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Title (Dublin Core)
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Model ship show world's navies
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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Title: Model ship show world's navies
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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Fd ONLY five-ocean navy in the world, which
has taken seven years in the building, assem-
bling and equipping, now lies ready for any kind
of naval engagement involving any number or
combination of numbers of the principal naval
powers—the United States, Great Britain, France,
Germany, Italy, and Japan. It comprises not
only the fighting ships, submarines, destroyers,
aircraft carriers, light and heavy cruisers, and
capital ships, but such auxiliary vessels as mine
layers and sweepers, tugs, tenders, barges, and de-
pot ships, and a collection of merchant vessels that
range from the Queen Mary to a Chinese junk.
This huge fleet adds up to more than 1,700
vessels of all types and descriptions. Its admiral
is Norman Bel Geddes, industrial and stage de-
signer and streamliner of the circus, who is by
way of being a naval tactician of parts and some-
times spends His spare hours in sea battles with
American naval officers he numbers among his
friends.
The five-ocean navy consists of models of all
the fighting craft listed in Jane's Fighting Ships,
the foremost source book of naval vessels, and
such other source material as Mr. Geddes can
acquire. The ocean on which they move is a 20-
foot square table of cement, built at a cost of
$1,500, and irregularly raised to simulate mid-
ocean conditions, with smooth areas representing
inlets and bays.
The hulls of the ships are made of brass and
the superstructure, armament, and planes are
also of brass. All the models are to exact
scale, with one inch representing 100 feet.
The Queen Mary, largest of the merchant
vessels, for example, is 9 5/8 inches long,
with a beam of 1 1/8 inches and a height, to
the top of her stacks, of 1 1/2; inches. The
largest of all submarines, the French Sur-
couf, is 3 1/2 inches long. The British battle-
ship Nelson, of the Rodney class, with three
forward turrets of three 16-inch guns each,
is 7 inches long, and has a beam of 7/8 of an
inch. Her big guns are about 3/8 of an inch
long. The naval barges are 2 1/4 inches long
and the small river tugs are tiny things, of
1 inch in length or less. The fleets are com-
plete as of the outbreak of the war. They
lack the newest warships, such as the great
North Carolina and Washington, recent ad-
ditions to the United States capital ships.
These are about to be added to the collection.
The navy and its oceans have a value of sev-
eral thousands of dollars. [CONTINUED]
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Contributor (Dublin Core)
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Photographs by Norman Bel Geddes Studios
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Language (Dublin Core)
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Eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1941-11
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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116-119
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public domain
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Sami Akbiyik
Popular Science Monthly, v. 139, n. 5, 1941
