Exploration of the valley of the Amazon (1853)

William Lewis Herndon was a professional naval officer in the US Navy during the first half of the 19th C.
He is mostly remembered as the captain of the SS Central America the famous "Ship of Gold" which sank in a hurricane of the coast of Cape Hatteras in 1857.

However his long and distinguished career in the Navy included one of the first source to mouth explorations of the Amazon river. Captain Herndon's report of his explorations in the Amazon was a best seller and immensely popular when it was first published in 1853. One young man was so inspired that he set out to travel down the Mississippi to try to get to the Amazon himself. There were no ships heading to Brazil from New Orleans so he stayed in the States changing his name from Samuel Clements to Mark Twain, the call of the men on the riverboats sounding the depths.

You can read a scanned copy of Captain Herndon's book here at the Internet Archive

Captain Herndon, although a US Navy officer, was in command of the SS Central America when she was lost in a hurricane in 1857, taking 423 men and many tons of gold to the bottom of the Atlantic along with her.

He was widely honoured for his heroic attempts to save his ship before loosing his life when she finally foundered after 3 days of pounding in the hurricane.

From Wikipedia

Herndon was carrying perhaps 15 tons of gold (then worth $2,000,000) and 474 passengers, many of whom were from California and were returning to the East Coast, as well as 101 crew members. After leaving Cuba on 7 September 1857, a few days later, they encountered a three-day hurricane off Cape Hatteras. The hurricane steadily increased in force. By the 12th, the Central America was shipping water through several leaks due to the ship's lack of water-tight bulkheads and general unseaworthiness. Water in her hold put out her boiler fires, precluding the use of steam for both controlling the ship and pumping out the bilges.
Herndon recognized that his ship was doomed; he flew its flag upside down as a distress signal and hoped another ship would see them. At 2 p.m., the West Indian brig Marine arrived to help take passengers from the stricken steamer. It did not have room to take on all of the passengers and crew. Commander Herndon supervised the difficult loading of women and children into lifeboats to transfer to the Marine. He gave one of the women passengers his watch to send to his wife, saying that he could not leave the ship while there was a soul on board. Most of the women and children reached safety on the Marine. Herndon's concern for his passengers and crew helped save 152 of the 575 people on board.
Men on the Central America tried to break up wooden parts to use as floats, in hopes of surviving the sinking. Some were rescued later by passing vessels, but most of the 423 persons on board died in what was the largest loss of life for a commercial ship in United States history. Survivors of the disaster reported last seeing Commander Herndon in full uniform, standing by the wheelhouse with his hand on the rail, hat off and in his hand, with his head bowed in prayer as the ship gave a lurch and went down.
The ship disaster and loss of so much gold, which banks still depended on, contributed to the financial Panic of 1857 in the United States.
The wreckage of the ship was discovered in a 1987 treasure recovery expedition.

The story of the Central America and the search for her is chronicled in a book "Ship of Gold" by Gary Kinder and will be the subject of another post. Stay tuned.

Keep your sightglass full your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Parasol Pursuits!

This year at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo there will be not one, but FOUR Parasol Duelling events.

We will be having a formal panel and inside demonstration on  Saturday April 18th, two outdoor demos on Friday and Saturday, and on Sunday April 19th there will be a Parasol Duelling competition!

Looking forward to seeing Ladies from all over competing in this competition.

Over the Summer there will be more Parasol Duelling competitions across North America at Steampunk events large and small.

All leading up to the Second Annual World Championships which will be held in Calgary this September at the Beakerhead Festival. 

So start practicing Ladies!

To find out more about this great sport go to:
Madame Saffron Hemlock’s Parasol Duelling League for Steampunk Ladies

Click here for information on the history and development of Parasol Duelling 
or click the Parasol Duelling tag.

The Rules for Parasol Duelling are here.

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

A visitor arrives


Here is the second part of the serial tale from our Role Play group.

Part I is here.

