Page 6. MAINE COASTAL NEWS December 2015 BLUEJACKET RELEASES TWO NEW MODELS
Model of the USS KEARSARGE.
SEARSPORT – There are numerous places along the coast of Maine that are dangerous to enter if you want to keep what is in your wallet intact. I could do a lot of damage at this spot in particular. I always love stopping by BlueJacket Shipcrafters in Searsport to see what they are working on. They have a number of incredible models in their show- room and recently they added two more in their display, the USS KEARSARGE and a 31-ton revenue cutter.
For the past couple of years I have been following the development of the models of the two Civil War warships, the USS KEARSARGE and CSS ALABAMA. CSS ALABAMA, under the command of Raphael Semmes, was built in England and was a Confederate raider that preyed on the merchant vessels of the Union. She captured a number of vessels, several from the State of Maine, forcing many merchant vessel owners to sell their ships under a foreign
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Model of the 31-ton revenue cutter.
fl ag. For months the U. S. Navy chased her all over the globe and fi nally cornered her at Cherbourg, France. On 19 June 1864 she came out and faced off against the Kittery-built KEARSARGE and in a short period of time she had sustained extensive damaged and sank. BlueJacket had hoped to have both models ready for the 150th
anni-
versary of that memorable battle, but to do all the research and develop the model took a little longer than expected.
Nic Demuck, owner of BlueJacket, said, “The KEARSARGE is the companion model of the ALABAMA that we released in March. A year before the battle, they had installed chain armor on the KEARSARGE over the working mechanisms of the steam engine and hide them with fake planks. In fact during the battle she took a hit in the armor, which probably saved her. Had the captain of the ALABAMA known she was armored he said he would not have engaged her. We have shown that with a reveal that shows the chain armor on the side along with the reveal of the rib structure and cross bracing and ceiling planks.
Al Ross, who developed the model, added, “I started it in 2012 with the intention of having both available to be released on June of 2014, but things intervened and it didn’t end up that way. Our version shows
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her as of the battle. She had several refi ts postwar. I am not sure exactly which one it was, but they modifi ed her heavily. They added a raised quarterdeck, extended the forecastle deck aft of the foremast, changed the armament and apparently even deepened the keel two feet. One of the odder things that they did on the original they had rigging screws instead of dead eyes. When they refi tted her they went back to dead eyes.” The end of October this model was shown at the Nautical Research Guild gath- ering at Mystic, Connecticut. They sold two kits there and a third one when they got back. One renowned modeler commented that if he was to build a model from a kit it would be from BlueJacket.
This is not a simple model, as Al ex- plained, saying, “ALABAMA is a fairly complexed model. It is intended to be that way for the building pleasure. On the KE- ARSARGE, like the ALABAMA, there is a lot of laser cut, lots of photo etch, a lot of pieces. On the KEARSARGE there are two 11 inch Dahlgren guns, each one of those consists of over 50 parts, mostly laser cut wood. It is not a weekend project and you certainly don’t want her to be your fi rst model.”
Continued on Page 20.
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