Irish Royal Mail Steamer Connaught build

[Stuart Badger]

Hi Oliver.

Just so you all know - Oliver emailed me an article from the 'Strand' magazine about crossing from Holyhead to kingstown on one of the sisters to Connaught - a great article!
The article is more than 50 years old so I don't think copyright applies any more - maybe you could post it here. What do you think Eddy?

All the best

stuart

[Eddy Matthews]

Copyright on written material lasts for 50 years in the UK, so as long as it's more than 50 years since it was printed (or reprinted) it's okay for us to put it online...

Regards
Eddy

[waldenmodels]

Excellent! I have it at home, so I can do it tonight. Or Stuart, if you've got it handy please go ahead...

Cheers,

Oliver

[Stuart Badger]

I'll let you do it Oliver!
Stuart

[PeeWee]

I look forward to reading it, assuming copyright. 
I am sure your powered sea trials will pass effortlessly if the build has anything to go by. 

[waldenmodels]

Here it is, then. For your reading pleasure, "With Her Majesty's Mails to Ireland" by Edward John Hart. Published in The Strand Magazine, 1895. I excerpted this from a volume found on Google books. I love Google Books!

The article is very well written - clearly the Strand Magazine had high standards for entertaining prose. Previously I associated it only with Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, but evidently they published other talented writers as well.

The "Four Provinces" had been modernized about ten or twelve years before this article's appearance. They had been reboilered and now sported only two funnels; the wheels were also set lower, which added a knot or so to their speed. Yet, in 1897 all were replaced by twin-screw steamers with the same names. The only noteworthy item about that batch of vessels is the new "Leinster's" catastrophic sinking in 1917, having been torpedoed by a U-Boat.

Cheers,

Oliver

 
 

[Tug--Kenny]

Hi Kenny
and thanks for the comments all.
The helmsman's position is on the rear of the flying bridge deck - I have to make the ship's wheels next! (how he saw past the funnels I have no idea)

All the best

stuart

Great minds think alike.      This was my thought as I noticed the absence of a bridge house.  Must have been a real team effort to turn her around.

Ken

[scotfriend]

Hi Stuart,

once when my Jeanie Deans will be finished and she will be half as good as your Connaught i think i will be more then happy.

regards Hans

[marinemole]

Here it is, then. For your reading pleasure, "With Her Majesty's Mails to Ireland" by Edward John Hart. Published in The Strand Magazine, 1895.

Oliver

Many thanks for this, a fascinating read

Andy

[Eddy Matthews]

A fascinating read Oliver.... I couldn't get over the penalty for exceeding the 4hr 15m time allocated for the crossing by the Royal Mail - £100 penalty for every minute the ship was late!

That was a heck of a penalty bearing in mind it was over 120 years ago!

Regards
Eddy

[steamboatmodel]

A fascinating read Oliver.... I couldn't get over the penalty for exceeding the 4hr 15m time allocated for the crossing my the Royal Mail - £100 penalty for every minute the ship was late!

That was a heck of a penalty bearing in mind it was over 120 years ago!

Regards
Eddy

That was back when the Royal Mail was important. They probably had twice a day delivery too. I read of a Court Case here in Canada in about the same time frame, where someone was given rive years hard labour for impeding the Royal Mail.
Regards,
Gerald.

[Stuart Badger]

The article certainly gives a flavour of how RISKY sea travel was in those days! All those incidents of ship avoidance etc. I am still awed by the fact that the City of Dublin Steam packet Company RM steamers' transit time for the crossing was as good (if not better) than it is today.

Thanks Scotfriend and all for the comments.

I have started work on the masts and rigging and am waiting on some electrical components from my electronic 'Guru' in the UK who has issued dire warnings about running lead acid batteries in series/parallel - evidently I need to fit some diodes, more later.

I am off to Volos and Athens for 4 days so see you all Wednesday or there abouts.

Al the best

stuart

[R.G.Y.]

Just back from a bowls tour and caught up with the build. I like the method you used for the  filigree. The Duke has it on the bow, paddle box and the stern! I was wondering how to tackle it. Geoff

[Stuart Badger]

Hi PDs!

glad you liked the filigree Geoff!
I had a gentle day in the workshop today as I was feeling a bit wacked after travelling halfway across Greece at the weekend!
As promised I made and fitted the ship's wheels and arranged some crew just to give a general idea of how big the wheels in those days were. The pencil lines on the top of the wheel box are just a guide for later planking in boxwood. I have also fitted the masts. These will be demountable complete with rigging so that you don't spend more time at the pond re-rigging every time you want to use the model than sailing! I have also fitted the sponson access steps and will paint these tomorrow. I apologise for the furry quality of some of the past shots - my software keeps defaulting to 'pixel resize' which is not a nice way to resize photos!

Some photos as usual

All the best

Stuart

[Stuart Badger]

HiPDs!

I'm still waiting for stuff from the UK - so I spent today on more little details. I planked the top of the steering windlass casing and added the brass bands on the end of the lid. I painted the sponson steps and then realised I had left a job undone that was going to cause a major problem.
When I sprayed the white paintwork on the inside face of one of the sponson houses I managed to get a paint run, I rubbed this down intending to respray just that area - I forgot! To do it now would entail masking off almost the whole model so I needed a cover the mistake with a modeller's quick fix!
So you know what they say - get a man in to do the job. I made a painter's ladder, a small tin of paint and a brush and told one of my metal crewmen to get on with. It adds a little bit of life to Connaught and saved me a very nasty repair job!

All the best

stuart