I owe y'all a post....

Things have been busy and progressing... I try and keep myself productive on things that feel like I'm adding something as opposed to just sitting on a couch watching TV. Sometimes blogging feels more like the later, but I need to remember that there is more to getting the word out than just monthly update pages.

Aside from a page I missed when scanning the original report and a caption I cut off, the BB-57 South Dakota battle of Guadalcanal damage report is not finished and ready for consumption. A damage report for CL-62 Birmingham in 1943 has been started but not finished quite yet... tracking for late March or April.

A new section I started on is US Navy WWII Carrier Air Groups organized by ship. This arose out of some work I've done for a book on the Essex class as well as the Dragon CVL model project. Currently it's being used as a format test of sorts for the Essex book, so it's far from full-fledged, but CV-9 Essex has her data for the entire war posted and CVL-22 Independence has all of 1943 posted. There will be lots of tweaks to these two ships before I settle down and start posting other ships, but in the interim if you have any feedback you're more than welcome to drop me a line.

I managed to make it down to the NARA branch in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. Like many trips this one ended with not much of what I had hoped to find, but much that was new and important. While I hesitate to consider R@L a damage report site, I find them fascinating for telling how dedicated the US Navy was at not only saving their ships from calamity, but also to learn from each one. So it'll take some work for me to balance out all of the new damage reports I spent about 4 to 4.5 of my five days there scanning in.

Navsource has already started receiving some of the photos I came across, so enjoyment for all!

Mare Island Battery Cart for Submarines, WWII

Came across these today at Seattle NARA and figured I'd pop them up here for the model builders who like dockside dioramas or those just generally interested in Mare Island Navy Yard. Below are photos of a portable charging station for submarines in WWII. The dimensions of the shed were given as a 8' by 24' trailer with the walls being 8' tall at the eaves and 9' at the peak.

Note that the windows on the two back walls are centered while the one closest to the door in the photo is not centered.

Pearl Harbor... 69 years and two days later

Been a busy month... still is. Essentially sneaking this in while waiting for some backups to finish.

To commemorate the 69th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, I posted three ship damage reports:

USS Tennessee BB-43
USS Vestal AR-4
USS Oglala CM-4

I also worked with Navsource to get them some new photos, most never published before. Ship pages that had photos added include:

USS California BB-44
USS Oglala CM-4
USS Oklahoma BB-37
USS Shaw DD-373
USS Utah AG-16/BB-31
USS West Virginia BB-48

Can't let a month go by without a post!

I've been remiss... it's been a busy month, and I like to have more tangible results than blog posts.

For the last two years or so I have been working with Dragon Models from Shanghai, China on a 1/350th Independence-class CVL. The kit is finally done and in final production... you can see their product page at http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA1024

Getting ready for this year's Pearl Harbor day... have Oglala and Vestal's damage reports just about done and am planning on having Tennessee's as well.

An Axe to grind

I think we've all seen them, and many of us (present company included) have been them; the internet user with an axe to grind. Be it a company that did you wrong, a sports team that is your favorite / the enemy, or a historical point of fact that you think you know a lot about, there are times when someone just will not let go of something.

So for that, I created the following graphic; feel free to use it on any forum or site that you think appropriate. And for those copy write lawyers from the future with an axe to grind because they think someone other than me copy-wrote the image, I released it on this day under the guidelines of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial License.

Challenge Update

I've finished the USS Enterprise Guadalcanal Damage Report other than the final proof reading. That is doable barring big blow-ups at work.

It's been interesting and sobering to read through as I work on it; her Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships Entry just says, " On 24 August a strong Japanese force was sighted some 200 miles north of Guadalcanal and TF 61 sent planes to the attack. An enemy light carrier was sent to the bottom and the Japanese troops intended for Guadalcanal were forced back. Enterprise suffered most heavily of the United States ships, 3 direct hits and 4 near misses killed 74, wounded 95, and inflicted serious damage on the carrier. But well-trained damage control parties, and quick, hard work patched her up so that she was able to return to Hawaii under her own power" but the report highlights more details that paint this in a bit more of a serious light to me:

This bomb detonated almost against the armor plate protecting the ready torpedo and warhead stowage, but no fragments penetrated the armor.

Had this armor not held and the torpedoes been exposed to the blast, what would have happened to the war?

If History happens and no one remembers, did it ever really happen?

My wife and I ate lunch yesterday on the cuise ship MS Rotterdam of the Holland America line. She was docked at Pier 91 in Seattle, former site of US Navy Base Seattle. While I was there, I shot some photos of the USS Green Bay LPD-20 getting under way and heading north. It was a hazy day, so the first shot is much hazier than we'd all prefer, but just imagine it clear in your mind:



As she headed west she became less back lit and stood out in better detail:



However, as I researched to provide some extra information in this post, it became apparent that Navy Base Seattle has been largely forgotten; The first two hits were from images I sent to Navsource some time ago, such as their LST-817 page showing the ship loading for the invasion of Okinawa.

In fact, it's not until you start looking for Smith Cove that you really start finding information out, such as that the house I shot below is known as the Admiral's House:



Looking South from the "Lido Deck" (deck 8) stern, we had a great view of the bulk carrier Tian Du Feng loading grain at the Port of Seattle 'Bulk Marine Terminal':



Other than my wife's iPod disappearing aboard ship, it was a pleasurable morning.