Civil War - RevuAIR

In the Weeds

By fStop Fitzgerald | 21 May 2021

This is why I still have film in the freezer from the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games.

I am doing a full-ship cutaway drawing of the Civil War ironclad USS buy Aurogra online made in america Cairo.

The first ironclad gunboat built in the United States was **http://garrygolden.com/image-placerholder/ Saint Louis**, ca. 1862. She was a sister ship of **Cairo**.

The riverine gunboat had a life of just two and a half months with the US Navy from 1 October to 12 December 1862. She had, however, been commissioned into the US Army on 25 January 1862 until her transfer to the Navy that fall. Cairo had the ignominy of being the first warship ever sunk by a remotely detonated mine (called a torpedo in Civil War parlance).

Her salvage from the bottom of the Yazoo River began in 1960 and her remains are on display at the USS Cairo Museum outside Vicksburg, Mississippi. [https://www.nps.gov/vick/u-s-s-cairo-gunboat.htm]

The illustration is being done for a book by Dwight S. Hughes on the Western Waters gunboats. Previously we worked together on a book about the Monitor and Virginia: Unlike Anything That Ever Floated: The Monitor and Virginia and the Battle of Hampton Roads, March 8–9, 1862. [https://www.amazon.com/Unlike-Anything-That-Ever-Floated/dp/1611215250]

Work has progressed well. Here are several iterations of the hull structure.

The other internals are coming along as well: the engines, boilers, wheel, and “doctor” engine. Guns and their carriages have been built.

In going over the drawings looking for missing details, I found the stove which has little depiction other than a box. Other drawings revealed nothing more. What did this thing look like?

I started poking around on the web looking for the “Cairo stove.” Quickly I hit on a site for South Bend Replicas in Indiana [https://southbendreplicas.com]. I pinged the owner, Jim Olson, who very quickly responded to my request for help. His company had built a replica of the stove working from the original and very badly disfigured remains.

Ideally, of course, it would have been nice to work from Jim’s drawings. Sadly, however, they had been lost in a 100-year flood a few years back. He did everything he could to help be especially by sharing a number of photographs from which to work. One set had the remains marked up in measurements, which was a God-send. While my finished stove may not be 100 percent accurate, it is more than just a ballpark guess.

The remains of the original stove with its measured markings.

An interesting point about the original stove is that it was named the “Southern Belle No. 5.” Kind of enigmatic for a Union ship.

Jim Olson with his completed reproduction.

The stove overall and another reproduction in full use.

An interesting design aspect is that the wood fuel and grate are on the right. You see the firebox door at the top (with the Southern Belle name plate) and at the bottom is the ash drawer. Notice the rivet pattern at the top of the oven. The oven’s top was curved a few inches below the top plate. The heat rises from the grate, arches over the top of the oven, goes down the left side (in these views), and across the bottom. It exits at the bottom back and goes up the chimney. Jim said that when it was in full operation, they could pull off one of the top deck plates (there are four, each with their own pot plates), and the draft was so strong that nothing escaped above the stove. Pretty amazing.

This is the firebox door above the stove’s medallion.

Two looks at my version of the original.

Jim is generous beyond words. He spent far too much time on my little project and provided a wealth of information and answered everyone of my inane questions as if they were intelligent. Beyond this, he sent me a six-pound copy of the stove’s medallion, which he had cast for his reproductions. This was made from the stove’s original, so I have a Kevin Bacon one degree of separation!

. . . and the illustration’s version.

Why Three Views are Necessary

By fStop Fitzgerald | 2 July 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

We live in a three-dimensional (physicists may say four, fantasists say more) world. To visually represent that, one needs to meld length, width, and depth. Absent any one and the result is a bizarre view of the world.

Hence, we can start with something as seemingly complex as this flat, 2-dimensional—up and down, left and right—drawing . . .

And get something that looks a bit more real-worldly with not only left-right, up-down, but also front-back.

What if one dimension is missing?

Archaeologists, historians, and other scholars have for years been wondering what the Confederate submersible H. L. Hunley really looked like. The historic vessel was discovered a number of years ago, has been raised, and is currently under minute excavation and discovery in Charleston, South Carolina. Many questions have been answered, especially what she looked like. (https://hunley.org/) Here is a link to the most recent detailed (extremely!) analysis of the vessel by the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the Naval History and Heritage Command. (https://www.history.navy.mil/research/underwater-archaeology/sites-and-projects/ship-wrecksites/hl-hunley/recovery-report.html)

But before this, to envision the boat, historians had to rely on a written record, no known photographs exist. There were a few sketches and one watercolor wash painting by R. G. Skerrett, which gave a fair idea of her form, but they—as is all art—were reliant on the artist’s eye and especially, hand. What is real? (Naval History and Heritage Command)

One of the early references was this two-view tracing of a predecessor boat, the “Rebel Submarine Ram” Pioneer. It was from a contemporary 1864 Civil War report from U.S. Navy Fleet Engineer William H. Shock to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. (National Archives and Records Administration)

The upper drawing shows a side view of the ram, with some interior details. The bottom drawing shows a top view looking down of the vessel.

