Bailey Gatzert, 1890 Steamboat Paddlewheel ferry, started by Woodartist-December 2025

[woodartist]

This is a scratch built boat, there is a set of plans that were drawn in 1911 when the boat was refitted to burn oil rather than wood. The plans have little detail and I have found them to be incomplete and full of errors that do not match photographs that exist. I chose to build it as it was outfitted 1n 1890. The boat was named after the first Jewish mayor of Seattle. It was built in the Tacoma shipyards. The first deck was dedicated to freight, boilers, crew quarters, and a kitchen with a dumb waiter to the dining room on the boiler deck. I had a ding capacity of 120 seated customers with menu that was chef designed and cooked. It had the boat's name on the dishes and glasses. It had a saloon for seating with 150 capacity, a smoking room for the men and a parlor for the ladies. The hurricane deck had 24 8'x6' "suites" with bunk beds, there was a wedding suite with a double bed. It"s steam boilers were built by John Rees and sons. It had a top speed of 22 knots and won a race against the Greyhound on the Columbia River. It operated in the Puget Sound until 1911, There after it operated on the Columbia River between the Dalles and Portland until 1923 when it was converted to a pier. It was a first class boat and was famous for its luxury.
This is a photo of the boat prior to first launch.
This was a photo of the dining room, 10ft ceiling with stained windows, electric lights and carpeted floors. The original boat was 172' in length and 32' beam. The bow was 10' and shaped for use in ocean waters.

 

[woodartist]

This is the layout for the keel and bulkheads. I had to use the 4 pages of drawings to determine the bulkheads. I decided to put a bulkhead every 13/16" for a total of 34 bulkheads. The plans only had 9 drawn, I used drafting block paper to make the patterns. I cut the pieces on the bandsaw.
I chose to do this 1/48 scale, so the boat will be 4'10" long and 8" in breadth.

 

[woodartist]

Keel made from 1/4" aircraft grade 5 ply plywood. This is true 1/4". Bulkheads made from the same material. All cut with bandsaw.

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Because the main deck is wider than the bulkheads I had to add an extension to each bulkhead.

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The fairing was completed next.It was fairly severe at the bow where it transferred to flat bottom. I chose to plank from the bow to the point where flat bottom made dramatic change.

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Planking was fairly easy thereafter and I could make long runs.

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If you look closely you can see that the bulkhead extensions became the hull guard rail. In the Pacific Northwest at this time, the primary industry was lumber. Most piers and docks had cut lumber stacked high. When ships came into the pier they would easily run into the stocks and cause extensive damage to hull and structures above the hull deck. To prevent this there were heavy extended guardrails and if you look at the photo of the boat taken before launch you can also see that posts were also added on top of guard rail that extended about 10 feet above the deck. The guard rail narrowed at the bow but was quite wide thereafter.
To support the boat I installed blocks in the interior that included nuts to accept bolts. I used 4 1/2" machine screws, brass tubes to cover the screws, and nylon bushings to protect the hull.

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There were two near the bow and two near the transom. The next step was to add an extension at the transom that would be the support structure foe the paddlewheel.

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

wow, that's one shallow draft vessel. Looking forward to following your progress...

 

[woodartist]

Sidewalls for main deck completed after planking the entire main deck. I used 1/16" birch sheets to make the sidewalls, And 1/8" yellow cedar strips to plank the deck. The windows were cut out on the Proxxon milling machine.

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I originally put hinges on the main gangway doors and the aft door. However after viewing photos there were no hinges on the outside, they must have been inside so I removed them. I planked the hurricane deck.

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I made the steam Boiler to match the drawing of John Rees and son.

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I then started on building the paddle wheel. I used yellow cedar strips and a 1.25 inch pine dowel for the center. There were 20 spokes, so they were 18 degrees between them. First i placed the hub and spkes on a piece of polypropolene so the parts would not stick to the table top. I placed the spokes diredtly on top of the paper pattern to be sure they placement was correct before gluing. I marked the #1 spoke and whwn it was time to do the second thru 4th wheel I put wax paper between each layer and clamped each spoke to the one below it so that each wheel was the same. Be sure to drill the hole in the center of the hub before startng. On the first wheel I did not do it and the hub split when I drilled it. Started over and drilled the hubs first. I triedmass producing the spacers between the spokes but that was not successful. The second time I measured each one and sanded the ends to 18 degrees and glued them in place one at a time.Putting the center rod was a painful process. First put all wheel on the dowel, add a lot of extra length to the dowel. Kine up all the #1 spokes and put in two paddle boards, One on each side, clamp them in place. then commence adding all the paddles. Match their length and alignthem with the inserts.

 

[Peter Voogt]

Very nice to see that you started a scratch build of a Paddle Steamer, ‘woodartist’.
The main deck, boiler engine and paddlewheel are looking very nice.
Regards, Peter

 

[Hobbyphile]

Wonderful build. I love paddlewheel boats, particularly sidewheelers (you can see mine, from a kit on SOS). I much look forward to seeing your progress. You are an artist as well as a craftsman