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American Ship Building

i learned drafting but not engineering so my problem is understanding HOW these machines worked. This might be the same issues with model builders trying to scratch build seeing the drawings and understanding them is a whole other issue.
 
Great stuff! It's amazing what they were able to pattern and cast back in the day. I'm hard pressed to think of anything comparable these days. I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps we have better alloys that permit lighter construction. Back then, those humongous pours sure must have been something to watch... from a distance!

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this is the frame for the steam engine of the Mississippi the bed plate was cast in one piece weight 15 tons. Each side frame was a one piece casting 20 feet long and 18 feet high
 
Of course, the development of electric arc welding and later developments; Tig and particularly submerged arc welding allowed complicated designs to be made from simple shapes.

Roger
 
Dave Stevens (Lumberyard) said:
i learned drafting but not engineering so my problem is understanding HOW these machines worked. This might be the same issues with model builders trying to scratch build seeing the drawings and understanding them is a whole other issue.
Click to expand...
Live steam engines are fascinating things. I'd say they're the closest thing to a machine that's actually alive as man has yet devised. I always wanted to own a steamboat. I'm afraid there won't be time left for that in this life, though. I had this fantasy of owning a steam boat that I could fire with used cooking oil from McDonald's. Life couldn't be better than a boat that moves along silently and fills the air with the aroma of French fries! :cool: Of course, my dream steamboat would also definitely carry a steam siren, too. Those are the ear-shattering things that go "whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop,..." on the destroyers at flank speed in the old WWII movies. ROTF

Anybody with an interest in live steam power would do well to pick up a copy of Steamboats and Modern Steam Launches, ISBN 0-9641204-3-7, 6-3/8" x 9-1/2" Sewn Hard Cover, 672 pages, B & W photos and line drawings (800+), Indexed. $59.95, available from Elliot Bay Steam Launch Co. - Boathouse Books: [https://www.steamlaunch.com/store/p/steamboats-modern-steam-launches-1997-ed]
 
I’m not sure if this is relevant but before I started on wooden model ships I made model steam engines, one of which was a triple expansion steam marine engine. Attached is a video of the engine running on steam from my home made vertical boiler. Also being run is a steam driven boiler feed pump.
The you tube video is at:
si=IM8fJX3vskSHyxqH
 
johnv said:
I’m not sure if this is relevant but before I started on wooden model ships I made model steam engines, one of which was a triple expansion steam marine engine. Attached is a video of the engine running on steam from my home made vertical boiler. Also being run is a steam driven boiler feed pump.
The you tube video is at:
si=IM8fJX3vskSHyxqH
Click to expand...

That's a real masterpiece! All that's missing is a model ship!
 
wow johnv that is brilliant as bob said all you need to do is build the ship around it.

now that we drifted to steam anyone want to take a virtual tour of the Henry Ford steam engine collection?

i see no problem with a topic that drifts it opens up new ideas, a new road to follow

i am weeding out all the ships that are listed as NA no drawings and i will post a lists of possible subjects in iron, steel and wood from the American Ship Building co.
 
I moved to Duluth, MN in 1989 to become involved in management of a company related to the one that I had worked for in Marietta, Ohio. Although not related to the marine industry, my office overlooked the largest harbor complex on the Great Lakes and the loading port for much of the iron ore destined for the American steel industry’s blast furnaces. I enjoyed the parade of ships passing my window. Among these were the last two coal fired triple expansion steamships sailing on the lakes; retired in 1989 and 1990. I also joined a crew of a sailboat, racing in the lake offshore from the harbor where we had another view of this maritime traffic.

In 2005 I retired with plans to become further involved in the harbor’s maritime history. In particular, I volunteered to become involved in an effort to designate the world’s only surviving steamship of patented Whaleback design as a National Historic Landmark. The then executive director of the museum responsible for the ship with no knowledge of maritime technology was happy to receive volunteer help from somebody who had studied Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. The ship is located within the DuluthSuperior harbor complex not far from where I live.

A tour of the vessel, indicated two mus
 
i have been sorting through the ships built by different companies and i notice some ships have no drawings or a pats of a full set. set. I wonder did these yards use the same drawings for different ships? would the hull lines for say a package freighter be the same for all the package freighters built in the same yard?
i understand the term "sister ship" or "class" it stands to reason if you have a nice ship why mess with it.

back in 1813 William Bell used the same lines and split it at mid ship and added frames to increase the length. but i would think there is a limit length and breath ratio, or you might end up with a fat hull or a long and narrow hull. or it won't sail or handle.
 
a couple things i noticed there are wood, iron and steel ship being built. So iron did not replace wood and steel did not replace iron, all three were built at the same time. also looking at tug boats everyone is a slightly different size hum why is that? Some entries have more than i ship name was the ship renamed or different ships built from the same plan?

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All vessels with the first name of “Lake” in the name; eg Lake Ferrona, are standardized freighters built to stem shipping losses from German U boats during WW they were built to a Norwegian Fredrickstad design. To pass through the Welland Canal around Niagara Falls their length was restricted to about 250ft. For this reason and because they look like the classic British three island tramp steamer they are a popular subject for steamship modelers.

