Ships – musings while allatsea

Category: Ships

Post-Mortem: RMS St Helena model

25/06/2017

Hobbies and Interests, Personal, Ships, Tewkesbury, Transportation

Weeks in the making, my 1/1250ish RMS St Helena is almost finished. Large scale construction has ceased and I am left with a model that is more or less completed. The end result looks like the ship, as long as you stand very far away 😥 There are numerous mistakes and skew lines and poor paintwork on her, but that can partly be blamed on my constant chopping and changing of the ship as I experimented.

The image above was actually done deliberately as I wanted to convey the long voyages that the ship makes on her trips between South Africa and St Helena. Think of it as paying homage to a small ship on a big ocean. Unfortunately my model does not do the ship justice, and one day I will probably start a new one. This week I found out that Rhenania made the RMS St Helena model that I had seen before and they do not re-issue models once the initial run is completed.

Snags and booboo’s that I have made in the construction of the ship:

Hull:

The wood I used worked well, it sanded cleanly and was workable with the tools I had. However the hull was seriously flawed. The well deck is too long and there shouldn’t be a step between the forepeak and the area behind it. If anything the real ship does not have much of a sheer, the sheer is created by the bulwarks surrounding the forepeak. The knuckle that exists is not easy to fabricate, I would really need to create a hull that has the fine shape and then create the deck above it that has a slightly fatter shape and mate them together. Getting a bow right is always a pain. It makes sense to start the ship by creating the bow and then work backwards instead of the other way around. I may just create a fake hull and try recreate the bow to see how it comes together.

The area at the deck level aft of the large hatch really needed to be reworked to the point where the gangway area is cutaway before mounting A and B decks.

The aft mooring deck on my model is too small, I suspect It worked that way because I originally had the stern wrong. The stern is different to what I thought it looked like, but then it has been many years since I sailed on her.

The superstructure that I fabricated was reasonably close to what it should be, but its edges are skew and the individual decks turned out slightly wrong. The bridge area became messy as I could not settle for the bridge that I wanted. It turned out to be slightly too big and as a result of that I was not able to add on the bridge roof that shaded the area by the wheelhouse doors and bridge wing.

The pool area… I cannot remember what that looked like, and they seem to have altered it slightly since I was last on the ship.

Fittings and fiddly bits:

Davits… bugbear number 1000000. I made the mistake of trying to create conventional davits the way they look on ships, it did not work. I ended up creating a Γ shape, drilling into the superstructure to support the one end and adding the lifeboat on the flat area. Then I mounted the uprights with their curved shape next to the platform and utilised the superstructure wall as a gluing point. That made them reasonably workable, but they do not look great. The least said about the lifeboats the better. There are 2 different style boats on the ship and you need to make both. They are small, the size of a grain of rice, getting them anywhere near what they look like is difficult.

My mast ended up odd, I may relook what I have because it really does not work well for me. The problem is that the 2 legs are sloped backwards and I made them the wrong way around. There are also two platforms that house the radar gear. I have not added them or any of the associated monkey island equipment.

The pair of cranes turned out reasonably well, I eventually changed the cable to a thin wire painted black and was reasonably happy with the outcome. However, because of the long well deck I ended up with having to make one boom longer than the other. The twin derricks were similarly strung with wire, but they did not come out well and ended up hampering my work on the front of the superstructure. I shouldn’t have mounted them when I did and left them for almost last. My aft crane is somewhat of a mess. As far as I recall it was stowed facing forward. There was not enough space on that pool deck area for it to face forward.

Did anything go right?

No, it turned out to be somewhat of a disaster. However, having completed my ship I am happy to say that she does bear a resemblance to the RMS, and I probably won’t attack her with a saw again. She certainly will not end up at the breakers, but will be a good example of how not to build something on this scale. It would be very much easier to build a larger scale model, but my ship collection is comprised of 1/1200 and 1/1250 models so I would like to fit her in with that.

Closeup?

I have retouched some of the paintwork on the computer and the portholes have to be redone because they are terrible. But to do that I need to get 2 coats on the superstructure. I really need a break from building her though, and will see how it goes from then.

And that is where we stand today. The big question is: “Is she finished?”

The reply is: “yes and no. Ask again next week”.

Postscript:

Since writing this post I took the ship and removed the “portholes and windows”, made a change to the stern deck, repainted the hull and superstructure, added exhausts to the funnel, an antenna on the bridge, a flag staff aft and lost a lifeboat. I then had to make a new lifeboat and mix paint to create orange, mounted the new boat and painted all 4 boats because getting a perfect colour match is impossible. It never really ends does it? tonight when I get home I will be relooking those “portholes and windows” and touching up paint. I have since rebuilt the mast and am currently relooking the pool area. This is what it looked like way back when I sailed on her.

The ship is now officially completed, and has set sail for the inside of my display cabinet. It was fun, and now I have nothing to do at night anymore. bah humbug, that’s ok because I have 2 new ships to work on, namely the SS France and HMS Tiger. That ought to keep me amused until I start on the original St Helena.

