Subject: SMML VOL 3030 Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2005 02:29:31 +1100 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 Re Iowas 2 Re Museum Ships 3 Merry Christmas 4 Re Happy Holidays Indeed! 5 Re Museum Ships 6 Re Merry Christmas 7 USS Oklahoma remembered 8 cutter campbell ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From "Leslie D. Foran" Subject Re Iowas Here are some thoughts regarding the disposition of the remaining Iowa-class ships. I find it a little odd that the choices for docking the Iowa as a museum ship is between two ports in California. Old battleships make fine museum displays. I have visited the battleships Massachusetts and Alabama and found both of them to be very inspiring and educational. Would like to visit the Texas as well. Is California the only option? A much better option may be to preserve structural parts of the ship as a display in its namesake state. This is what was done with the battleship South Dakota. A memorial was made with the outline of the hull full size on the ground, and parts of the superstructure placed in the appropriate position on the plan. That way, even a landlocked state like Iowa can have its battleship memorial (I would think this would look good somewhere on the State Capitol grounds). I really liked the idea of using the guns in a sort of Offensive Shore Monitor as a mobile extra-heavy-duty fire-support base. Such a ship would only need one turret, perhaps with two guns. That way, each battleship could provide parts for four monitors. The entire below-deck turret assembly could possibly be shortened and simplified to provide two powder hoists and two shell hoists. Since there are no more battleships left to shoot at it, armour could be lightened up and anti-aircraft armament could be augmented with anti-missle capability. Without the requirement to provide defense for carrier battle groups at sea, these monitors could use lower horsepower engines. In fact, I would envision these to be similar in appearance to the British monitors of the inter-war period. There has to be a real cost-effectiveness of using 16" shells in place of, say, Tomahawk missles. These ships could carry Tomahawk launchers for the times they needed a little extra "reach". I recall a story about a hostage released from capitivity in Lebanon once. His captors took him on a tour of some wrecked terrorist bases with large craters blasted in the ground, and were shouting angrily in broken English "New Jersey! New Jersey!" The freed man wondered what had happened in New Jersey to rile up his "hosts" so much. Then he realized that they meant that the destruction was caused by the Battleship New Jersey, and their frustration stemmed from the fact that they had no defense against it and no way to respond to it. If I were a Marine going into combat, I think the awful ripping of a 16" projectile passing overhead and into my enemies' defenses would be very comforting. If it works, don't fix it. Les Foran Landlocked in Nebraska ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From CVRC78@webtv.net (Tim Carrier) Subject Re Museum Ships Gentlemen. I live on the Mississippi gulf coast and yes the family and i were at home for kitrina and her aftermath. FEMA or The Federal Government payed a cruise shipline millions of dollars just to rent 3 ships for a few months. If the government is willing to spend that kind of money to rent, then why can't they spend a little on the decommissioned fleet and refurbish some to be used for natural disasters such as the case of New Orleans. Let the local, state, and Federal Governments share in the cost of maintenance and up keep. Forenstance on display in Mobile Alabama is the USS Alabama that is used by some people to ride out a storm then afterweres the ship could be used to house some 2 to 4 hundred people when needed. (granted not the conditions on board a cruiseship but better then no home at all.) If the service life of a ship has ended then let begin a new life in another way of protecting the people of the United States as moble emergancy housing. just a few words for thought. Tim Carrier. http//community.webtv.net/CVRC78/WelcomeAboard http//community.webtv.net/CVRC78/USSBarbeyFF1088 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From "Ransford" Subject Merry Christmas To all you smmlies - wherever you are. Mat your ttime left on earthg fulfill all that you wish yourselves. All the best for the festive season and New Year As we say here in Wales, "The land of song" "Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newidd da!!" Ransford "Taff" Rogers CPO R.N. (Rtd) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From Ned Barnett Subject Re Happy Holidays Indeed! >> The holidays are here again and we both hope that you have a wonderful time, surrounded by your family and friends (all of whom have brought you more goodies for the kit stash). << My wonderful, long-suffering and understanding bride of 18 years bought me a 1/350th scale Enterprise (OK, it was NX-01, not CV-65 or CV-6, but it's still a "ship"). Huge number of parts, I'll go blind trying to do the Aztec-ing on the hull, but who cares? On my birthday, she got me the Tamiya work-stand, and on our anniversary, the Trumpeter anti-shipping Focke-Wulf Fw-200. (Previous years she got me the Trumpeter 1/350 USS Arizona, and I'm secretly expecting the Trumpeter Liberty Ship for Valentine's day). Is she something, or what? Hope everybody has such modeling good fortune! Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah ... wonderful holidays to all ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From Ned Barnett Subject Re Museum Ships >> It does not always work out that a bigger ship is the answer. The USS Hornet is having money trouble, so sometimes a bigger ship is not the answer. << Hornet's biggest problem is inaccessibility. Intrepid is right out there in front of God and Everybody in Manhattan - Hornet is squirrelled away obscurely at the end of Alameda island, a long-assed haul from San Francisco (you have to go through Oakland, hardly a tourist destination - or a garden spot). She's a great ship, but she'd do much better at the Embarcadero where the Iowa is being considered for docking. If Hornet and Iowa were moored together, they'd be a HUGE draw. Money is important, but location is, too. If you're hard to see, hard to find, hard to reach and off the beaten track, na-na-hey-hey (as the song says), kiss it goodbye. Navy fans do NOT keep those ships afloat in money - tourists do, and for that to work, you have to be where the tourists already are. Ned ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From "RUSS SMITH" Subject Re Merry Christmas To Shane and Lorna and all smmlies. Merry Christmas. It's been a very good year in upstate New York state. I hope for the best for all of you. Russ Smith ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) From "Leslie D. Foran" Subject USS Oklahoma remembered Merry Christmas to all SMML'ers! Hope you get all the kits and goodies you need to last you through the coming year, and don't forget those reference books! Thanks to Duane Curtis for remembering the amazing career of the USS Laffey, and thanks to Don MacDonald for actually modelling the ship (he sent me his patterns for this afterwards, hope to do my own Laffey next year). The Laffey did survive her perils and is now a museum ship at the Patriots' Point ship museum in Charleston, SC. She is open for inspection daily, including the aft 5" turret where five men were killed by a Kamikaze. Laffey absorbed damage that would have sunk many a larger ship. Displayed alongside the Laffey is the US Coast Guard ship Ingham, and the Essex-class carrier USS Yorktown CV10. This place is worth visiting, I have several times. I would like to take this Christmas Eve to share a wonderful story that was related to me about 15 years ago in Pierre, SD. I was getting a haircut in a downtown barbershop. Somehow, a conversation came up with a customer waiting his turn concerning the battleship USS Oklahoma. This individual (whose name I cannot recall) was stationed aboard the Oklahoma in 1936. He said the battleship assignment was wonderful...lots of space inside, and a constant supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. Of course, he felt very safe in it. On one of his first cruises, the ship stopped at Annapolis to pick up a contingent of Naval Cadets for a training cruise. Their destination was the Mediterranean Sea. While in the vicinity of Gibraltor, they were shocked by the appearance of heavy-caliber shells passing overhead. They were not the target, the duel was between a Spanish fort and a British warship beyond them. This was a little more action than they had planned on, and the Oklahoma made a hasty withdrawl from the area. He mustered out of the Navy before the war, but added sadly that 400 of his shipmates were killed at Pearl Harbour. Does anyone out there have any information on this incident? I assume it was during the Spanish Civil War, and the British ship was maybe serving in the International Neutrality Patrol. I built an Airfix 1/600 scale model of the Hood as she appeared while serving in this patrol. Do you think maybe it was the Hood trading shots with the fort? Anyway, let's think about our sailors that took to the sea and didn't make it back this Christmas. Les Foran Too Long out of Salt Water ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) From FootMobile1944@aol.com Subject cutter campbell are these kits still available, and were can i find them, last one of the campbell i built was in 1959. i am one of 700 u.s.c.g. lightship sailors left alive in the u.s. i have been collecting lightships on line so i can build one for each station they were at. i was on the san francisco wal-612. thank you ---russ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the SMML site for the List Rules, Reviews, Articles, Backissues, Member's models & Reference Pictures at http//smmlonline.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume