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

[mtaylor]

17 hours ago, LEFEBVRE said:

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 

Stephane,

MSW is an English language site.  Please use Google Translate or other method to post in English.   Thank you.

 

MSW est un site en anglais. Veuillez utiliser Google Translate ou une autre méthode pour publier en anglais. Merci.

[mbp521]

Greetings everyone,

 

I have hit a snag on my build and wanted to throw this out there to see if I could get an opinion from the experts to help me out.

 

I am fast approaching the installation of my rudders and have been doing a considerable amount of research on how they were controlled. On the City-Class gunboats, the pilot house was mounted on the hurricane deck housing the ships wheel. The control ropes for the rudder tillers ran through the gun deck, most likely along the roof beams toward the aft casement, where they dropped down to deck level and through the casement just above the deck. They were then rigged through another series of pullies on the fantail where they were attached to each of the rudder tillers on the outboard sides. There was also a connection between each of the tillers on the inboard sides of each one to keep them aligned.

 

I have read several stories of where sharpshooters would target these exposed control lines for the rudders in an effort to disable to boats and make them easier targets. I have also read, and had several discussions that conflict on what the makeup of the control lines were. They have been referred to as rudder ropes, rudder chains, rudder cables and rudder lines in several documents which makes it difficult to determine what they used. I have also read references that they may have had some sort of hybrid makeup where the control lines from the ships wheel to the aft casement were made of rope. They were then tied to chains which ran through the casement, around the pullies and attached to the tiller. But through my research, the majority of the accounts say that the exposed control lines were chain.

 

Some of my thoughts on this were that if the control lines were made from rope the entire length, they could have easily been severed by a well-placed shot. If the control lines were made up of chain, it seems like it would have been a little harder to take out the control lines with a mini-ball. Not saying it would be impossible, just a little tougher. The chain option could have also been a retrofit after several rope lines were severed. Seems that retrofitting happened a lot with these boats.

 

This brings me to the theory that the control lines could have been made up of wire rope, or steel cable. Wire rope had its beginnings in the early 1830’s Europe and was primarily used for elevators and cranes, but not widely used for much more. I have also been having trouble trying to find any information on when steel cable was incorporated into marine usage, but I am pretty sure it could have been during the mid 19th century.

 

However, I managed to get my hands on the salvage video of the Cairo and stumbled across an interesting shot that helps prove my cable theory. In the below snapshot from the video (apologies for the graininess, it’s hard to take a picture of a TV screen and have it come out clear), it shows the Port rudder being pulled from the Yazoo River, and if you look closely, you can see what appears to be a wire rope (steel cable) attached to the tiller on the right side of the shot.

 

The reason that I believe this is a wire rope is due to the kink in the middle, between the tiller and the waters surface. Seems to me that chain would hang straight down as would regular rope. It would also seem that you would be able to see the links in the chain or at least it wouldn’t have as smooth of features if the chain was caked with mud blocking the links.

 

Anyway, I was hoping to get some opinions on my theory that the rudders were controlled on the Cairo by wire rope and not chain or regular rope, before proceeding with my rudder installation.

 

As always, thank you for stopping by.

 

-Brian

Edited August 26, 2022 by mbp521

[Cathead]

I have no educated opinion, but I certainly see your point that the thing dangling from that rudder looks like stiff wire cable rather than dangling rope or chain. Is it possible that, instead of connecting to the rest of the control system, it's a short length of wire that connects the two tillers internally (since you imply that something did so, and this would have to be strong)?

 

Also, in that photo, it looks to me like there's a semi-circular feature connected to the upper-left part of what you've marked as the tiller. This would appear to correlate to the semi-circular part of the tiller opposite the rudder (at the internal end of the tiller), as shown in your first drawing. If so, that wire/cable is coming off the opposite end of the tiller and thus wouldn't be anything from the control system since that also attached to the inner end of the tiller. I can't tell from the photo whether the tiller is at all attached to the rudder or is just dangling loose. For my theory here to be true, it has to be dangling loose and rotated nearly 180º. But if it's still attached, what's that semi-circle doing at the rudder end of the tiller?

[mtaylor]

Interesting.  This is one deep rabbit hole to dive down. I would think that hemp rope would have rotted away but then again, I'm no expert.  If it's chain, then centers might be filled with mud/rust.  The kink could be two links rusted together.  Which raises a question...  other gunboats of the period that have been found, what did they have?  My first impression was that that part was an iron/steel rod and what's labeled "tiller" might not be a tiller

[mbp521]

38 minutes ago, Cathead said:

Also, in that photo, it looks to me like there's a semi-circular feature connected to the upper-left part of what you've marked as the tiller.

Eric, I am assuming you are talking about this semi-circular feature here. 

If so, that is the tail of the lifting cable that is looped through the shackle. I had to go back and re-watch the video to be sure. In that picture it does look a bit odd since it somewhat blends in with the shore in the background.

 

42 minutes ago, Cathead said:

For my theory here to be true, it has to be dangling loose and rotated nearly 180º. But if it's still attached, what's that semi-circle doing at the rudder end of the tiller?

