New WaldenModels project - what is it?

[ccoyle]

Is it the PS Bessemer?

[Oliver Weiss]

@SJPONeill - you're on the right track! Note the Winans Bros., though.

@Redhorse - I've got a set of plans for a whaleback, John Ericsson. Alas, it's not on my short list of builds right now....

Here's another hint: Think "steel"

Cheers,


Oliver

[ccoyle]

Originally Posted by Oliver Weiss

Here's another hint: Think "steel"

Like a Bessemer converter?

[Oliver Weiss]

Exactly

[B-Manic]

I'm confused is it the Bessemer Saloon? It sure looks like it.

[CharlieC]

Bessemer's autobiography is on line - there is a chapter on his ship - Chapter 20 The Bessemer Saloon Steam-ship - interesting read.

Regards,

Charlie

[Golden Bear]

The cover over the bow doesn't match but that Bessemer ship is a marvel. Maybe Oliver will do it when he is finished with other side wheel models. THere are a lot of them to go through first!


Carl

[Oliver Weiss]

Hehe - yes, I need to finish what I'm working on before starting something new However, I wanted to advertise this build early because I need additional material, namely plan drawings. Perhaps this thread will bring someone out of the woodwork. This strategy worked out well for the Anglia!


It is, of course, the Bessemer Swinging Saloon steam ship. She was launched on 09/04/1874 at Earles Shipbuilding Co. in Hull, England. Her first voyage from Hull to Gravesend took place on 03/05/1875. She entered the Dover - Calais passenger service for the London, Chatham & Dover Railroad Company. She was withdrawn in 1877.

So much for the dry facts. Now for the juicy bits:

The inventor of the Bessemer process to produce steel in quantity, Sir Henry Bessemer, suffered terribly from seasickness. He hatched the idea of creating a ship that would house a large saloon or compartment suspended on gimbals and actuated in such a way as to neutralize the roll of the ship, somewhat like a reverse baby's cradle. This idea wasn't new, but Bessemer had the clout and the resources to actually pull it off. He founded the Bessemer Swinging Saloon Steamship Co. and contracted Earle's in Hull to build the first vessel. Earle had just been taken over by the retired Constructor of the Navy, E.J. Reed. Reed had brought us the breastwork monitor, and it was perhaps no surprise that his design for the Bessemer ship looked very much like one. The ship was 349ft long, double-ended, with a complete set of boilers, engines and paddle wheels at each end, and the swinging saloon in between. The saloon sat in a gaping hole in the middle of the ship, about 90ft long by 30 feet wide by 20 feet deep. It said on four gudgeons and was actuated by hydraulic pistons. The mechanism for working the saloon was in it and consisted of a large spirit level indicator and levers to incline the saloon to port and starboard according to the reading of the level.

When this contraption was tried it quickly became apparent that the spirit level indicator gave too short a notice of the ship's roll, and the hydraulic gear was too slow to respond. Instead of neutralizing the roll, it was amplified! Experiments with the swinging saloon were halted while Bessemer and Reed went back to the drawing board. In the meantime the steamer commenced regular passenger service, with the saloon locked in place. It was rather fast at 16 knots and actually rolled very little, even without the benefit of the saloon. This was mainly due to the ship's great length and her unusually wide bilge keels. However, the rudder was worked by hydraulics and, like the saloon, the response time was slow. It took 30 seconds to bring the rudder from neutral to hard over. As a result, the Bessemer handled very poorly. On her first trip to Calais she plowed right into the pier and caused considerable damage. On the return trip, she plowed into the pier at Dover, and later wrecked the pier in Calais again. This string of accidents naturally deterred the traveling public, and the Bessemer was very soon withdrawn from service. She spent her later years as a coal hulk and was broken up in the 1880's. The swinging saloon had been removed and ended up at E.J. Reed's estate. He used it for years as a Billiard parlor. Later, it became a lecture hall at an agricultural college at Hextable in Kent, where it was destroyed by bombing during WWII. Supposedly bits and pieces still survive.

Here are some pictures....

[Golden Bear]

Wow! Sweet! I am in awe of your knowledge of these early steamships. Someday you could give me a list of key reference books so that I can start looking.

I seem to have similar design habits to you. In that I always have designs starting 2 or even 3 ahead of the one that is actually building. I enjoy the design part as much or more than the building and certainly more than "kitting" the design.



Carl

[edwardcastro28]

it is the very rare cigar boat is it not