J H Crawford by LJP (Lawrence Paplham) - Scale 1:64 - an 1894 to 1898 Wisconsin sternwheeler

[Cathead]

So does the steward install temporary real turf when a VIP books a room?

Edited December 4 by Cathead

[LJP]

Cathead,

 

No, JHC stayed with the Astroturf.  Real grass would have required a faucet in the stateroom to water the grass, a lawnmower to cut the grass, and a horticulturist to maintain the grass.   Way too expensive on a working boat.

🤣

 

LJP

 

[Cathead]

That's what a goat is for. Fresh milk for the pantry, too. I'll stop dragging this off-thread now.

[LJP]

Next step is done.  Port side rooms have been completed along with lots of miniature furnishings.
The women’s salon included a central seating area, along with mirrored built-ins and a radiator. 
The first stateroom was the cook’s.  It includes an Astroturf bed 🤣, shelving above it, and a sink in the corner.
The next was the Captain’s stateroom.  Again, a bed, but also a work area with shelves and a worktable. 
The Purser’s room had storage and work table area.
Lastly, the men’s smoker.  A couple of tables and chairs, mirrored built-ins like the ladies salon and a partially hidden radiator.  No alcoholic beverages, JHC was a dry boat but you could BYO.
I still need to add the front door panel.  

 

The next step is to begin putting in the beams and carlines. I will need to add some stationaires and whatever the metal protector around the stacks was called.   

[Jim Lad]

That ladies salon looks very plush!

 

John

[Cathead]

That's glorious. I always dreamed of doing a full steamboat interior like that and never have yet. Such a great job bringing this area to life.

[LJP]

Hi John!  

The ladies always did have a nicer arrangement than the men, even on day boats like JHC.  Usually, it was much larger than the 15 by 15 on JHC and included carpets, maybe a piano, and lots of easy chairs.  And entrance into the women's salon was prohibited to the men.

 

Cathead,

I had done a more limited interior on Thistle but decided to do more since JHC will be open to view.  My eyes and fingers are not what they once were, but I refuse to give up and do the best I can.  I am waiting for your next build....

 

Take care all & best of the Holidays to you,

LJP 

[LJP]

I installed the hurricane deck beams.  I placed some of the stanchions and the cover for the stacks.  I will still need to cut the beams to length at the bow and add more of the stanchions on the beams after the railings are set. 
 

The railings will be my next project.  The paper on the boiler deck shows where the stanchions and spindles for the railing will be located.  I will use a template for the railings that I used for Thistle.  After that, I can add the carlines and the rest of the stanchions on the deck beams.  A long way to go yet, but JHC is beginning to look like a real sternwheeler. 

[Jim Lad]

Looking good - vert good.

 

Two questions, mate. Was it usual for the hurricane deck to curve upward like that at the bow; and do you know why it was called a hurricane deck in the first place?

 

John

[LJP]

Hi John,

 

JHC/Thistle had bow and stern sheer, probably due to travelling on the Winnebago Pool: Lakes Winnebago, Poygan, Winneconne & Butte des Morts.   Sheer was normal for those boats.  Those lakes could be volatile.  As Thistle, there were reports of pottery crashing to the deck, furniture swept overboard, and buckets broken on the sternwheel.  The Aquila had its superstructure destroyed, Cook had barges capsize and sink. The angle of my photo really accentuated the sheer; it was not that severe.  One of my photo postcards shows Thistle/JHCs bow sheer:

 

As for the hurricane deck being named as such,  I have no idea.  Maybe you or others can give us the history on that.

 

LJP

[Cathead]

Hurricane deck is one of the many steamboat terms whose absolute origin is lost to history and almost certainly developed organically and colloquially. Like Texas deck (the one above, when present), and why the boiler deck is the one above the boilers. You'll find many sites repeating the claim that it's because the hurricane deck was especially windy, being high on the vessel and generally unprotected. I can easily imagine being up on that exposed deck/roof, several stories above the water, and feeling like I could be blown off by a strong gust. Not much to hang on to up there in many vessels, not even a railing.

 

And many steamboats had at least a bit of upper deck sheer forward. Peerless certainly did, on the Missouri River. This is just the boiler deck, but if she'd had a forward hurricane deck it would have had to follow suit:

[Cathead]

Just occurred to me to wonder if the forward sheer on the boiler deck seen on many steamboats derived, in part, from the basic design that had the fireboxes facing forward and little to no infrastructure blocking them. They needed a lot of air for the fire and draft in the chimneys, and that came in over the bow. Did the boiler deck flare upward to help "scoop" a bit more air in toward the boilers? And once that design got stabilized, it just stayed that way even as steamboats got more complex and tended to build infrastructure in front of the fireboxes? It's certainly more aesthetic that way, since it parallels the natural upward sheer of the bow, but I hadn't thought about the possibly functional role related to the firebox.