1/140 Scale Plastic model of a Wood-Hulled Paddle Steamer 1857.
This model ship is typical of the small fast steamships used as cutters and packet ships in the 19th Century. The model was built over a period of two years.
The hull bottom simulates the copper plating then being used in the 19th century to prevent fouling by barnacles etc. I used self-adhesive copper tape which I bought at a stained glass supply store. For this model in addition to the parts supplied I added many single and double pulleys (or in naval parlance -'blocks') and three sails made of 'silkspan' - a light paper reinforced with fine strands of silk typically used as skinning of balsa flying aeroplane models. I rigged the ship as accurately as I could after many hours researching on the internet.
The original kit was made in the early 1960's by Lindberg Models of the United States Revenue Cutter (USRC) Harriet Lane. The real ship was built in New York in 1857. During the U.S. Civil War it was requisitioned by the U.S. Navy. In 1863 it was captured by the Confederate Navy and employed as a fast blockade runner. It was re-captured by the north in 1864.
Blockade runners were fast steamships which ran cotton to neutral ports in the Caribbean such as Cuba and Bermuda, where the cotton was bought mostly by Great Britain, and the cash used in turn to buy supplies for the war effort.
Many blockade runners were made in Great Britain, especially Scotland and were 'state of the art' One such vessel, the S.S. Thistle was built in Glasgow in 1863 - it had a composite hull of iron frame sheathed in wood. It was captured by the north in June of 1864 and re-named the U.S.S. Dumbarton.
After the war, in 1868, it was acquired by a new shipping company based out of Quebec City - The Quebec and Gulf Islands Shipping Co. The ship was re-rigged and re-engined and was used as a mail packet and passenger ship for the St. Lawrence River to Gaspesie, Magdalen Islands, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. It had a collision with another ship, the S.S. Germany, in April of 1870 and sank near Green Island, near Tadoussac Quebec in the St. Lawrence River.
I gave this model a Red Ensign flag on the stern to indicate that this ship is registered to a British/Canadian company as if it were acquired after the civil war, as many such ships were - see below the S.S. Miarmichi.
Here are some pictures of Paddle Steamers of the U.S. Civil War period...
Above is the A.D. Vance, a particularly successful blockade runner.
Above, the Sophia Jane.
Above, the U.S.S. Fessenden
Above, the S.S. Miramichi, in 1898 in Charlottetown PEI harbour.
A painting of the U.S.S. Harriet Lane in U.S. Navy colours c. 1863.
