Here comes the Irish Mail - RMS Connaught, 1860

**Oliver Weiss** · #1 03-21-2009, 09:05 PM

Since Carl was so hot for this one I decided to make it my next project.

RMS Connaught, launched 1860, scrapped 1897. Served on the Kingstown-Holyhead route. First ship to reach 18 knots, a record held for over 20 years.
Length: 348'
Beam: 35'

Wish me luck

Cheers,

Oliver

**member_3** · #2 03-21-2009, 09:31 PM

Luck, luck, luck! I suspect that your considerable skills will overcome any difficulties, though. Looking forward to this one!

**B-Manic** · #3 03-21-2009, 09:48 PM

She looks like a very interesting subject. I look forward to watching your progress.
And of course 'good luck'.

**Golden Bear** · #4 03-21-2009, 10:02 PM

Aha! Very sweet. I'm afraid of modeling side wheelers. Finally maybe I can learn how to do it. Good choice.

Carl

**Art Deco** · #5 03-21-2009, 10:54 PM

Great subject choice!

**mabrown** · #6 03-22-2009, 12:29 AM

Very cool ship to add to your fleet of very fine models.

I did a quick google to find a photo of the ship. I turned up a photo of a very nice model of Connaught confirming your design with 4 funnels and a page from the Illustrated London News of 1860 showing a similar vessel of the same name with two funnels which apparently sank the same year as she was built, 1860.

Science and Society Picture Library - Search
Hunting New England Shipwrecks

Do you know if your ship replaced the other vessel?

**ct ertz** · #7 03-22-2009, 09:55 AM

I think that that ship would have made aheck of a blockade runner!

**Rick Thomson** · #8 03-22-2009, 11:22 AM

A very pretty hull, another case of what looks right, is right.

**Oliver Weiss** · #9 03-22-2009, 01:05 PM

Thanks, guys - your interest confirms that this one might be a winner

There were indeed two Connaughts built in 1860. The two-funnel ship was built on the Thames for the Galway line and served on the North American run, where it came to a fiery end in October of the same year, luckily without loss of life. Our Connaught, however, was built at Laird's of Birkenhead for the City of Dublin Steam Packet Co. She was one of four very similar ships, Ulster, Leinster, Munster, and Connaught which were collectively known as "The Four Provinces". These ships were built as a result of the 1853 renewal of the Royal Mail Contract, which stipulated that the crossing for the Irish channel must henceforth be accomplished in three and three-quarter hours. This required a vessel capable of 17 3/4 knots in all weathers, something that many experts at the time thought impossible. As you can see from the hull's lines the ships were designed as real racers, with engines to match, and sophisticated 14-float, feathering paddle wheels. The first, two-funnel design appears to have been underpowered. The revised design featured haystack boilers and required the then-unusual four funnels. (I'll give more details on the machinery further on) Connaught managed 18 1/4 knot on her official trials. Between 1883 and 1885 the ships underwent modernization to increase their speed and reduce their enormous coal consumption (64 tons one-way!) They received new engines and boilers, and their paddle wheels were set lower. They now needed only two funnels. In this new form the ships continued to carry the mail twice a day until 1897, when they were replaced by four identically-named twin-screw steamers.

As to blockade-running - many contemporary steamers in the cross-channel trade were very similar to the Four Provinces - built for speed, with sleek iron or even steel hulls, feathering paddle wheels, turtleback decks etc. Of course this made them ideal blockade-runners, and a lot of privately owned vessels were purchased by war profiteers and Confederate agents for just that purpose.

This model should be fun and fast to build - the enormous turtle back covers up most of the fiddly bits below, and the rest of the ship is pretty streamlined. The tricky part will be the paddle wheels. I shall attempt to make working feathering paddle wheels at 1/250th scale. From paper, of course. Hence the call for good luck

Cheers: Oliver

**Golden Bear** · #10 03-22-2009, 03:25 PM

It is funny - I was looking at my books on paddle wheelers and thought to myself, "Oliver is awfully good at design - he should make feathering wheels!" But then I thought that would be impolite to bring up publicly. And you are going to try to do it anyway! I know I couldn't resist either so I am even more looking forward to it.

Carl