There is nothing, however, to show us the third dimension, a front view. The illustrations below will demonstrate the impact of that missing third dimension.

All the views you will see were made with this set of lines that I pulled from the original drawing. The only thing that is different between the pairs of renders is that in one, I let the original drawings determine the final shapes, and in the other one I assumed the third dimension to be curved.

These are the top views of the two versions, the lower has many more lines because those are necessary to draw the curves in the 3D rendering of these lines. Note however that the external lines of each part are identical. This reflects the lines’ origins from the lines pulled from the original.

This shows the resultant 3D render.

Similarly, here are the side views, again with the lower drawing and render showing the addition of curved lines.

And this drawing shows the resultant third dimension, the front views, based on the base (left) and curved lines.

Here are the resultant images in full 3D.

Note that, both 3D renderings match the original 2D drawing. Which is correct?

While that is certainly obvious, this is just an illustration of issues that can occur in the absence of information.

This rendering further illustrates the need for three views. Notice the two highlighted areas.

Many times with all three views provided, even that information is not enough. Sometimes it is a confusion on the part of the original craftsman with regard to how a particular line should be depicted in each of the three views. More often, however, lines are hidden. These require either additional drawings, or better yet, a perspective drawing of their intersections. No examples come immediately to mind, but I am certain at least one will crop up on an upcoming drawing. I will address that when it happens.

This final rendering shows the curved 3D version over the original lines. The other version would similarly line up.

CSS Tennessee Brooke Rifles

By fStop Fitzgerald | 25 June 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

The Confederate ironclad Tennessee was effectively armed with a concentrated and powerful armament of two 7-inch Brooke double-banded rifles fore and aft on pivot mounts and four 6.4-inch Brooke double-banded rifles, two per broadside.

The 7-inch rifles, weighing 15,300 pounds each, were manufactured in Selma, Alabama. This, the bow gun, tube no. S-10, is property of the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) and located at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, DC. Its companion tube, no. S-5 at the stern pivot, is also the property of NHHC, is on loan and on display outside the Selma City Hall. In the background, the three visible guns are from Tennessee’s four-gun broadside battery.

This gun is one of the four 9,000 pound 6.4-inch broadside rifles, three of which are also at NHHC in Washington. It was forged at the Tredegar Ironworks in Richmond, Virginia.

This illustration shows the guns mounts. The pivot guns were mounted on large sliding carriages and the broadside guns on two-wheel Marsilly carriages.

CSS Tennessee

By fStop Fitzgerald | 25 June 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

Making Sausage: You Really Don’t Want to Know

This is an incomplete project. Although portions of it were published in the December 2009 issue of Naval History magazine, they were carefully cropped to eliminate errors that exist because of lack of documentation and skill on my part. My goal is to do the definitive model with accurate interior detail.

I am posting this to ping the greater world for more information so that I can properly detail the interior and fix the exterior, and perhaps rework the whole drawing. These renders are eight years old, so my skills have improved, but until I get more information this will sit on a back burner.

For the hull and casemate, I was only able to find these two drawings.

I do not have my sources readily at hand, but the profile and plan are obviously from a book. They are small and while apparently detailed, it is all lost in the small reproduction on poor absorbent paper. I believe the sections are from a different source. They are larger and cleaner, a big help.

The only way to approach a subject is to envision it in the simplest parts possible to keep your drawing time to a minimum. One fortunate aspect of ships (along with aircraft) is that you generally only have to do 50 percent of the project because of symmetry along the centerline. You simply copy, paste, reflect, and merge your work. With Tennessee, I created three basic pieces; the hull, hull armor, and casemate. Everything else is detail.

Using Illustrator, I created the lines for each. This is not a difficult process, but is somewhat challenging in trying to visualize your 2-dimensional work in 3-dimensions. Once those are complete, I import them into my 3-D software, Strata 3D, and proceed to extrude, lathe, hull, and whatever else needs to be done to get something that resembles Tennessee.

The hull sections, as noted, were clean and easy to reconstruct.

Once drawn, they were laid out in position along the length of the hull for “erecting” in the 3D program.

The failings of the hull—primarily because of my inexperience—is the plating. The interior, however, is another matter. Despite their size, the interior plan was really quite good for its level of detail. It allowed for proper positioning of the guns and their interaction. The funnel drops down through the gun deck to the engine room below. The capstan has an interesting position, but again, its linkages, unless below deck, are non-existent.

But details of the interior are sorely lacking. The gun handling fixtures are pretty much standard, so those details were easily added. But the real issue is the wheel stand and its workings. The drawings show that it was elevated above the gun deck and hung from the overhead, but how? How was the wheel linked to the rudder? What navigational equipment was associated with it? How did they use a compass surrounded by all that iron? Many questions, no answers. So the wheel is just suspended over the deck.

