New project: Model of second german steamship "Courier"

[Hankwilliams]

Hi friends and neighbors,

as I wrote in heading research some weeks ago, I now began a new project: Sidewheeler "Courier" of 1817. The original made the first far steamboat connection on the continent between Berlin and Hamburg.
She was working from 1817 probably to 1821. Some informations and parts of plans about this boat are preserved.
First picture shows a model in the german museum of inland navigation in Duisburg. My model will have some alterings, because after the museum model was finished some previous unknown plan fragments and documents were found. Scale is 1 : 25, which gives a lenght of 1600 mm, a breadth of 144 mm
and a depht of 90 mm. Like the original, I will installate a functionable one cylinder side lever engine with boiler.

Thomas

[Hankwilliams]

Planking of hull now is nearly finished. Next job will be to grinder and work with spatula until the surface will be fine and even.
Planking goes rather fast, as you can see, the hull is simple and box like except bow and stern.

Thomas

[DamienG]

Looking good Thomas

[andy]

Hi Thomas,

did you already calculate the possible weight of the ship? These slim hulls sometimes get some problems in weight and stability. And the windows so close to the waterline? I think, you will have to save much of weight. For example: My PD DIESSEN is 2m long and maximum 16kg ready for go. Including boiler and steam engine.

Andreas

[Hankwilliams]

Hi Andreas,

the hull - except bow and stern - is block like. The block coefficient of the complete boat hull therefore will be approximately 0,78.
This gives a deplacement of (16 x 1,4 x 0,3 x 0,78)  5,28 litres. Not very much for a model with boiler and steamengine indeed, but sufficient.
The harder woodwork of the model now is nearly complete - I will post some pictures in the evening.
Next job will be to paint the hull in and outside with resin, G 4 by Voss Chemie gives excellent results. This one component resin get deep into the wood, it hardens the wood and will result a watertight and very stabile casco.

Thomas

[Hankwilliams]

some pictures of progress.
Unfortunately no picture of the original boat is preserved. The paddleboxes I made different from my plan semi - round, this seems more paddlesteamer like, I think.

[DamienG]

  Looking real good Thomas.

[Hankwilliams]

Thanks Damian,
at weekend I painted the hull in- and outside with G 4 resin. The wood got now very hard and only superficial work like polishing for preparing the paint is necessary.
Show a further picture of my "Prinz Carl" in 1 : 25, first iron built steamship in Germany of 1834, which I made 19 years ago. "Prinz Carl" also worked between Berlin and Hamburg.

Thomas

[derekwarner_decoy]

That is an interesting image of the Prinz Carl you have Thomas.....

The vessel appears to be lightly rigged for emergency fore & aft sails......were the German requirements/laws such that these new fangeled steam engined vessels must carry sail for emergency use?.....

I understand the British Board of Trade made the similar requirements up until the turn of the Century...however have never studied or researched this

Derek

[Hankwilliams]

Yes Derek, these boats were lightly rigged for the long distance run between Berlin - Hamburg and retour. One must consider, that the rivers in this time were in natural condition without locks and dams.
The "Prinz Carl" in difference of the much former "Courier" wasn`t a reliable boat because of her insufficient sidelever engine. After a few trips the engine was removed and the vessel became a towed boat.

Thomas

[Hankwilliams]

I paint the hull in the meantime. Next job will be the windows. The windows sprouts are difficult, probably I will use wire netting.

[derekwarner_decoy]

You build  at such speed Thomas

You mentioned ~~+ 5kg as displacement ......for interest what is the hull weight in it's current state....and do you have a water pond close by to confirm her draft?.......or so establish what weight you can add?

I ask this as my steam engine plant is ....6277gm  ...[and the base plate for the plant is 2.5mm thick aluminium sheet with pressed sides]

So I still need the hull weight [for a 1.5m long hull] & say 750gm of boiler feed water].......maybe I am looking at ~~ 12+ kg?

Derek

[Hankwilliams]

Hi Derek,

the deplacement will be no problem, engine (I will use cylinder and crankshaft of Regner 12/36) and boiler will have a weight of not more than 2200 gramm.
Now the hull weight must be below 1 kg, our old balance don`t react until now.
See the picture of my "Tachtalia" with two small oscillating engines and one boiler. This model I made with GRP Hull, lenght is 1500 mm, hull breadth ca. 190 mm. Draft is only 25 mm!

[Hankwilliams]

Making of windows with wire netting and wood fillets. For my opinion the result is quite sufficient. May be, with photo etched brass the windows would be still more fine, but with far more expense.
Derek - weight of the whole model is now 1,7 kg.

Thomas

[Hankwilliams]

Here the pictures