ithsonian Institution._

The United States National Museum has in its watercraft collection a
rigged scale model purported to be of the pioneer transatlantic
steamer _Savannah_. For many years this model was generally accepted
as being a reasonably accurate representation and was the basis for
countless illustrations. Curiously enough, the model (USNM 160364)
does not agree with the published catalog description[1] as to the
side paddle wheels. Neither does it agree with the material in the
Marestier report,[2] which is accepted as the only source for a
contemporary picture of the _Savannah_.

The recent naming of an atomic-powered ship in honor of the famous
steamer greatly increased popular interest in the pioneer ship and its
supposed model. Consequently, the National Museum undertook the
research necessary to correct or replace the existing model. This
research has been carried out by the staff of the Museum's
transportation division with the aid of Frank O. Braynard of the
American Merchant Marine Institute, Eugene S. Ferguson, curator of
mechanical and civil engineering at the Museum, and others.

The _Savannah_ crossed from Savannah, Georgia, to Liverpool, England,
in the period May 22 to June 20, 1819; and proceeded to the Baltic,
where she entered at St. Petersburg (now Leningrad), Stockholm, and a
few other ports. On her return she reached Savannah on November 30,
and on December 3 she sailed for Washington, D.C., arriving on
December 16. Her original logbook now on exhibition in the Museum,[3]
covers the period between March 28, 1819, when she first left New York
for Savannah, to December 1819 when she was at Washington.

[Illustration: Figure 1.--Old model of the _Savannah_, built under the
supervision of Captain Collins. This model has been removed from
exhibition in the United States National Museum because of
inaccuracies. (_USNM_ 160364; _Smithsonian photo_ 14355.)]

The old model (fig. 1) was built about 1890-1892 by Lawrence Jenson, a
master shipwright and model builder of Gloucester and Rockport,
Massachusetts, under the supervision of Capt. Joseph Collins of the
U.S. Fish Commission. Notes in the records of the Museum's
transportation division show that the research for this model was done
by Captain Collins through use of an unidentified lithograph, printed
after the transatlantic voyage, and what then could be learned about
American sailing ships contemporary with the _Savannah_. In these
n