Frozen Sky

A serial story from The Messdeck.

Part II

Collected and edited by Kevin Jepson

Feb 1
*After an uneventful, but very cold, trip following the railway lines up to York, the Doris is tied up to the top of a commercial mooring tower on the edge of town. Below her on the tower is a very sleek looking Navy Airship, her hull is flat black with no markings visible at all.*

The very cold and cramped control car
of HMAS Doris*

Simpson climbs down from the keelwalk and says "Mooring is secure Sir!"

"Very good, well done Simpson."

"Thank you Sir"

Max sets the engine telegraph to "finished with engine" and then taking the voice tube he yells into it "Watkins! Secure the engines and get yerself forward we are going ashore."

*A tinny "Aye aye Sir!" comes back and soon the steady thumping of the old engine stops. Max then knocks on the door of the single cabin at the back of the control car before entering.*

"We are moored and it's time to get off this icy balloon and have us some warm food by a fire eh?"

*Miss BB and Iveta are seated on either side of a table top, which Iveta's charts and Miss BB's Aetherwave set are vainly trying to share. Iveta is wearing her uniform greatcoat and cap but seems unperturbed by the cold, the only concession to comfort being her half gloves. Miss BB, however; is swathed head to toe in a bizarre and very colourful mix of scarves, sweaters, and cloaks, with only her face and uniform cap to mark her as an airship officer.*

"Will you be able to climb down the mooring tower in all that Lieutenant?"

"Oh, I will take them off before I do." then almost as an afterthought "Sir".

Turning to the Navigator Max says "How long will it take to plot a course North from here? The railway lines don't go where we are heading."

"I have it already Sir, also the diversion is plotted too if the weather permits Sir."

"Very good, now let us be about getting warm shall we?"

"Aye aye Sir!"

*A dockyard worker unrolls a rope bridge like structure from the tower out to the control car. The crew start to carefully cross the windswept gap to the platform on the tower. As the Sun is setting it is getting increasingly cold. Already the ground below is in darkness. Max is the last to leave and as he makes his way carefully across he sees Sgt Fraser and Cpl Cooke engaged in an intense bout of Rock Paper Scissors. Sgt Fraser soundly beats the Corporal and with a wide grin waits at the end of the bridge as Max comes across.*

"And what was all that about Sergeant?"

"Sir, we were deciding who gets to stay up here on ship watch Sir. I won Sir, so I get to stay."

"Ah, however 'rank hath its privileges' Sgt and no you don't!"

"Sir?"

"We is a hundred feet in the freezing Yorkshire sky Sergeant, and the dockyard tells me they haven't got a lift so I will be staying on ship watch, you go get yerself some hot food and warm drink. Send Cooke back up with something hot."

"Aye aye Sir!" and with a salute Fraser turns and heads toward the tower ladder.

*Watkins and Simpson are busy helping Miss BB negotiate the top of the ladder. Iveta watches for a moment and then with a slight smile simply swings herself out over the side of the tower and disappears into the darkness down the OUTSIDE.*

Cooke shakes his head "Jeezus Sergeant did ya see that!"

"Aye I did, that one is happier on the outside of an airship than she is on the inside."

*Max waits till everyone has begun the long descent and then crosses back to the control car. The wind has strengthened so he carefully checks the mooring lines and then climbs laboriously up to the open keelwalk and goes back to check on the cargo and the engine. By the time he returns to the control car he is very cold and is having trouble holding the rungs of the ladder when he climbs back down into the control car.*

Well Max, you'll be solid ice in an hour if you don't get out of this wind!

*Max goes into the little cabin and taking up some of the scarves and blankets from Miss BB's pile he sits in her chair at the table. Soon he is dozing off as he gets slightly warmer. An hour or so later Max is startled awake by a change in the feel of the control car.*

Ah we got a visitor must be Cooke with a toddy. That'll go down well about now.

A strange voice calls out "Ahoy the Doris! Permission to come aboard."