The tiller is actually still attached to the top of the rudder. Here is another photo that shows it from a different angle when they were offloading the piece from the barge at Ingalls Shipyard. Unfortunately, the cable cannot be seen in this photo and could have been removed during transport or just not shown, and the chains in this picture are part of the lifting sling.

44 minutes ago, Cathead said:

Is it possible that, instead of connecting to the rest of the control system, it's a short length of wire that connects the two tillers internally (since you imply that something did so, and this would have to be strong)?

 

34 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

This is one deep rabbit hole to dive down. I would think that hemp rope would have rotted away

Mark, indeed this is a deep rabbit hole. Now you and Eric have really got me to thinking even more. I am now wondering if the control lines from the wheel to the outboard sides of the tiller was made from hemp rope and the connecting line between them was wire cable. This would explain the absence of the rope on the outboard side of the tillers, as it could have rotted away and the presence of the cable on the inboard side of the tillers would indicate that they were made from two different materials.

 

45 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

Which raises a question...  other gunboats of the period that have been found, what did they have? 

That is a great question, but unfortunately this is the only City Class gunboat in existence, and of the remaining Ironclads (3) none of them had any of the stern section recovered and none had a similar style of steering system. I am going to have to see if I can dredge up some info on other Ironclads that had this type of steering system and see what was used on them.

 

And the search continues.

 

-Brian

[Cathead]

Thanks, Brian, I see it clearly now. Certainly access to the video helps.

[mtaylor]

Good luck on the search, Brian.  Seems rabbit holes around are always deep.

 

Your last photo and markup have the solution.  However, since this was connect the rudders and if the rigging got shot away, then turning one rudder would only move the one with the shot away rigging in one direction.  Unless it was a very stiff, almost solid wire with little bend to it.   

[wefalck]

I think on many double-hulled boats they use(d) either wooden or iron connecting rods between tillers. The connecting rod would need to transmit largely only pulling forces, it could be quite thin in order to have a strength comparable to that of the tiller ropes.

[Cathead]

Wefalck, only pulling forces might be the normal case, but Mark makes a really good point about a combat vessel having a steering rope shot away and needed to exert both force directions from the other end, all but necessitating a solid connector (as you suggest). Now I don't know what to think again.

 

Brian, this area was exposed at the stern, right? Easy to fire on and damage but also easy to repair? Also exposed to elements? (as opposed to being enclosed in a way that protects against damage but prevents easy access) If so, does that argue against any rope being used until the lines were inside the hull? So maybe that apparent wire rope does run through the pulleys into the hull, and there was a solid bar attaching the tillers?

Edited August 27, 2022 by Cathead

[mbp521]

4 hours ago, Cathead said:

this area was exposed at the stern, right? Easy to fire on and damage but also easy to repair? Also exposed to elements? (as opposed to being enclosed in a way that protects against damage but prevents easy access) If so, does that argue against any rope being used until the lines were inside the hull? So maybe that apparent wire rope does run through the pulleys into the hull, and there was a solid bar attaching the tillers?

You are correct, the area on the fantail was exposed, as were all control lines from the hawse pipe to the tillers. They were susceptible the elements and enemy fire. After reading the comments above, I got to thinking even more about this.
 

I am not so sure that what I thought was wire cable in my initial post, could have not actually been an iron connecting bar that got bent during the salvage. An iron connecting bar makes better sense given the pressure of the water and the push pull action on both rudders. Like you said earlier, even severing one side of the control line would disable the steering functionality regardless of the makeup of the intermediate link between the tillers. 
 

This also got me to wondering about the control lines to the ships wheel. If the exposed area was actually chain, how much wear and tear on the hawse pipe would that cause? Seems to me that the constant steering  adjustments made when the ship was under way would cause significant rubbing and wear in this area creating frequent maintenance problems. It would also seem that if it were chain, it would have still been attached when they pulled that section up from the river. In the salvage video, there is no sign of chain or linkage where this would have been attached on the tiller. This leads me to believe that the outboard control lines were hemp rope that had rotted away. 
 

-Brian

[Roger Pellett]

Brian,

 

I think that the best that you can do is answer several questions then make an Executive decision.

 

First; what was technology was available at the time and here, I’d like to suggest an unusual source.  Many years ago, historian David McCullough wrote a book called The Great Bridge that describes the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.  The book includes a great deal of discussion about the manufacture of wire bridge cables.  

 

Eades, who was involved in building the boats was also a bridge builder.  I believe that he build a suspension bridge at Wheeling WVA that predated the Civil War.

 

Second; She may have cannons but she’s still a river boat.  What was used for commercial river boats?

 

Remember, the term “chain” may not mean what you think it does.  The rod and turnbuckle combinations used to prevent hogging in river boat hulls were also called chains.

[mbp521]

15 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

I think that the best that you can do is answer several questions then make an Executive decision.

