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Saturday 21 December 2019

The Galveston/Odin: Which ship is she based on?

I am a devotee of Antoine Vanner's fiction books about Nicholas Dawlish, a Victorian Royal Navy officer, and I am currently reading BRITANNIA'S INNOCENT, the latest book to be published.


The book covers events during the early part of Dawlish's career, and is set during the American Civil War and the Second Schleswig War. As usual, the book features an imaginary warship whose design is based upon the designs of contemporary ships, in this instance a warship built in the UK for the Confederate Navy which serves for a time in the Royal Danish Navy. The ship is named the Galveston/Odin and looks like this:


She is a turreted ram of the sort that was very popular during the period, and she bears a resemblance to several ships built at the time. In my opinion, she most closely resembles the Huascar, which was built in 1866 by Laird Brothers of Birkenhead for the Peruvian Navy. After a very active career during the Peruvian Civil War (1877), she was the most important ship of the Peruvian Navy during early stages of the War of the Pacific (1879–1883). She was captured by the Chilean Navy at the Battle of Angamos (8th October 1879), and then repaired and recommissioned as a Chilean Navy ship ... and is still in existence as a memorial ship in the port of Talcahuano, Chile.

8 comments:

  1. Hi Bob,
    The color photo shows a very pretty and iconic Turreted Ram - would be good to visit such an historic design- I'm wondering if she can make steam and headway with the original steam engines.Thanks for Posting. Cheers. KEV.

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    Replies
    1. Kev Robertson,

      I’d love to see the Huascar, but I suspect that I never will.

      She seems to have been very well maintained, although I’m not sure that she is capable of moving under her own power.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  2. The Huascar, you say? One of my favourites from the 10 Cent War. Tumbling Dice make a nice little model of her. She had folding sides so that she could sail in rough waters without getting swamped as the turret had to be kept low down in order for her not to topple over. She was involved in an action against HMS Shah, which caused deep embarrassment for the Royal Navy as they were unable to pierce her armour.

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    Replies
    1. Trebian,

      I have three different scale models of the Huascar, one of which dates back to the earliest days of WD. I staged the Battle of Angamos at one of the Games Day that was held in the Royal Horticultural Hall back in the early 1980s using the largest of these models, and it - and the models of the Blanco Encalada and Almirante Cochrane - reside in pride of place on the shelves of my wargame/toy room.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  3. H'mmm... Galveston/Odin looks very scratch-buildable...

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    Replies
    1. Archduke Piccolo,

      I totally agree ... and may well give it a try myself!

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  4. This reminds me of the ironclad ram ship that used to be in Rotterdam but is now elsewhere.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HNLMS_Buffel

    I have a picture of her somewhere in my dusty archives, probably on a RW DVD which might not be readable now.

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    Replies
    1. Jim Duncan,

      I remember visiting HNLMS Buffel when she was in Rotterdam. I think that she was in the process of being refurbished at the one of my visit.

      I had no idea that she had been moved.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

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