French Protected Cruiser COSMAO 1889

[taylormade]

The Troude class was a group of three protected cruisers built for the French Navy in the late 1880s and early 1890s, the Troude, Cosmao and Lalande. They were intended to serve as flotilla leaders for torpedo boats, and they were armed with a main battery of four 138 mm (5.4 in) guns.

All three members of the class served in the Mediterranean Squadron in their early careers, where they took part in routine training exercises. In 1897, Troude became the flagship of the Levant Division and was later transferred to the North Atlantic Division in 1899. All three ships were in reserve by 1901. Troude was reactivated for a brief stint in the North Atlantic from 1904 to 1905, while Lalande returned to service in the Mediterranean in 1906. Troude was discarded in 1907 or 1908 and Lalande was broken up for scrap in 1912. Cosmao remained in reserve until the start of World War I in August 1914, when she was recommissioned to patrol the coast of French Morocco. She, too, was scrapped after the war in 1922.

I've always loved the look of these 19th century French warships. The pronounced ram bow and tumble-home are ugly to some but appealing to others. I'm one of the later.

This is a shot of Troude which seems close to Cosmao but without the rear deck railings.

I found plans for the Cosmao on the Dreadnought Project website. I decided to make a 3D model of the ship to make sure the plans were accurate. I used a program called Blender, which is free but has rather steep learning curve. It's probably not as accurate as some programs designed for engineers, but I have used Blender for years and can work with it with no problems. The first thing I did was to separate the drawings in Photoshop, making a side view, top view, and each individual frame. Then I imported everything into Blender and lined things up. This is what I ended up with.

Then it was just a matter of connecting the dots and refining the hull shape to get things as close as possible. The plans were reasonably accurate, but some adjustments had to be made in both Photoshop and Blender. There was some distortion and the fold in the main plan sheet caused some misalignment.

The drawings produced a smooth hull that I'm very happy with.

Next I'll add hull details and begin work on the deck structures. I'm pretty new at this, so bear with me.

[setori]

Great
What will be the scale of the model ?

[taylormade]

I�m thinking 1/200th. That�s the nice thing about digital files, you can scale them to any size you need.

[Pieter]

Nice to see someone doing the ship one of my projects was build against. There was a bit of an arms race going on in the Mediterranean at the time. Taking notes for a possible scratchbuild in '700...
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A wonderful subject! I'm really looking forward to see this beauty progressing!

[taylormade]

Continuing work on the Cosmao. Portholes and hatches finished. I am also making a version where the "hatches" are opened. I'm curious as to the purpose of theses hatches. They don't appear to have any gun behind them. I'm guessing they were for ventilation as shots of the ship at rest show them open with crew members leaning out. I'm sure the portholes were not polished brass, however I did it that way for now to break up the black hull a bit.

Some closer shots. More detail to come.

[taylormade]

Progress on Cosmao, added the hawsehole and torpedo tube and their covers. Based on photos and details in the plans, these were hinged and held open by ropes. I also added the bow ladders and more detail around the hatches. These were also held open by ropes. There is really a lot of "stuff" on the hulls of these ships.

[taylormade]

More work on the propeller shaft, loading hatches and ash chutes. Does anyone know what color the decks of these ships were? From the plans it doesn't appear there was any wood deck surface on the top deck so I assume they used battleship linoleum. But as I've stated, I'm new to this and may be totally off base.

[setori]

Hi ! On this plan of Cosmao from the Dreadnough Project, you can see that the decks were planked.

[taylormade]

Wow, I don't know how I missed that! I got so involved with the hull I haven't gone back and really gone over all the plans sheets. Thanks for the heads up.

[taylormade]

Bow deck roughed in.

[taylormade]

Slow progress. Just the rudder to do and I'm done with the hull aside from a few small details.

[taylormade]

Rudder finished. I think I'll work on the deck details for awhile.

[Fliger747]

Interesting screw design! Appropriate for the (I imagine) slow turning steam reciprocating engines. Many of the generals during WWII were born around 1889, amazing how much technological advancement would be achieved in the next 50 years!

[taylormade]

I copied it the best I could off the plans sheets, but I don't have a good view of the blades other than their length. The shafts and support are detailed on the plans, and those are correct. If anyone has photos or information to make the props more accurate, please let me know. I used photos of similar ships and the plans to get what I think is reasonably close. I, too, was surprised by the prop design. This is an interesting project, but some of the ship has to be somewhat interpolated due to lack of information - their are only 16 plan sheets and I'm rather new to this. If you see something that stands out as being incorrect, let me know - I need all the help I can get.

[taylormade]

Working on some deck hardware. Any idea as to color? And a question - the curved structure, which is protection for a hatch with a ladder leading to below decks, is drawn very basically on the plans. It's, unfortunately, hiding behind the searchlight platform in all the photos I've been able to find. Any opinions as to whether this was canvas over tubing, a wood structure or something else? If wood, would it have had trim or edging on the exterior? The partial item behind the vents is the base of the searchlight platform. The platform is held up by metal poles, but there is no indication how many or where they are placed.

[Fliger747]

I'd vote for canvass over tubing, but thats just a WAG (Wild Ass Guess). The only suggestion would be to look at period photos of other ships and see what the general "Zietgeist" of warship construction was during the era.

Good luck!

[taylormade]

After studying one of the plan sheets it turns out this structure must have been pretty substantial as it appears to have supported the rear of the searchlight platform! This detail from the drawing makes that clear. Every time I think I have things correct I notice another error. I notice that the ladders on the side of the ship have flat uprights, not round as I have them. Back to the drawing board.

[setori]

it's just a removable cover over the panel. It's made of cloth and tubes

[taylormade]

I'm not sure if it was canvas based on the drawings. Notice that the cover has a thickness to it in the drawing (arrow A) all around, including the front. Second, although I'm not sure what it is (arrow B) this object appears to be attached to the cover and seems too heavy to be supported by canvas. Also, the searchlight platform is attached to the hatch cover supports (arrow C) and is the only support at the back of the platform. This makes me think the structure must have been more substantial than tubes and canvas - but I've been wrong before. Too many times to count.

I'm also not sure of the layout of the platform support girders (arrow D). They appear to be H girders in the drawing, but I can't tell if they follow the shape of the platform or just go straight across. I simply can't find a photo that shows this detail or of a similar platform on another ship. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Finally, anyone know what the square box (or cylinder) right below the searchlight itself is? It appears to be attached to the bottom of the searchlight toward the front.

Thankfully, the rest of the deck hardware seems more straightforward, at least until I get into it and discover the next problem.