Roger
 
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@Dave Stevens (Lumberyard) A couple posts back you have some nice pictures that you posted of the interior of the City Of Detroit III - You may be aware that the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle (Detroit) contains the restored Gothic Room (smoking lounge) from that ship. It's been years since I have been there, although I look across to it daily (the museum that is).

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@Dave Stevens (Lumberyard) A couple posts back you have some nice pictures that you posted of the interior of the City Of Detroit III - You may be aware that the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle (Detroit) contains the restored Gothic Room (smoking lounge) from that ship. It's been years since I have been there, although I look across to it daily (the museum that is).

yes i have been to the museum a few times and took pictures of the gothic room they are in this thread


passenger ferry boat PLEASURE

A story of two cities Detroit and Windsor and the ferrymen The history of the ferrymen go way back to the time Detroit was a French fur trading outpost. Then the British took Detroit and finally the Americans. The best way to get to Detroit was by boat, and the boats landed on the north western...
shipsofscale.com
 
I see that you posted information about the barge James H. Pellett. This is probably one of the ugliest vessels ever built so I doubt if anyone will ever be building a model of it. I don’t believe that anyone ever referred to it as her. Havinghurst also mentions it in his beautiful novel about a Kelly’s Island family, Signature of Time.

My Friday noon lunch group recently had a guest who spoke about Duluth’s Cutler Magner Co, a large distributor of limestone products. I was surprised to learn that Cutler Magner once owned the Kelly’s Island Limestone Co where James H. Pellett loaded.

So far I have been unable to find out anything about James H. Pellett, the namesake of the barge, other than that he was a Great Lakes Ship Captain. I wonder if he was a relative.

Roger
 
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something interesting in this listing i thought a Whaleback was a bulk freighter but looking at this list i see
whaleback yacht, whaleback tanker, whaleback tow barge and odd thing a whaleback gun boat.

the term "proposed" means? flights of fancy by the drafting department

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Whaleback mystery: The American Steel Barge Company launched only three vessels that were not bulk carriers; two “Package Freighters” built to carry flour in barrels for Minneapolis milling interests and the passenger Ship Christopher Columbus built to promote the company by hauling passengers at the 1893 Colombian Exposition.

Many of the whaleback vessel were barges, not steamships. When these ships were launched, steamship operators favored the “consort system” with a powered vessel towing several barges. In fact, Alexander McDougall’s original patent was for a more easily towed barge, and the first five whaleback vessels were barges which were towed by powered vessels owned by others.

Drawings for these as well as the rest of the vessels that were actually built appear on one microfilm roll in the Bowling Green archives. (Roll 27)

There is also a second roll (Roll 33). This contains proposals for vessels of whaleback design that were never built. These often reflect Alexander McDougall’s fertile imagination hence the yacht and gunboat.

The whaleback ship saga that lasted for about 10 year’s beginning in the late 1880’s is a fascinating story involving a Scottish borne ship captain, the Cleveland, Ohio ship owning community and the “whose who” of East Coast financiers (one of which was from Hinkley, Ohio near where I grew up). My research to prepare the Historic Structures Report for the whaleback steamship meteor unveiled this story and resulted in my becoming a published author. My book: Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company; Wayne State University Press, 2018, tells the whaleback story.

Roger
 

Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company (Great Lakes Books)​

by C. Roger Pellett (Author)
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)

Part of: Great Lakes Books Series (73 books)


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The whaleback ship reflected the experiences of its inventor, Captain Alexander McDougall, who decided in the 1880s that he could build an improved and easily towed barge cheaply by using the relatively unskilled labor force available in his adopted hometown of Duluth, Minnesota. Captain McDougall's dream resulted in the creation of the American Steel Barge Company. From 1888 to 1898, the American Steel Barge Company built and operated a fleet of forty-four barges and steamships on the Great Lakes and in international trade. These new ships were considered revolutionary by some and nautical curiosities by others. Built from what was then a high tech material (steel) and powered by state-of-the-art steam machinery, their creation in the remote north was a sign of industrial accomplishment.

In Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company, Roger C. Pellett explains that the construction of these ships and the industrial infrastructure required to build them was financed by a syndicate that included some of the major players active in the Golden Age of American capitalism. The American Steel Barge Company operated profitably from 1889 through 1892, each year adding new vessels to its growing fleet. By 1893, it had run out of cash. The cash crisis worsened with the onset of the Panic of 1893, which plunged the country into a depression that mostly halted the ship-building industry. Only one shareholder, John D. Rockefeller, was willing and able to invest in the company to keep it afloat, and by doing so he gained control. When prosperity returned in 1896, the interest in huge iron ore deposits on the Mesabe Range required larger, more efficient vessels. In an attempt to meet this need, the company built another vessel that incorporated many whaleback features but included a conventional Great Lakes steamship bow. Although this new steamship compared favorably with vessels of conventional design, it was the last vessel of whaleback design to be built.

Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company objectively examines the design of these ships using the original design drawings, notes the successes and failures of the company's business strategy, and highlights the men at the operating level that attempted to make this strategy work. Readers interested in the maritime history of the Great Lakes and the industries that developed around them will find this book fascinating.
 
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