Gloucester Harbour

04/06/2017

Bridges and Rivers, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, Heritage, Hobbies and Interests, Ships, Transportation, United Kingdom

It is strange to find a harbour so far from the sea, but then you really need to remember that the Severn is not a small river. Gloucester harbour is not a deep water port as I know it, but was built more as a harbour for barge and small vessel traffic. Unfortunately, like so many of these places the need for it became superfluous as the truck and better roads brought about a whole new way of moving goods from one place to another. Even the railways were not immune to this new way, and Gloucester, like Tewkesbury and Cheltenham were all in the firing line of the Beeching axe.

Today the harbour is a small boat and pleasure craft harbour, with a lot of narrow boats and yachts and small pleasure craft (aka floating gin palaces). However, the buildings remain, being converted into yuppie pads and trendy working areas or shops for those that are attracted to them.

Use the image above to get an idea of what this area looks like and realistically the easiest way to see the harbour is to use our fictional vessel: “Diverse Alarums” and start from where the River Severn splits and the left fork is the entrance to the locks that will enable us to enter the “Main Basin”

Do not be tempted to go to starboard because there be dragons. Seriously though, that part of the river may not be very navigable, as I saw trees drifting downstream along it.

The lock also has a lifting vehicle bridge over it, as well as an associated control cabin. The road would take you to the back of the warehouses on the right bank of the Main Basin. I did not really explore that area too well though.

Assuming we were successful, the Diverse Alarums would exit into the “Main Basin” which has a number of interesting things in it. The image of the basin below is looking towards the lock which would be in the top left hand corner.

Sailing down the basin, roughly midway there is a cut that is the entrance to the Victoria Dock. It is really just pleasure craft that are berthed there and is of no real interest to somebody like me who prefers working vessels.

Going full astern to escape the the throng of very expensive craft we are safely back in the main basin. On the right hand side of the basin are two drydocks, and these are really fascinating places for somebody like me. I did a blog post about drydocks many moons ago and these two feature in that post. Today both docks were in use.

Ambulent

Just past the drydocks is what is known as the “Barge Arm”. It is occupied by a bucket dredger with the rather quaint name “SND no 4”

The building in the shot is home to the National Waterways Museum. I visited it in 2015 but I was not impressed. It seemed more geared towards young visitors instead of jaded oldies like myself.

If we go astern again and turn back into the basin we will be presented by the Llanthony Bridge which is a lifting bridge. It is the third bridge at this site and was built in 1972.

Exiting from this bridge the quay to our Starboard side is known as the Llanthony Quay and it was built in the early 1850s by the Gloucester & Dean Forest Railway Co., soon taken over by the GWR, to provide a means of supplying coal from the Forest of Dean as an export cargo.

Baker’s Quay would be on the port side and was constructed in the late 1830s by a group of local businessmen led by Samuel Baker at a time when the Canal Co. was heavily in debt and could not finance much needed additional quay-space.

(http://www.gloucesterdocks.me.uk/gloucester/docks.htm)

The red vessel in the distance is the former Spurn Head lightship that used to be moored at the mouth of the Humber Estuary. She was decommissioned in 1985, she has served as the headquarters of a yacht club and as a tourist attraction in various locations. She was extensively restored and converted into a treatment centre for alternative medicine under the name “Sula” and at the moment she is up for sale. If only I had vast amounts of money….

The area opposite her on Baker’s Quay is not accessible and recently a warehouse burnt down there. There is some serious foliage on the one building,

I did walk into this area but there was not much to see except for the sort of space that would make any urbex buff smile knowingly.

If we had continued along past the Sula and the old warehouse buildings we would be facing the High Orchard Bridge. I have not gone much further than the lightship though. Maybe another day? I did see a sign for a Telford Bridge so need to do some investigating of that.

It is bascule bridge but I have not seen it raised yet. Beyond that I have no idea. At one point I will go on a boat trip downriver and see how far it gets us. There is quite a lot of interesting stuff down river but at this point we will disembark from our well found tub because our tour around the harbour is complete. The Gloucesterdocks website covers most of this in much better detail than I can and is well worth the visit.

Ships and small craft.

There are not too many vessels that catch my eye here, but some are worth showing.

This beauty is called Johanna Lucretia, she is a topsail schooner and was built in 1945 in Belgium.

Johanna Lucretia

Severn Progress is a tug and was built in 1931 by Charles Hill & Sons Ltd, Bristol. Her low profile is necessary to sail under low bridges.

Severn Progress

Sabrina 5

FY86 White Heather

Halcyon

Random Images

Building the RMS

15/05/2017

Cruiseships, Hobbies and Interests, Personal, Ships, South Africa, Transportation

*Click here for the 20/05/2017 update*

I have always wanted a model of the RMS St Helena, but they always evaded me because there are not too many available in the first place. The easiest way to get one is realistically to scratch build one and see what that turns out like. There are however, a few problems with that scenario. The first being: where do I get plans from?

A line drawing of the ship is easy to find, I have quite a few on my computer as it is.