 

First; what was technology was available at the time and here, I’d like to suggest an unusual source.  Many years ago, historian David McCullough wrote a book called The Great Bridge that describes the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.  The book includes a great deal of discussion about the manufacture of wire bridge cables.  

 

Eades, who was involved in building the boats was also a bridge builder.  I believe that he build a suspension bridge at Wheeling WVA that predated the Civil War.

 

Second; She may have cannons but she’s still a river boat.  What was used for commercial river boats?

 

Remember, the term “chain” may not mean what you think it does.  The rod and turnbuckle combinations used to prevent hogging in river boat hulls were also called chains.

Thank you Roger for the additional input. It truly helps give me some direction. An executive decision is most likely what I will be doing here, it definitely wouldn’t be the first time. I’m still doing a little digging to see if I can turn something up that can confirm my suspicions.

 

At the moment I am seriously leaning towards the solid rod for the intermediate link and hemp rope for the control lines, I just want to make sure that I do my due diligence first. 
 

I wasn’t aware that Eades had built a suspension bridge in WVA, most of the research I’ve done on him focused on his bridge in St. Louis, I guess since it is the one still standing. The man definitely had his hands in a lot of projects. 
 

You definitely bring up a good point on the hog “chain” theory. I hadn’t even thought about that. I’ll also need to keep that in mind while researching to make sure that I am clear on the specifics of the reference. 
 

As for her being a riverboat, Cairo’s (and her sisters) hull design was not new, they were based on Sam Pook’s existing hulls for some of his earlier boats, and that is what I am researching right now to see if any of these boats have a similar steering system. So far I haven’t found much, but I’m still looking. 
 

-Brian

Edited August 28, 2022 by mbp521

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

2 hours ago, mbp521 said:

Thank you Roger for the additional input. It truly helps give me some direction. An executive decision is most likely what I will be doing here, it definitely wouldn’t be the first time. I’m still doing a little digging to see if I can turn something up that can confirm my suspicions.

 

At the moment I am seriously leaning towards the solid rod for the intermediate link and hemp rope for the control lines, I just want to make sure that I do my due diligence first. 
 

I wasn’t aware that Eades had built a suspension bridge in WVA, most of the research I’ve done on him focused on his bridge in St. Louis, I guess since it is the one still standing. The man definitely had his hands in a lot of projects. 
 

You definitely bring up a good point on the hog “chain” theory. I hadn’t even thought about that. I’ll also need to keep that in mind while researching to make sure that I am clear on the specifics of the reference. 
 

As for her being a riverboat, Cairo’s (and her sisters) hull design was not new, they were based on Sam Pook’s existing hulls for some of his earlier boats, and that is what I am researching right now to see if any of these boats have a similar steering system. So far I haven’t found much, but I’m still looking. 
 

-Brian

  Ahoy, Brian !   Back in the day, I designed tooling and modifications to industrial pipe bending machines - so I've some mechanical engineering experience. The twin rudders (and their tillers) would logically move in tandem, and the best way to assure that would be to have a bar connecting them.  The ends of such a bar would have either a yoke on the ends or would be slotted to fit the flat metal end of the tillers.  A thru pin would complete the assembly (with a cotter pin, ring or nut to retain the pin), and steering force would be evenly transmitted between the tillers while maintaining the pre-determined distance between them (assuring identical rudder angles).  That's the way I'd have designed it,  and said bar would likely have been bent or otherwise deformed in the intervening century or so.

 

  Obviously, beyond the tillers a flexible means of control was required, and wire rope seems the most appropriate  to have been used (easier on the pulleys in the drawing - a reason that wire rope was used when elevators and cable cars were invented).  End yokes to the central bar would extend slightly beyond the tiller to allow for a second thru pin.  The ends of the wire rope would be formed into 'eyes' (several ways to do that) to engage the thru pin.  You can model wire rope with dead-black miniature rope.

[Roger Pellett]

Brian,

 

I looked up the Wheeling Suspension Bridge this AM.  It was completed in the early 1850’s.  The designer and builder was not Eades but Charles Ellet another Mississippi River Civil War name.  Washington Roebling who manufactured wire rope also submitted a bid.  The bridge, which is listed as a National Historic Landmark, still exists although it is restricted to pedestrian use until the West Virginia DOT figures out a way to keep idiots from exceeding the 2 ton weight limit.  It is the oldest vehicular suspension bridge in the World.

 

The point to this as it relates to your model is that wire rope was a developed technology by the Civil War.

 

I agree that a rigid link between the two rudders is appropriate.  I would however include a turnbuckle, like the ones used in hogging chains to allow the rudders to be adjusted relative to each other.

 

Roger

[mtaylor]

3 hours ago, mbp521 said:

At the moment I am seriously leaning towards the solid rod for the intermediate link and hemp rope for the control lines, I just want to make sure that I do my due diligence first. 

I suspect you are on the right path with this.   Hemp was used for the tillers and because of this'resulted in it being shot away and thus the need for the solid rod.   There might have been some issue with use of iron rope like maybe it was too stiff.  

