Hunchback photo questions

Yup. There's typically a flat plate and a spring to push it down, inside the cap, forcing the grease out through the bottom. The cup would be re-filled with lubricating grease regularly.

GC85.jpg
 
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The Hunchback seems to have been a pretty extensively photographed vessel. This one is one of my favorite Civil War views period:
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http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deck_of_gunboat_"Hunchback"_on_James_River,_Va_-_NARA_-_526207.jpg
I was going to say it was a walking beam--I swear I was--but I was way too late. It's hard to stay ahead of Andy.
Anyway, in the image I'm responding to, dig the banjo in the hands of the black sailor. That thing might have a 12" rim (most are closer to 11" nowadays) and the taper on the neck is extreme! I must say the player doesn't look too happy about having his picture made. We shouldn't read too much into that, but it is quite possible his shipmates cajoled him into sitting front and center. Or....maybe he was just a shy type. I never smiled for pictures, either, back when I was a little kid.
 
Here's what I mean about the dodgy identifications on these photos of gunboats.

Here's the image from earlier in the thread that is identified as Hunchback:

HunchbackMaybe.jpg


I'm sure that ID is correct, because it's scratched into the original glass plate negative:

Says Hunchback.jpg


However, the LoC has an image taken on the same vessel, identified as Agawam, which was a completely different type of vessel altogether:

AgawamMaybe.jpg


They're the same vessel -- note the dings in the paintwork. (Need to have the boatswain's mate get right on that!)
 
The gun in the OP is definitely rifled. The one behind the gents in Andy's pic looks like a Dahlgren 12 lb. smooth bore. The thing on the walking beam that looks like a fire hose nozzle has really got me stumped. My first reaction was part of a grease gun, maybe?
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Looking at Andy's drawing & taking into account its not exactly the same design but functionally it's the same, I think it might be a 'lifting rod' or the 'starting bar.' I don't have a clue what they lift or start tho… or if that's what they really are.
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Here's what I mean about the dodgy identifications on these photos of gunboats.

Here's the image from earlier in the thread that is identified as Hunchback:

View attachment 45612

I'm sure that ID is correct, because it's scratched into the original glass plate negative:

View attachment 45613

However, the LoC has an image taken on the same vessel, identified as Agawam, which was a completely different type of vessel altogether:

View attachment 45614

They're the same vessel -- note the dings in the paintwork. (Need to have the boatswain's mate get right on that!)

This one just says "Crew on Deck" in the NARA description, but you may recognize the gun from the background of one of the photos you posted earlier (with something tied around the wheels to keep them from sliding around the deck?), as well as the "powder monkey," whose toes are right above one of your paint dings in the second photo, and is standing behind the banjo player, looking similarly ebullient in the first photo.
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The petty officer on the right in this image has (I think) been promoted (to ensign?) by the time of the banjo photo and appears up top in fancier duds with one hand on his hip and the other holding a pipe. He's also loading this same gun in a previous photo:
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Mustang.jpg


Yep, he's a mustang. Both the shoulder strap and cuff in the banjo image say Ensign. With the call (pipe) in his pocket, I'll call the other image as boatswain's mate.

This guy may be identifiable.
 
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Hey moderators, can we have a separate forum section for all USS Hunchback-related discussions? We're barely even scratching the surface here. Also, I might be getting a tad obsessed.

Anyway, I like this digital simulation, gives a much better view of the ship (paint dings omitted):
120994905.jpg

http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/09949.htm

It was evidently sold on 12 July, 1865 to the New York and Brooklyn Ferry Co. For any of us with NYC area ancestors, it might have ferried our predecessors around the East and Hudson Rivers back in the day. Okay I'm done for now. Gotta go draft up a sketch of the Hunchback tattoo I'm gonna get.
 
"If so, then you've already identified him as Edward K Valentine!"

I vaguely remembered that thread, but was too danm shiftless to go look it up.

Acting Masters Mate to Acting Ensign is the typical progression, but I don't know if that fits with the petty officer insignia -- not clear to me if that's the right insignia for MM.
 
I was going to say it was a walking beam--I swear I was--but I was way too late. It's hard to stay ahead of Andy.
Anyway, in the image I'm responding to, dig the banjo in the hands of the black sailor. That thing might have a 12" rim (most are closer to 11" nowadays) and the taper on the neck is extreme! I must say the player doesn't look too happy about having his picture made. We shouldn't read too much into that, but it is quite possible his shipmates cajoled him into sitting front and center. Or....maybe he was just a shy type. I never smiled for pictures, either, back when I was a little kid.
Just saw this photograph today at the American Banjo Museum in Oklahoma City!
 

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Nope. This is the Commodore Perry on the Appomattox River. It's in Brady's 1864 catalog.

I have seven views of this ship that label it as the Commodore Perry, including a Waud drawing.

Definitively identifying the various converted ferries in wartime images is next to impossible.
 
Definitively identifying the various converted ferries in wartime images is next to impossible.
A nice way to identify the ones photographed by Brady's photographers is to find one of the print copies that he sold from his catalog. They had captions. I've seen several in the USAMHI at Carlisle Barracks. The ones in the National Archives and LOC are usually from the glass plate negatives which were stored in paper sleeves. The information was written on the sleeves in most cases. It would be easy for someone to mix up the sleeves. I've seen photos of the Morse and the Shawsheen also labeled as being the Perry. A Morse photo was used in one part of the History Channel documentary on the sinking of the Albemarle and a correct one of the Perry was used later in the film. Other than both being double-ended ferryboats, they don't resemble each other. One has a round pilot house with an eagle on top while the real one had a squat, square pilothouse. There was a nice series of articles on the NY Ferryboats in a journal produced by the NY Historical Society. Terry Foenander sent me copies of the articles.
 
Here's what I mean about the dodgy identifications on these photos of gunboats.

Here's the image from earlier in the thread that is identified as Hunchback:

View attachment 45612

I'm sure that ID is correct, because it's scratched into the original glass plate negative:

View attachment 45613

However, the LoC has an image taken on the same vessel, identified as Agawam, which was a completely different type of vessel altogether:

View attachment 45614

They're the same vessel -- note the dings in the paintwork. (Need to have the boatswain's mate get right on that!)
Terry Foenander told me of his attempts to get the Agawam label changed, but to no avail. He went so far as to blow up the photos of the officers to see the markings on their uniforms, finding someone of a rank never found on the Agawam but on the Hunchback. If I remember correctly, he said the Hunchback also had two officers of the same rank that the Agawam never had but one of at any given time. The photo had two of that rank.
 
This is the "walking beam" structure that transfers the vertical stroke of the (ginormous) one-cylinder steam engine to the crank on the paddlewheel shaft. This type of engine arrangement was very common, although not preferred for warships, as it was vulnerable to enemy fire. (Hunchback was originally built as a civilian ferryboat.) What's visible here is only the very top part of a large assembly. This is a diagram of a larger example, but the basic elements are the same:

Engine.jpg

I've been looking for scale model oil derricks to replicate these.

BBozSfu.jpg
 

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