Banshee II by Glen McGuire - 1/700 - BOTTLE

[Glen McGuire]

Idle hands are indeed the devil’s workshop, so it’s time to get busy on another SIB project.

My dear friend that had the major stroke last year suggested that I do a paddlewheel ship for my next build.  I told her that I only do sailing ships.  She told me to find a paddlewheel ship with sails.  DUH!

I didn’t even know if there was such a thing but figured I would start digging around and see what I could find.  Turns out that ships with paddlewheels and sails were not uncommon back in the mid-1800s during the long period of transition from sail to steam.  Apparently, the early steam engines that were used to turn the paddlewheels could be unreliable, so many of the ships were equipped with sails as a backup source of propulsion.  As I was reading about the various sail and steam ships from that mid-1800 period, one group of vessels in particular grabbed my attention – the daring blockade runners hired by the Confederacy that stealthily roamed the Atlantic and Gulf coasts during the U.S. Civil War.  

I like to build my ships with full sails (personal preference because I like how it looks) but it seemed like every picture I found of these sail and steam blockade runners did not have sails deployed.  I finally found one that did (the Ella Anne), so now I was ok with doing one of these blockade runner ships.

 

 

For those who may be interested, here’s a very brief history of the Confederate blockade runners and the one I chose as the subject for this SIB project.    

 

The Union Blockade
In the run-up to the U.S. Civil War, the Union army’s commanding general, Winfield Scott, devised a broad land and sea-based strategy for defeating the South.  It became known as the “Anaconda Plan” and was mocked by some pundits as “Scott’s Great Snake” for its vision of slowly squeezing the life out of the southern states rather than trying to hit the South hard and fast for a quick victory.

 

Shortly after the first shots were fired on Fort Sumner, in April 1861, Lincoln’s secretary of state William Henry Seward pressed for a naval blockade of southern ports used by the Confederate states.  Lincoln agreed and by July of 1861, while not fully adopting the Anaconda Plan, the Union Navy established a blockade.   The Union’s blockade focused first on the South’s Atlantic seaboard ports and effectively shut them down early in the war.  It was extended to the Florida keys and resulted in the South abandoning all major ports except for Mobile, Alabama, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Galveston, Texas.  New Orleans fell in April of 1862 and Mobile two years later.  Galveston remained the only major port defended and held by the South until the end of the war.

 

The Blockade Runners
The South had no real factories to produce machinery and weapons for the war.  But they did have cotton, which was of high value to Europe and especially England.  An unofficial partnership of sorts was formed between the Confederacy and England (who had an official stance of neutrality for the war).  Blockade running ships of British design were manufactured in British shipyards.  The ships were built for speed, with shallow drafts and steam power plants.

 
Privateers were hired to captain the ships.  The captains operated under a Letter of Marque granted by the Confederate government which authorized them to cross international orders and take action against attack or injury.  They made daring runs through the Union blockade to trade arms and supplies for cotton, thus providing key commerce for the South’s war effort.  Here are a couple of the typical blockade running ships – the Advance and the Teaser.

 

The Banshee II
In Gaelic legend, the Banshee is a female spirit whose shrieking or wailing warns of an impending death in a house.  

There were actually two blockade runners named Banshee that were used by the South during the war.  The original Banshee was a steel-hulled 533-ton side-wheel steamship built in Liverpool, England, in 1862.  It was the first ship designed specifically for penetrating the Union blockade and was the first ever steel-hulled ship to cross the Atlantic (over 200 more British-built blockade runners followed over the next 3 years).  After 8 successful blockade runs, the Banshee was captured in 1863 and converted to a Union gunboat.     

 

The Banshee II was launched in 1864 and considered state of the art in ship design.  Like her predecessor, she was built with a steel hull.  She was 252 feet long with a 31 foot beam, grossed 439 tons, and had a draft of only 11 feet at full weight.  The Banshee II was driven by two sidewheels and could achieve a remarkable 15 knots.  She was manned with English officers and Confederate pilots and crew.  As it was late in the war when the Banshee II entered the fray, her wartime naval career was short, consisting of a single run from Havana to Galveston and back.  But what her career lacked in duration, it made up for in excitement. 