[Lieste]

On 3/2/2021 at 12:02 AM, mbp521 said:

Greeting everyone,

 

Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

 

I am back with another update on my build. I have not made much progress on the boat itself, but I have managed to get several interior pieces done in spite of not having electricity or water for four days due to the "Big Texas Freeze and Snow Storm". What an adventure that was.

 

Starting off, I finally managed to tackle the engines. This was one of the builds that I was dreading due to the fact that I just couldn't get my head around how to make them look somewhat realistic. The more I pondered them the more I finally came to the conclusion that for the most part not much of them will be seen and did my best to replicate what I though would be visible through the viewport. So this is is what I came up with.

 

Earlier in the build I had started the framework and pistons along with the pitman arm yoke. During the process if building them, I wasn't liking the scale and look of the yoke. That's when I sidelined them. I really didn't want to rebuild the entire thing, so I salvaged what I could and made some adjustments here and there.

 

The beginnings of the frames and pistons as well as version 1.0 of the yoke.

 

 

 

 

At this point is where started the revision. Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures due to the fact that I wasn't really sure if I was going to use this version of them or not. But the more I worked on them, the better they started to look.

 

More pieces and parts added. Forgive me, but I am not up on the nomenclature of all the parts that make up the engines so for now pieces and parts will have to do. 

 

Again my aluminum tape came in handy to make the rivets along the sides of the yoke guides. I made a visit to the local Hobby Lobby and found all kinds of neat little wooden parts that were useful in the construction of the engines (and other parts). Some of these included miniature spools, wooden beads, and wooden discs. The rocker arms (best guess at what they are called) are the same aluminum strips that I used to form the rings on my paddlewheel.

 

 

Completed port engine, minus paint.

 

The finished product, port side. 

 

...and both engines completed. There are various linkages that still need to be fabricated, but I'll get to them when I am ready to install them and the paddle wheel

 

 

Next up were the foot lockers and ammo crates.

 

For the foot lockers, I just cut out a few blocks  and trimmed them with some 1/8"x1/16" basswood strips around the tops and 1/32"x3/16" strips on the ends to hide the grain of the blocks. I used some thin 1/8" wide brass strips for the hasps, then aged the brass with Brass Black and the wood with a mini torch. A light sanding and a coat of satin varnish, then fitted the handles made from standard tan rigging line and viola.

 

 

 

The ammo crates were constructed similarly to the foot lockers. I used some scrap Teak blocks that I had and trimmed the tops of these with 1/16"x1/16" basswood strips.

 

 

 

Next I added a divider in the middle and painted the bottoms black for depth.

 

 

Next was the fun part. There are four different types of cannons on board (not counting the deck Howitzer on the Hurricane deck). That means that there were four different sizes of cannon balls used. Well, it was easy to scale the 8" parrot rifle since the bore size is given in the name. 8" roughly converts to 4.2mm in 1:48th scale. However, how do you convert 42lbs, 32lbs and 30lbs into inches and then millimeters? Thank goodness for the internet. I'm not sure how I made it through High School and College without it, but is sure comes in handy nowadays. I found this most useful website in my research that all Civil War buffs should check out (if you don't already know about it). Civil War Artillery is a fascinating site, full of all sorts of facts and history on none other than Civil War Artillery. They even have a conversion table that converts the cannon ball poundage into its proper diameter (caliber). So according to their table the 42lb ammo is roughly 7" in diameter, converted to 1:48th is about 3.7mm. The 32lb ammo is roughly 6.4" and 3.4mm converted and the 30lb ammo is roughly 6.3" and 3.3mm converted.

 

Now where I am going with this is I needed to fill the ammo boxes with, what else, ammo. During my Hobby Lobby adventure, I found the bead section and it is full of potential "cannon ball" material. So with that being said I managed to find some black plastic beads that measured 4mm and 3.5mm. I figured that the differences between 3.7mm and 3.3mm was so negligible that 4mm and 3.5mm would suffice for what I needed, and the fact that there were no intermediate sizes, I made do with what they had. And with that, I stocked up the ammo crates. Another thought that I had was did they use different size crate for the different size ammo or did they go to that much expense? I went with the thought that they kept it simple, and had a one size fits all for the crates. That is why some of my crates look a little more like they are overflowing than the others. Again this is another feature that will mostly be hidden, but I still wanted to get it as accurate looking as possible.

 

 

Next piece was another one that I was somewhat dreading, but after I got started on it, it actually turned out to be a lot of fun to build. This was the "Doctor" pump or Auxiliary Engine. The original "Doctor" pump from the Cairo was lost during the salvage operation and there was no accurate documentation of it's actual construction. However there are tons of examples out there, I just stuck with the example given in the HSR. 

 

First step was the construction of the fly-wheel.

 

 

 

Next was the construction of the base, supports and top frame.

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was on to the various pump housings, push rods and linkage.

 

 

 

The valves I simulated with some small beads and wooden discs cut from the end of 1/4" mahogany dowels.

 

The pillow block oilers also made with small beads and brass nails.

 

More linkages and the flywheel brake installed.

