Howdy all!
Back in my May introduction I mentioned growing up with weekend trips across the Galveston–Bolivar ferry to our family beach house in Crystal Beach, TX and that I hoped to scratch build one of those ferries "someday, once I can find some reasonable plans or detailed photos."
Well, someday has been coming sooner than expected (more on this soon), so I thought I'd start a design/build log, even if the building part will take a back seat to my other projects (or will it?). Either way, the process is a blast!
First, a bit of history...
Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has operated ferries between Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula since 1934 - 12 ferry vessels over 90 years. Listed below are those ferries:
And now some of the ferries and landings over time:
I rode the older boats the most - OK, NOT the Galveston and Jefferson!
- including the Gibb Gilchrist, when I lived in Houston or was in college and the beach house was still a regular weekend trip. After moving away, I rode the Lanier, Greer, Stoker and Dedman less often but I've never ridden the John W. Johnson or the Andrade.
Here's TxDOT's list of the current fleet. Look at the middle five. Built at four different yards over twenty years, and every one of them is exactly 263.33' x 65.33'. They're sister ships, all built to the same design, double-ended with a pilot tower at each end, and that's the class I'm building. The Gilchrist is an older design, and the Andrade is the newest.
So why the Greer? Dewitt C. Greer earned his civil engineering degree from Texas A&M in 1923 and went on to serve 27 years as Texas state highway engineer. Texas A&M is my alma mater too, so the choice was easy. Paint a different name on the fascia and she'd be any of her sisters.
Reality: nobody publishes plans for Texas car ferries. I reached out to TxDOT and eventually to their librarian, who was a tremendous help - she sent photos and articles I'd never have found myself, but even she came up empty on plans. Between her photos and everything I could find online, I have a good sense of what these boats look like above the water but below the water is another matter. I haven't found a single photo of the hull out of the water, so the shape of the bottom and the draft were all a mystery. Those are exactly the things I need to cut bulkheads.
So, my plan was to work out a set of plans myself from what I can see and what I can learn about similar boats, then build the hull plank-on-bulkhead, by hand - still with no solid hull design, only assumptions. Also i want to use technology along the way to help with research, scaling and simple drafting should I need it.
How that turned out is a story for the next post.
Back in my May introduction I mentioned growing up with weekend trips across the Galveston–Bolivar ferry to our family beach house in Crystal Beach, TX and that I hoped to scratch build one of those ferries "someday, once I can find some reasonable plans or detailed photos."
Well, someday has been coming sooner than expected (more on this soon), so I thought I'd start a design/build log, even if the building part will take a back seat to my other projects (or will it?). Either way, the process is a blast!
First, a bit of history...
Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has operated ferries between Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula since 1934 - 12 ferry vessels over 90 years. Listed below are those ferries:
- Galveston (1934-1950)
- Jefferson (1934-1950)
- Cone Johnson (1950-mid 1990s)
- R.S. Sterling (1950-late 1990s)
- E.H. Thornton (1958-late 1990s)
- Gibb Gilchrist (1977-present)
- Robert C. Lanier (1991-present)
- Dewitt C. Greer (1994-present)
- Ray Stoker Jr. (1996-present)
- Robert H. Dedman (1998-present)
- John W. Johnson (2011-present)
- Esperanza “Hope” Andrade (2023-present)
And now some of the ferries and landings over time:
I rode the older boats the most - OK, NOT the Galveston and Jefferson!
- including the Gibb Gilchrist, when I lived in Houston or was in college and the beach house was still a regular weekend trip. After moving away, I rode the Lanier, Greer, Stoker and Dedman less often but I've never ridden the John W. Johnson or the Andrade.Here's TxDOT's list of the current fleet. Look at the middle five. Built at four different yards over twenty years, and every one of them is exactly 263.33' x 65.33'. They're sister ships, all built to the same design, double-ended with a pilot tower at each end, and that's the class I'm building. The Gilchrist is an older design, and the Andrade is the newest.
So why the Greer? Dewitt C. Greer earned his civil engineering degree from Texas A&M in 1923 and went on to serve 27 years as Texas state highway engineer. Texas A&M is my alma mater too, so the choice was easy. Paint a different name on the fascia and she'd be any of her sisters.
Reality: nobody publishes plans for Texas car ferries. I reached out to TxDOT and eventually to their librarian, who was a tremendous help - she sent photos and articles I'd never have found myself, but even she came up empty on plans. Between her photos and everything I could find online, I have a good sense of what these boats look like above the water but below the water is another matter. I haven't found a single photo of the hull out of the water, so the shape of the bottom and the draft were all a mystery. Those are exactly the things I need to cut bulkheads.
So, my plan was to work out a set of plans myself from what I can see and what I can learn about similar boats, then build the hull plank-on-bulkhead, by hand - still with no solid hull design, only assumptions. Also i want to use technology along the way to help with research, scaling and simple drafting should I need it.
How that turned out is a story for the next post.
