Glorious and Majestic old Warships

A photo of battleship Musashi surfaced recently in Japan. What we could see in the photo is Musashi firing her 46cm guns probably during her main guns trials. A superb and rare photo surfaced almost 70 years after the war! Too bad that many of such photos taken by the navy were burned in the fires or right before the Japanese surrender back in 1945. What a waste...

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Naval Today said:

On the 15th May 2015 Lt Cdr BJ Smith assumed command of the oldest commissioned warship in the world, HMS Victory.

In a brief ceremony held in the Great Cabin, Lt Cdr Smith became the 101st Commanding Officer and in keeping with tradition, signed the ship’s special record book.

Lt Cdr Smith’s previous employment was at Navy Command Headquarters where he was responsible for Surface Ships Force Development.

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You can get a feel for, and realize how old this ship is, when you consider that during the great battle of Trafalgar in 1805, Admiral Horatio Nelson's life blood was shed on its decks during his great victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets.

The vessel was already 40 years old (having been launched in 1765) when that battle occurred.

Miragedriver said:

How do you imagine the warships of the future? See how an American designer was imagining in 1940 the Battleship of the Future!!! From Popular Mechanics magazine of September of 1940

Back to bottling my Grenache

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There was hope at the time that the B-17 bomber would be able to hit battleships manouvring at sea. That might have been why such bombers were on their way to Hawaii on December 7, 1941. In the end even bombing the stationary Tirpitz was extremely difficult.

ARA Rivadavia was an Argentine battleship built during the . Named after the first Argentine president, , it was the of . was Rivadavia‍ 's only .

In 1907, the Brazilian government placed an order for two of the powerful new "" warships as part of a larger naval construction program. Argentina quickly responded, as the Brazilian ships outclassed anything in the Argentine fleet. After an extended , contracts to design and build Rivadavia and Moreno were given to the American . During their construction, there were rumors that the ships might be sold to a country engaged in the First World War, but both were commissioned into the Argentine Navy. Rivadavia underwent extensive refits in the United States in 1924 and 1925. The ship saw no active service during the Second World War, and its last cruise was made in 1946. from the naval register in 1957,Rivadavia was sold later that year and broken up for scrap starting in 1959.

Name: Rivadavia

Namesake: Bernardino Rivadavia

Builder: Fore River Shipbuilding Company

Laid down: 25 May 1910

Launched: 26 August 1911

Commissioned: 27 August 1914

Decommissioned: 1952

Fate: Sold to Italy for scrapping in 1957









Back to bottling my Grenache

I add here a reference to pictures, and text in Dutch, about the camels used in the approach to Amsterdam in the 18th and early 19th century. I see that the two camels used to lift a ship were connected by cables, not beams, and that the number of "waterschepen" used as tugs was smaller than I remembered.

A "linieschip" is a line-of-battle ship. "Waterschip" is the singular of "waterschepen".

I just read that these camels were invented in 1691.

Well, I just bit the bullet and put the money down to buy the 1/350 scale USS Texas, BB-35 battleship.

She served in world War I and World War II, and is the last surviving dreadnought ballteship, on display as a museum ship in the Houston area. She is a very historical vessel.

I visited the actual ship last year. see regarding that visit:.


Recently Trumpeter came out with the 1/350 injected molded platic model kit of her, and my favority online model shop. Free-Time Hobbies was having a sale on just receiving the new model kits. I coudn't help myself..


I am really excoited to build her and will have a thread for that build here on SD when the time comes.

Here's some more pics from the kit:










And here's a video of my visit to the real thing:

USS Texas, BB-35, in action in world War II:

Performing escort duties early in the war in the Atlantic.


Shelling Normandy on D-Day


Exchanging fire with the large German battery at Cherbourg




Preparing for action off of Okinawa

Well, I finished my 1/350 scale USS Texas, BB-35. She was launched as a US Navy as a dreadnaught battleship in 1914, served in World War I and World War II...in many major campaigns in WW2...and was then decommissioned and turned into a museum ship in 1948 and it quite the attraction down in the Houston area to this day.

Here's some pictures of the finished model:











This was a really enjoyable build. I have a thread in the Member's Club Room about the entire process of building the ship.

Here's a video my wife (and sweetheart), Gail, took of me climbing around on the USS Texas last year when we were down there for my annual checkup at MD Anderson.