 

 

 

Then everything was given a coat of black and clear satin for looks.

 

 

I still have a few more valves to add as well as the piping for the preheaters mounted on top and a few other details, but I'll get to those later. Some of the valves will require the pump to be in place due to the fact that I will have to drill a hole in the hull (yikes) for the fresh water intake.

 

So that is all for this update. I hope to have more next time. My plan is to work on the bilge pump and capstan, and hopefully of my cannon barrels come in soon, so I can get started installing them in the carriages and getting them rigged up.

 

Until next time, thank you all for stopping in and the likes and kind words.

 

-Brian

The 30pdr is a rifle, firing ogive shot and shell, not round shot. Without looking up the specifics, I'd estimate it at having a bore diameter somewhere close to 12pdr/18pdr round shot (based on the 64pdr rifle having a 32pdr bore equivalent), so 4.5-5". I know that the correct diameter is listed in period articles, but don't have the US civil war data copied out into my own library of data.

Quick checking: I underestimated the shell length - actually a 4.2" (9pdr bore equivalent) with a 29pdr ogive shell.

The '42's are actually 84pdr "James Rifles" converted from Ml1841 42pdr smoothbores by cutting a set of shallow spiral grooves. You show the shot with the 'frame' around the rear portion, which would have had a lead sheet covering it, to be expanded into the rifling. This retains the ~7" bore of the 42pdr it was converted from. The shot was almost double the weight of the original round shot from the 42pdr at 81lbs, while the shell was ~64lbs.
The 8" guns were smoothbore, and the examples you show seem to be mostly if not all shell - the fuse hole (and in a few cases a fuse body) can be seen between the two 'divots' used to handle the shell using a lifting tong. The shell is likely to be around 50-51lbs.
The 32pdr is an intermediate weight light ordnance of relatively weak performance used to fill out the open port and to share out the more effective ordnance around the flotilla.

Edited August 28, 2022 by Lieste

[Lieste]

On 6/8/2022 at 3:57 PM, mbp521 said:

Hello again everyone,

 

I have returned with another update. This time around it is not so much the progress made, but reworking areas that I found I built in error after more research and discussion.

 

The first redo, were the port and starboard #3 & #4 gun ports. I had built all 13 gun ports the same, with the piercing in between the top and bottom doors. After my trip to Vicksburg and seeing the actual doors (not the ones on the display, these are wrong as well), I discovered that these four doors were designed slightly different in that they have a solid top door and the bottom door is pierced. This was also evident on the contemporary photograph of the Cairo, I had just not noticed it before. I guess I was too busy looking at other areas and overlooked this little detail. 

 

New doors. I cheated a bit on these, with the addition of the tabs on the top doors. There isn't a lot of contact points on the small hinges to glue the doors to the boat, so I placed the tabs underneath and filed out slot in the door frame to receive the tabs. This makes them a lot more stable against accidentally knocking them off while working around them, not to mention it helps hold the doors in the proper position.

 

 

 

I did do a bit of new work just playing around with some deck furniture. I made up a few crates, to see how they would look. My plan is to populate the hurricane deck with several items. From many of the old photos you can tell that these decks were not clutter free, they were very busy.

 

The beginnings of one of the crates.

My first attempts all weathered up.

 

 

Another redo were the hog chain posts. On the plans the posts are shown to be fairly narrow and sort and I built them according to the plans. After researching these more I found that they were more "beefier" and actually extended above the long beam that runs the length of the hurricane deck and provides a center ridge for the canopies. Not sure of what this beam is called. I didn't take any pictures of the construction of the new hog chain posts, but I constructed a square tube to slide over the existing posts and placed small shims on the smaller ones to fill in the gaps. In the next few pictures you can sort of see what they look like and how I built them. I haven't installed the caps on them yet or the hog chains themselves, I wanted to leave them off until I was finished working on the other rebuilt details of the deck.

 

The last bit of rework that I did was the skylight/hatchways and aft funnels. There has been a lot of discussion on my build about this topic lately and I finally think that I have figured out how these were situated on the deck and used. 

 

First off, I believe that I was mistaken in the placement of the aft funnels. I have to agree with Johnhoward that in the old photo of the Cairo, the port aft funnel has been moved from it's normal place on the deck and set aside and that their actual placement is outboard of the hog chain posts and just aft of the forward ones as they are drawn on Ashley's HSR plans. Where I made the mistake was that I placed the skylight outboard of the posts instead of inboard of them. My initial thoughts on this placement was that the inboard wall of the skylight lined up perfectly with the exterior wall of the boiler room. This provided the perfect place for a ladder to go, enabling access in and out of the gun deck. However, moving the skylight inboard actually works better in two ways. One, it moves the ladder to the walkway area between the boiler room and the engine room getting out from directly behind the port and starboard #4 cannons. And two, it places the skylight halfway over the boiler room which allows for a standing platform to place supplies on while hauling it up and down the ladder to the holds.

 

So I set out removing and replacing the port side deck boards in this area. (note the shims on the hog chain posts).