=================

Part III is here.

*The painting is of the control car of a WWI German Zeppelin painted by Felix Schwormstadt in 1917

Frozen Sky Part 1

Our Role Play Group, the Airship's Messdeck, is on a bit of a hiatus while we try to sort out how our main story will carry on into the future.

I'm going to serialize three of the side stories that came up during this time to give you a bit of a feel for the World in which we are playing. The parts of the story are presented here pretty much as they appeared in our role play.

Note that Max (me) tends to talk to himself, which is useful in the RP as a way to give out some more info.  Sections that begin and end with an '*' are descriptive.  I'll try to clarify history and details from previous roleplay as footnotes when necessary.

A special thanks to my fellow shipmates and partners in adventure:
Jayne Barnard
Stewart MacPhee
Monica Willard
Andrew Nadon
Karen Seimens
Jossana Justine
Christie Vanderloh
Sandor Sanchez
Thank you for your wit, your sense of fun, and your willingness to help create this wonderful world.


I hope you enjoy it.

Keep your sightglass full your firebox trimmed and your water iced
KJ

Frozen Sky

A serial story from The Messdeck.

Part 1

Collected and edited by Kevin Jepson

Introduction

While our fine ship, the HMAS Velvet Brush, is in the Airdock for her much needed refit, the crew is dispersed to other duties.  Her Chief Engineer Lt Cmdr(E) Maxwell MacDonald-Smythe aka Max, is ordered to take an old airship, HMAS Doris, up to the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow. He is to begin testing a new device known as the Chirper, that can determine elevations and depths, much like a modern sonar depth scan.

With him he has several members of the Velvet Brush's crew. Two members of his Black Gang, John Watkins and Philip Simpson who invented the Chirper, the Navigator Lt Iveta Baleva, the communications officer Lt Beulah Bueckert, aka Miss BB, and two of the Marine contingent, Sgt Kade Fraser and Cpl Ellis Cooke.

It is winter and the old Doris has seen better days.

Jan 28
Airdock 6 at the Experimental Airship Division yard near London

*Max is standing at the side of the airdock surveying his new command. Having received her from the hands of the Airdock Boffins only a few minutes before, he now watches as the last of the dockyard workers file away and his ship sits alone with her new crew*

Well Max me lad, she's all yours now. This will be an interesting junket and no mistake.

*HMAS Doris is a smallish, hydrogen filled, cargo carrying airship. Until recently she was a commercial tramp carrier called "The Matilda" on contract to the Navy supplying remote light houses along the Northern coasts of Scotland. The Doris is small, she could fit entirely inside the Velvet Brush between the forward accommodation and engineering, with room to spare! The outer cover of her hull is dirty grey and streaked with coal dust. Bright white squares show where her old threadbare cover has been repaired.*

Well yer no stranger to the North at least.

Max spots the bright crimson uniform of Sgt Fraser approaching "Ah Sergeant, all secure?"

Sgt Fraser snaps to attention and salutes sharply "Aye Sir, ship is cleared of all dock workers Sir!"

"Very good, please maintain ship watch. I expect the last of our supplies will be arriving shortly, make sure they get squared away as soon as possible."

"Aye aye Sir!" Another quick salute and Fraser turns and takes up his post beside the entrance to the control car of the airship.

Well, no luxury on this trip Max, be nice to sleep in a hammock again while aloft though, like sleeping on a cloud, if a bit noisy and breezy.

*Max walks aft past the control car under the belly of the airship his cane making tapping sounds that seem oddly loud in the cavernous space of the airdock. He walks past the cargo car in which the Chirper is safely installed, to the third car that houses the engine. There is an open triangular keelwalk connecting the three cars that hang below the hull like rowboats suspended from a bridge. Using the keelwalk while in flight will be an adventure in itself. As he approaches the third car he sees Watkins climbing down from it, he is covered in soot and his coveralls are all greasy.*

"Well Watkins, will she fly?"