I have been lugging around lots of images of the ship since she first entered service, and amongst my stuff is the A&P Appledore publicity handout above. That will serve as the basis of my project.

Problem number 2 is that while I do have accommodation plans of her, I do not have a top view of her, so there things are going to be somewhat icky.

Interestingly enough a 1/1250 waterline model does exist, and I have been “in the market” as they say. However, they are very scarce and probably way out of my budget range. My usual supplier, Tim at Convoy Models managed to lay his hands on one, and this is what it looks like.

I have a sneaky suspicion that this was a concept that never reached fruition, probably because the RMS is not one of those well known glamourous Cunarders that everybody swoons over (or should I say used to swoon over?). She is a working ship and is really a hybrid between cargo ship and cruise ship.

That also means that she is an interesting project to tackle. Theoretically she is straight forward, there are not too many curves and odd lines that could make my life difficult.

The ship is 105 metres long, and according to my handy scale converting tool, a 1/1250 model should be about 84 mm long, with a beam of 19,2 mm (15 metres). The problem is… how do I scale the drawing down to that size? I first printed out the image and then tried a few things but kept on hitting a brick wall. Eventually I decided to shrink the image down to the size I needed on a scanner. Some rough calculating and trial and error led me to reduce the size of the drawing by 34% which left me with a image roughly 86 mm long.

Now, what will I use to build it with? I have some balsa wood hanging around from when I modified my display cases and I managed to create a block of balsa longer than 85mm and 15mm wide. Theoretically, if I then attach my reduced scale image to the block, then mark the specific sizes onto the top of the block I will have something that theoretically should look like the RMS! I used the term “theoretically” because there is no guarantee that it will work, or that I will ever finish the project.

The really irritating thing is that back in South Africa I have a proper plan of the ship which I got from one of the officers on board her in 1993 when I sailed on her. It never occurred to me to bring the plans back with me in April, but then I had too many other things on my mind at the time.

So, where do I sit now? I am cutting out the image and affixing it to my balsa block and will then see how viable it is to build the superstructure as a separate entity and affix it to the hull once I have created the hull. It is early days yet, and I only really work on this sort of thing over a weekend.

So, this is part one of my ongoing project to build an RMS. I have not scratch built anything in ages, so may just give up at any juncture, it really depends on what I can do with the limited tools that I do have at my disposal. Ideally I would have preferred a harder wood for the hull, but Balsa should work, at least for the MKI.

After finishing this post I worked a bit more on the ship and after basic the results look something like this:

At this point I am convinced that shedding the accommodation block may be a good idea. It may be better to build it separately than to try hack what is there already. The Balsa wood is easy to work with but it splinters easily and it is going to be difficult to smooth out the vertical sides. I may try get some Jelutong or Basswood and start from the bottom again. But, I will see, it is early days yet. I do however need to get wood filler, some plasticard and a sealant/varnish so that I can seal the Balsa. I will think about it.

A few days later…

Today is the 20th and between when I first posted and now a number of things happened.

Firstly I sent the balsa model to the breakers. It was just not working out. I did some homework and was not able to source Jelutong or what is known as “basswood”, if it was available the sizes were way out of what I was looking for. However, the remnants from my display cases did provide me with a length of wood which is a millimetre thinner than what I needed. However, I will not tell if you won’t. I marked up the sizes and used my handy saw to cut out a rough shape. This morning I was sanding like crazy and the end result is as follows…

However, when creating the bow I hit a snag that I will have to work around. The ship has a decided “knuckle” as well as a very raked bow. I was not able to recreate that effect so may end up having to revert to some judicious use of a filler and I will have to sleep on that problem. The one option I do have is to to slice off the deck and create a new piece and glue it in place. You can see the knuckle in the image below.

Her accommodation looks like this ——————->

The red area on “B” Deck is a recessed area on her superstructure that is the entrance to her insides, and where the weather deck access is and the gangway is stowed. I am not quite sure how to deal with that yet.

“C” Deck does not have to be created as it is below the weather deck level. and apart from the recess I do not have to do much work on it either.

“A” deck is more or less where my superstructure is at now, however, I may need to add a section to increase the height of A deck. The biggest problem that I do have is the height of each deck. I suspect they are roughly 2,5 metres high, allowing for about 7 foot ceilings with the remaining void being used for pipes and cables.

The Prom deck and upwards are the major bits of accommodation that I have to build. Above the prom deck is where I am having to refer to memory. There are two deck levels above it, and the first level is slightly shorter than the prom deck but is the same width as it (after looking at pics I am not quite so sure of that anymore). This is the level where the lifeboats are, and their davits terminate at prom deck level. The pool is also on the prom deck and there is a recessed cargo hatch on that deck.

Above that deck is the navigating bridge and chartroom and I think the radio room is there too. The funnel is partly on top of that deck, and it houses the mast too.

Navigating bridge

Funnel and mast

The ship has had a few structural modifications to her accommodation, but I am really going for the look of the ship as she was when I sailed on her. Incidentally, her hull colour is “Oxford blue”. I have not really considered the weather deck, I need to fabricate 2 cranes as well as hatches and deck machinery, and that will not be easy.

