This past Thursday, the gang went over to the New England Wireless & Steam Museum in East Greenwich, Rhode Island to show off the steam engine’s working capabilities.
Everything started off a bit slow; they couldn’t quite get things moving for a bit, and a burst steam line left everyone shaky…
But nevertheless, Don made it happen! It ran for 40 minutes, both in forward and in reverse. It could have kept running for much longer, too!
Here it is:
We recently acquired a “marsh feed pump” for our steam launch from Chris McMullen, a friend out of New Zealand; he first got the piece from Portsmouth, N.H., so it’s done quite a bit of traveling! Chris is also working on creating an H.M. Co. steam replica. Don has been working on the pump since it came in.
Meanwhile, Bill has been cutting out the steam launch’s oak stern post, and Bern has been working on the keelson.
Over the past few weeks, the crew has been working tediously to construct the steam ship as precisely as we can. Now that the ribs are curved and attached to the larger vessel, the team had begun shaping the large keel plank.
After these poor souls’ seemingly endless toil, we were left with a keel plank that, when laid out on the boat, fits on very well! A few imperfections here and there, but that’s for another time.
The Building 28 gang recently made their way into East Greenwich, R.I. to explore the New England Wireless and Steam Museum, where the Herreshoff triple expansion steam engine is now being shown off.
Their museum visit was given the ultimate treat: the folks at NEWSM ran the engine for the crew!
HerreshoffSteam 