The Little World

Look up the history of the WW2 cruiser USS NEW ORLEANS at the Battle of Tassafaronga.

You’ll find that a Japanese 21″ Long Lance torpedo hot it at night and blew the bow off just aft of the first turret. The bow then rotated to port and passed down the port side of the ship, tearing great gouges out of the thing with the main gun barrels. One of the terrified sailors on an upper deck gun, clinging to the deck as it swept by, was my Uncle Jack.

The damage control parties sealed the fore part of the stricken cruiser as best they could and it retired to the protection of one of the islands nearby. Coconut logs were cut and fitted to make a jury rig bow and the ship tried to sail to Australia. The logs couldn’t stand the pressure and fell apart, leaving the cruiser with no alternative but to be towed in reverse to Sydney.

Even after having a metal stub bow welded on she still had to travel backwards across the Pacific to Puget Sound for a new, real bow.

Moral of the story? No matter what happens to your model in the construction, there is always something you can do to rescue the build. You may have to proceed in an entirely new direction, and that might be with a jury-rig or a patch or even steaming backwards…but you will come out woth something unique in the end.

The NEW ORLEANS became a ship with the bow of another cruiser welded to her basic structure. The yards had the front of the MINNEAPOLIS ready to mate with the damaged cruiser and it was ready in time for the the next year’s battles.