On Sunday I did some exploration work with balsa and technically this is what it may look like.

What have I discovered?

The deck above the Prom is possibly a bit too short, but given that there is a pool there and cargo hatch it may be right. I need to bear in mind that aft mooring deck is not properly done yet either. That will cut down on available deck space. The deck around the bridge area can be walked around, so it needs to be smaller than the deck below it. The funnel shape needs careful consideration because it is kind of distinctive. Then there are bridge wings to add, and of course the angled side to the superstructure ends. There is a ladder in that area so I may have to experiment more in that area. Balsa ain’t gonna work! Davits! I need davits!

Yesterday I was looking at my Leda Model which is 1/1250 as well, and she does present me with interesting comparison and references for cranes, lifeboats and superstructure.

Leda was 133 metres long which is a bit longer than the RMS so it isn’t too hard to make a comparison. However, against the Leda my RMS is out of scale.

So this is where we are now. If you hear any woodworking noises you at least will know that they come from me.

27/05/2017.

Where are we now? I managed to get some 2mm plastic and have been reworking the superstructure block. The plastic works quite easily and can hold a sharp edge and doesn’t splinter. However, I still have to find an adhesive that will attach it to the wood hull.

The funnel started out as a rough shape and may not be the final shape I want so it may be redone. However, I still need to make changes to the superstructure decks. I have deliberately created the block wider than it should be so that I can file everything square once it is mounted because the RMS does not have a lot of curves. I have also cut away the gangway points in the hull. With hindsight though I really need to file that open deck area down by at least 2 mm more and raise bulwarks on that deck to maintain the deck height and sheer line. Naturally I have no idea what I can use to do this (it always happens). Scrap plastic anybody?

27/05/2017 much later that afternoon.

I attacked my ship with a file and dropped the well deck level considerably, certainly lower than it was and after much work was rewarded with this…

I also measured her up against my 34% image and she is very close to the image in proportions. I am seeing progress at last, but tomorrow is another day.

It is now tomorrow. I added in some bulwarks and redid the 2nd layer off the superstructure block after getting an image from somebody that cleared up the area for me. The one mistake I cannot rectify is the bow shape and after adding in the bulwarks it made the bow even steeper. The only real way to solve the bow problem is to reshape it from scratch and that will impact on the length of the ship. I have decided to stick with what I have and to complete the ship anyway. I have come far enough with it and do not feel like building another hull. Once day I will create another, but not this week/month. I added in a sheet of plastic under the bridge and trimmed it to support bridge wings that I have made out of small pieces of wood. I may change that to proper bridge wings if I can figure out how. Thin brass would be nice.

I also painted the hull in a rough coat of blue and white and assembled the ship as it is. The funnel is still the temporary one.

And here she is. I think she is starting to look like the RMS! I need to add the screens around the pool area which will extend the accommodation block and fill that empty deck area, and consider how I will create hatches for the well deck and foredeck. And at some point I need to glue the superstructure blocks together and file them smooth. But that will not happen in this blogpost. Anything done after today will end up in next months posts.

Continued thataway ——————–>

Drydocking the Fleet

11/03/2017

Hobbies and Interests, Personal, Photo Essay, Ships, Transportation

The latest acquisition to my Triang Minic Ships collection is the M885 Floating Dock. I have been on the lookout for one for quite some time but have only just managed to find one that was complete and in a good condition.

The problem though is that I do not have full hulled ships amongst my fleet of Triang ships (they were all waterline models). What I do have are 3 Atlas Editions Battleships that are full hull models, albeit in 1/1250 scale. My latest is the legendary HMS Warspite,

HMS Warspite

I am still not 100% sure whether she is 1/1250 as she looks awfully small alongside HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Hood that I have.

HMS Prince of Wales. 1/1250 scale (Atlas Editions)

HMS Hood. 1/1250 scale. (Atlas Editions)

After removing the base I found that Warspite would easily fit into my new floating dock, so I contacted the fleet and we duly drydocked Warspite!

I was suitably chuffed, although I really wanted to see whether the “POW” would fit too.

I may even try out HSM Hood, although she is really much longer than both of these ships.

Naturally I hauled out more fleet members to make a cameo appearance; even HMS Vanguard dusted off her decks and came alongside.

The nice thing is that I was able to create a reasonable harbour scene with the limited harbour equipment that I have, and using a mix and match of ships could make a really nice diorama.

Although my bedsheet tends to do duty as the local sea front, and it takes longer to erect the diorama than to take the pics.

Now that bottoms have been scraped I can pack the ships away until next time! I am tempted to buy another Atlas Editions battleship and keep her as a permanent fixture in the floating dock.

Tomorrow? Will Hood fit?

I rest my case.

It will be interesting to have a passenger vessel in the dock, but as yet I do not have a full hull passenger ship. My QE2 was originally a full hull but she lost the battle with my saw and is now a waterline model. I have patience, someday my ship will come in.

