CSS Curlew

[ct ertz]

I am starting the research end of this ship. Thanks to Kaz, I have some great information on this iron hulled ship. No pictures so the over all apearance is subjective based on the info I do have. I know the following.

The ships dimensions, including paddle wheel size and placement. I know the type of engine, a walking beam. It was armed with two guns, one on the bow and one aft. I know the size of the hull plates and the rivet spacing, and the size of the rivets. It was a plat bottomed boat with a single u-shaped keel. Most of the superstructure parts were built of wood.

Now for the guess work by me and others.
I know that the Curlew probably had "sponsons" built out around the paddle boxes as common on side wheelers. Because of the area it worked befor the war, the superstructure was low, possably a single deck house with a small pilot house atop. This was due to the many overhanging trees and narrow water ways it worked. Alterations made to make it a war ship consisted of clearing the after part of the deck house to allow room for the aft gun, and possibly strengthening the deck.

We do have good drawings of similar sized boats working the same water ways as the Curlew so I will in part base my model on them.

Anyhow, so this is where I am at. Should come along soon. Waiting on a couple more things to fall in place.

Corey

[sporticus]

Cool. I love all the little riverboats. Very useful for me, so will add this one to the list to build when it comes out. By my reckoning you have several that I want to build at the 'almost for sale' stage, so I think my wallet may get emptied a bit more in the next few months!

[sporticus]

Errr, no pictures? There is a drawing of her exploding, which I expect you found, howver there is also a drawing that may help. It may only be someone's interpretation, but may be right. Bensted Home Pages: Other Warships called Curlew (http://users.qld.chariot.net.au/~dialabull/others.html)

[sporticus]

And there is this sketch of her fighting against the fanny! She would appear to be the middle of the three ships in the background File:Gun-boat-fanny.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gun-boat-fanny.jpg)

[ct ertz]

That last pic is close to what I had in mind. No masts. Single deckhouse. Except it looks like a square head engine in the drawing rather the a walking beam. Hard to see though.

[jimkrauzlis]

Way cool...and new project, and a very interesting one at that!

Looking forward to seeing more!

Cheers!
Jim

[Kazziga]

Corey, check this: The Curlew: The Life and Death of a North Carolina Steamboat,1856-1862 (Christopher Olson) - Academia.edu (http://maritimeheritagemn.academia.edu/ChristopherOlson/Papers/935200/The_Curlew_The_Life_and_Death_of_a_North_Carolina_ Steamboat_1856-1862)

[ct ertz]

OK. With a lot of help from Kaz I managed to get this one off the drawing board. I am braking it down into parts now. I think it is a pretty close representation of what the ship looked like after only a month of alterations to a gun boat.

[ct ertz]

Still working on pieces parts. This one will be out the door soon I hope. Two configurations as far as it's military configuration possibilities. Give me time!

[jimkrauzlis]

Looking forward to seeing this one roll down the shipway... :)

Cheers!
Jim

[bjosey]

Looks good Corey! I'm also looking forward to this one.
By the way, what is the current status of the USS Tyler?? Is there a chance it will be
released? (My fingers are crossed!)

[ct ertz]

I hope to finish the Tyler soon... Here is the latest on the Curlew. I went ahead and cut off the after overhang.

[bjosey]

Corey these latest pics are very well done! I love the shadows on the water!!
I'm encouraged to hear the Tyler may be released soon as well. That has made my day!
Thanks.

[sporticus]

Cool..good to see you back on it. My own designing has been put on hold while I do other things. I finished my Tyler, but I'm sure it won't be as good as yours!

[ct ertz]

Some instructions...:)

[ct ertz]

Done! Needing a test builder...

[Joe711]

I will be happy to build ...

[Paperwarrior]

Looks like another masterpiece coming our way!

Jeff

[blueyeppoon]

Looks fantastic, can't wait to add it to my fleet.

[ct ertz]

Awesome.. I have a couple of volunteers who will do test builds. One who has built only a couple of card model ships, and another who has built many, including most of mine! Two different skill sets, two different perspectives! Both are great builders. I can hardly wait to see how they turn out! Thanks guys!
CT

[Joe711]

I am glad that I can start to build this ship. This to me is a new model, new design, new adventures!
The printing happened today, will soon hear from me ...
Sincerely, Joe

[Benihana]

G'day CT,

Here are the first few shots. First impressions, after printing and realising the superstructure is pink, is that its a very solid little model. The lamination for the decks give it some weight in the hand <I don't know why but I really like this feel?>. Its a very neat little model so far. Packing and organising for my move o/s have taken up a lot of time in the last few weeks but I've finally got a chance to share some photos.

It has gone together very well and the instructions are fantastic (they've saved me reinventing the wheel as on previous models. A couple of concerns fitting the structure on the deck up to the edges (my skill not model) but a quick trim of the deck with sharp scissors fixed this.

