustling megatropolis of Tioga.

That’s too funny Keith. It would take all of two days for the entire towns population of 800 people to see it and get bored with it. 😁 However, the 25 mile trip from my house would be better than the 300 miler to Vicksburg. 

 

-Brian

[Keith Black]

45 minutes ago, mbp521 said:

the entire towns population of 800 people

It's grown some since I lived there in the early 70's. Tioga, Texas, the birthplace of Gene Autry and home of Clark's Barbecue.

 

"see it and get bored with it"

 

Absolutely not, never. 

Edited August 12, 2022 by Keith Black

[mbp521]

18 hours ago, Keith Black said:

It's grown some since I lived there in the early 70's. Tioga, Texas, the birthplace of Gene Autry and home of Clark's Barbecue

All of these small towns are starting to grow. Everyone wants to get out of the Metro-mess. 
 

Love Clark’s Outpost. Eat there pretty regularly. They actually burned down about five years ago. Took them a couple of years to get back up and running in their new building, but they are still just as good. 
 

-Brian

Edited August 12, 2022 by mbp521

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, mbp521 said:

Love Clark’s Outpost. Eat there pretty regularly.

 Last I was there (the original building) the wait time could be as long as 45 minutes to an hour. Well worth the wait.  

 I think the original building was a hardware/feed store but that was 50 years ago so that might be iffy. 

Edited August 12, 2022 by Keith Black

[mbp521]

@Keith BlackHere you go Keith, thought you might like this. 
 

 

From the booming town of Tioga.

 

-Brian

[LEFEBVRE]

Un petit bonjour de France. 🐓

Super modèle très original. Très belle qualité de construction, jai beaucoup apprécié votre technique pour réaliser les rivets, je la retiendrai pour mes prochains modèles.

Merci encore pour vos bonnes idées, continuez à nous partager vos astuces de votre savoir faire.

Bonne journée.

Stéphane 

[Keith Black]

 No motorcycles in the parking lot, I'm shocked. TY for the pic. 

[mbp521]

Stéphane, mon français est un peu rouillé, ça fait plus de 40 ans que je l'ai pris à l'école. Cependant, avec l'aide de Google Translate, je peux peut-être réussir. Merci beaucoup pour les gentils commentaires. Je suis heureux que certains de mes conseils aient été utiles et je suis toujours heureux de les partager.
 

I hope I got that right. 
 

-Brian

[mbp521]

11 hours ago, Keith Black said:

No motorcycles in the parking lot, I'm shocked. TY for the pic.

The bikers are usually there on the weekends. It supposed to be nice here Saturday so I’m sure they will be there. 
 

-Brian