 

She will be the subject for this SIB project.  

 

Galveston, Texas
Captained by Englishman Tom Taylor, The Banshee II left Havana, Cuba in March 1865 fully loaded with munitions and supplies for a blockade run to Galveston.  As the ship approached the Texas coast, Taylor described the first night and blockade encounter as such:

“It was a comparatively calm and very dark night, but within an hour all had changed and it commenced to blow a regular ‘Norther.’ Rain came down in torrents, then out of the inky blackness of clouds and rain came furious gusts, until a hurricane was blowing against which, notwithstanding that we were steaming at full speed, we made little or no way. Suddenly we made out some dark objects all around us, and found ourselves drifting helplessly among the ships of the blockading squadron, which were steaming hard to their anchors, and at one moment we were almost jostling two of them. Whether they knew what we were, or mistook us for one of themselves matters not; they were too much occupied about their own safety to attempt to interfere.”

Taylor allowed the Banshee II to drift clear of the Union fleet and drop anchor.  Later in the night, Taylor eased slowly up the coast till he caught sight of the blockade ships.  At daybreak, he ordered a risky but successful dash through the blockade.   Momentarily clear of the blockade and nearing the Texas coast, but still 11 miles from Galveston, the Banshee II developed mechanical problems and spent an anxious night effecting repairs just out of sight from Union ships.  Moments before sunrise, the Banshee II raised anchor and steamed forward towards Galveston Bay.  As daylight broke, Taylor found his ship in close quarters with the Union fleet.  They came under immediate fire and Taylor had to make a life or death decision – go for a short but perilous dash to the bay or bail out and head for the open waters of the Gulf.  He chose the perilous dash and described it like this:

“With two leadsmen in the chains we approached our fate, taking no notice of the bursting shells and round shot to which the blockaders treated us in their desperation. It was not a question of the fathoms but of the feet we were drawing: twelve feet, ten, nine, and when we put her at it, as you do a horse at a jump, and as her nose was entering the white water, ‘eight feet’ was sung out. A moment afterwards we touched and hung; and I thought all was over, when a big wave came rolling along and lifted our stern and the ship bodily with a crack which could be heard a quarter of a mile off, and which we thought meant that her back was broken.”

The Union fleet rained fire upon the Banshee II, but the rough waters around Galveston played havoc with their accuracy.  Miraculously, the Banshee II made it to the bay with only one crewman wounded and the ship suffering only from shell splinters.  Captain, crew, and ship received a hero’s welcome from much of the town that had gathered on the city’s wharf to watch the fireworks.  The Banshee II returned to Havana without incident, but by the time Captain Taylor reached the Cuban port, the War Between the States was over and the Banshee II’s military career came to an end.

 

In the next post, I’ll start getting into specifics of the SIB project.
 

 

 

Edited June 2 by Glen McGuire

[GrandpaPhil]

Glen,

Looking forward to this build!  The transition era ships are some of my favorites.  

I have AAMM plans and Orel kits of several of them that I haven’t gotten to yet.

[Glen McGuire]

11 hours ago, GrandpaPhil said:

Looking forward to this build!  The transition era ships are some of my favorites.  

Thanks, Phil!  I agree with you.  I find these hybrid-type ships fascinating.  In fact, the only full-size ship model I've done is Mamoli's CSS Alabama a few years ago.  When I was searching for a ship model to try, the Alabama caught my eye because it had full sails and a smokestack, which I thought was weird.  I knew nothing about it at the time but learned a lot with that first build.

[Knocklouder]

From one steam ship builder to another,  good luck on your journey,  going to follow along because your so talented.   

Bob M.

