Ok. I saw one recently. Plank on frame/bulkhead construction.
Has anyone ever seen one? Any comments?
Thanks.
Can’t help. I was vaguely aware that Imai made a handful of wood kits, but I’ve never seen one.
Despite my long interest in all things IMAI I haven’t heard of it either, where did you come across this?
Currently on Ebag Item no.6026646147
Hi, Celestino, I have a wooden kit of the Susquehanna, in 1/80 scale. But the plans and instructions are loose. Is a superb model, with 134 cmt. long, and have pieces in wood (hull, funnel), metal and plastic (lifeboats, paddlewheels, guns and other fittings) I bought it in a street market for 30 euros only new in box. I am very interesting in make it, but I loose the instructions, and I need, and is very short the material in internet of this ship. The plans of this ship, inclusive in the plastic 1/150 scale model, can help me a lot. Thanks.
I have one of these kits and although the material quality of the kit is excellent I have serious reservations about its accuracy.
In The Old Steam Navy, Volume One, Donald Canney gives the armamnt of Susquehanna as built as three 10-inch pivot shell guns (two right forward and one right aft) and six 8-inch broadside guns. I have also seen references to her having six Paixhans shell guns on board when she made her voyage to Japan. The armament provided in the kit is 16 broadside guns of the older type found on a War of 1812 frigate. They scale about 10 feet in length, about the right size for a 24 or 32 pounder. There are no provisions at all for any pivot guns, in fact there is a raised poop deck fitted which would make the siting of the aft pivot gun impossible. While I have not been able to find a ot of information about the ship, nothing I have read gives any indication that she ever had this armament or a poop deck. On the other hand the location and configuration of the hatches, deck houses and other fittings is quite close to the deck plan shown in Canney’s book, so the model is not totally spurious.
I have not seen the Imai plastic Susquehanna kit in person, but from what I’ve been able to tell from Ebay photos it looks like the smaller version may have the same type armament as the larger one.
Susquehanna, Kearsarge, United States-all recently discussed on this forum and all with the same basic problem-how the heck did they actually look? No wonder so many Constitutions, Victorys and Cutty Sarks get built.
Bombarda-I can help you with the instructions. If you’ll PM me with your mailing address I’ll send you a copy.
Steve:
I built the 1:144 plastic version of the U.S.S. Susquehanna (as released around 1980 by Monogram) and there are indeed problems with the armament. The cannons provided with the kit are fairly close approximations of the 8" smooth bore guns that were originally mounted on the Susquehanna and the Powhattan but the kit does not provide the 10" guns, trucks, or pivot rails. From a pciture of a model of the Powhattan, it appears that two of the 10" mounts were mounted on the focs’l, one on each broadside, and the third on the poop.
Since I didn’t want to undertake major surgery on the kit, I tried to get as close to her appearance in 1862 as possible with fourteen 9" Dahlgrens in broadside (guns and trucks from Model Shipways), two Parrot Rifles in the forward most gunports and a Parrot rifle on the poop (again from Model Shipways), but this is still very rough.
Otherwise I recall this kit being a nice build. Other than modifying the armament, I discarded the kit ratlines and built them up on the kit using thread and white glue. The model is a favorite and still on my mantle.
I recently bought a book called Circle of Fire by Peter Barratt. Subtititled The Story of the USS Susquehanna in the War of Rebellion, it tells the story of the ship in the years of the Civil War with only cursory coverage of the years prior to and after. Not to denigrate the book, but it is definately aimed more at a general audience, as opposed to those specifically interested in naval history. There are some contemporary illustrations, but none is of much use in trying to determine anything about the actual configuration of the ship. The one technical drawing is an inboard profile, included to give the reader some idea of the ship’s internal layout, but it is a drawing of a proposed conversion that was never carried out, and shows the ship with a screw propeller and two funnels.
Anyway, for what it’s worth, Barratt gives Susquehanna’s armament during the war, at least the later part and immediately after, as this:
June 8, 1863: 2 x 150-pdr Parrot Rifles, 12 x 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbores, 1 x 12-pdr rifle.
August 4, 1864: add 1 x 12-pdr.
January 13, 1865: 2 x 100-pdr Parrot Rifles, 12 x 9 Dahlgren smoothbores.
March 31, 1865: Similar to August 4, 1864.
December 31, 1865: 2 x 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbores, 12 x 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbores, 1 x 30-pdr Parrot Rifle, 2 x 12-pdr Rifles.
Steve:
Your note jogged my memory - when I was building the Monogram version of the Imai plastic kit, I ordered some reprints from the National Archives. One of the plans was a sail plan for the Susquehanna as originally built, the other two being for the proposed post-war rebuild and which bear the legend “Bureau of Construction and Repair, Washington D.C. Dec 1869.” The plans show the ship as you described, rebuilt with a screw propeller and two funnels.
The plan for the gunbeck has a hand-written notation for the planned armament: “2-XI inch, 18-IX, 2 100 pounder, 1 60 pounder on Forecastle.” There’s not a lot of detail on the plan, but it does show an XI inch Dahlgren mounted in the second gun port forward from the poop, which had been lengthened so that the gun could be trained left and right (it looks about 30%), but not able to pivot to fire on the other side of the ship (as compared to the smaller sloops such as the Kearsarge). The stowed position for the gun appears to be fully inboard with the side of the pivot carriage against the side of the ship and the gun pointing forward. I wonder if this might be generally representative of how the XI" inch Dahlgrens and Parrot rifles were mounted in the larger ships during the Civil War?
The third plan is an “Inbeam Profile” (same legend, BCR, Washington D.C), which is probably the same plan as in the book you have.
The Susquehanna was also featured in a contemporary book, “The Naval and Mail Steamers of the U.S.,” by Charles Stuart (then a Naval Constructor). The New York Public Library’s Reference Collection had a copy in the 1980’s that I was able to briefly look at. You might be able to arrange an “inter-library” loan if there is not a copy available locally.