Messing about with boats.
The challenge for Napoleon after the capture of Vienna with its bridges destroyed, was to find a suitable crossing point on the Danube.
An attempt to seize the enemy shore at Nussdorf, near Vienna was repulsed and his Majesty then decided to attempt to cross the river at Ebersdorf using the island of Lobau as a staging point. This required building bridges to the Lobau and then onto the Marchfeld itself in order to approach the Austrian army.
The city of Vienna was sourced and many Austrian pontoon boats were made available for the operation.
The problem was that in May the great river was in spate with the mountain meltwaters and was therefore unpredictable. This created problems in itself due to rising water levels, before the Austrians began their interdiction operations.
This picture illustrates the problems, but personally this sort of bridge shown seems unsuitable for the passage of artillery and cavalry, even when dismounted.
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I want to show the importance of the main bridge especially, as its survival was critical to the continuation of the battle.
To this end I needed Austrian pontoon bridges. Wolfgang Meyer constructed a wonderful diorama a few years back representing the last bridge from the Lobau which I visited at the Dioramica.
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I believe he used the Schilling boats illustrated.
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Research into these boats has produced some interesting results with this picture looking very much like a row of Venetian gondolas.
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This painting is also interesting as the boat looks very similar.
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On the other hand here we have Austrians hard at work on what looks like French style pontoon boats.
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I feel that stability is the key requirement of a pontoon boat and having been on a gondella I can testify that long thin hulls are not stable platforms.
I have therefore based my models on the following illustration which to my mind makes a deal of sense, providing stability and good boat handling characteristics.
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Many thanks to Mr Supreme Littleness for his fantastic blog.
I first cut cardboard templates to shape in order to make a mould with plaster of Paris.
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Once set, the templates were then transposed to balsa. A good soak in boiling water allows the balsa to be curved to the mould which is then held with elastic bands.
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Once ‘set' the three constituent parts were glued to form the basic structure. I have only placed planking in the visible section at the bow and stern .
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It is my intention, if possible to use real water for this element of my endeavours after success in my Antietam project, so all the boats will be waterproofed.
Picture wire formed around a paint brush handle creates the anchor and fastening points.
Wolfgang's boats were wood coloured but the K K picture suggests green with wooden decking. I wondered about using the ochre brown as per the artillery but this picture from the Lobau suggests a dark colour too.
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The boats will eventually be linked with thread with picture wire anchors for stability.
Whilst I have used sheet balsa, grooved for simplicity of construction, I intend to use individual planks for when I create a destruction scene, hopefully with a river mill.
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That is an another story, for a later section of the project !
Lots to do.
Chris
