Some answers

[Bert Learmonth]

I see several good questions for which I will try to give some of the facts
about the Inland sternwheelers. First the steering, basically all the inland
steamers were the same three or a few with four. These were balanced rudders
about 7 to 9 ft. long and depth according to the ships draft. They were
linked directly to the wheel in the pilot house, a chain around the drum of
the wheel down to the main cargo deck and connected to rods to the tiller
bars. Being direct the wheels were as large as the wheel house would take
most were 6 or 7 ft. No power on any of these ships even the tugs, which had
a balanced rudder and a large diameter tiller quadrant with a smaller wheel.
Armstrong steering you might say.
The mounting of the paddlewheel was set. The engine bed beams extended out
to carry the paddle shaft bearings. The diameter of the wheel was set to not
go below the base line of the hull, now whether the wheel size or the shaft
setting determined which was which I do not know, but they were well
balanced with the HP and sizes of the ships because they all worked well.
Most of the buckets on the wheel were two feet deep, two 3in. x 12 in.
planks, about 3 ft. immersion. There were no adjustments, it would be set at
the time of building.
Here is some information for Leighton.Looking at your specs for your project
here is some ideas. The Moyie was ordered for the Stikine River in north
western B.C. in 1897 but the service was terminated before it was needed and
was instead shipped to Nelson, that is the hull which is a composite type
steel frames and sides with wood planked bottom. I believe it's original
length was 142 ft. but when it was sent to Nelson they added 20 ft.in the
middle to 162 ft. I think this design would work for your proposed boat of
150 ft. The draft is 3 ft. a flat bottomed river boat type, I have the true
hull configuration and hull lines, there are no original blueprints that I
know of. If anyone wants more specific information let me know.
The trim and stack colors on these inland ships were chosen by the company
they belonged to.
By the way Paul the tug I hope to put the live steam in would be the
GRANTHALL, a steel tug which I want to build in metal.
Regards for now Bert.

[Leighton]

Hi Bert,
I would be very interested to see some details of the hull off the
MOYIE what sort of width was she? 3' is too deep for our situation
but this can be worked on I'm sure.
Regards
Leighton