 

New placement of the skylight. The area on the left side of the skylight is the overlap of the boiler room and where the platform will go.

New planking going in.

New planks sanded.

Varnished.

Platform and ladder installed.

Funnel temporarily installed, deck nails added. All it needs is a bit of weathering and I should be good to go.

 

 

Starboard side being reworked.

Starboard side planks replaced.

 

And both sides completed. I know that it is ugly right now, but the two areas where the deck board seams all line up will be covered with deck furniture so it will not be seen.

 

Now I am 100% confident that I have this right. The funnels are where they are supposed to be according to the plans and the skylight/hatchways are installed per the photographs. The interior of the skylight/hatches may not be exact, but there is no photographic or documented proof that I have been able to find of how they were built, so this interpretation seems to make the most sense.

 

Now on to finishing up the starboard side hammock racks and other deck features.

 

Thanks to all for the likes and stopping by.

 

-Brian

The museum model also has the front casement guns with the lower port pierced, rather than half and half (from your images).

Edit: (I mistook the stern for the bow, the pierced lower ports are in fact the stern ports)

Edited August 29, 2022 by Lieste

[mbp521]

20 hours ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

The twin rudders (and their tillers) would logically move in tandem, and the best way to assure that would be to have a bar connecting them.  The ends of such a bar would have either a yoke on the ends or would be slotted to fit the flat metal end of the tillers.  A thru pin would complete the assembly (with a cotter pin, ring or nut to retain the pin), and steering force would be evenly transmitted between the tillers while maintaining the pre-determined distance between them (assuring identical rudder angles)

Johnny, Thank you for the very useful info. I've got a feeling that this will most likely be the route that I take on the construction of the intermediate link. Still researching, but it seems to be the most reasonable solution.

 

19 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

I agree that a rigid link between the two rudders is appropriate.  I would however include a turnbuckle, like the ones used in hogging chains to allow the rudders to be adjusted relative to each other.

Roger, I totally agree with the turnbuckle. I would think that over time the hemp rope would stretch causing the rudders to get out of alignment, or bending of the tillers for that matter, making adjustments necessary. Turnbuckles on the intermediate link and internally on the control lines would help with the adjustments.

 

19 hours ago, mtaylor said:

I suspect you are on the right path with this.   Hemp was used for the tillers and because of this'resulted in it being shot away and thus the need for the solid rod.   There might have been some issue with use of iron rope like maybe it was too stiff. 

Mark, I was thinking the same thing. Wire rope could also cause some wear and tear on the hawse pipe as well. Similar to what I mentioned previously with the chain theory.

 

Thank you all for the valuable input. 

 

-Brian

[mbp521]

18 hours ago, Lieste said:

The 30pdr is a rifle, firing ogive shot and shell, not round shot. Without looking up the specifics, I'd estimate it at having a bore diameter somewhere close to 12pdr/18pdr round shot (based on the 64pdr rifle having a 32pdr bore equivalent), so 4.5-5". I know that the correct diameter is listed in period articles, but don't have the US civil war data copied out into my own library of data.

Lieste, Thank you for the specification on the munitions. I totally agree that the Parrot would have most likely not used round shot. At the time I made up the ammo crates I wasn't thinking that much of this would have been seen and didn't put too much focus into the interior details in this area. As the build progressed, I started focusing more on the details but eventually this area got covered up and it was too late to go back and change. Unfortunately this area still cannot be seen.

 

This past May I had the opportunity to see first hand the actual ammunition that Cairo carried and you are correct, they did indeed use ogive shot in the 30lb Parrot. These are some of the 30lb Parrot rounds recovered from the wreck.

 

-Brian

[Lieste]

The 81lb ogive shot for the 42pdr rifles (84pdr James Rifle) were also shown in that same post of yours, with the cage around the base of the shot (originally covered by the lead skirt in an embiggened version of a minie ball.

[mbp521]

16 hours ago, Lieste said:

The museum model also has the front casement guns with the lower port pierced, rather than half and half (from your images).

Leiste, I'm not real sure of which model you are referring to, The Cairo museum only has two models on display, one which is a representation of the current display outdoors showing the cradle and the existing original fabric. This model, like the actual boat does not have the forward gun port doors on it. The other model is complete boat with the side cutaway, and it does have the forward gun port doors pierced on the upper and lower sections.

 

In the contemporary photo of the Cairo, you can see that the forward gun port door were pierced on the tops and bottoms. Only the Port and Starboard #3 & #4 gun port doors were pierced on the lower section only. This was the location of four of the smaller 32lb guns. As for the aft gun ports, it is hard to tell if they were pierced on the top and bottom or just the bottom, since there are no photographs of this are on the original boat, bit they were also smaller guns (32 pounder and 30lb Parrot) and could have been pierced on the bottom only. I just went with the photos of her sister ships that have the aft gun port doors pierced top and bottom.

 

 

-Brian 

[Lieste]

My mistake, it was the stern casemate ports for another 32pdr and the 30pdr parrot rifle.