[Glen McGuire]

6 minutes ago, Knocklouder said:

From one steam ship builder to another, 

WTH!  You did not tell me that you had started another project already!!  I just caught my breath from your Viking ship and here you go again.  You must have gotten rid of all those Canadian rats that were tormenting you.  Regardless, you are a hard man to keep up with, but I'm fixing to try.  I just jumped over to your King of the Mississippi log to follow that build. 

 

We'll see which one of us blows off the most steam over the next couple of months.  

[BANYAN]

Great project Glen, ships from this period are of particular interest to me, so I am really interested to see what you come up with this time.

 

cheers
 

Pat

[Keith Black]

Parked in the front row.........

 

 Glen, what a great SIB project. Not nearly enough builds come from the transitional period so i'm delighted to follow along. 

[gjdale]

Whew! Just made it in time to nab a front row seat for this one Glen and, as it turns out, right next to the bar too. Gotta be lucky sometimes! 😊

 

This looks to be another fascinating build project and I’m intrigued to see how you display this one - you always come up with such interesting ideas.

[GrandpaPhil]

I learned a LOT about transition era navies and ships while building the Solferino.

 

There was a whole era of naval history that I had no idea even existed.

Here is the link to the French Ministry of Defense’s archives:

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20120113075641/http://www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/02fonds-collections/banquedocuments/planbato/atlas/rec.php

 

It has a very comprehensive listing of the plans for mostly their ships throughout the 19th century.

 

They have many of their transition era ships and ironclads listed there.

 

All drawings are in .tif format and are scans of the originals.

 

They are all free as well.

 

That is where I got the plans for the Magenta (using Solferino’s drawings).

 

Edited June 3 by GrandpaPhil

[Canute]

This era of ships is one I keep coming back to for study. The blockade runners are ones I know little about. Lead on, Glen.😄

[Glen McGuire]

 

46 minutes ago, GrandpaPhil said:

Here is the link to the French Ministry of Defense’s archives:

Thank you for that link, Phil.  I will go thru that site and see what I can find.

 

Welcome aboard @BANYAN, @Keith Black, @gjdale, @Canute!  Glad to have y'all here for another foray into the unknown and vaguely planned.  As for Grant being next to the bar, I hope you like cheap rum!  Although I don't have all the details of this project flushed out yet, I have chosen the bottle - Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum!  At $11 a bottle, you know it's gotta be good!!

  

 

I'm still trying to figure out my approach to the ship's hull.  Since the Banshee II was steel hulled, I want to be authentic as possible and make mine out of some kind of metal.  But I haven't done anything like that before.  So maybe carve a solid wooden hull and adhere aluminum foil or some kind of thin metal to the sides?  Or maybe take thicker metal and shape it into outline of the ship, leave it hollow in the middle, and drop a wooden deck on top?  Not sure.  Gonna have to play around a bit and see what might work best.

 

I also have no idea yet as to how I'm going to make those tiny paddlewheels which are probably going to be 1/2" or maybe 5/8" (~10mm) in diameter.  But it will definitely have to be a split-hull joined together inside the bottle.  Ol' Sailor Jerry was pretty stingy with his bottle opening and only gave me 23/32" (18mm) to work with.

 

   

 

 

 

Edited June 3 by Glen McGuire

[GrandpaPhil]

Aluminum tape is commonly used for ductwork and is available at any hardware store.

 

I think I paid about $5 for my last roll from Lowes.

 

I thought about using it for armor plating on my next ironclad or steel warship, in addition to fixing ductwork in my house.

Edited June 3 by GrandpaPhil

[BANYAN]

14 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

Or maybe take thicker metal and shape it into outline of the ship, leave it hollow in the middle, and drop a wooden deck on top?

