otes the complaint is made that no contemporary representation of the
steamship had then been found.

The old, inaccurate model, built to the scale of one-half inch to the
foot, represents an auxiliary, side-wheel, ship-rigged steamer. The
model scale measurements are about 120 feet in over-all length, 29
feet in beam, and 13 feet 6 inches depth in hold. The tonnage is
stated on the exhibit card to have been about 350 tons, old
measurement. The model has crude wooden side paddles of the radial
type, a tall straight smokestack between fore and main masts, a small
deckhouse forward of the stack, a raised quarter-deck, and a round
stern.

[Illustration: Figure 2.--The United States National Museum's new
model of the _Savannah_. This model was built by Arthur Henning, Inc.,
of New York City, from the ship's plans as reconstructed by staff
members of the Museum's division of transportation. (_USNM_ 319026.)]

The first step in the research for creating a more faithful
representation of the _Savannah_ was to obtain the customhouse
description of the ship. It was readily established that she was built
as a sailing packet ship by the Fickett and Crockett shipyard[4] at
Corlaer's Hook, East River, New York, and that she was launched August
22, 1818. Her register shows that she was 98 feet 6 inches in length
between perpendiculars, 25 feet 10 inches in beam, 14 feet 2 inches
depth in hold, of 319-70/94 tons burthen, and with square stern, round
tuck, no quarter galleries, and a man's bust figurehead.

These dimensions of the _Savannah_ required the researchers to
investigate the method of taking register dimensions in 1818. It was
found that the customhouse rule then in effect measured length
between perpendiculars above the upper deck, from "foreside of the
main stem" to the "after side of the sternpost." The beam was measured
outside of plank at the widest point in the hull, above the main
wales. If a vessel were single-decked, the depth was measured
alongside the keelson at main hatch from ceiling to underside of deck
plank; if double-decked, one-half the measured beam was the register
depth.[5] However, inspection of the register of a number of ships of
1815-1840 showed that, in practice, double-decked ships commonly were
measured as single-decked ships; this obviously was the case in the
_Savannah_. Also, due to the lack of precise measuring devices, the
register dimensions were not always accurate, particularly those of