The Pioneer Steamship Savannah: A Study for a Scale Model: United States National Museum Bulletin 228, 1961, pages 61-80 — John Shaqi
The Pioneer Steamship Savannah: A Study for a Scale Model: United States National Museum Bulletin 228, 1961, pages 61-80Chapelle, Howard Irving
History
The Pioneer Steamship Savannah: A Study for a Scale Model: United States National Museum Bulletin 228, 1961, pages 61-80
Chapelle, Howard Irving
Savannah (Steamship); Ship models
The _Savannah_ crossed from Savannah, Georgia, to Liverpool, England,
in the period May 22 to June 20, 1819; and proceeded to the Baltic,
where she entered at St. Petersburg (now Leningrad), Stockholm, and a
few other ports. On her return she reached Savannah on November 30,
and on December 3 she sailed for Washington, D.C., arriving on
December 16. Her original logbook now on exhibition in the Museum,[3]
covers the period between March 28, 1819, when she first left New York
for Savannah, to December 1819 when she was at Washington.
[Illustration: Figure 1.--Old model of the _Savannah_, built under the
supervision of Captain Collins. This model has been removed from
exhibition in the United States National Museum because of
inaccuracies. (_USNM_ 160364; _Smithsonian photo_ 14355.)]
The old model (fig. 1) was built about 1890-1892 by Lawrence Jenson, a
master shipwright and model builder of Gloucester and Rockport,
Massachusetts, under the supervision of Capt. Joseph Collins of the
U.S. Fish Commission. Notes in the records of the Museum's
transportation division show that the research for this model was done
by Captain Collins through use of an unidentified lithograph, printed
after the transatlantic voyage, and what then could be learned about
American sailing ships contemporary with the _Savannah_. In these
notes the complaint is made that no contemporary representation of the
steamship had then been found.
The old, inaccurate model, built to the scale of one-half inch to the
foot, represents an auxiliary, side-wheel, ship-rigged steamer. The
model scale measurements are about 120 feet in over-all length, 29
feet in beam, and 13 feet 6 inches depth in hold. The tonnage is
stated on the exhibit card to have been about 350 tons, old
measurement. The model has crude wooden side paddles of the radial
type, a tall straight smokestack between fore and main masts, a small
deckhouse forward of the stack, a raised quarter-deck, and a round
stern.
[Illustration: Figure 2.--The United States National Museum's new
model of the _Savannah_. This model was built by Arthur Henning, Inc.,
of New York City, from the ship's plans as reconstructed by staff
members of the Museum's division of transportation. (_USNM_ 319026.)]
The first step in the research for creating a more faithful
representation of the _Savannah_ was to obtain the customhouse
description of the ship. It was readily established that she was built
as a sailing packet ship by the Fickett and Crockett shipyard[4] at
Corlaer's Hook, East River, New York, and that she was launched August
22, 1818. Her register shows that she was 98 feet 6 inches in length
between perpendiculars, 25 feet 10 inches in beam, 14 feet 2 inches
depth in hold, of 319-70/94 tons burthen, and with square stern, round
tuck, no quarter galleries, and a man's bust figurehead.
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