Newsletter Volume 43, Number 10, Oct
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Newsletter Volume 43, Number 10, Oct. 2016 Contacts Work in Progress President: Don Dressel (909) 949-6931 September 21, 2016 E-Mail: [email protected] Reporter: Dave Yotter Vice President: Bill Schultheis (714) 366-7602 AUCTION NIGHT FOR THE E-Mail: [email protected] Secretary: Paul Payne OCTOBER SMA MEETING (310) 544-1461 Treasurer: Larry Van Es SO DON’T BRING YOUR MODELS (714) 936-0389 FOR THE WORKS IN PROGRESS - E-Mail: [email protected] BRING YOUR ITEMS FOR AUCTION! Editor, Don Dressel (909) 949-6931 908 W. 22nd Street USS Swordfish (SSN-579) – Dave Yotter Upland, CA 91784-1229 USS Swordfish (SSN-579), a skate-class E-mail: [email protected] submarine, was the second submarine of the United Web Manager: Doug Tolbert: States Navy named for the swordfish. The contract to (949) 644-5416 build her was awarded to the Portsmouth Naval Web Site Shipyard of Kittery, Maine on 18 July 1955, and her keel www.shipmodelersassociation.org was laid down on 25 January 1956. She was launched on 27 August 1957 sponsored by Mrs. Eugene C. Meeting – Wed. Oct. 19, 7 PM, Riders, and commissioned on 15 September 1958 with Red Cross Building, 1207 N. Commander Shannon D. Cramer, Jr., in command. Lemon, Fullerton, CA. 92832 Name: USS Swordfish Ordered: 18 July 1955 Officers meeting –Wed., Nov. 2, Builder: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard 2016, 7 PM, Bob Beech’s house, Laid Down: 25 January 1956 130 Clove Pl. Brea, CA. 92821 – Launched: 27 August 1957 (714) 529-1481. Commissioned: 15 September 1958 Decommissioned: 2 June 1989 Struck: 2 June 1989 Fate: Submarine recycling program General Characteristics: Class and Type: Skate-class submarine 1 Displacement: 2,570 long tons surfaced 2,861 long tons submerged Length: 267 ft 7 in. Beam: 25 ft. Draft: 22 ft. Propulsion: 53W reactor Speed: 18 knots Complement: 87 officers and men Armament: 8 X 21 in (530) mm) torpedo tubes. Swordfish was the fourth nuclear submarine built by the US Navy. USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the first followed by USS Seawolf (SSN- 575). Seawolf was the second nuclear submarine, and the only US submarine built with a liquid metal cooled (sodium) nuclear reactor known as the Submarine Intermediate Reactor (SIR) or Liquid Metal Fast Reactor (LMFR). The Skate-class submarines were the United States Navy’s first production run of nuclear-powered submarines. They were an evolution of the Tang-class in everything (except their propulsion plants), which were based on the operational prototype USS Nautilus. The four Skate-class boats re-introduced stern torpedo tubes (6 forward, 2 aft). Although among the smallest nuclear-powered attack submarines ever built, the Skate-class served for many years, with the last being decommissioned in 1989. USS Skate (SSN-578) was the first to surface at the North Pole, on 17 March 1959. Skate and USS Sargo (SSN-583) were built with the S3W reactor, Swordfish and USS Seadragon (SSN-584) also had the S3W reactor in the S4W reactor plant – same machinery in an alternate arrangement. The Skate-class were designed as economical production nuclear-powered submarines (SSN’s), and thus were smaller and more austere than their ground-breaking predecessor Nautilus, whose high cost had raised concerns. They were designed before Nautilus demonstrated the advantages of sustained high underwater speed, thus their designed speed was about the maximum speed of the conventional Tang class. Their S3W reactor was a scaled-down version of Nautilus’ S2W reactor with about half the power output; it was known as SFR (Submarine Fleet Reactor) during development. A slightly modified version known as S4W powered the second pair of Skate-class boats. Unfortunately, scaling down the reactor did not reduce the weight of reactor shielding proportionally, and it was eventually realized that further downsizing was impractical. Their armament was the same as the Tangs, six bow and two stern 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. Like the Tangs, the stern tubes had no ejection pump, and could only be used for swim-out weapons such as the Mark 37 ASW homing torpedo. The quest for a high submerged speed and improved sonar led to the subsequent Skipjack and 2 Thresher classes becoming the model for further development. Your reporter served aboard Swordfish while home ported in Pearl Harbor during 1964 and 1965. The model of Swordfish was made by Mel Douyette of Cold War Submarines in 1:192 scale. The hull is of cast resin with aluminum masts. The model has since been installed in a case made for it by Plexidisplays at 700 East Lambert Rd, Ste J in La Habra, Cal. – www.plexiDisplays.com. This is the same plexi-glass establishment that Dave used to make the plexi-glass for his very large