After have completed the model of centerwheel gunboad USS Cairo, I understood that I was even more fascinated by unusual ship and in particular the ship of the transition between sails and steam.
Looking around for some ideas, I found in a modelshop the plans in scale 1:75 of the French steam sidewheels corvette LE SPHINX, draught by the nowday closed italian model firm "Il Timone".
I liked immediately the hull lines, the tall chimney, the lateral side sponson boxes with inside the wheels and the simple but effective armament composed by long guns and carronades.
So, I started to collect as many documentation about this vessel.
I found a couple of other different plans, the first in scale 1:100, that I bought from the "Association des Amis des Musee de La Marine", with a couple of pictures of the model actually in the Musee de la Marine in Paris.-
I have also found that the famous italian modeller Vincenzo Lusci has published in the past a series of plans of this corvette, in scale 1:75. Those plans were very difficult and rare to find, but I had a great help from a modeller of the italian shipmodeller association (who I'm an affiliate) "I Filibustieri". This friend modeller gave me the possibility to obtain a copy of the original plans of Le Sphinx draught by Lusci.
I have found also on Internet some other sources about this vessel, mainly made by paints, pictures from museums' models and one very well built model of Le Sphinx found on a german web site.
The model has been completed in nearly one year and half, and during the building I have used some of the techniques I have used in the past on the USS Cairo (as example the use of particulars cast in resin like carronades and guns), other that have developed some others new that will be used in future models.
Short History
This side paddle-wheeled corvette was the first steam driven ship in the French Navy, whose engines were used regularly.
Built in Rochefort, on Eng. Hubert's design, LE SPHINX was launched on 3rd August 1829 and was rigged as a three masted schooner.
First commisioned as corvette and later as scout, this little vessel was used as prototype for other 5 similar ships in the French Navy up to 1845.
The ship had 46,20 meters of lenght, 8 meters of width, 777 tons desplacement and a sail surface of 747 square meters.
The steam engine was bought in England, from Fawcett firm, because no French firm, in that period , was able to build a such quality engine. The steam engine had a power of 160 HP, bringing the ship up to a speed of 7 knots under steam.
In June 1830 she joined the squadron of Admiral Duperre, off Algiers and performed the liaison function by making many voyages between the marines stationed on the North African cosat and Toulon.
The Sphinx took average 5 days to cross the sea from Algiers and Toloun and the first time, people would not to believe that she was bringing the answers to the dispatches sent few days before from French to Algiers.
In 1832, she called at Alexandria in order to tow the LUXOR barque to France. The LUXOR's cargo was the ancient Egyptian obelisk to be erected in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
In 1833 shge was assigned to transport service between Toulon and Algeria, a duty she performed until July 1845 when, due to thick fog, she hit a reef and was lost off Cape Matifou to the east of Algiers.
Ship's Data
Commissioned : 1861
Launched : 25 January 1862
Sunk : 12 December 1862
Dimensions
Lenght : 46,20 mt.
Width : 9 mt.
Armament :
* 8 x 24 pounds Carronades
* 3 x 24 pounds Long Guns
Model's Data
Lenght : 78 cm o.a.
Width : 14 cm
Height : 54 cm
Scale : 1:75
Building method : Plank on bulkheads
References and sources :
* Plans scale 1/75 by Vincenzo Lusci - Italy
* Plans scale 1/75 by Il Timone - Italy
* Plans scale 1/100 by Associations des Amis de Musee de la Marine - France
* Paint by Roux from Bargoni collection
* Pics from various Internet sources
* "Navi a Vela e Navi Miste Italiane" by F.Bargoni; F.Gay;
V.M.Gay - Ufficio Storico della
Marina Militare (pages 30-31)
* "Steam, Steel & Shellfire" by Conway's History of the Ship
- Chartwell Books (page 19)
* "La tecnologia Militare Marittima - dal 1776 al 1919 - Vol. I"
by G. Santi-Mazzini -
