A Report on The Rifle: Documenting an Iron-Hull Steamship

Author/s J. Gilman

Year of publication 2001

Report Number: 157

IntroductionThis report describes the process employed to document an iron-hulled screw steamer known as the Rifle. The vessle is in storage at the Scottish Maritime Museum (SMM) in Irvine, Scotland. Field measurements and notes were recorded 25-28 June, 2001.The project was undertaken as part of a project to determine the approximate lines of the SS Xantho, a paddle steamer built in Dumbarton in 1848 and converted tp screw in Glasgow in 1870-71, and wrecked off the coast of Western Australia in 1872. No photographs or drawings of the Xantho hull are known 10 exist. The Rifle was selected as a starting point on the theory that, both vessels bting early steamships and having been built in the same region within two decades of each other, the lines and proportions of The Rifle might provide a good starting point.