I also was fortunate enough to acquire HMS Begonia, a Flower Class Corvette by Navis

And HMS Exeter from Atlas Editions. Both of these ships are 1/1250 scale, which really illustrates how small the corvettes really were.

Till next time…..

More of my fleet may be viewed at Triang Minic Ships, More Triang Minic, Fleet Manoeuvres, Navy Day, More Small Ships, Modelling the Union-Castle Line (1) and Modelling the Union-Castle Line (2)

Connections: Woodbine Willie

21/02/2017

Churches and Cathedrals, Heritage, London, Memorials and Monuments, Military, Retrospective, Ships, South Africa, World War 1

Many years ago there was a programme on local TV called “Connections” and it dealt with how things connect to form a link between one action and a result. It was fascinating watching it and I have often tried to link things like that in my own life. Yesterday I found a perfect example. The connection between a ship and an Anglican priest and poet.

It starts off like this:

In March 1986 I went to see the QE2 in Durban for the first time.

I did not see her again until 1991. At that time there was a small ship called Avalon in Durban harbour. Formerly the RMS St Helena, she was now seeking a new career doing cruises to the Indian Ocean Islands.

We managed to wangle a short trip across Durban Harbour on board her as she vacated the berth where QE2 would be the next day.

Both QE2 and the former St Helena were Falklands veterans. In 1992 I sailed on the Canberra, also a Falklands veteran, and when we arrived in Cape Town the new RMS St Helena was alongside and I photographed her from the Canberra.

I mentally set a goal to see whether it was possible to get a trip on board the St Helena, and I wrote away for a brochure. As luck would have it there was a voyage to Tristan da Cunha coming up in 1993 and I was fortunate enough to book a cruise on this mini mailship.

Many years passed, and the RMS St Helena ploughed her lonely furrow between Cape Town and St Helena while they constructed an airport on the island. Once it was completed the announcement was made of the St Helena’s last voyage in June 2016. Of interest to me was her visit to the Pool of London, where she would berth alongside HMS Belfast. I decided to head down to London and watch her arrive and say my goodbye to her.

Upon arrival in London I went to see the RMS arrive on the 7th of June, and it was quite an emotional moment for me.

On the 8th I revisited Kensal Green Cemetery, and afterwards headed into London once again to see the ship. I first visited St Pauls Cathedral, before heading towards the Thames. In the maze of streets I somehow ended up in Lombard Street, and saw one of the many churches in London, it was now the home of the London Spirituality Centre, or, as it was formerly known: St Edmund, King and Martyr.

During my visit the person manning the front desk showed me a number of wall memorials in the church, and she was very proud of a memorial to somebody called “Woodbine Willie”.

I had to admit that I had never heard of him before, but the nickname stuck in my mind because Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy was way too much for me to remember at once. Apparently he was the Rector of this particular church at one time. He got his nickname for his habit of handing out cigarettes to troops (Woodbines being a favoured brand).

I continued my walk down to the Thames to say my goodbyes to the RMS and the next day I returned to Tewkesbury to post my blog and recover from my short but exhausting London jaunt.

Yesterday, I visited Worcester Cathedral, and after seeing the cathedral walked through Worcester, and while I was walking I discovered a number of small bronze statues in the area. I did not pay too much attention to them, just read the names and took the pic. At the one statue I did a double take because the one statue was of Woodbine Willie!

I was even more amazed to discover that there is a memorial to him in Worcester Cathedral,

as well as an engraved pane on the Window of the Millennium.

“Woodbine Willie takes the light of Christ to the Troops”

On the 13th of March I returned to Worcester to close the chapter a bit more, walking to St John’s Cemetery where I photographed his grave.

As strange as it seems, this sequence really revolves around how things connected to each other, from the QE2 in 1986 to a forgotten and reluctant war hero in 2017. The key to it is really the RMS St Helena, without seeing Avalon the chances are I would not have recognised the name on the statue. Had I taken a different route in London I would not have seen the church, had I not stopped to look at a statute I would not have read that it was Woodbine Willie. Come to think of it, it is all really the fault of the QE2.

There is a stained glass window dedicated to him in St Paul’s Church in Worcester, that will be the last step of this journey.

Connections, they are all around us if we know how to tie them together.

3 Ships Month

11/02/2017

Heritage, Hobbies and Interests, Military, Retrospective, Ships, South Africa, War, World War 1

It was brought to my attention that apart from the HMT Mendi and the SAS President Kruger there is one more naval loss that really made February a month of disasters at sea.

HMSAS Southern Floe was one of the “little ships” that worked behind the scenes during both wars, often as minesweepers, convoy escorts, anti-submarine or any other number of crucial jobs that did not require a specialist vessel or a glamorous warship. In my meanderings I have encountered the memorial to HMSAS Parktown, and to be frank I had never really considered HMSAS Southern Floe until recently.

The ship was a Southern Class whaler, one of four ships taken over by the Navy from Southern Whaling & Sealing Co. Ltd., Durban. The four ships were renamed HMSAS Southern Maid, HMSAS Southern Sea, HMSAS Southern Isles and HMSAS Southern Floe.

