What is the Civil War watercraft? I want to make one.

[ct ertz]

I am not sure what this is. It has what could be a pilot house and rudder but I see no smoke stack. So is it a barge? Is it engined and I am just missing the stack and steam pipe? I like it and will make one when I can figure out what it is.:eek:

CT

[lepercan]

CT, Isn't that a mast sticking up midships? Could be a sailing barge. Don't remember off-hand what they called them but they were a maid-of-all-work during the days of sail.
Lep

[ct ertz]

Yep, its a mast but I had assumed it was fr heavy lifting. I had not thought about sailing.

[murphyaa]

It doesn't look like it's got enough stays holding it up to be for sails (Look at the ship behind it with 2 masts, both with a spiders web of stays. Plus the boom and winch attached might get in the way of sails.

[ct ertz]

Did Barges have rudders? Was this thing towed by that sailing ship?

[lepercan]

It does'nt appear to have towing bitts in the bow. Yes, some of them did. I'm stumped.

[ct ertz]

A secret engine that runs on a new fangled fuel called diesel? Those Yanks where pretty sneaky.

[Texman]

Did Barges have rudders? Was this thing towed by that sailing ship?


I (being no expert) think your onto something. There does not appear to be any stacks,
and the deck areas are loaded with cargo. It does appear steerable, as previously noted
with a pilot house and what appears to be a rudder.

Do you have a larger/higher res picture?

[ct ertz]

No. I sure don't. I just happened across thi in a web search. No addition info was givin, other then it is during the war, and the cargo appears to be artillery supplies.

[murphyaa]

Maybe it's pedal powered, and the crew is out to lunch...

[ct ertz]

The schooner rigged sailing ship also is heavily loaded with wheeled vehicles as well. At a close soom on my computer one can make out the black hinges of the rudder, so this thing does have a rudder. But no stack.

[bf109]

looking at them i think the ship is beeing used as a barg and towed by the other ship .

reasons : both same cargo canons? wagons?.
without masts you can put more cargo on it but you still need rudder etc
small mast can be used as crane
and it looks like ther's a rope running from the frontside of pilothouse to the front of other ship and it is hanging relaxed

[lepercan]

Just found a pic of a sailing barge from 1938. Can't figure how to get it here. had a stump mast, jib rigged, very little rigging and only two crew.

Found it here:

http://www.benjidog.co.uk/Recollections/index_files/image1470.jpg

[Uyraell]

I'm wondering if what looks like a windlass behind the pilot-house is in fact a covered smokestack, even though it is so short.
The other thought is that perhaps the vessel is (if powered mechanically at all) powered not by gasoline or diesel, but by paraffin. The ACW is about 30 years too early for a gasoline or diesel engine, but is almost congruent for an extremely rare engine: the Paraffin (yes, 2 "f"s in the spelling of the era, and correctly, even these days) Engine.
They were extremely rare, and had a reputation as being dangerous. Usually Paraffin Engines were employed in static (non-moving) roles as a power source for "mechanical donkeys", the standard tasks being raising mineshaft cages, or ship's cradles in shipyards, or small (up to 2 tons lift only) cranes. Paraffin Engines had only a very short career.

I admit I'm ignorant of the era, and guessing a bit, but a Paraffin Engine would make sense, since they had by the time of the ACW been newly adopted (in the above static type functions) in factories. The difficulty is in the short timeframe during which the Paraffin Engines were employed, little less than a decade between development and abandonment.

They had begun as an attempt to replace coal as fuel for generating steam.
Someone, I no-longer recall who, dumped the steam generation idea, and went instead for direct combustion (but not necessarily compression before combustion) of the paraffin itself, coupled to direct take-off of the resulting power output. The issue then became one of proper gaskets and seals, which is where in fact the practicality fell short of the conception.
It happens that paraffin vapour is slightly more combustible than gasoline vapour, and also coats whatever it touches, thus creating a huge risk of fire outside the combustion chamber, which is where seals and gaskets enter the discussion. Fires outside the combustion chamber were also why Paraffin Engines were abandoned.
I have seen only two pictures of Paraffin Engines in my lifetime, and I'm 48, so I would not expect them to be known of to any but the most rare extent.

As to the cargo each vessel in Corey's picture carries: to my eyes they are cannon, probably somewhere between 9 and 16lb shotweight.

At rate, please pardon the long explanation of my thoughts.
If I am in error I apologise.
It simply seemed both possible and likely that the image Corey shows us depicts what I suggest.
If I am correct, then the vessel itself would be one of very few in existence at the time to be powered by Paraffin. To all intents, it would be unique.

I hope the info has been of some help, or at least of some interest. :)

Kind and Respectful Regards, Uyraell.

[Zathros]

I think it is a ferry dragged by rope back and forth across a river.

[ct ertz]

I like the Paraffin engine idea but I am having a heck of a time finding info on the engine themselves.

That could be a covered stack, but not sure why it would be laid up fully loaded like that?

A ferry is possible. i am looking to find some sort of rope rig.

Thanks guys.
CT

[jimkrauzlis]

Looks like a river barge loaded with war supplies, perhaps a number of which were shipped in on the schooner which is tied up alongside for offloading her cargo to the barge. The barge could also be towed to her final destination by a steam tug which just isn't in the picture yet. I'm not sure how well a barge could be towed by a schooner on a river, so I would have to think the barge is towed by a small steam tug. The mast in the middle of the barge is clearly a cargo handling devise, not for hoisting a sail, as there is no yard or sail boom visible, but there is a boom with cargo gear attached. I have seen a number of barges with a similar cargo handling set up.

By the way, what were the search terms you were using when this popped up?

Cheers!
Jim

[lepercan]

I've been reading(I know, a nasty habit) that old, headed-for-the-breaking-yard vessels were often dismasted and used for barges. I think that bf109 has it.

[Spar]

[QUOTE=Uyraell;264318]I'm wondering if what looks like a windlass behind the pilot-house is in fact a covered smokestack, even though it is so short.

I think this is a more plausible answer. It could be that it's a folding smokestack that lowers down to allow the craft to get under nearby trees when docking. Though I admit that the tall mast would still get in the way.

My answer to this mystery (and I love mysteries like this) is that the stack was removed for repairs or was damaged in some earlier battle. The pilot house seems to freshly whitewashed compared to the rest of the vessel, so maybe both the pilothouse and smokestack were shot off in some previous battle, and the crew could only rebuild the pilot house at the time due to the scarcity of metal resources.


Or then again, maybe someone just said:" Hey, let's remove the smokestack and take a photo of the boat so that when people look at the picture a hundred years from now they'll go crazy trying to figure out how we got here!"

[jimkrauzlis]

Or then again, maybe someone just said:" Hey, let's remove the smokestack and take a photo of the boat so that when people look at the picture a hundred years from now they'll go crazy trying to figure out how we got here!"

I have to believe that IS what happened...and it worked! :)

Cheers!
Jim

[charleswlkr54]

Looks like a brge of some sort, and the cargo looks to be cassions, and possibly some artillery pieces though it is hard to be sure, sizeandresolution on this computer i am on isn't too great!

[Royaloakmin]

Corey, it is a tow barge, meant to be towed by a steamer. Looks like it may have come from the Great Lakes, as many were during the war.

[OhioMike]

My guess is a former schooner converted to barge...They had a lot of examples of these on the great lakes at the turn of the century.