Need help with plans

[Bill Hudson]

Hi all,  I am looking for drawings or plans of the USS Cairo an iron clad stern wheeler gun boat.  Found the site of the raised boat but not much helpful information for building a model.

Bill

[jock]

Hi Bill
Give this site a try
http://ems-journal.com/joomla/index.php

Also
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/USScairo/
Andrew has some info

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OleGeezers/
look in the files section
Jim

[Bill Hudson]

thanks Jock.  The Cairo site looks interesting.

Bill

[towboatjoe]

I touched pieces of the Cairo when they were trying to reassemble her back in 1979 at the Vicksburg Battle museum.

[Dinosaursoupman]

Hello Bill,
      Sorry for so late a reply but I've just joined recently and only decided to rear my ugly head today. I don't know if you've been able to come up with any plans or drawings for the Cairo but 2 decades ago I built the Carondelet (a sister ship of the Cairo, in fact they all looked the same. The navy had to paint the smokestacks different colors so the sailors wouldn't end up on the wrong ship) based upon an article in a scale modeling magazine. I cannot for the life of me remember which magazine or which issue but it may have been, possibly Scale Ship Modeler or Model Boats from the early 80's. I was able to get a copy of the Historic Structure Report which contains a set of lines but no dimensions. The report does show EVERY timber that was used in it's construction as well as detailed drawings of the engines, boilers, guns, armour, and more. These drawings along with the article helped me to build a decent model of the boat. If I wasn't interested in building R/C boats I would seriously consider building a scale half hull cut away model of her.

[Dinosaursoupman]

Hello again,
    I just went to Seaway's Ships In Scale site and they have available a complete collection of Model Ship Builders magazine on CD. I recognized the cover of one of the issues which helped jar my memory. It was in one of the "early" issues that they did the article on the Carondelet. It might be worth the price of the CD set to get plans for your Cairo. FWIW, one of the issues pictured has a cover picture and build article on the U.S.S. Benton and U.S.S. Essex, both very similar to the Cairo.

[towboatjoe]

If you're still looking for plans of civil war boats go to
http://www.marylandsilver.com/