Oh please do this one Glen, I hear you are real dab hand with CNC   Seriously though there are plenty of approaches.  I visited a motor museum in the Melbourne (Australia) area a while ago and was pleased to find some 'folk art' style model ships a local had made using drink cans (and another excuse to buy some additional beverages - as stock for the build of course).  I think he may have formed the hulls from a wood plug then cut individual (large) plates which he then used to build up the hull and superstructure.  Whichever way you go I am sure it will be another masterpiece.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited June 4 by BANYAN

[Glen McGuire]

11 hours ago, BANYAN said:

I visited an motor museum in the Melbourne (Australia) a while ago and was pleased to find some 'folk art' style model ships a local had made using drink cans

Great minds...  Believe it or not, Pat, I was drinking a can of my favorite soft drink this afternoon (Mountain Dew) and that same idea occurred to me!  I need some metal that's thick enough so it won't wrinkle (like I'm afraid foil would), but thin enough to easily shape.  So the side of an aluminum can just might be perfect.  I'm going to give the can idea a try and see what happens.  Thanks for the suggestion, Pat!!    

 

Also, I have no idea what CNC means.  Is that another Australian tot or something?

Edited June 4 by Glen McGuire

[BANYAN]

56 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

Also, I have no idea what CNC means.  Is that another Australian tot or something?

Hi Glen, WRT CNC - Computer Numerical Control which is a machining method for mills etc using a specialized computer code to control the path of the cutter. I thought this method may have been a walk in the park for you      Now for a tot of Bundy Rum (yummy!)

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Glen McGuire]

Hmmm, Pat.  I think my CNC will consist of a dremel rotary tool and crude manual skills.  ☹️  In the meantime, I have not gotten any work done on the ship - still doing some research and playing around with the whole concept. 

 

Thanks to Phil, (a.k.a. @GrandpaPhil), for the link to all those ship plans.  There was nothing for the Banshee, but I did find a couple of sidewheel steamers that are similar enough that their plans will help me with the profile and footprint of my ship.  Although I'm embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to find the button that converted the language from French to English.  🙄

 

For those interested in more history of the blockade runner ships, I did find a couple of interesting bits of information:  First, according to historian Stephen R. Wise, the Confederate blockade runners carried 2 types of coal on board - hard (anthracite) and soft (bituminous).  The hard coal burned smokeless and efficient, making it better suited for use when it was time to actually run the blockade.  It provided strong bursts of speed and lower visibility.  The soft coal was used in open waters.  Even while burning the soft coal, the blockade runners could outrun almost all the Union ships.

 

Second, there's a simple reason why there never seemed to be a shortage of blockade runners willing to help the South, despite the obvious risks involved.  The return on investment in many cases was tenfold.  In his book, From Sail to Steam - Four Centuries of Texas Maritime History, Richard Francaviglia gave an example  of the schooner John Douglas buying cargo for $2000 and receiving $21,500 upon its delivery just a few weeks later.  

 

I think I've pretty much zeroed in on the concept for the project, although I reserve the right to change my mind along the way.  Since Galveston was central to the Banshee II's story, I wanted to incorporate something about civil war era Galveston into the presentation.  Unfortunately, there's nothing hugely recognizable or iconic about Galveston, except maybe the seawall.  But the seawall was built in 1902, a couple of years after a major hurricane almost wiped out the city.  I did find this painting of the Battle of Galveston (1863 when Confederate forces expelled occupying Union troops).  The painting shows hand to hand combat on the city's waterfront.  I liked the look of the waterfront with its wooden planks and piers, so decided I would try and give a small representation of it. 

 

 

I've also got some nice walnut cutouts of Texas that I think will make an interesting backdrop.  So here's the whole idea roughed out in Powerpoint.

 

 

 

  

Edited June 5 by Glen McGuire

[Knocklouder]

I am always amazed at the idea's you come up with. They are so fitting,  this one is no exception.  It's going to be another awesome display,  good luck on your journey,  the Texas background is very cool, 

Bob M.     

[Keith Black]

 I like it, I like it a lot. 

[BANYAN]

Another interesting backdrop Glen, should look great! 