[mbp521]

I see what you are referring to now. I actually didn't notice that until now, thank you for pointing that out. I didn't use this model as a reference too much for my research, since there are several inaccuracies with it, but It would make sense to have the doors in that configuration with the smaller guns back there. There were several "executive decisions" that I made throughout this build due to lack of information. Many of the decisions I based on the photographs or additional documented information of the sister ships, especially the Cincinnati and Mound City since they were all built in the same shipyard in Mound City.

 

These boats were designed for frontal assaults, this was the reason for all the big guns to be located in the forward position and the reinforced forward casement. I read somewhere (I forget the reference, it might have been in the "Hardluck Ironclad") where someone had stated that Cdr. Selfridge had the Cairo's guns arranged in an unusual configuration. I do not recall the reasoning behind it, but strategically it made sense, and she was setup quite differently than her sisters were.

 

-Brian

[gak1965]

On 8/28/2022 at 2:15 PM, Roger Pellett said:

.  The bridge, which is listed as a National Historic Landmark, still exists although it is restricted to pedestrian use until the West Virginia DOT figures out a way to keep idiots from exceeding the 2 ton weight limit.

A bit off topic, but if you read the Wikipedia article on the bridge it is astonishing how many people seem willing to damage a historic bridge (and possibly fall to their deaths) to avoid following clear instructions. Good grief.

[mbp521]

Interesting article George. There was a lot of litigation and controversy surrounding the bridge in the beginning. Seems like there still is a bit of controversy as well, with people not knowing how to read road signs. Especially the instances where several busses have tried crossing it with clearly marked signage and height barriers. I haven't looked into it, but I wonder if the bridges construction led to the steamboats having to redesign their smokestacks with hinges to clear the bridge. 

 

-Brian 

[Roger Pellett]

The bridge litigation went all the way to the US Supreme Court.  The bridge builders thought that the bridge was high enough to clear river boat smokestacks but stacks kept getting higher.  As bridges continued to be built along the Ohio River, steamboat builders began constructing boats with hinged stacks.

 

Roger

 

 

[mbp521]

Hello again everyone, I'm ready with another Cairo update.

 

Over the past few weeks I have been focusing on some of the detail work. I started off with the anchor buoy. This was one of the artifacts that was recovered during the salvage and sits on display in the Cairo museum. 

On my first attempt to make this I was going to try and make it from card stock shaped into two cones with a disk in the middle to form the flanges where the two halves met. I tried several times but just couldn't get the shape right. Since I wasn't sure of how this method was going to work, I didn't take any pictures. So, on my next attempt I tried using Milliput, getting the basic cone shape and then finishing it off on the lathe. Here are the two halves on this try.

I drilled the center holes for the toothpick to align the halves together, but again I just couldn't get the shape I was looking for. For some reason the centerline wouldn't fall in the right place and I was having difficulties trying to figure out how I was going to make the center flange. So I ended up scrapping this version as well.

On my final attempt I decided to go with some copper sheeting and the same method I originally used with the card stock. I scrounged up a few small scrap pieces in my scrap bin that I had left over from the chimney flanges (I throw nothing away) that worked perfectly. I managed to have enough to make the two halves and the center flange. 

Here are the two halves glued to the center flange.

I fit a small piece of styrene rod through the middle to provide a mounting place for the eyebolts, then drilled a tiny hole in each end to receive the eyebolts.

The eyebolts were then glued in place.

and finally the whole assembly painted up.

Before I can place these on the boat, I'll need to research how these were rigged to the anchor. I have a sneaky feeling that this is going to be a task to find info on these, but I'm going to see what I can turn up.

 

Next it was on to installing the bow guard. Nothing too complex here, I had made this a while back and just needed to put it on. I left out a couple of the rivets to use a mounting points to give the guard a little more of a secure grip on the keel, than just gluing on.

Then I moved on to the Hurricane Deck canopy. There are numerous contemporary photos of the Cairo's sister ships that show almost the entire Hurricane Deck covered with canopies, but the only photo of the Cairo has just one canopy over the boiler skylight. It is not known if the Cairo had more than this when she went down so I just went with what she had in the photo. Besides, too many canopies would hide a lot of the deck details.

 

Attempt 1: I took a small piece of muslin and cut it to shape and size, but I was having a hard time keeping the edges from fraying. So I took some CA and ran it along the edges of the material to keep the strands in place. Definitely didn't like that look.

The muslin had the texture that I was looking for so I stuck with that material. On my second attempt, I cut the canopy shape out, bit this time I soaked the whole thing in diluted clear Elmer's glue and let that dry. For added details, decided to put a ridge vent in the canopy since I figured that these were made up similarly to the field tents used on land by the Army.

Then I went in and added the grommets for additional detail and used those as a way to cover the canopy guy ropes.

Then the whole thing was installed along the center beam and the guys attached to the stanchions.

Making up some of the rope coils for the canopy guys on the stanchions.

Next, I wanted to finish up on the aft skylights and get the door installed. So it was back to borrowing the Admirals Cricut again to cut out the window frames. I built these up exactly the way I did the others and mounted the Port side open and the Starboard side closed.

