Hope Model Ship

The Hope was a blockade runner.

About the Hope wooden scale Model Ship

This model ship of the Hope was custom built from the following information:

• The original construction drawings.

About the construction of the Hope wooden scale Model Ship

• The hull is built using the Double Plank-on-Bulkhead construction method
• The bulkheads and keel are cut from marine grade pine plywood
• The first layer of planking is done plank by plank using Mahogany planks
• The second layer of planking is done using Mahogany Veneer strips
• The deck is made of Anagre, a light brown timber from the Amazon
• The gunwale and stringers are made of American Walnut
• The fife rails and pin racks are made of American Walnut
• The deckhouses and gangways are made of Teak
• The masts and yards are made of Mahogany dowels
• The sails and ropes are made of linen
• The model is painted with acrylic paint
• The ornaments are cold cast in bronze and painted

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History of the Hope

Hope was a “very large” and “very strong” Wilmington, N. C., iron, and steel paddle wheeler, called the “finest and fastest steamer in the trade” by one observer in Britain.

The Hope was procured there for the Confederate Government shortly before or after she left the Liverpool yard of Jones, Quiggin & Co.

The Hope was a sister to the noted Colonel Lamb, which she resembled except for the presence of the usual turtleback forward. The Hope could carry a crew of 66 and over 1,800 cotton bales and possessed the safety factor of five watertight compartments. Two fore-and-aft engines of 350 nominal horsepower, supplied by 4 boilers, gave Hope the speed of 16knots and the power to outrun most of her contemporaries.

Yet the Hope was cornered on 22 October 1864 by USS Eolus, trying to enter Cape Fear River after a sixty-five-mile chase off Wilmington, the capture netted more than a thousand dollars in prize money for each member of Hope’s crew.

Models of blockade runners are very rare. Liverpool Museums have a model of the Hope. In the United States, there is another model of the Hope.

Member of The Nautical Research Guild