Hercules by vaddoc - approx. 1/50 - Steam Tugboat

[vaddoc]

Dear all

 

The Launch is not far off completion so I have been thinking what might be the next project. I really wanted to embark on a long journey, 10 years or more, and built something with many masts and frames etc. Certain funding issues though came about so this journey will have to wait.

 

That same day though I came across a lovely boat in the gallery by @Kevin. I 've always liked Tug boats and looking at this wonderful model I was immediately sold. I would build Hercules!

 

Now, there of course the kit by Occre but I should be able to scratch build it, shamelessly guided by the images on their website. This would be my first POB boat.

 

But of course, some lines would be necessary so off to the internet to get any boat lines that would be close enough. To my surprise, google returned a wealth of information - a specific site https://www.themodelshipwright.com/high-resolution-ship-plans/cargo-ships/steam-tug-hercules/ was of great help.

 

This site had everything - offsets, info, photos and lines. Apparently the boat was in dry dock for repairs and they took the opportunity to lift some lines. 

Indeed a wealth of info but of course serious lofting would be needed. First thing to do was to get everything onto CAD (I am hopeless in drawing with a pencil) and see whether I could get a hull out of this ocean of numbers.

 

So a brief hibernation period for the Launch to get this project under way. I am not sure how it will work, what scale or the level of detail but we ll figure it out along the way, at my usual snail pace.

 

I hope you ll join me on this new journey and thank you for visiting.

 

Best wishes

Vaddoc

[vaddoc]

Ok, so I have been playing a bit with the lines on CAD and first impression is that this is not going to be straight forward.

 

First we need to define the sheer. This is the first line according to the table of offsets:

It looks fair but it is not. With a bit of attention, we get a fair line

Same for the second view

And combining the two we get a sheer (not THE sheer - this will come later)

We can create a bit of surface, just for fun

Now, this is incomplete as the stern is missing, it does not reach the stem and is not clear how wide the keel is but it is a start.

 

Then, we get the waterlines and buttocks - All needed a bit of work to become fair

Combining everything we get an idea of the hull. This is not the actual hull - A lot more work will be needed to get there. I also added the keel which is not given in the offsets.

Next I actually used the plans to draw the frames and all other lines by putting the image sized appropriately as background and drawing lines on top. I combined all and this is what came out

It actually seems pretty close, it even gave a smooth hull. But it is not ready yet.

After a lot of work, the hull and lines were getting tighter but far from true. A lot of eyeballing was used, moving lines were it seemed they wanted to be.

Now that I had an idea of the shape, it was time to start again. I first faired the diagonals which I had not used at all so far. Then I rearranged the buttocks to reach the keel where they were supposed to. Finally, I tweaked all these lines to make sure they were fair and interacted at all intersections. This took a lot of work.

But when I added a couple of waterlines, these diagonals and buttocks had to be adjusted again to interact with the waterlines and with each other.

Only the upper waterline is completed. There are 7 more and incorporating these into the hull will certainly need revisiting every other line. There are also a few areas in the hull that are of concern, the first frame near the bow where so far the hull is taking a bit of an acute turn, the cut out for the propeller, the curve at the bow but these bridges will be crossed at a later time.

 

This is all I ve managed to do but so far it looks promising.

 

Till next time

 

Vaddoc

 

[Dr PR]

Vaddoc,

 

I have generated 3D drawings of several hulls from the numbers in the Table of Offsets. As you said, it is a lot of work!

 

I found several errors in the offsets for each of the hulls. They were usually off by 1 foot, 1 inch or 1/8 inch - the units used in the tables. First an engineer created the offsets, probably using a slide rule or maybe a mechanical "adding machine" for some of the older hulls - the first chance for error. Then the engineer had to write all of those numbers down - the second chance. Then the draftsman had to read the engineer's hand writing (a third chance for errors) and copy all those numbers onto the drawing - the fourth chance for error. And, of course, I had to copy them all into the computer. Five chances for error. It is a wonder that any of it came out right!

 

And then, after finding and correcting these simple numeric typo mistakes, I found that the station/frames generated from the data didn't fair smoothly after all. Like you I spent a lot of time tweaking the lines to get a smooth hull. But even so, I am sure the hull dimensions are more accurate than if I had just traced lines from the hull lines drawings.

 

Your hull is looking good!

[KeithAug]

20 hours ago, vaddoc said:

so off to the internet

I had a look at the site - excellent information - even the plating drawing.

 

Marvellous CAD work - I wish I understood it all. Maybe I am glad that my draughting training was completed at the turn of the Stone Age.

[FriedClams]

Hello Vaddoc and congratulations on starting a new project.  This is a vessel I once considered scratching myself, so I will certainly be following your progress with interest.

 

The Hercules is a great choice and as you probably know, she is a US National Landmark and part of the San Francisco National Maritime Historical Park.  Consequently, much is known about her.  The vessel is part of HAER (Historic American Engineering Record) National Park Service.  The drawings you have are public domain and the originals are available for download at various resolutions from the Library of Congress website.  Also available at the site are photos, photo caption document, and a data document containing interesting stats and brief history.  

 

Steam Tug HERCULES, Hyde Street Pier, San Francisco, San Francisco County, CA (loc.gov)

 

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

 

The historic park also has a research center that may be of help to you.

 

Maritime Research Center - San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

 

Best of luck on your new project.

 

Gary