# 19th Century Sailing Merchant Donkey Engines



## tegolf (Aug 25, 2012)

Hi, I just joined this group out of desperation. Well, not desperation, but more out of frustration.

I have been doing research for a long time on a particular West Coast (USA) brigantine merchant ship built by Matt Turner in the 1890s in Benicia, California. My grandfather sailed in her for several years and it has been my goal to build a detailed scale model of her some day.

She had several incarnations but her first was as a packet ship sailing between San Francisco and Tahiti. According to extant descriptions of her, her cargo handling equipment included a small steam donkey engine that was housed in her midships deckhouse. I have miserably failed to turn up any drawings or even photos of such an engine used shipboard for handling cargo in the latter years of the 1800s.

I noticed that there is an active forum of modelers here who have created lovely scale models of lumbering donkey engines. Is there anyone who could direct me to plans or other resources for reconstructing what might be a typical shipboard cargo handling donkey? The vessel wasn't large, only 135 feet long between perpendiculars and about 32 feet at the beam. Her engine would seem almost like a toy compared to the things you folks are used to dealing with.

Thanks ahead of time for any help. If this needs to be redirected to a different forum, please let me know.

Terry Egolf
Greenville, SC


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

While I have no _specific_ knowledge of that particular boat that will help you, I can give some rather generalized information. Based on the hoisting engines from liberty ships and barge cranes that I've seen. It would probably have been a compact "mining hoist" - Similar to the engine and drum parts of a logging donkey. minus the boiler (since it was more convenient to feed it with steam from the main boiler) - many of these were mounted on a swiveling base (or had a jib and capstan mounted in front of it) so one hoist could serve more than one boom. 
see: http://industrialrail.5u.com/photo_60.html 



Some of these even had inclined or vertical cylinders to make them even MORE compact. This is a vid of one of the inverted ash hoist engines on the USS Olympia 
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y98/rickv100/?action=view¤t=DSCN1927.mp4 

There is a small Mundy Hoist on display at the Portersville steam show that I can take detail photos of if you think they will help you. The American Hoist and Derrick liberty ship hoists that I've seen were about twice this size cylinder and drum -wise, but just as compact. The main hoists from river barge cranes were fairly huge (about 15 feet long and 6 feet wide w/ 12"x12" cylinders and 3 or 4 hoisting drums) 









liberty ship hoists: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peacelovescoobie/5721133156/ 
http://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=4676

Another source you might be interested in is a 1914 AH&D catalog on CD 
http://www.cabincreekcds.com/AmericanHoist.htm 

Hope this helps


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Also, Here's some winch & boom photos from the liberty ship SS John W. Brown: 
http://www.geoghegan.us/brown/P4290045a.jpg 
http://www.geoghegan.us/brown/P4290025a.jpg 
http://www.geoghegan.us/brown/P4290043a.jpg 
http://www.geoghegan.us/brown/P4290057a.jpg 
http://www.geoghegan.us/brown/P4290024a.jpg 
http://www.geoghegan.us/brown/P4290034a.jpg 
http://www.geoghegan.us/brown/P4290063a.jpg 
http://www.geoghegan.us/brown/P4290062a.jpg 

And the Jeremiah O'Brien 
http://knightsia.org/newsletters/Issue_13_files/steam_winch.jpg 
http://knightsia.org/newsletters/Issue_13_files/winch2.jpg 
http://wefald.com/deck/rigging.jpg 

And from the SS Minnetonka (built 1901, torpedoed & sunk 1918) 
http://www.atlantictransportline.us/images/32winch.jpg 
http://www.atlantictransportline.us/images/32photopc2.jpg 
http://www.atlantictransportline.us/images/32washingdeck.jpg 
http://www.atlantictransportline.us/images/32suffleboard.jpg


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## trainbuffjr (Jan 11, 2008)

though i don't have knowledge of the particular boat I would say the one Mik pictured is probably what would have been on it. here is a pic of another one from the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion. I will be there at the show this week and can also get some more pics of it if desired. 

[url="


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## ddevoto (Jan 22, 2008)

Terry, Here's a link to Wikipedia, if you have not seen it already, about Matthew Turner. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Turner_(shipbuilder)


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

You might want to check out the Westlake Publishing finescale modeling forums, there are several folks there who are very knowledgeable about donkey engines, steam hoists, etc: 

http://www.finescalerr.com/smf/


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