"Aye Sir she will, but not fast. She'll be lucky to make 20 knots and against any kind of wind we'll be sitting still. Don't know how them fellows kept station in the North Sea Sir."

"Well if they could do it we can. Were you able to get something setup for Comms and the Navigator in the control car?"

"Aye Sir, we took that little box they called your cabin and set it up for them, at least they won't have the wind whistling past 'em."

*The control car and the engine car are open with no glass in the windows to save weight.*

"Well we best make sure they have some warm woolies just in case eh?"

Watkins smiles "Aye Sir, but I think Miss BB has that handled Sir."

"How's that?"

"Well Sir, she arrived this morning with a Jessus big trunk and had a couple of the dock yard blokes stash it in the back of the cabin Sir. When I asked her about it she said it were warm rough weather clothes for all of us Sir."

"Hah! Well she is resourceful that one, probably won it all off the Quartermaster at poker if I know her!"

Watkins laughs, "Aye Sir, probably Sir."

"Well I'm off for my final report to Admiral Wilcox, get her ready to go as best you can I don't want anything left adrift when we leave."

"Aye aye Sir!" and with the touch of his cap Watkins heads back up the ladder.

*Max heads toward the gate, past the control car returning Sgt Fraser's salute as he passes.*

Well now maybe I can find out more about what we are supposed to be doing all the way up in Scapa Flow...

But Mary will be there too and I don't dare even say hello, blast and damn!

*At the gate of the airdock, Max turns and looks at his new command one more time trying to imagine her puffing her way through the winter skies on her way to Scotland.*

Well you're no beauty, but I'll wager yer a tough old girl and all.

Part II is here

The wondrous machine that might have changed the world!

In the Airship Technology Speech I gave back in January at the Absinthe Cafe the place where our Role Playing World separated from the real world was when Babbage's Analytical engine was actually constructed and working in 1880.

This world changing event was due to the work of Augusta Ada  King, Countess Lovelace.
In the real world Ada died in November of 1852 before Charles Babbage had perfected his design. In our alternate world she outlived Babbage and was responsible for making his designs work, under contract to the Royal Navy for whom Babbage was working as well.

The Honerable Augusta Ada Byron was the only legitimate daughter of Lord Byron. She married Baron William King in 1835 and when he became the Earl of Lovelace in 1838 she became a countess. Her fascination with mathematics and science as well as what she called "poetical science", describing herself as an "Analyst (& Metaphysician)",brought her into contact with Charles Babbage.

Of her work with Babbage on his Analytical Engine she said:

[The Analytical Engine] might act upon other things besides number, were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine...
Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.

 

You can read more details of the Countess' work with Charles Babbage on her Wikipedia page.


From the Wikipedia article:

During a nine-month period in 1842–43, Ada translated Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea's memoir on Babbage's newest proposed machine, the Analytical Engine. With the article, she appended a set of notes. Explaining the Analytical Engine's function was a difficult task, as even other scientists did not really grasp the concept and the British establishment was uninterested in it. Ada's notes even had to explain how the Engine differed from the original Difference Engine. Her work was well received at the time; scientist Michael Faraday described himself as a supporter of her writing.

The notes are longer than the memoir itself and include (in Section G), in complete detail, a method for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers with the Engine, which would have run correctly had the Analytical Engine been built (only his Difference Engine has been built, completed in London in 2002). Based on this work, Lovelace is now widely considered the first computer programmer and her method is recognised as the world's first computer program.

The Countess's translation of Menabrea's memoir and her detailed comments are available at Fourmilabs here:

Sketch of

Invented by Charles Babbage

By L. F. MENABREA
of Turin, Officer of the Military Engineers

from the Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève, October, 1842, No. 82

With notes upon the Memoir by the Translator
ADA AUGUSTA, COUNTESS OF LOVELACE

A truly fascinating look into what could have been a major turning point in world history.

