The Steamboating Forum

Seems every time I ask one of the seasoned steam boaters a question about this vast hobby, I'm enlightened with new terms. Yesterday I learned that my Semple boiler wasn't worth fixing based on such small ligaments on the sheet. (ligament = web between flue holes on the sheet) In this case it's assumed that because of various types of sediment and rust build-up over thirty years combinded with the flues being so close together, many flues may have no water flow around them.

Every time I talk to a steam boater I learn new terms, so my question is if you know of a formal glossary, hopefuly graphically showing the terms listed in the document? And no, I'm not up to the project as getting our boat back operational before June will be enough of a task for me.

What is the tube size and ligament spacing on the boiler? A chemical cleaning will often remove the rust and sediment between the boiler tubes.
Post a picture of your tubesheet, with an ordinary ruler laid on the tubesheet so the dimensions can be checked.

I think his boiler is a Semple VFT40 and on those the tubes are welded in if I recall correctly. It has been a while since we ran my father's boat (semple VFT40), but I think the tube spacing was somewhere around 1/2"-3/4"