Topic starter
15/05/2008 12:12 am
Good friends of mine were very nice to give me lots of back issues of the Reflector a ways back, their way of enhancing my Steamboat Education.I've read them all, most twice, marvelous stuff.
The Reflectors mention from time to time that there were steamboats, principally made for low water conditions on the Ohio, pre-today's locks and the 9 foot channel, that had a "batwing" hull, specifically designed to allow the boat to travel in very shallow water conditions, 3 to 4 feet. I guess/envision that this batwing hull was actually the hull with your typical V in the center with two additionally smaller V's, one each underneth the guards...so looking at the hull lengthwise it would look like a double W, or in modern terms like a triple hull on a fiberglass runabout...These additional side "V's" would allow the same volume of hull to be submerged, creating the same bouyancy, but not nearly as deep as a conventional single V. Or am I all wet, overactive engineer's imagination...
So what's a batwing hull? And does anybody have a picture?
15/05/2008 12:40 am
Yes, Bruno, You're all wet. A batwing hull was simply a flat bottom barge type wood hull, perhaps with a model (shaped) bow, built very light. The "batwings" were the totally exposed sidewheels out on the guards. No housings to add weight, thus they could carry more crago on shallow streams. Very plain, simple no frill vessels, but they got the job done.
Topic starter
15/05/2008 2:09 am
Thanks John...there are a few pictures, if I remember correctly, of partial view/side shots of batwing boats in the Reflector, I guess I never noticed the exposed sidewheels, nor the model bow... gotta go back and check. Thanks again.
15/05/2008 5:27 am
Picture of Strs. Thealka, H. M. Stafford, and Favorite on this site:
http://www.geocities.com/rlperry.geo/sandyboats.html
Topic starter
15/05/2008 11:50 am
"...a hull as thin as a bat's wing...." Ok, now I get it, I was mistakingly assuming/imagining the hull profile was the analogy. Thanks Jon.