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Ian_Grant]

Glen, your imagination never disappoints!  Should be another heirloom build to add to the heirloom collection. 🙂

[Glen McGuire]

I was out with the cows yesterday but they were not happy with me.  They could tell I was thinking more about this ship than I was about them.  The more I think about building this sidewheel steamer and getting it inside the bottle, the more I realize it's going to present a lot of challenges.  Split hull, sidewheels, smokestacks, ship's boats with davits, and rigging with a split hull.  This is gonna be fun to try and figure all of that out.  

 

So onward through the fog!  I finally got started building the hull last night.  Instead of the usual basswood, I'm using a harder wood for the hull so it will sand down smoother without the bit of fuzz that I get with basswood.  Here are pics of the steps in building the hull with the masts added at the end.

 

I took the plan for the hull's footprint, cut off the sidewheels (those will be built separately and attached later), and split it down the middle. 

     

 

 

After splitting and shaping the hull, I drilled holes for the masts penetrating about 80% of the way thru the hull.  The masts will be glued to one half of the hull for insertion into the bottle.

 

Edited June 7 by Glen McGuire

[Keith Black]

 Glen, without a size comparison the hull looks huge. I'm thinking, no way is that gonna fit down inside a bottle. 

[Glen McGuire]

Hey Keith!  It's definitely the largest ship I've tried to build so far.  Most of my previous hulls have been 3" - 3.5" in length, except for the quadrireme which was about 4".  This one is 4.5" in length and 5/8" in width.  When I add the sidewheels, it will be 1 1/8" in width, thus the need to split the hull.  The good news is that it's a fairly easy fit (right now) even thru Sailor Jerry's narrow bottle opening.  

    

[Keith Black]

 She looks good thus far but she's gonna be a tight fit once the wheels and stacks are in place. You need to order one of those bottle neck stretchers from Amazon. 

Edited June 7 by Keith Black

[Landlubber Mike]

Hi Glen, this is sure to be another stunner.  Looking forward to following along!

 

In case you are looking for adhesive foil, you could try Bare Metal Foil - car (and other) modelers use it and it comes in various metallic hues:

 

[Glen McGuire]

50 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

she's gonna be a tight fit once the wheels and stacks are in place.

No doubt, Keith.  No matter what I do, it seems all my ships end up scraping the inside of the bottle's neck when I put them in.  A reflection on my design and planning skills.  ☹️☹️☹️

 

Regarding the stacks, the plan right now is to install them (and the crosswalk structure between them) after the ship is in the bottle.  

[Glen McGuire]

9 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

In case you are looking for adhesive foil, you could try Bare Metal Foil - car (and other) modelers use it and it comes in various metallic hues:

That looks interesting!  Thanks, Mike.  I'll check into it.  And thanks for following along!  Always appreciate your insight and comments.

[Keith Black]

31 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

Regarding the stacks, the plan right now is to install them (and the crosswalk structure between them) after the ship is in the bottle.  

 Oh, I forgot, you always do microsurgery  going in through the vein. 

[BANYAN]

Difficult? Bah!    I am sure you will find a solution Glen - these issue just add to a greater sense of fulfilment on completion later (easy for me to say).  Looking forward to your problem solving on this one; if it was me I would just cut the bottom of the bottle, fit the hull etc. then glue it back on - but that is why you are a master of this artform, no shortcuts for you.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Glen McGuire]

I ordered some of the Bare-Metal foil that @Landlubber Mike suggested.  Thank you, Mike!  While waiting for it to arrive, it's time to take on the first real challenge - the sidewheels.  I'm starting with the housing that covers the actual wheels.

 

The first chore was making the semi-circle part that covers the top half of the wheels.  I penciled them on a 1/4" thick piece of basswood, reamed out the middle, cut them out, and sanded to their final shape.  You can see I began making 4, expecting a yield of 50%, which turned out to be right.

 

 

 

Next step was the side covers.  They were relatively easy to cut, but carving out the vent slots was a bit of a challenge.  They did not come out perfect, but I think they will do.  

  

 

Everything in the last pic above will be covered in the Bare-Metal foil and painted gray.

 

 

   

 

 

  

Edited June 8 by Glen McGuire