Look whats on Ha`penny Pr today

tillergirl said:
Oou. Lovely. The wind will be pinning her to the dock today. That might be interesting.
Click to expand...
Her master is a star at springing her off, so he,ll probably be OK. If that won't work, he could get a tug to pluck her off - she used one for a U-turn up at Ipswich last year. Some folk asked why he didn't just use one paddle ahead and one astern!

Peter
 
tillergirl said:
Oou. Lovely. The wind will be pinning her to the dock today. That might be interesting.
Click to expand...

PeterWright said:
Her master is a star at springing her off, so he,ll probably be OK. If that won't work, he could get a tug to pluck her off - she used one for a U-turn up at Ipswich last year. Some folk asked why he didn't just use one paddle ahead and one astern!

Peter
Click to expand...

I think the Waverly has left scars on most of the piers round the British Isles at one time or another! Basically she has a tiny rudder, with no propwash past it, so her ability to manoeuvre at slow speed is negligible. Her paddles don't contra-rotate - apparently that isn't allowed because the turning moment can actually turn a vessel over.

Oddly, I was just reading about her (unidentified in the report, but obvious to anyone who knows her) in the recent MAIB Safety Digest!
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Her paddles don't contra-rotate - apparently that isn't allowed because the turning moment can actually turn a vessel over.

The principle reason that paddle steamers' paddles don't contra rotate is that they have no transmission system. The paddles are fixed to the two ends of the engine's crankshaft, as anyone who looks into the engine room can see. To stop you stop the engine and to go astern you restart it rotating the other way -achieved by shifting the valve timing. To contra rotate the paddles, you would have to first saw through the crankshaft - after which the engine is unlikely to operate at all!

Peter
Click to expand...
 
PeterWright said:
AntarcticPilot said:
Her paddles don't contra-rotate - apparently that isn't allowed because the turning moment can actually turn a vessel over.

The principle reason that paddle steamers' paddles don't contra rotate is that they have no transmission system. The paddles are fixed to the two ends of the engine's crankshaft, as anyone who looks into the engine room can see. To stop you stop the engine and to go astern you restart it rotating the other way -achieved by shifting the valve timing. To contra rotate the paddles, you would have to first saw through the crankshaft - after which the engine is unlikely to operate at all!

Peter
Click to expand...

It would be easy enough add it at the design stage via some form of gearing, but my understanding is that following accidents in their early use, contrarotating paddles were actually banned, as well as being easier to implement (as you say, Waverley's are simply driven direct from the crankshaft, as are most paddle wheel steamers). However, I have not been able to verify this.
Click to expand...
 
The Andrew, in the days before their tugs were all privatised, were just about the last people on the planet to use paddle tugs for harbour towage, and these certainly could operate one ahead one astern, which as Barack Obama used to say was "the whole point", but I take the point that a passenger carrying ship is a very different beast.
 
Yes, as a child I would watch the Pompey RN paddle tugs from the Gosport Ferry, spin around in their own length. They always seemed to be as wide as they were long.

Faithful
Paddle Tug, Director Class - A.85
Launched by Yarrow Shipbuilders Scotstoun, Yard No 2125, on 14/6/1957. Sunk as a target 21/4/1983
473 grt
157 ft x 60 ft x 11 ft
Side paddle, Diesel electric, 4 x Paxman Diesel 12 YHAXZ, 1623bhp, giving 13 knots
The paddles were electrically driven, 1194KW, and could operate together or be independently controlled
Bollard Pull 16 tons, and fitted for fire fighting, salvage and oil pollution spraying. Her masts could be lowered
Designed for handling aircraft carriers in harbours, highly manoeuvrable with a low profile to cope with their large overhangs.
Crew 22

Completed 17/12/1957, and then sailed for service in Devonport manned by a PAS crew
1958 left Devonport with Dextrous for Gibralter. She then went on to Malta for service under CD arriving 7/9/1958
September 1961 sailed to Devonport for service under CD Devonport
4/9/1981 withdrawn from service
12/4/1983 left Devonport, towed by Robust, to Gibraltar for use as a target
21/4/1983 sunk by Alacrity, Battleaxe and Brazen
 
This should be a sticky...

“Look what’s on Ha’Penny pier today!”

Roger will be appointed the official monitor and then post a daily update of whatever is exciting.
 
photodog said:
This should be a sticky...

“Look what’s on Ha’Penny pier today!”

Roger will be appointed the official monitor and then post a daily update of whatever is exciting.
Click to expand...

50px-ICS_Foxtrot.svg.png
50px-ICS_Oscar.svg.png
 
Lovely to see Waverley again - she really gets about.

First went on her in the early 60's with parents going "doon the watter" from the Broomielaw - when we lived in Glasgow.

Fast forward to 2010 when going south through Caledonian was yarning with a chap who was piloting a motor cruiser who said he'd been on Waverley as part of the bridge crew. I remember his description of their various turning manoeuvres because the paddles were locked together - they had to approach piers etc at speed and watch the look of horror of folk ashore - most skippers he said got the speed right to slow in time - but a few didn't. He loved his time aboard.

Wonderful old boat - long may she ply her trade and keep popping up in my life.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top