Ross Winans
1866
(California Models CA-2005)
- Type: Steam Yacht
- Displacement: 400 tons
- Dimensions: 256 x 16 ft.
- Hull: iron
- Engines: steam, two 22 ft. propellers
- Passengers:
- Designer: Thomas & Ross Winans
- Builder: Hepworth's Yard, London, 1866
- Notes: Brothers Thomas and Ross Winans made their fortune in the railroad business (Baltimore & Ohio) before becoming interested in cigar-shaped ships. After building several prototypes in the 1850s Ross was briefly detained as a Confederate sympathizer at the outbreak of the Civil War. The brothers left the U.S. to continue their research, first in France and then England. The Ross Winans was the fourth, largest, and last of their cigar ships. She completed a series of trials in the Solent along with at least two coastal voyages. She proved to be too small for passenger use and a poor sea boat with the forward propeller tossing a great amount of spray onto the 130 foot long deck area. She was then laid up at Southampton for nearly 30 years before being scrapped.
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