HMSAS Southern Maid. (SA Museum of Military History)

Each was approximately 344 tons and were converted for anti-submarine operations and were armed with a 3 lb gun for’ard as well 20mm canon and machine-guns. The four little ships, with their complement of 20-25 men, “went up north” in December 1940. In January 1941, Southern Floe and her sister ship Southern Sea arrived at Tobruk to take over patrol duties along the mine free swept channels and to escort any ships through them.

On 11 February 1941, HMSAS Southern Sea arrived at the rendezvous two miles east of Tobruk, but there was no sign of Southern Floe; after all it was common for ships to be delayed by weather or mechanical difficulties or even enemy action. However, a passing destroyer notified the vessel that they had picked up a stoker from the vessel, clinging to some wreckage. The stoker, CJ Jones RNVR, was the sole survivor of the ship, and he explained that there had been a heavy explosion on board and he had barely escaped with his life. There had been other survivors but they had not been picked up and Stoker Jones had spent 14 hours in the water. Although never confirmed it is assumed that the vessel had struck a mine.

Some months after her loss the ship’s badge was picked up in the desert, possibly by a German or Italian soldier and had been kept as a memento. The badge was donated to the South African Naval Museum in Simon’s Town.

After the war Stoker Jones placed a memorial notice in the Cape Town newspapers. He continued to do this for many years until he also passed away

Roll of Honour. HMSAS Southern Floe

ANDERS, John, Steward, 69637 (SANF), MPK
BOWER, Robert, Stoker 1c, 69935 (SANF), MPK
BRAND, Leslie A, Able Seaman, 69828 (SANF), MPK
CAULFIELD, Patrick, Steward, 69802 (SANF), MPK
CHANDLER, Charles R D, Cook (S), 69613 (SANF), MPK
CHENOWETH, Richard, Stoker 1c, 67420 (SANF), MPK
FAIRLEY, Alexander E, Sub Lieutenant SANF, MPK
FRIEDLANDER, Cecil A, Able Seaman, 114703 (SANF), MPK
GARDINER, Elliott, Able Seaman, 67260 (SANF), MPK
GREENACRE, John H, Leading Seaman, 69677 (SANF), MPK
HEASMAN, Gratwicke E E, Engine Room Artificer 4c, 69784 (SANF), MPK
HOGG, Roy S, Sub Lieutenant, SANF, MPK
INNES, Ian Mck, Sub Lieutenant, SANF, MPK
MARSH, Reginald H Y, Able Seaman, 69911 (SANF), MPK
MITCHELL, William N, Able Seaman, 69787 (SANF), MPK
NEL, Eloff R, Able Seaman, 69635 (SANF), MPK
NICHOLSON, Douglas O, Able Seaman, 66833 (SANF), MPK
PUGH, John R, Able Seaman, 66877 (SANF), MPK
RYALL, David R, Able Seaman, 69999 (SANF), MPK
SHIMMIN, William, Leading Stoker, 69661 (SANF), MPK
SIENI, Joseph F, Able Seaman, 69788 (SANF), MPK
SNELL, Harold W, Leading Telegraphist, 69827 (SANF), MPK
STANLEY, Gordon J, Able Seaman, 66963 (SANF), MPK
WALTON, Dudley N, Sub Lieutenant, SANF, MPK

Sources:

http://www.saspresidentkruger.com/hmsas-southern-floe/

http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas2540-SANF.htm

Navy Day

04/02/2017

Hobbies and Interests, Military, Personal, Photo Essay, Ships, War, World War 2

My Triang Minic collection has been quite a popular subject on this blog, in fact there are a number of pages related to my 1/1200 and 1/1250 scale waterline ships. This page is really about some of the naval vessels that I have accumulated. Let me get this straight, modern warships do not really interest me, however, I do have a fondness for WW2 vessels as well as those strange pre-dreadnoughts that were in service when warships were a hodge podge of ideas with no real direction.

To start the ball rolling, I have managed to pay my hands on a few vessels of interest to me.

The first pair are members of the Daring Class of Destroyers: HMS Dainty and HMS Daring.

HMS Dainty is in front. Both these have been given a custom paintjob by their previous owner, and they made a great job of it too.

The other pair that I acquired are: HMS Vigilant and HMS Virago

This pair are “V” Class frigates, Vigilant is the ship in front.

I picked up HMS Whitby awhile ago, she is a Type 12 “Whitby” Class anti-submarine frigate.

as well as HMS Alamein, a “Battle” Class destroyer.

The modern Royal Navy does not have too many ships that make me want to swoon, but I really like the Duke Class frigates of which HMS Sutherland (F81) is one.

I have seen her one sister in real life,

HMS St Albans

and HMS Westminster (F237), seen here alongside HMS Belfast in 2013.

I am in the market for an HMS St Albans and will look for her when I am bored.

I also bought 4 “steam” tugs that were from the original Triang range. These had also been “customised” as naval tugs.

