[CrisGer]

http://www.elvastowe...eenshot&id=2262
File Name: SS WAPAMA
File Submitter: CrisGer
File Submitted: 14 Feb 2016
File Category: Vehicles

SS WAPAMA
1915
St. Helens ShipBuilding Company
Charles R. McCormick Steamship Company

This is a model of the last surviving Redwood Coast Steam Lumber Schooner. There were over 200 of these highly specialized and able ships built to serve the lumber trade on the west coast of the United States and Canada. They carried lumber from the many mills along the coast, often from very small dogholes or tiny harbors with the lumber loaded on ariel trams, in high deckloads. This ship survived until the 1990s and serves as a poignant memorial of the hundreds of hardy seamen who carried the wood that built Seattle, San Francisco and many other western cities and towns.

This model is based on an original hull by John Fleming with his kind permission, and some of the textures also originate with his work again with his kind permission. I have studied these ships for many years and am very glad to finally be able to make one for our use on routes of the western coast and beyond.

No Liability is offered or given. You use at your own risk. This is a relatively low poly model so should work well in both MSTS and OR. I plan working versions with lumber slings in action and various paint schemes. You may repaint, and re use this model i am including the TSM source file to encourage and facilitate further resource development for the MSTS family of sims, and you may also convert this model to other sim formats if you wish. I allow limited commercial use for route packages with the proviso that I would like to see any project before its release if you use my work. I will reserve permission on that basis but will most likely allow it.

I owe much to many for this work, including Tim Muir, Barry Munro, (Capt Bazza) and Jeff Farquar among many others who have helped me gain the skills to create resources for the railroad simulations that allow us to preserve and re create the remarkable history of the development of the modern world thru the use of railroads and related commerce and industry.

Chris Gerlach (CrisGer)
February 2016)
Elvas Tower

chrisgerlach9@yahoo.com


Length 204'
Beam 40'
Depth 14'
Gross tonnage 951
Net Tonnage 584
Date of Construction 1915
Propulsion Steam triple expansion engine
Horsepower 825
Designer Hames H. Price
Builder St. Helens Ship Building Company
Previous Names Wapama (1915-1938)
Tongass (1938-1955)

https://councilofame...chooner-wapama/

Wapama is the last surviving example of some 225 steam schooners that served the lumber trade and other coastal services along the Pacific Coast of the United States. Built in 1915 for Charles R. McCormick's steamship company, she remained in the West Coast fleet until 1947.

She is a 204 foot wooden schooner, 40 feet across with 2 masts. She has a 825 hp triple expansion steam engine and could carry 1 million board feet of lumber. She also carried as many as 45 first-class passengers, 22 more in steerage, and about 19 crew members.

Unfortunately, the long shallow hulls of the steam schooners made for a weak structure, prone to sag at the bow and stern. As age and decay sapped the strength of Wapama's massive timbers, this "hogging" process became so bad that she could not remain afloat. Currently, she has been has been pulled out of the water onto a barge and has severe dry rot which has threatened the structural integrity of the hull.

Wapama was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1984.

Steam schooner VARDALEN is the largest artifact attesting to the mutual cultural ties between the US Pacific Coast and the coast and fjords of Norway. She is the sole survivor of the Pacific Lumber Schooner, built in Norway in 1891, as a conversion in metal of the wonderful boats made of wood in this part of the world.

VARDALEN is a ship of 84 feet, bigger than one person can handle. I have worked extremely hard trying to save and restore this ship for future generations. After a lot of setbacks and repeated vandalism, the ship is now on its final track of restoration. As this happens more people have understood that this ship needs to be saved.
Vaerdalen - restored and ready for sea.

After an extremely long and painstakingly slow ship restoration, without any funding whatsoever from the government,
the 124 year old VARDALEN, a passenger, mail and lumber schooner, is ready to go back to sea.

The development of the US Pacific Northwest was based on lumber. Forests like nowhere else were standing untouched all down to the coast. This was a place where Scandinavians felt at home; even the rocky coast was something they knew from home. They manned the first schooner rigged sailing ships for lumber transport.

Those vessels were later developed into a hybrid sail steam ship, an excellent vessel for navigating the rocky shores and transporting lumber down from the Pacific Northwest for the development of big cities after gold was found in California. They were called hybrid or push/pull ships as they were put together with a sailing vessel forward and a steam ship aft. The straight area in between the bow and the stern became an excellent space for a hold well suited for board and planks.

Dogholes along the rocky coast became the loading places where Norwegian sailors became the daredevils who would take a ship in between rocks to reach loading stations fed by high wire. (See below) Loading had to be done by the crew and was backbreaking work, but the pay was unbelievably good. Norway was still in union with Sweden and the huge fleet of lumber schooners working the West Coast was known to the world as "The Scandinavian Navy".
SEA FOAM, an American lumber schooner, built in Washington in 1904, loading at Point Mendocino. Her captains were Simonsen, Henriksen and Lund, good Norwegian names.

SEA FOAM, an American lumber schooner, built in Washington in 1904, loading at Point Mendocino. Her captains were Simonsen, Henriksen and Lund, good Norwegian names. (Drawing by Mc Clure)

From the 1880's until past WWII, some 225 steam schooners of this coastal "Navy" roamed the Pacific Coast from Mexico to Alaska. They catered to all aspects of life, hauling goods and money as payment to all the mill workers and lumberjacks and adventurers north, and hauling millions of board feet of lumber on the southern run.

This legendary trade has left few memorabilia as all the lumber schooners are long gone. People returning to Norway telling about these practical ships with an enormous cargo half way up the mast soon made a shipyard in Trondheim develop a similar ship to be used for transport of lumber, passengers and mail in Norway. That became the VARDALEN, built in 1891 as the very first Norwegian ship of this type. VARDALEN is a ship still with us today.

http://www.mendorail...nfo/ships_a.htm

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