case to house the Philadelphia, which was on display at the recent NRG Conference in San Diego. Good job, DAVE! Halifax – Don Dressel Don brought in his completed Halifax with all the masting and rigging completed on the model. The masting and rigging was based on the plans by Harold Hahn of the Halifax along with information obtained from the book The Colonial Schooner 1763 – 1775. The spars were turned down using my long bed Sherline lathe, first cutting the spars in square section. All spars were Degame (lemon wood). The rigging line was obtained from my “stash” of linen rigging line obtained over many years of purchasing the line, since I did not have the time to use my rope walk to actually fabricate the line. The case was obtained in parts from Lloyd Warner (he no longer makes cases) and assembled by myself, with some added assistance given by Lloyd in the way of jigs to use in making the case. The plexi-glass was purchased from the same source as Dave Yotter used, namely Plexidisplays as indicated above. The flags were made by Gus Agustin using his usual method, which also saved me some time. The model was completed and cased in time for the NRG Conference in San Diego on October 6, 7 and 8 and was a very successful conference. More details will be provided on the NRG Conference next month in the SMA Newsletter for November. Container Ship Mary Arctica – Burt Goldstein Royal Arctic Line A/S (RAL) or Royal Arctic is a seaborne freight company in Greenland, wholly owned by the Greenland Home Rule Government. It was formed in 1993 and is headquartered in Nuuk. Royal Arctic operates cargo routes among the Greenland settlements and between Nuuk and Aalborg in Denmark and manages 13 harbors in Greenland as well as the Greenlandic base harbor in Aalborg, which serves as the source for all European shipping to the island. Seaborne traffic from North America goes to Reykjavik aboard Eimskip, whence it is 3 carried to Greenland aboard Royal Arctic. In 2011, government concessions accounted for 76% of the company’s income. Royal Arctic Linietrafik operates the company’s fleet, currently consisting of ten ships – six container ships and four “settlement ships” – with five more under construction. The three largest ships – the Naja Arctica (782 TEU (Twenty-foot equivalent units)), Nuke Arctica (782 TEU) and Mary Arctica (588 TEU) – are principally used for the Aalborg route. The Irene Arctica (424 TEU), Arina Arctica (283 TEU) and Pajuttaat are used within Greenland and have equipment for unloading in cities without harbors. All these container ships are double-hulled and built with high freeboards and the highest ice ratings: the Mary Arctica has even been chartered for Antarctic service. The settlement ships Angaju Ittuk, Anguteq Ittuk, Aqqaluk Ittuk and Johanna Kristina are all older and smaller (220-320 m3) and used for supplying the smaller ports. One of the new ships is considered Mary-class and will have a capacity of 606 TEU. Of the four others, two will have 108 TEU and two will have 360 TEU capacity. Bert’s cardstock model of the container ship Mary Arctica is built in 1:400 scale. The kit comes from a Polish company, JSC. This made the model more difficult as the instructions were in Polish. Even the photos proved to be poor and difficult to interpret. Bert credits years of cardstock modeling experience to being able to overcome the difficulties presented by this kit and it took about one and one-half months to complete. There was no baseplate included in this waterline model’s design. Consequently, to keep the hull from warping it had to be constructed symmetrically across the hull. The cargo was built in units of six by four container unite and seven by three container units and are removable. Here again the photos were the only help as the written instructions were impossible. Zerstörer 1 (D170) – Burt Goldstein USS Anthony (DD-515), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was laid down on 17 August 1942 at Bath, Maine, by the Bath Iron Works Corp.; launched on 20 December 1942; sponsored by Miss Alice Anthony and Miss Frances Anthony, granddaughters of Sergeant Major William Anthony; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 26 February 1943, Lieutenant Commander Blinn Van Mater in command. Anthony earned seven battle stars for her World War II service, and was awarded a Navy Unit Commendation for heroism during the Okinawa campaign. She was placed out of commission, in reserve, in 1946. In 1958, the destroyer was loaned to the Federal Republic of Germany, and renamed Zerstörer 1. She was returned to the United States custody and simultaneously struck from the Navy list in 1972 and sold to West Germany for cannibalization and scrapping. The ship was stricken in 1976. She was sunk by U-29 as a torpedo target in the Mediterranean on 16 May 1979.