Couple of things around the pilot house. Firstly I ended up making a horizontal stiffiner to sit inside the pilot house to help me get the shape. Secondly it seems to be slightly longer than the space that's allowed for it (perhaps it is me > Joe do doubt will confirm). Its not a real issue as it just means I had to put the funnel back slightly. What I did was print the upper deck on thin paper, cut out a section and cover the original white circle for funnel placement and just moved it back. It looks great. I ended up using the same technique for mounting the walking beam as this allowed me to assemble it, without having to be super careful that the width was exact and then place on deck. Overall it turned out ~1mm wider (this was me not the kit!). Net result looks really good can't wait to add detail.

Hopefully more to report soon.

[Benihana]

Opps, one more point. Really not sure what color I should 'paint' the rim of the main deck. The upper deck I went with gray/slate which looks good I'm just not sure if I should go black, brown, yellow (as per deck) or pink as per superstructure...........:confused:

[ct ertz]

Pink?Wow, I messed that up I guess... I have problems with reds and greens... I was shooting for an off white or lightish tan.

The build looks great! I will take a look at the pilot house structure and stack placement. I knew that it would be tight, but I can fix that.

I am so happy with the build, you are doing a great job!!
Thank you,
CT.

[Lighter]

I like the hand. It's visually more helpful to me than all the cubes and measured mats. It gives a feel for the bulk.

Pink? Well, it was a common color at the time and didn't have contemporary stigmas. But, cheap white paints would have been more likely. The yellow pine deck sure looks like it was made of canary feathers!

Nice looking little boat.

[ct ertz]

Yeah, when I fix the pink I might tone down the pine deck also!

[Benihana]

Ya, the deck is bright, I was looking at it last night and was thinking perhaps some charcoal smudge might help. As for the pink, it has grown on me. The planking colour itself is pretty subtle, if the lines defining the planks were more brown in tone than red (but this May have been my printer as not so bad on screen) the 'pinkness' would be further diminished.

[ct ertz]

Charcoal might help.
I hope you like your new location.
CT

[Joe711]

Benihana: great Work!

I start the job, but first a few questions:
1. pink superstructure can be white?
2 of the wheelhouse windows flat glass plate.
3 of the wheelhouse casing is not horizontal, but vertical?

Thank you,
Sincerely, Joe
(Sorry for my bad English ...)

[Benihana]

Some more progress pics. I've deviated from instructions as I'm still procrastinating on how I want to do the paddle wheels.

All went fairly well. I should have paid more attention to the alignment of the upper and lower decks to ensure that the supports at the rear were vertically up, though the result still looks OK. I'll put this down to a rookie mistake.

The flag pole on the pilot house looked naked so I added the 'stars and bars' not with the kit but I feel appropriate as it fits the ships service timeline. I'm assuming it would be more likely for a vessel that saw costal waterway service to fly this rather than a naval ensign.

[Benihana]

Moving right along....I spent the last week in Manila so no paper for me :mad:, anyway home at last so finialising the Curlew prior to my big move.

The guns, boats and other accessories went together well. Just a small question on the scale of particularly the forward gun. Firstly the barrel looks a little long compared to the carriage (from previous period photos I've seen), secondly placing it on the deck it looks a wee bit small for the ship. CT can you please check the scale please? Looking at the 32pdr on the Couer de Leon it seems to be significantly larger in size (but smaller in barrel length) > perhaps I might try and print a little larger if time permits. Also do you have any idea on how it would be teathered in the middle of the deck? I've got photos of guns positions near rails etc but nothing in middle.

Almost done, now just to finalise the fore gun arrangement and add the rigging on the funnel. Impressive little model with good instructions.

[ct ertz]

Hello, great build!
I used my generic "large gun" tubes for this and an older style carriage as this was so early war. Actual scale dimensions between a 32 pounded, 100 pound rifle, 7 inch rifle, and 9 inch shell gun (common on many Confederate gun boats, all differ, but are hard to duplicate at 1/250 scale. For 1/150 scale and 1/72 scale I have some rather detailed and accurate guns but with these little guys I kind of just go generic.

As for deck placement, my guess is that when the ship was quickly overhauled fittings were put on the the bulwarks for block and tackle, and possibly iron rings may have been countersunk into the deck for excepting a hook from a block and tackle as well. The gun would have simply been manhandled around from port to starboard, and so on as needed, removing the guns tackle and re-hooking the tackle at another firing position. With a full gun crew this could actually be done rather rapidly. I do not think that reinforcing rails of any kind were put into the deck as on ships like the USS Couer de Leon and the USS Thomas Freeborn. I also do not know where or how any type of anchor may have been used, the one put with the kit is there if you want. It seems to me that more then one heavy gun could have been mounted up front, but I think the use of a single heavy cannon was due more to the lack of available guns at the time then to space on the ship. The CSS George Page, another early war convert, also has a single gun mounted front and aft, according to drawings. The guns on the George Page were 32 pounders with addition iron banded around the breach, and it looks like she could have carried at least a pair aft if not three aft and one front.

I hope this helps!

CT

[ct ertz]

Oh, just to clarify, the aft howitzer on that slide carriage may have has a rail laid onto the deck as modeled, to help reinforce that gun position. But I do not think any heavy iron reinforcements were used on the front as these would of been countersunk well into the wood as in pictures of the USS Thomas Freeborn show...