One of my current projects is to convert a “modern” Triang steam tug into something else. I am not too keen on the looks of the modern tugs, but they do make interesting bases for conversions.

The middle vessel is a “modern” iteration and it is very different from an original tug, my conversion is the vessel on the left. When/if I finish it I will paste a pic of it.

My other acquisition is the former SS Australis in 1/1250 resin cast. She has been on hiatus because her sizing is wrong, but I decided to start work on her anyway. I was toying with converting her into another iteration but never did. It is early days for her still.

This afternoon I started to paint funnels and decks, and tomorrow will give a second coat to the hull.

Progress so far. First coat of funnels is done although I may lighten them a bit, sports deck is done and mast is mounted, however, I may have to redo the hull because the sheer line is not where I have painted it so will have to redo the hull. The problem with the ship is not only her length, but her hull height too, dropping the sheer line may leave very little grey hull below. And of course I hope that the white will overcoat the grey.

I have established the sheer line on this side of her, but must wait for it to dry before doing the other side and of course then straightening any bumps. Hooray for trimline! I must also make an “X” for each funnel, easy to do but difficult to get right. I may end up redo-ing those X’s as they are not quite the way they should be.

I also acquired a Liberty ship

as well as the famous WW2 Tanker Ohio, of Operation Pedestal fame

The other ship that I dredged out was the Flower Class Corvette that gave me so many problems. I don’t see her in any of the posts that I have made, but in short the kit was a disaster and I eventually just finished it and put it on the shelf because I was really no longer interested in it. The paint job is half done and probably will never be completed. This is what she looks like.

However, I did not haul out the ships to take a few random shots, instead I sent them all back to their harbour and took some pics.

It was Navy Day today and the fleet was in.

Even HMS Vanguard was alongside, possibly to get her mast straightened?

The blue cruiser is HMS Swiftsure

and HMS Ark Royal was alongside too.

And then all of a sudden the fleet put to sea and we get a rare glimpse of HMS Bulwark and her escorts.

and a final battle group with HMS Ark Royal in it.

Their manoeuvres complete, the fleet sailed back into their display case leaving me to clean up the mess.

However, there was still a coastal convoy to push through before lunch time…

The Flower Class Corvette in the image above I got from Mick Yarrow Miniatures.

My real interest is in passenger ships and I did a diorama of them awhile back, so any more ship movements will not be happening until I have the energy to pack and unpack them all again.

Farewell HMS Illustrious

07/12/2016

Hampshire, Heritage, Hobbies and Interests, Military, Personal, Portsmouth and Gosport, Ships, United Kingdom

Tonight when I logged onto Facebook I saw the images of HMS Illustrious sailing on her final voyage to the breakers in Turkey. She is the last of her line, there will never be another like her. She is one of a multitude of ships that have come and gone over the years, become firm favourites with crew, family, friends and admirers. They exist for so many years and then one day that make that final voyage. Her sister, HMS Ark Royal made her final voyage on 20 May 2013, and when she sailed it was just a matter of time for Illustrious to follow.

I saw “Lusty” on 28 September 2014 when I was in Gosport and she was being destored prior to being laid up for possible further sale. The hope was that she would become a museum ship, but we all knew that it would never happen. Ships are expensive to preserve, and a ship her size would have really cost a packet.

I was fortunate enough to have seen both Ark Royal and Illustrious, but sadly I never saw them when they were the pride of the fleet, only when they were at the end of the line.

Fair weather for your final journey fair maiden, thank you for your courageous service to your country and crew. You will be missed.

Fleet Manoeuvres

26/11/2016

Cruiseships, Hobbies and Interests, Photo Essay, Ships, Transportation

Regular readers of this blog may have seen posts about my slowly expanding fleet of Triang Minic Ships. The fleet occupies 2 display cases and a smaller plastic box and has become somewhat too large for the few harbour parts that I do have. This weekend I hauled the ships out and set them up on my kitchen table and took some pics.

The ships alongside here are mostly Triang Minic in 1/1200 scale, although I did sneak in one or 2 1/1250 scale ships that fit in with the others. Only the smaller warships are in this layout.

The dominant ship in this image is the RMS Queen Elizabeth; she is one of my original vessels and I really want to buy one in a better condition. Also in view is the Ivernia, Flandre, 2nd Mauretania, United States and QE2, with the Pendennis Castle underway. The piers are lengths of stripwood while the cranes are all Triang issues.

The dominant ship here is the Caronia while the Nieuw Amsterdam is in front of the venerable Aquitania.

And while the Pendennis was sailing the Pretoria Caste was arriving

The two Union-Castle ships are part of my Union-Castle collection that was also in port on this reasonably sunny day.

Unfortunately, only while I was packing away did I realise that the Reina Del Mar was not in this image and was probably away cruising somewhere. I did rectify the matter in a later pic.

I also gathered the Cunard fleet together for a photo session.

I lined up the battle wagons for a rare airing too, fortunately they did not open fire on each other or there would have been bits and pieces all over the place.

