Here’s a ‘Great Lakes Merchant Ship’ question that might just be up Don Stauffer’s alley.
I’m looking for plans/plan views of the paddlewheel steamer ‘Lady Elgin,’ which was famously lost in Lake Michigan in 1860.
I’ve done the usual ‘deep dive’ (no pun intended) internet searches…and I realize the next step is almost certainly contacting numerous historical societies…but I thought I’d throw it out here, in case somebody had a good (or obvious) idea that I hadn’t thought of.
It’s such an oddly-impressive looking profile…and being a ‘Chicago boy’ (her sometime-home port, and the port of departure for her last fatal voyage), I’ve found myself captivated with the idea of building her in some fashion. Despite (or perhaps because of) the odd ‘ferris wheel’ frames characteristic of many of the paddlewheel vessels of that era, she’s got what is essentially a pretty simple layout. It would be an interesting project.
Any help or good ideas would be greatly appreciated.
That’s where I got info on the riverboats I have created for clients! I understand there’s also a Steamboat Museum in Dayton Ohio. I could be mistaken, It’s been a long time ago.
I don’t know of plans for the Elgin per se. There is a guy who does a number of plans for western river boats. I have a plan of his down in the basement- I’ll look it up. There is also a forum or club or whatever for model steamboats, but forget the name.
What I would is google lady elgin drawings.
If you can get a good side view and a top down sort of perspective view and combine that with major dimensions you can probably do your own drawings and it would be hard to prove they aren’t accurate. To do that sometimes it is nice to have drawings for similar ships. Many parts (doors, for instance) tend to be same from craft to craft. Heights of decks, too.
Photos are best but good paintings or sketches are okay too.
I have plans of a model sidewheeler I want to do, but have to redraft it because it is too large a scale (model would be almost five feet long as drawn).
