Hello from New Orleans Louisiana

[Redjack]

Hi, I'm from Slidell LA, right across lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. Retired/disabled riverboat captain. I fooled with steam engines when younger and just getting back into. I've ran across a Stuart No 9 that I'm trying to restore. I have no machining tools so, I have to find someone to help me out. Top of the day to ya.
Thanks,
Gary

 

[minh-thanh]

Hi Gary .
Welcome to the forum
Glad to have you. !

 

[wce4]

Welcome aboard Gary. I Just finish up a Stuart No 10 H. There is a lot of helpful people on here, enjoy.

 

[GreenTwin]

I had the honor of meeting and knowing a friend of my father-in-law, Captain Bill Tippitt, who was a Mississippi riverboat captain.

He wrote a short book about the time when he piloted a steam paddlewheeler "Crown Hill" to push the showboat "Goldenrod" up and down the Mississippi River.
What a fascinating book that is.

I admire anyone who pilots boats; it is a bit of an art for sure.

My dad had his commercial pilots license, and at one point owned the 118 foot Corps crew boat "Sullivan", which was rather interesting to drive since it had tiller steering. "Move the tiller in the direction you want the boat to go", dad would say.
The two engines (Fairbanks maybe) did not have gearboxes, but rather had shifting cam shafts, and so as you approached the dock, you would stop the engines, and then start them in reverse, hoping you did not hit a deadspot in the engines, in which case you had to start them in forward, stop them, and then try to reverse again, all while closing in on the dock with this big boat.

Welcome and good luck with your build.

Photos of boats attached.

.

 

[GreenTwin]

This is Captain Tippitt with Captain Jake Meanley, on Jake's steam launch "Ruth", that was originally a lifeboat on the Union warship Kearsarge during the Civil War. The Kearsage was a propeller-driven steam engine powered sloop-of-war ship.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Kearsarge_(1861)
The engine was a 20hp Stanley Steamer.

I saw this boat up close several times, but unfortunately never got to ride it.

I know where the engine is.
I don't think the boat is still around.

They spent many days going up and down the Mississippi River in this boat.
The engine made such a wonderful sound.

.

 

[Redjack]

This is Captain Tippitt with Captain Jake Meanley, on Jake's steam launch "Ruth", that was originally a lifeboat on the Union warship Kearsarge during the Civil War. The Kearsage was a propeller-driven steam engine powered sloop-of-war ship.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Kearsarge_(1861)
The engine was a 20hp Stanley Steamer.

I saw this boat up close several times, but unfortunately never got to ride it.

I know where the engine is.
I don't think the boat is still around.

They spent many days going up and down the Mississippi River in this boat.
The engine made such a wonderful sound.

.
View attachment 151931View attachment 151932

Thanks for the old boat pictures, Nothing like looking at the past. They still have the Natchez in New Orleans. It's only steam boat I've been on. Then paddle wheel hitting the water makes more noise than the engine.
Was licensed in 76. Rode some really nice boats and, some really ragged boats, as well. Now that it's all over, I wish I would have been a engineer. Engineers get to tinker to their hearts content. While wheelmen sat in one place, smoked tobacco, and the only exercise was climbing the stars. Tow boating summed up is either, hours and hours of shear boredom followed by a few minutes of shear terror. Or being in jail with the chance of drowning. It was all fun till all the insurance got involved.
Thanks,
Gary

 

[awake]

Welcome to the forum!