I added a drawing to illustrate the composite laminated construction of the casemate armor. It’s interesting to see how the laminations go together and how thick the armor was in relation to its backing.

I don’t normally share rejects. The faults in this are obvious, but it is here because it shows relationships and details, especially in the overhead grating, not visible in the others.The overhead view shows the layout of the fore (right) and aft 7-inch Brooke double-banded rifles on swivel mounts. These align with the three fore- and aft-most gunports. The four 6.4-inch Brooke double-banded rifles occupy the four broadside ports.

These are some other interior views as well as the overall fore and aft views.

Again, if you can help by pointing me toward drawings that will get this closer to what it should be, please let me know.

This Was Going to Be a Happy Page Until . . .

By fStop Fitzgerald | 31 May 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

H. L. Hunley: Recovery Operations

Edited by Robert S. Neyland and Heather G. Brown

Washington Navy Yard, DC: U.S. Navy, Naval History and Heritage Command, 2016. 348 pages. Free PDF.

This page was intended to be fun, full of joy, because I was just going to point you to a FREE 350-page book, that, if you have any interest in the Civil War navies, archaeology, or practical science would prove to be a treasure. I was not going to review it, primarily because I edited it. But then, in searching for a photograph of its cover to post with this, well, I made a disturbing discovery.

First, a little aside about books. There are editors, then there are editors. Dr. Neyland and Heather Brown are the editors as listed on the cover. This is their book. Essentially, editor in this case is a different type of author. They compiled, organized, solicited papers, and in a few cases, wrote them, to create this book. I was the editor who went behind them to clean it up. Frankly, it was among the easiest editing jobs I ever had, because basically all I had to do was read it, and with the exception of one chapter (which was so far beyond my comprehension) it was a particularly enjoyable—and easy—read.

For me, this book provides all the information I wanted to know about Hunley ever since I first read of her discovery. And, it is very readable. Of course, as I freely note, these are very biased comments. I never intended to write them. I was just going to say, if you have such interests as noted above, here is the link to a free PDF of it. It may be worth your while.

To find a cover photograph to accompany this piece, I made a Google search for the book title. The largest image was at Amazon. Going to the site, I immediately noticed the book only had three stars. Three stars? For this? What idiots are out there?

Then I looked at the reviews. (https://www.amazon.com/H-L-Hunley-Recovery-Operations/dp/1542856094) There were only two, one with five stars, the other with just one.

I couldn’t have written a better five-star review than the one there. The author, Mike Crisafulli, even adds a last sentence I would have added. And I respond to it: The archaeologists and conservationists are preparing such a follow-up book. I can’t wait, either.

The author of the one-star, “Florida Buyer,” is not an idiot either. I would have written this same review as well. “Poor B&W printout of a color PDF. Get the color PDF free.” That opened my eyes.

Our books—that is those books produced by the U.S. Government at government (read taxpayer) expense—are free. They belong to you and me because we have already paid for them. In practicality, the physical documents of course do cost. But, with the medium of PDF and eBooks, they can be widely and genuinely distributed for free. That is why you will see me hawking a lot of them. I want everybody to know these exist. They are yours, you’ve paid for them, all you have to do is pick them up.

The government outlet for federally produced books has always been, by statute, the GPO—Government Publishing Office (formerly Government Printing Office). There you could purchase books at a bargain because you were just charged actual printing and shipping costs. Books purchased from them are as they were intended for publication and as you would see them at a brick-and-mortar book shop. But they cannot print and store every book created by all government agencies. They have to be selective, so not everything is available. Electronic files have changed that.

The government’s freely available PDFs, however, have allowed other retailers to step in. And this is the apparent genesis of the one-star review.

You, me, or anyone else can download these free PDFs and have them reproduced by print-on-demand printers to have hard copies. Yes, that is correct. Everyone with internet access—YOU, right now—are a book publisher with a simple two-step process. (1) Download the PDF. (2) Send it to an on-demand printer.

I checked out the publisher for the $35 version of this book on Amazon, and guess what? CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform is an Amazon company. Without any other knowledge, I am going to extrapolate here at the risk of being sued. On the surface of things, it looks like Amazon discovered a cash (federal) cow.

Granted you do get something for your $35. However, and again this is based solely on the Amazon page and the review, the quality is not as intended. The original book you would have received from GPO was printed in four-color on slick glossy paper. The type and images were sharp, crisp, and clean. Apparently this is not so with the Amazon version.

I’d like to check the copyright page on that reprint. Legally, to reprint the book for sale, a republisher is supposed to (1) get permission from the government for reprinting, (2) purchase and receive a new and different ISBN number, and (3) file for a new CIP data block. I’d like to know if Amazon did this or if they are using the government data, which would be illegal.

Bottom line: If you are buying from Amazon, or any other on-line store, check the book’s publisher. You can easily take the exact same PDF file they have and reprint through on-demand for a lot less than their $35.

Now, go enjoy the book. For free.

Source: H. L. Hunley: Recovery Operations