As the author of the Fourmilab web page says:

“Sketch of the Analytical Engine” by L. F. Menabrea, translated and with extensive commentary by Ada Augusta, Countess of Lovelace. This 1842 document is the definitive exposition of the Analytical Engine, which described many aspects of computer architecture and programming more than a hundred years before they were “discovered” in the twentieth century. If you have ever doubted, even for a nanosecond, that Lady Ada was, indeed, the First Hacker, perusal of this document will demonstrate her primacy beyond a shadow of a doubt. 

Indeed!


Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

P.S.
A fun bit of information given how the Countess' contributions to mechanical computation were fundamental to the development of the fantastic airship we use in our Role Play check this out from her Wikipedia page:

Ada was often ill, beginning in early childhood. At the age of eight, she experienced headaches that obscured her vision. In June 1829, she was paralyzed after a bout of measles. She was subjected to continuous bed rest for nearly a year, which may have extended her period of disability. By 1831, she was able to walk with crutches. Despite being ill Ada developed her mathematical and technological skills. At age 12, this future "Lady Fairy", as Charles Babbage affectionately called her, decided she wanted to fly. Ada went about the project methodically, thoughtfully, with imagination and passion. Her first step in February 1828, was to construct wings. She investigated different material and sizes. She considered various materials for the wings; paper, oilsilk, wires and feathers. She examined the anatomy of birds to determine the right proportion between the wings and the body. She decided to write a book Flyology illustrating, with plates, some of her findings. She decided what equipment she would need, for example, a compass, to "cut across the country by the most direct road", so that she could surmount mountains, rivers and valleys. Her final step was to integrate steam with the "art of flying".

Oh if only the Real World had been less cruel.

Happy birthday Alessandro Volta!

From Wikipedia

Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (18 February 1745 – 5 March 1827) was an Italian physicist^[2][3] credited with the invention of the first electrical battery, the Voltaic pile, which he invented in 1799 and the results of which he reported in 1800 in a two part letter to the President of the Royal Society.^[4][5] With this invention Volta proved that electricity could be generated chemically and debased the prevalent theory that electricity was generated solely by living beings. Volta's invention sparked a great amount of scientific excitement and led others to conduct similar experiments which eventually led to the development of the field of electrochemistry.^[5]
Alessandro Volta also drew admiration from Napoleon Bonaparte for his invention, and was invited to the Institute of France to demonstrate his invention to the members of the Institute. Volta enjoyed a certain amount of closeness with the Emperor throughout his life and he was conferred numerous honours by him.^[1] Alessandro Volta held the chair of experimental physics at the University of Pavia for nearly 40 years and was widely idolised by his students.^[1]
Despite his professional success Volta tended to be a person inclined towards domestic life and this was more apparent in his later years. At this time he tended to live secluded from public life and more for the sake of his family until his eventual death in 1827 from a series of illnesses which began in 1823.^[1] The SI unit of electric potential is named in his honour as the volt.

And Google has a cool "doodle" to mark the day

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

A presentation!

My character in our role playing game was ordered to make a public presentation about some of the technological advancements embodied in our Airship. Basically the Government wanted to share these advancements with the Civilian companies as a way to boost the Empire's commercial competitiveness.

Just for fun I decided to actually give the presentation as part of an ongoing series of Absinthe Cafes here in Calgary.

I presented it in character and in costume, and it was a lot of fun.

Lt Cmdr(E) Maxwell MacDonald-Smythe
Photo by Lewis King

The information presented here is based on my Practical Airship Design series.

Here is the text of my speech.
Enjoy

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

 --------

A January evening in the latter years of the 19th century.

Madame and Mr Chairman, My Lord, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Good evening.

I have been asked, by the Experimental Airship Division of the Royal Navy, also known as the the EAD, to present some of the technical details of one of the marvels of our age!
 
