Length: 79 m Launch date: 2 April 1921 Beam: 11 m Shipyard: Great Lakes Engineering Works Shipyard: Great Lakes Engineering Works, Detroit, USA IMO: 8971815 Flag: Portugal
Documentation has been gathered over the last few weeks to get a good basis for designing this beautiful and atypical vessel in good conditions.
This ship with its pre-dreadnought style has an extraordinary story to tell after 101 years of tumultuous life. Beautiful stories that motivate me, because in 1/100 scale, this ship will require a lot of work before being printed (length 79 cm, width 10.8 cm).
Once again thanks to Roland who found me some original plans from the American shipyard archives.
A bit of history:
1921-1942 - the early days
Launched in 1921 at the Great Lakes Engineering Works in Michigan, the S.S. Delphine was, at 78.65m and 1,255 tons, the largest yacht built in the United States that still exists today.
Her first owner, Horace Dodge, of American automotive fame, designed Delphine's unique quadruple-expansion steam engines, which still operate today.
Sadly, Dodge, one of the greatest yachtsmen of his time, died four months before the boat was completed.
The yacht passed into the hands of her family, who cruised and attended all the major boat races. In 1926, Delphine caught fire and sank in the Hudson River. Five months later, in New York, she was revived to her former glory.
[1942-1946 - the war years[/b]
Like many other yachts of her era, when the United States entered World War II in 1942, Delphine was placed in the naval service.
Renamed U.S.S. Dauntless (PG61), she served as flagship to Admiral King, head of the U.S. fleet and chief of naval operations, and unofficially as a presidential yacht.
According to legend, the yacht went down in history as the Yalta yacht, where the world leaders of the time, Churchill, Truman, Stalin, prepared the Yalta convention.
[1946-1997 - the formative years[/b]
After the war, the Dodge family bought the Delphine from the Navy. She was almost permanently moored at the private jetty on their Rose Terrace property in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan.
Anna Dodge sold the Delphine in 1968 to the Lundeberg Maryland Seamanship School, where the Delphine served as a steamboat training vessel for 18 years.
Since 1986, the yacht has passed through a succession of owners, both commercial and private, and eventually ended up in Marseille, where she remained for many years in a state of increasing disrepair.
In 1997 it was bought for scrap by the current owner.
[1997-2003 - the years of restoration[/b]
Although separated by over 80 years and an ocean, the first and current owners of Delphine have much in common.
They are passionate yachtsmen, successful businessmen and have passed on the love of yachting to their families.
Delphine's new life is the result of extensive historical research by the owner's daughter. Fortunately, the original drawings, detailed plans and photographs were available to work from during the refit and restoration.
This extraordinary yacht, with its 13 cabins, vast entertainment areas, has artfully recreated the bygone era of the 1920's, with all the latest equipment and communication facilities.
Renamed in September 2003 by H.S.H. Princess Stephanie of Monaco, the S.S. Delphine was inaugurated in September 2003.
S.S. Delphine is one of the most unique and exceptional yachts in the Mediterranean fleet. In 2004, she received the annual showboats award for best refit.
In addition to her beauty and comfort, the S.S. Delphine still boasts the distinction of being the largest steam yacht in operation.
In 1921, she represented the pinnacle of technology and fashion with her quadruple expansion-recovery steam engines, each developing 1,500 horsepower.
Today, she is a living example of how far yachting has come and, at the same time, how little has really changed. Steam engines are as reliable and have the same reaction time as modern diesel engines, without the noise and vibration.
Another interesting project! The "retro" sweep of the stem is reminiscent of the American Battleships of the era. I hadn't heard of a quadruple expansion engine, the triple expansion Uniflow engines being common in Liberty ships and CVE's of WWII vintage. Obviously the ship had made at least several trans Atlantic voyages to end up at Yalta (a surprisingly compact town on the Crimean Coast).
The question I haven't decided yet is the date of the representation. I preferred to reproduce it in the version that came out of the construction site, but there are few photos, and the book that came out some time ago is very expensive and impossible to find.
Today I reworked the hull, mainly the couples to have fluid lines. You have to be very precise with the 3D drawing. It's better to spend time on it. By experience it's hard to go back once the drawing is very advanced.
I also drew the stern, which is not simple but terribly elegant, it deserved to spend long hours on it.
The main thing is to pin the parts to be printed, deck and accommodation so that everything fits together easily, and it is always necessary to think beforehand about the method of applying the paint also in the best possible conditions (avoid too much masking).
Note an article published on the SS Delphine in the MRB RC Marine n°602 France, an extract:
The AllOnScale model is presented there. This will help me.
Thank you, I still have to make a fillet to better integrate the spectacle frame to the hull. But I can't do it now because I have other details to add on the hull and it would be a problem to do it.
Today I finished the rudder. As I think I'm going to do the current version of this ship, I added the addition to the trailing edge of the rudder to help with manoeuvring in harbour, this must have been fitted a long time ago as it is riveted.
This is often the case on older ships with a double shaft line, as the rudder is less well supplied with water flow from the propellers than with a single shaft line.
Today this ship is equipped with a bow and stern thruster, it is less useful.
I drew the small forecastle bulwark and detailed the propeller shaft lines a bit more.
I've started digging the main deck, its bulwark is starting to appear, I'm digging the hull at the same time.
For drawing I work in orthographic view, i.e. without perspective, it is more suitable.
Today I continued to hollow out the hull, I'm almost done, I still have the forecastle to do, but first I have to decide how I'm going to proceed for the first deck which goes up to the bow.
The main deck bulwark is done. I've added its rail which looks pretty good.
On the main deck, I'm going to add a deck plank that will allow me to draw the camber and the sheer line, then the battens and the location of the accommodation.
Luckily I have an original shipyard drawing of a section of the ship which gives me the exact curvature of the camber.
You can see that the ship is hollow now with a 1.4mm centre wall for reinforcement that I will open up later, once the print sections are defined, otherwise the hull thickness is 1.8mm. This limits the amount of resin needed for printing.
Third day of hull hollowing, the forecastle today, and what lies beneath. It's time consuming, but I've developed a good technique to make something clean since the Hydrograaf.
I continued on the front rails and fairleads, the main deck with a bit of curvature (Camber) .
I continued with details like the bulwark doors, the zincs, the bow thruster. She has two doors at the stern, one is for access to the ship and the other underneath is for storing the docking board when the ship is moored to the quay from the stern.
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