From PeterD: USNavy 1898 (20 points)

Over the last couple of Challenges, I've been putting together the fleets for the Spanish American War in the hopes of one day doing a campaign.  This was inspired by a visit to Admiral Deweys' USS Olympia in Philly.

She pretty much sells the Pre-Dreadnought period for me.

I am down to filling in the gaps stage, and so here's some US Navy ships that were left in the lead pile.  These are all 1:2400 scale by Tumbling Dice, who do a nice range of well detailed ships for this era.

First up some heavies, the Battleship USS Massachusetts and the Monitors USS Terror and USS Amphitrite.  Massachusetts was a first rate man of war, but missed the big action at Santiago as she was off coaling at the time.  The monitors were pretty much left overs for the USN, they were laid down in 1874 but not completed until twenty years later.  Plus they had to be finessed past a miserly congress as being rebuilds of earlier Civil War era monitors.  They were slow, outdated and very poor sea boats, but they took part in the Spanish American War.  Both ships took part in the Bombardment of San Juan Puerto Rico, but had to be towed there by more modern ships.  They then were used to blockade Cuban ports.  They were miserable ships to work on, but least their crews didn't have to endure the crossings of the Pacific that two sister ships took.

USS Monadnock crossing the Pacific.  No need to swab the barf off the quarterdeck, the Pacific will take care of that.

The early US battleships were also low freeboard but not as low as the monitors.

Next up the Montgomery class cruisers USS Detroit and USS Marblehead and the Armed Merchant Cruiser USS St Paul.  The Montgomerys were built as peace cruisers, meant to police the Caribbean and show the flag.  They had a light armament and only a thin armoured deck, but had roomy accommodations for long cruises.  All three served in the SAW, Detroit being at the bombardment of San Juan and Marblehead bombarding Cuba and taking part in the capture of Guantanamo Bay. The USS St Paul was a trans-Atlantic liner taken over and armed by the US Navy and was commanded by Captain Sigsbee, previously of the ill fated USS Maine.   She was on blockade duty off Cuba and Puerto Rico and fought a duel with a Spanish destroyer off San Juan. 

While sisters, the Columbia had four funnels and the Minneapolis had two.  They were originally designed with three each, so I wonder if it was a delivery SNAFU.

Finally three protected cruisers.  The sisters USS Columbia and USS Minneapolis were built as commerce raiders and designed to look like passenger liners.  They were very fast, and had decent protection but were very lightly armed to maximize speed and range.  They became white elephants when the US Navy changed its role from that of wolf, preying on other nations (i.e. British) shipping to sheep dog controlling the sea lanes and protecting US shipping.  The USS New Orleans was an Elswick cruiser purchased from the builders just before the SAW.  Originally Brazil ordered a class of four cruisers, but only received one.  They sold one to the Chileans and the US snapped up the other two to keep them out of Spanish hands.  Only the New Orleans was ready in time for the war, but she was a fine ship and had an active war. 

That is nine 1:2400 scale ships for 18 points.  I hope to get increase that total over the 25 point squirrel threshold in the net couple of weeks.

 

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Sylvain: Very impressive description and very impressive painted miniatures! The information you provide make these ships feel more real. I like your oversized flags and I will give you 2 bonus points for that for a total of 20 points. Bravo!