Page 6. MAINE COASTAL NEWS October 2010 BLUEJACKETS BUILDS MODEL OF 1950S STATE OF MAINE
SEARSPORT – The is one place I always enjoy stopping in to see what is going on is at BlueJacket Shipcrafters across from Hamilton Marine in Searsport. Since January I have been watching Al Ross scratch build a model of the STATE OF MAINE, which was at Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) in the 1950s and 1960s.
BlueJackets was contacted by the Class of 1960, who wanted to commission them to build a model of the STATE OF MAINE, which they would give MMA for their fiftieth year graduation gift.
Ross’ first hurdle was to locate what material was available on the vessel’s design. Ross explained, “Originally it was a navy hospital ship. There were three in the class: COMFORT, HOPE and MERCY and this one was COMFORT. Her sistership, MERCY, went to the New York Maritime Academy and became EMPIRE STATE III. I am not sure what happened to HOPE.”
“Apparently they had been considering this for sometime,” said Ross, “and were unable to come up with drawings. The Acad- emy didn’t have anything. However, through the good old boy system, I came up with a booklet of general plans, which is a standard navy set of drawings. The hull was a C-1-B, so I got the lines plans from the Smithsonian. The general arrangement plans were for the MERCY, but one of the members of the Class of ’60, Charlie Briggs, was the unofficial pho- tographer. He sent me 35 or 40 transparencies that he had taken of the ship during that time period. So with the various references I was able to draw a set of plans to 1/96 scale, 1/8th inch to the foot, and come up with a reason- able approximation of what the ship looked like in that time period.”
The next hurdle was creating all the parts and pieces. Ross explained, “Everything had to be scratch built because we normally don’t work in, or our kits are not normally in 1/8th inch to the foot scale. So aside from some bitts and blocks, and a few other items, everything had to be scratch built. This project led itself well to laser, because there is a lot of air ports and windows on this ship. So I drew up plans for those and our laser person converted them into laser drawings and then lasered the parts and pieces. The winches are combina- tion of laser and turned aluminum and brass. All the lifeboats are cast resin with laser inserts. The king posts are all brass telescop- ing tubing soldered together.”
One aspect that was interesting to deal with was the vessel’s size, which was 53 inches long. The hull is 5¼ inch planks lami- nated. “It is heavy as hell, added Ross. “It wasn’t difficult it was just lots of it.” What Ross did find interesting is that like all his models that he is working on he develops a website so people can follow his progression. He said that almost no one fol- lowed this project and he really did not know why. Even the class did not pay too much attention to what was going on. When the model was nearing completion late last spring Briggs came in and made some suggestions, which he thought other class members might remember more. “There were quite a few changes, not huge major structural changes,” said Ross “For instance when it was hospital ship the lifeboats were in two tiers and when the Academy got it they only kept one tier of boats. They also moved the ready launch, which had a different set of davits, from the aft most position all the way forward to behind the bridge. I am not sure
A bow view of the model of the STATE OF MAINE being donated to MMA.
why, but that is what they did. They made some changes to the access ports from the side of the hull too. She was pretty stock, looking at least from the outside.” Something very different was the hull. Ross explained “Typically on more modern merchant vessels the waterline and the bot- tom of the hull are parallel. On this one, I started looking at the plans, something didn’t look quite right and I discovered she actually was angled down aft. It looked a little bit odd to have it set up that way, but the Navy plans were that way, the maritime commission plans were that way. So that is what it is.” The model was delivered to MMA the end of September and would presented by the Class of 1960 at the Homecoming Week- end in October.
When asked if he liked this project, Ross said he did enjoy building this one. She was also a model in the showroom that garnered
a lot of attention and thus they were sorry to see her go.
With this model complete, Ross has three others underway in his shop. He is building the ARLEIGH BURKE (DDG 51), which is a time and a half bigger than the kit they offer. He is also building a J-44 sailboat and a Luhrs 33 powerboat.
When asked if there was a new model coming out soon, he said he did not know. He does figure the next model will be in their classic workboat series, but what will be decided by the higher ups. However, he is not worried he is more than busy with his current three projects.
And if you are looking for a winter project, BlueJacket’s certainly has a line of great models to build. The next time you are at Hamilton Marine stop over and just see what they!
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