It is the hope of Her Majesty's Government that by releasing this, hitherto classified, information to the British business and manufacturing community, that the further development of these exotic and ground breaking technologies will help to maintain our Empire's lead in global commercial and military affairs.

Many of you have probably seen or heard the reports concerning the latest experimental airship of Her Majesty's Navy. You may also have seen the speculation concerning many of the developments and mechanisms that she has on board.

I have the honour to have been, and continue to be, her Chief Engineer.

And, Ladies and Gentlemen, as much as I would like to confirm that she is powered by exotic Indian demons and lifted by some remarkable gaseous material never seen before, and even that she can fly in the vast reaches of space, I must assure you that everything we will discuss this evening is in fact the product of the investigations into Natural Philosophy conducted over many years by brilliant men and women just like yourselves.

Nothing of what I will be showing this evening is in the province of the Metaphysical realm.

Having, alas, thus ruined your excitement concerning the information I am about to present to you, I hope that you will find the real information just as intriguing.

And so, to begin…


Here is the object of our discussion this evening.

Her Majesty's Air Ship The Velvet Brush!

She is truly a marvelous vessel, the largest self mobile object ever built by human beings!
Her dimensions are enormous,

• Her Length is 245 m or 800 ft, longer than the largest ocean liner.
• The Diameter of her hull is 42 m or 137 ft
• She contains a Gas Volume of 231,000 cubic meters or 8 million cubic ft
• She weighs uninflated 150 tons
• When in flight trim she can carry a cargo load of 28 tonnes
• Her propulsion system can move her at a steady cruising speed of almost 120 km/hour or  65 knots, thus making her one of the fastest ships in the Airship Navy.
• Her maximum speed is still classified as is her maximum altitude, however; I can say that she has maintained that 120km/h value at elevations in excess of 1800m or 6,000 ft above sea level on numerous occasions. Her operational pressure height is 1200m or 4,000 ft under normal load conditions.
• Her maximum cruising range is currently unknown!

I will say that on her very first flight she flew non-stop from the Royal Navy Airdock in Esquimalt British Columbia across the breadth of British North America, and the North Atlantic, to Portsmouth a distance of some 9000 Km or 5500 miles. This trip was accomplished in the dead of winter no less.

Ladies and Gentleman the Velvet Brush is a truly amazing ship, and despite the controversies and scandals attending her construction, she will be a model for future large Aerial Vehicles.

So to the technological developments that allowed the Royal Navy to construct such a stupendous vessel.

There are three developments that I will discuss this evening.

The first is the intellectual development that permitted her to be designed,

The second concerns the key material used in her construction,

And the third is the novel form of her lift generating system.

Many of you I am sure are aware of the advances in mechanical computation that have attended the construction of the Lovelace-Babbage engines in use at Oxford and Cambridge. The Difference Engine, designed by Charles Babbage under contract to the Royal Navy to produce navigational tables, was completed in 1849. Babbage completed the design for his more advanced Analytical Engine but it had not been constructed by the time of his death in 1871.

However his associate Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, continued working on the design, again under contract to the Royal Navy and the new machine was produced and first began calculations in 1880. Along with the physical design of the machine, the countess was instrumental in composing the grammar for the lists of instructions that the machine uses. Her treatise on "Simulation of mechanical processes by computation", published when she was in her 60s in 1875, earned her a worthy place in the Royal Academy.

One of the first applications of the Lovelace-Babbage machine was the analysis of stress and strength in the metal components of ships hulls. It was also used in the computations to design the first Naval scouting Airships and the first Cunnard Passenger Airships that followed soon thereafter.

The design of such a magnificent vessel as the Velvet Brush would not be possible without the speed of computation, and the elegance of the Countess's Analytical Engine Grammar.

As part of the technology transfer program of her Majesty's Government, two new Lovelace Babbage machines, of the latest design, will be available for public use starting later in the year. One will be in London the other in Liverpool.

Now, as to the construction of the Velvet Brush herself.