Painting a paddle gunboat from New Zealand

[Roly]

A year ago I took up the hobby of painting, concentrating mainly on planes and ships. I am currently working on a painting of one of  New Zealand's first steam warships, the paddle gunboat 'Avon'. She took part in the invasion of the Waikato in 1863.

I am showing her on the Waipa River towing an armoured barge ('Midge'). The latter was one of four cutters that were armour-plated and turned into gunboats that could be either rowed or towed.

I have attached a computer mock-up I did to help me envisage my painting, using an old 19th century painting of the Waipa River, with a cut-out photo of my own little plastic model of Avon superimposed on it, and with some reflections done in my computer graphics program.

There's also a pic of my plastic model conversion. You can read more about how I made it here: https://arteis.wordpress.com/2018/02/25/send-a-gunboat-to-colonial-new-zealand/

I wonder if anyone could assist with some technical advice on how the Midge would have been towed.  It had openings for three oars each side, and had a rudder at the stern. Under tow, do you think they would still have had some oars out to help steer, or to avoid snags (of which the Waipa had many)? Or would the oars be stowed?

Also, I presume a single tow rope from the stern of Avon to the stem post of Midge?

Finally, are there any good pictures of the sort of splashes and wake that a paddle steamer makes?

[Roly]

Here's a close-up of progress on my painting of  'Avon' so far. No crew yet. And I need to do more work on the splashing of water along the waterline and especially round the paddlewheel (am I right that  the wheel turns counter-clockwise to go forward, by the way??). Then the final step will be the vessel's reflection.