The Australian site Bowning Shipyards offers a fiberglass hull of USS Cimarron, which was a T3-S2-A1 tanker. Four members of the Cimarron class were converted into Sangamon-class escort carriers and the Commencement Bay class was built from scratch based on a similar design. I'm not sure if the Bowning site still sells hulls or not since most of its products now seem to be available through Dreadnought Hulls. Cimarron isn't listed on the Dreadnought site but they do offer the T2-SE. The only Canadian supplier of tanker hulls I've heard of is Eric Broderick who had a T2 mould. As far as I know, none of Eric's hulls are available currently. I did find a comment on the SCRAP fiberglass hull list stating the "... T-2 Tanker hull that can be built as a Sangamon class CVE," so maybe the T2 and T3 are close enough to be used interchangeably.
I bought Eric's USS Sangamon, he built it using one of his Tanker hulls. Conways list the Sangamon at 553' which would be 46.08" in 1/144th. Just ran down to the basement and the model measures exactly 46.08". The Commencement Bay class is listed at 557' so the hull should be usable for both.
One Pacific coast liner the Museum sells plans for is SS Bear, it was 380' long, which is 31" in 1/144, so just a little bigger than the President Wakefeild. Here is a link with a picture: San Francisco & Portland Steamship Co. - Bear - Beaver - Rose City She had a sister ship called the Beaver which was purchased by the navy and used as a submarine tender up until the end of WW2, which would also make an interesting model. The SS Bear herself was wrecked in 1916 with the loss of 5 passenger lives. Another interesting Pacific Coast liner is the H F Alexander, she was a troop transport in WW1 under the name USS Great Northern. However, I do not know it they have plans for her. She is a bit bigger, about 42".
Here's a table I put together comparing the T2 and T3 families. The sizes I get for the T3 and Sangamon match yours, and the Commencement Bay is certainly close enough to the Sangamon to use the same hull. However, the T2-SE-A1 (by far the most common tanker) is 2.5 inches shorter in scale. This is a pretty significant difference, so something's not adding up when I hear the T2 can be built as a CVE.
Given the length of the hull HMCS measured, it would appear that Mr Broderic in actuality made a T3 hull. It's probably the same basic mistake I made.
The T3 is a two-prop ship, isn't it? This may give it an edge in survivability over the single shaft T2.
I know that the Sangamon class ships were 2 shaft, so I'd assume the T3's in general were 2 shaft. The single shaft ships would be more maneuverable I'd think. As for the Hog Islanders no idea. If you're looking at small gun in any variety, I would not recommend any kind of convoy ship as a first ship. Big gun is different, and they tend to recommend them.
Yes, the T3's were twin-shaft ships. In general, ships with a single powered prop shaft and twin rudders seem to be among the most maneuverable. I think the Hog Islanders are single-shaft but only single rudder. They are also fairly tubby hulls, so I'd expect them to be relatively maneuverable and pretty decent convoy ships.
OPS should have added some text with that photo. This is an old photo of my armed Liberty. I have lowered the stern gun. In truth, I have revamped everything but the hull since this photo was taken. On a different topic someone had asked about my ship, felt that it would not be proper to post the photo there.
Yes she was based on a real life ship. The only Liberty ship to sink an enemy warship in combat. That is why I felt it necessary to arm her. When the hull was orginally build it had so many lumps in it that they started calling her Lumpy.
Hey, it was my first attempt... but the ribs were lumpy. The dremel router bit thing just didn't work well. That there was a liberty named lumpy was a bonus.
No offense Mike! I am sure that my first attempt will be about the same! Lumpy will be on her shake down cruise here shortly. I believe that I have all of the bugs worked out. (Everything works fine in the dry dock. Who knows what will happen when she hits the water???)
After months of research and ship comparisons, I've decided to focus my efforts on the President Warfield (aka Exodus). It appears to be a pretty maneuverable little ship comparable to an LST or Liberty ship, so I think it will hold its own. I submitted a request to the Mariner's Museum to see if they can locate plans for the Warfield. We'll see how it goes!
Mariner's Museum struck out for President Warfield plans. They provided a lead on another possibility though.
The SS President Warfield began life as a Chesapeake Bay excursion liner when it was launched in 1928. It was never designed to traverse the oceans, or to cross swords with a slew of navy destroyers. It did both, and in the end became a legend in Jewish history. It saw service as the USS President Warfield in World War II, and then was bought as surplus for use in the Aliyah Bet “fleet.” After being refitted in Italy, President Warfield picked up 4,530 Holocaust survivors from Displaced Persons camps in Southern France. Under its new name Exodus 1947, it was intercepted in international waters off the Palestine coast on July 18, 1947, by five Royal Navy destroyers. It refused to obey the order to surrender and was rammed by two destroyers. Passengers and crew threw potatoes and cans of kosher meat at the British Marine boarding party. The British responded with tear gas, fire hoses and lead-weighted truncheons. The second mate of the Exodus and two passengers were killed in the two-hour melee. Exodus 1947 was towed in to Haifa harbor. To make an example of Exodus 1947, British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin ordered the passengers to be returned to France in three British deportation ships, rather than be interned in Cyprus, as was the usual procedure. In Port de Bouc, France, the passengers refused to leave their prison ships, and France declined to accept unwilling guests. After a three-week stand-off, the British ships weighed anchor and sailed for the British Occupation Zone of Germany, where the passengers were forcibly taken off in Hamburg and delivered to German Displaced Persons camps. The passengers of Exodus 1947 made daily headlines. The spectacle of Holocaust survivors being sent to a country that had authored and carried out the Holocaust enflamed world opinion against England and its Jewish exclusion policy in Palestine. Shortly thereafter, on November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted in favor of a plan to establish a Jewish state, alongside an Arab state, in Palestine.