My newest addition is the SS Australis, but she is in limbo at the moment as she is not scaled according to what she should be.

She may be returning back to her supplier, although I may keep her and finish her off anyway because I really did like the original ship.

The fleet is now back in its display, and the table has been restored to its former state. That was a lot of work, and I am not likely to do it again for a long time. I do have a smaller project on the go that may end up here, although sometimes my ideas are a bit better than the actual end result. Watch this space as they say in the classics.

Looking for Brunel

01/11/2016

Bridges and Rivers, Bristol, Heritage, London, Memorials and Monuments, Portsmouth and Gosport, Retrospective, Salisbury, Ships, Transportation, United Kingdom

Isambard Kingdom Brunel looms over the transportation system of Southern England, his influence left a legacy that can still be seen today, many years after his death. His influence on the Great Western Railway (GWR) is easy to find if you know where to look.

I suspect the first real discovery I made was when I found his grave in Kensal Green Cemetery in London in 2013

Image from 2016

My travels took me to Southampton, and inevitabley to Portsmouth too, and it was there that I found a monument to the engineer; that was unveiled on 7 April 2006 to commemorate the bicentenary of his birth on 9 April 1806 at Portsea.

From Southampton I moved deep into GWR territory and relocated to Salisbury where I used GWR trains quite regularly. The current station at Salisbury is not a Brunel building, however, the former GWR station still exists, albeit in a different role as the Railway Social Club.

A blue plaque proclaims the heritage of this small easily overlooked building.

One of my expeditions took me to Bristol in January 2014. And it was in this city that I encountered one of the very tangible relics of Brunel.

The SS Great Britain was one of the many ships I had read about as a child, I even remember seeing photographs of it on it’s way back to Bristol for preservation. Standing on the decks of this grand old lady was really something, It is however one thing to read about a ship like this, and a totally different thing to stand on board her. I have been hoping to get back to the ship, and almost got there in 2015 but got distracted along the way.

Bristol is also home to Bristol Temple Mead Station, yet another Brunel creation. However, the current building is not the original Brunel station. I have still to investigate the Brunel station, although it seems to be perpetually under renovation. The glorious wedding cake of a station that is currently in use was expanded in the 1870s by Francis Fox and again in the 1930s by P E Culverhouse. Brunel’s terminus is no longer part of the operational station. It stands to the left of the current station façade (where the coaches are). I do not have images of the entrance of the station yet, but hopefully one day.

Bristol also houses yet another Brunel creation, the magnificent Clifton Suspension Bridge that I visited in August 2015.

Between Bristol trips I was somewhere else, and while I was there I paid a visit to “Steam, Museum of the Great Western Railway” in Swindon. It was here that GWR had it’s locomotive workshops. You can also come face to face with the great man and one of his broad gauge creations.

Actually those drive wheels are from Brunel’s broad Gauge Locomotive “Lord of the Isles”, built in Swindon in 1851. They are 8 feet in diameter and weigh about 4 tons. Brunel was just over 5 feet.

Inside the museum I came to a replica of the 1837 “North Star”, and it is really a comparatively simple loco when compared to the machines that rule the rails 100 years later.

The original was purchased by GWR and ran one of the first trains between Paddington and Maidenhead in 1837. There is no consideration for crew comfort in this machine, although I am sure these locos did not break too many speed records. This locomotive was not a Brunel design though, but it was modernised to run on his Broad Gauge (7 ft (2,134 mm), later eased to 7 ft ¹⁄₄ in (2,140 mm)). Unfortunately Broad Gauge was not too good an idea and was not universally accepted and GWR had to change all of its rolling stock and relay its track down the line.

Leaving Bristol the train passes through Bath Spa, and the station there is also attributed to Brunel.

In June 2016, travelling South East from Cheltenham I passed though Swindon, Reading and finally into London Paddington Station which is where GWR terminated. The station today is quite a hodge podge of design, having to cater for the massive expansion of rail into the capital.

If you known where to look you will even encounter Brunel seated on a chair watching the comings and goings. What would he have to say about what they did to his station?

And if you tarried long enough in London you could always retire to your hotel that was a part of the station.

This imposing building is the London Hilton Paddington, or, as it was known: The Great Western Royal Hotel and it was opened in 1854.

And that sums up my Brunel discoveries for now, I know there are others, because most GWR stations had a hotel attached to it, and I am quite sure that Brunel was involved in at least one of them, but that is another exploration for another day.

Brunel was an engineer. He was a man who could turn his mind to bridges, ships and tunnels. He left behind a legacy that has endured, and his work will probably be here long after this blog has closed down. He created and designed and influenced, he was an inspiration, and the world sadly has been replaced by accountants who create nothing, or managers who could not manage their way out of paper bags, and directors who dip their hands into tills with alarming frequency. Where did we loose the engineers? why do we not have engineers that create on a scale like this? Brunel made mistakes, but his success outweigh his failures. He was a man of legend and we are so much richer because he was in the right place at the tight time.

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musings while allatsea

Musings of a curious individual