The Steamboating Forum

Hi everybody, and thanks for your expertise and input as I chisel out the background of the story I am writing. It's awesome to learn from you. Btw, I have shortened and rebuilt my imaginary boat, fashioning her more along the lines of the Shamrock in order not to have a fraudulent model cruising my flooded future world. My current question is, as the lone captain of the Arowana (which makes long voyages) what parts and tools, etc. would you bring?

I presume this is an apocalyptic setting after catastrophic effects of global warming have completely melted the polar ice caps and flooded major continents??? Don't answer, don't want you to divulge any spoilers.

What would I have aboard the situation you describe.

First of all, if he is going to making long voyages, he is going to need lots of space and capacity to carry wood. A steamer the size you describe will burn a cube four foot square at about 2000 pounds of firewood per long steaming day. In this case I would tow a small dinghy or raft for extra wood and as a survival tool.

Navigation tools, two compasses, one for backup, sextant, charts if available. GPS unit.

A good Galvanized bucket: For carrying out ashes, dipping water from over the side to wash down the decks, bail water out of the bilge when the bilge pump doesn't work.

A Bucksaw/bowsaw/pruning saw for cutting firewood.

Primitive firestarting materials along with several disposable lighters and waterproof matches.

An axe for splitting wood and as a weapon. A good hunting style knife for just about everything.

A flintlock shortbarrel musket. Can be used as a rifle for large game, a shotgun for small game and can be used for fighting and signaling as well. Gunpowder (blackpowder) can be stored in large quantities or made from a few different ingredients and flintRocks are simply found in most places of the earth. Projectile can be anything, nuts and bolts, rocks etc.

Handtools, wrenches, a vise etc.

An assortment of pipe fittings and pipe which are the same of which makes up the boats plumbing, spare packing, gasket material.

Oil to lubricate the engine.

Candles, kerosene lamp and kerosene.

A good comfortable cot with bedding.

Dried meats like fish and beef jerky. Grains like wheat and dried corn, oats. MRE's and other basic survival supplies, canned goods if possible. Iodine tablets for purifying water/steam condensing coil also for making potable water. Medical supplies, aspirin, bandages etc. Tea, If possible, antibiotics, painkillers, anti- inflammatory drugs. Cooking and eating utensils. A small woodfired survival stove. Containers of freshwater. Fishing equipment. Soap for hygiene and general cleaning disinfecting. extra clothes, a few hat types to block the sun. Tarpaulin for shelter during rains or intense sunlight.

Mutli-band survival radio with built in handcrank dynamo for power. The engine would also have a small generator to make electricity. Maybe some solar panels on a cabin roof. 12 volt lights, portable 12 volt pumps. Flashlight/torch.

A spare propeller, maybe a spare prop-shaft

Strong insect repellent.

lifejackets, fire extinguisher.

A good literary work that can be read multiple times and still maintain interest.

What else??

-Ron

"A flintlock shortbarrel musket."??

I think the world's assault rifle, the AK47 would be the choice here, if the story is in the future, but not more than a couple of hundred years from now.
With well over 100 million of these rifles already distributed throughout the world they will be available. This is a machine that is the most reliable I have ever known, and I have had almost every type of rifle, over 100 of them. I occasionally fire WW1 ammunition, over 100 years old, still works OK.

As Ron points out, long passages in a smallish boat with steam power is somewhat difficult due to fuel consumption. In my view the boat should have an auxiliary sail, just like almost all of the early seagoing ships did for most of steam's first century. The sail will help the steamer along, and serve as a reliable backup (although slow) if the machinery is out of commission.

Yes a sail, that can be stowed or rigged easily.

Absolutely a muzzleloader. The AK47 without cartridges can't be used. I'm assuming this goes on for a duration of years and he has little to no access to civilized areas where ammunition could possibly be had. And the way things are going right now, in a few hundred years, gun ownership worldwide by private citizens may be a thing of the distant past, so cartridge ammunition would be very difficult to come by.

-Ron

I couldn't agree more with the muzzle loader, charcoal is easy to make and you can leach niter out of about any good soil. If t works better with sulfer but its not "essential", more than one fort was saved in the early days of the united states by leaching out the dirt under the latreans when they ran out of powder.

Lostintime,

Well I learned how Potassium Nitrate is made, sounds rather involved and unsavory but interesting, didn't know that it how it is made. Made essentially from composted manure, fermented and cooked off to a crystalline state. Sounds like a really finicky process.

I think Orange peels can be made in to a gun powder as well.

-Ron

Following along the muzzleloader theme, I've said many times that in an hypothetical apocalyptic situation where society has failed and it would be a hardcore survival situation, the one thing I would want to maintain mobility and highest level of safety and self preservation is a steamboat. Doesn't require processed fossil fuels that would not be available, requires no electricity, provides good shelter and heated shelter in cold climates, Could survive an EMP strike as there are no electronics, dead-nuts reliable, steam engines run forever even in very poor condition, always starts, can sink it, raise it and literally start it up and go without damage. Yes, I'd want a steamboat.

DetroiTug wrote:Yes a sail, that can be stowed or rigged easily.

Absolutely a muzzleloader. The AK47 without cartridges can't be used. I'm assuming this goes on for a duration of years and he has little to no access to civilized areas where ammunition could possibly be had. And the way things are going right now, in a few hundred years, gun ownership worldwide by private citizens may be a thing of the distant past, so cartridge ammunition would be very difficult to come by.

-Ron

The Israelis made homemade STEN submachine guns in their homes in 1948 with little more than hacksaws and files...

Reloading cartridges with homemade black powder, and making mercury fulminate (mercury, nitric acid, ethanol) for primers would be easy enough...

Unless of course much of this knowledge was lost in this dystopian future.

one thing that I like to have with on long trips is a welding machine, preferably a IC powerd welder, with a welding machine on board and a few good files will get you far .


Johan

but a blackpowder weapons are never wrong, even if it is practical or not. I like the flintlock for a new peace of flint you can find on the beaches with a bit of luck. I have successfully made a few with limited resources.

So lets say you have a bench in the cabin with a vise for pipes. Upon that bench is a wooden box with compartments full of assorted small tools. You can stock it with anything you might need, aside from the more carefully kept sextant, etc. What do you put in it?