This headline might provoke first thoughts that this is a story about the construction of the steamship Wanda III. In some respects that is true, except this is the new scale model that Chuck Allbon is working on. This will be a much anticipated event for sure with Richard Tatley at the helm. It has been a long time coming with some setbacks and delays.
In anticipation of this, Chuck is in the process building his first Wanda model. He has been reviewing a wide variety of images of her through the years to capture all the subtle details. The first challenge is to get the hull shape right. He knows the measurements of the boat and could scale it accordingly, but sometimes an element of perspective is lost in the process so Chuck takes some modest artistic license to tweak some proportions or shapes. In this case it is the transom. The shape of the torpedo stern is easy to see in photographs, but a challenge to represent in a model. Chuck plans to stain the pine used for the deck portion to just the right tone of mahogany. Otherwise, her hull sides are white and underneath will be green, as in the original.
She was built in 1915 and registered in 1917. She was powered by a 20 NHP triple expansion steam engine. With twice the horsepower of the Mildred and a much narrower profile, she was a very fast boat. Wanda III was 94’ long and only 12’ wide. She was a knife in the water.
By Tim Du Vernet
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