 

 

Next up, it was on to the forward and aft hand ropes for the casement ladders. 

Completed forward ropes.

Completed aft ropes. Initially the ropes didn't sit right, they had a bit too much sag to them. So I ended up running a bead of CA along each one to stiffen it up and hold its shape. I think the overall look came out quite nicely.

 

Next was the installation of the long hawser. This was probably the one that Commander Selfridge ordered tied to a tree on the Yazoo River bank when he had the ship ran aground shortly after the torpedoes blew the hole in Cairo's Port Bow. This hawser held long enough for everyone to abandon ship, before the tree was pulled from its rooting and the ship slipped beneath the surface.

 

Then it was on to another one of the more tedious parts of the build. The chimney guys. The Cairo display has one set of these installed on the "Ghosted" chimneys with the rest being just steel cable. The original guys were actually iron rods and links (rings) that had a threaded loops on each end to adjust the tension. These guys can be made out in the old Cairo photograph, although some of the photos of her sister ships look more like they have cables or ropes holding the chimneys. I went ahead and built it like the photograph and because there were some of these recovered from the salvage. 

 

These are some of the original guys on the Cairo display.

 

I started with some 24ga wire to make the rods.

And bent them to shape as well as the rings.

Tedious work. I had to make up 80 of the rods and rings along with 20 hooks for the anchor points on the chimney and stanchions.

Once they were made to length, I heated them up red hot with my torch to give them that blued steel look. This color works nicely with the casement color.

All guys in place and blued. I took a lot of pictures of these, I guess you could say that I was somewhat proud of how they turned out.

 

After making up all of those links, I needed a break. So it was time to do a little cleaning of the work bench before moving on to the next project.

 

So after a good bench cleaning I moved on to another tedious project, installation of the boat davits. Normally this wouldn't be too big of an issue, except the slanted casements of the ships make the task a  bit more challenging when it comes to getting the davits all lined up properly. And since one of the davits on each side sits on top of the armor plating, it makes it that much more difficult to get the height and alignment correct.

 

I started with the Port aft davits first. This wasn't too terribly difficult. I used some double sided tape to temp install the mounts then slowly nibbled away at the bottom of each davit until I got the proper height and location. 

Test fitting the boats to make sure there is enough clearance.

 

Once the aft davits were installed, that was where I ran into an unforeseen issue. When I first started this build I had not planned on doing a whole lot of internal details since it was going to be a static model with all sides enclosed. As I built the details on the gun deck I decided that I wanted to show off some of these details and decided to make the Port side a cutaway. Well poor planning on my part didn't take into consideration that one of the davits was going to fall inside the cutaway. So when I built the cutaway I just mounted a small scrap of wood between the casement frames and figured I would just mount the davit base on that. Well, I didn't like that look, so change of plans.

 

This is the area where the davit base will go. What I decided to do was to build up the armor plating in the area and mount the davit properly.

 

So I pulled off the armor plating to make sure the panels lined up the way they were supposed to.

Then I offset every other one to cover the area for the base mount.

Gave everything a fresh coat of paint and some rivets.

Then it was on to mounting the forward Port davits.

 

Now it was time to rig the boats and temp install them. Started of with stropping the blocks.

Then running the ropes through them.

One boat in place. I wanted to show this boat as in the process of being launched, due to it's location above the cutaway. Placing it in it's stowed position would have blocked part of the view in the cutaway and I wanted to give the build a bit of action, not just a static model.

Both Port boats in place. I need to find a way to stiffen the ropes so that they look like they have a load on them. The boats just aren't heavy enough to keep the line taught. I think a little diluted Elmer's will work. I also think it will also help keep the boats from swinging around too much when I move it.

Now it's on to installing the Starboard davits. Pretty much the same as the Port side.

Now with the rigging all in place I need to find out how they would have stowed the tackle on the covered boats since my Starboard boats have tarps over them and the lift rings are under the tarp. More research.

 

Finally, she was getting a little dusty so I decided to take her outside to the barn and blow some of the dust off of her. It was such a pretty day out, I figured I'd snap a few pictures of her in natural lighting while I was out there.

She's getting pretty close to being done. Perhaps a couple of more months and I will call it complete. Most of that depends on how much more research I need to do to get info on the anchor buoy, boat rig and rudder linkage. There is no rush, I'd like to finish by December 12th to celebrate the 160th anniversary of her sinking, but if I don't make it, so be it.

 

I thank you all for the kind words, comments and likes, as well as taking the time to stop by and view my build. Until the next update, everyone stay safe and healthy.

 

-Brian

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2022 by mbp521

[wefalck]

Nice progress !

 

As to the anchor-buoy: not sure what the guys then and there would have done, but normally the line would be hitched around the crossing-point between the arms and the shank. 

[Cathead]

Glorious! Such inspiration.

[BANYAN]

Stunning detail and quality finish Brian.  A pleasure to view your updates.

 

cheers

 

Pat