1878 British Obelisk Transport Barge

[Tapcho]

I bumped to this peculiar desing by accident. If someones interested it can be found here. Walden models have many other interesting footnote type of shipmodels too. Check their site, it's worth it. This one is a Kartonbau.de exclusive edition and can be downloaded fron there aswell (old site).

The model pictures a barge that was designed to transport an obelisk from Egypt to be erected (as it eventually happened) on the banks of Thames. Americans got one too and it can be seen in Central Part I believe (correct me if I'm wrong, but that's another story with another kind of ship too).

The obelisk was presented 1819 to the English nation by viceroy Mehmet Ali to commemorate the victories of Lord Nelson in the Battle of the Nile and Sir Ralph Abercomby in the Battle of Alexandria. British coverment accepted the gift but declined to pay the transportation costs and so it took several years until a viable solution was found.

Engineer John Dixon and Sir Erasmus Wilson eventualy teamed up (equivalent to Rutan-Branson operations nowadays ) and took up the task. The barge was built in England, then sipped in sections to Egypt and litterally assembled around the obelisk and then towed to England. Fantastic plan and it worked.

The kit can be built as a solid model or presenting the inner structure with the obelisk. I don't know yet wich version I'll do. Building starts now - it's a rainy day in Finland and this is a perfect project just now.

Tappi

[Tim Crowe]

Should be an interesting build.

Tim

[jparenti]

I remember hearing parts of this story years ago. It's neat to see a model of this particular ship. Looking forward to seeing it progress (and perhaps building it myself).

[D-H]

Coincidence. I am preparing to build the tug Anglia, which ultimately brought the obelisk to the London, as a working model and was looking at the Walden Models kits of both the barge and the tug only yesterday.

They look like wonderfully detailed and fun models. I will watch your progress with interest.

[Tapcho]

Good of you to join to watch the build. Here's the 'needle' and a stand for the model (I started with the easy parts). Now I move on constructing the inner structure of the barge. So far this has been an online build but not for long - I have to prepare a moose soup for our family gathering (17 persons) this evening.

The paddle tug Anglia should be an interesting kit to build too. I can picture both as waterline models one towing the other.

Tappi

[Tapcho]

As I mentioned earlier the obelisk was encased inside the barge in situ in Egypt and then simply rolled to the sea. Here's a picture of that process which I'm about to do in my modeling vault now.

Tappi

[Paperwarrior]

I'm looking forward to this thread. I've been wanting to build this one for awhile. Your research and obelisk build are great.

How did the moose soup come out? I'm originally from Alaska and enjoy moose.

Jeff

[Tapcho]

Oh the soup comes out well. I put in potatoes, carrots, rutabaga (yeallow turnip), turnip, parsnip, parsley and leek. For seasoning I use black pepper, salt, bay leaf and my special twist the juniper berry. I first bake the meaty bones in owen, them boil a broth of them and after that just everything together - vegetarbles, meat from the bones + some extra and let it simmer until the potatoes are done. Yammy!

Here's what I got done so far - the little boat that the barge had. The humonguos paint bucket offers some idea of the scale. I'm goinng off-line now, the party starts soon. More of this tomorrow. I have all the formers cut so the inner structure is what I do tomorrow. Hope you enjoy.

Tappi

[Tapcho]

The inner structure is constructed with 10 round formers and four horisontal bars. Inside of each former is cut an opening to allow the obelisk to be housed. Lots of cuttin left before the assembling can start.

Imagine doing this on a sand pit along the Mediterranean coastline in Egypt with lifesize obelisk. ;-)

Tappi

[ringmaster]

Bullwinkel died for your sins.