Subject: SMML VOL 2866 Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 02:43:46 +1000 The Ship Modelling Mailing List (SMML) is proudly sponsored by SANDLE http//sandlehobbies.com For infomation on how to Post to SMML and Unsubscribe from SMML http//smmlonline.com/aboutsmml/rules.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1 1913 'AA' gun 2 Re Mauretania & other names 3 Re Model of Zheng He's Treasure Ship 4 Hampton Roads scene 5 AA Gun Circa 1932 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From potter4@att.net Subject 1913 'AA' gun Fred T. Jane in his early naval annuals rated the power of naval guns by an alphabetic scale that initially included ratings of A, B, and C. With the advent of chemically-mixed Nobel low-explosive propellants, guns became much more powerful. Jane indicated those guns by repetitions of A AA, AAA, ... So maybe the citation in 1913 of 'AA' for guns refers to Jane's rankings. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From Daniel Kurtz Subject Re Mauretania & other names From "John Clements" >> Paul Giltz asks about the names ending in 'ia' used by the Cunard Line. Some of these, like Mauretania herself, and the Aquitania, were named after provinces of the Roman Empire. Mauretania was roughly Algeria, and Aquitania south-west France. Lusitania was more or less Portugal and western Spain. Other names like Circassia were Latinised versions of geographical locations in their native tongue. << The story that I heard was that the executives of Cunard visited King George V, and planned to tell him that they were naming their newest ship 'Victoria', which at least kept with the '*ia' theme. What they said to him was "We are pleased to inform your majesty that the new ship will be named after England's greatest Queen," to which KGV replied "My wife will be honored." Thus was named the Queen Mary. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From "Arthur Herrick" Subject Re Model of Zheng He's Treasure Ship http//english.peopledaily.com.cn/200506/21/eng20050621_191504.html to see the photos of Admiral Zheng He's giant junk that made a number of daring explorations into the Pacific and Indian Oceans before Europe's Age of Exploration. << National Geographic magazine, July 2005 issue, has an article China's Great Armada - Six hundred years ago China's Admiral Zheng He led a mighty fleet on the first of seven voyages [ 1405 to 1433 ] that reshaped an empire. There is a two page spread with a chart of the seven voyages. A Ming treasure ship was 400 ft OAL and had a Beam of 170 ft, according to the article. www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/0507 Click on China's Armada Art Herrick Westmoreland, New Hampshire USA 42° 57' 47.4" N --- 72° 26' 18.9" W --- Altitude 465 ft. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From Reynold.Oh@defence.gov.au Subject Hampton Roads scene G'Day all. George from Sydney, Australia here. I have a college who wished to do a Hampton Roads scene. For that, I found her a Battleaxe 1/144-scale kit of the USS Minitor. Is there a plastic 1/144-scale kit of the CSS Virginia? I believe that there was a kit (by who?) that had small models of both. She rejected the Verlinden offering as A) it was smaller than the 1/144-scale Battleaxe one, B) it features a pyramidal forward observation post (= the post-Hampton Roads modification - I told her that) and C) it was resin (which she 'aint comfortable with). It wasn't wasted as another modeller snapped it up. George, out..... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From Subject AA Gun Circa 1932 Vickers produced a high angle 3” gun which was supplied to the Navy and the Army in various marks. In the Army it was used against Zeppelins and bombers (Germany did have aircraft capable of bombing London in WW1 and did so) In the Navy the role was more for counter surveillance and spotter aircraft as it was not thought likely that an aircraft could seriously damage an armoured ship. This was in the era when a bomb was something the pilot dropped by hand when he got bored spotting for guns. The first gun was fitted to HMS Iron Duke, but I do not know when, probably 1910 or 1911, however in 1913 the Mark 1 were ordered and fitted to most major warships and later to Monitors, their classification was 12 Pounder and although usually counted as part of anti destroyer weaponry they were ordered as an anti-aircraft weapon and designed as such. They were a also used for firing star shells. After the war they were replaced with a 4” model, but the Mark V went on to arm British Submarines and destroyers and was essentially the same weapon. I do not know of any photographs of the Mark 1 but the Mark V can be seen here http//www.dockmuseum.org.uk/archive/details.asp?imageid=208&title=Naval+Weapon&subject=Armaments&subtitle=Naval+Gun ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the SMML site for the List Rules, Reviews, Articles, Backissues, Member's models & Reference Pictures at http//smmlonline.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume