Any knowledge you'd learn while building boats?

DreamKnight

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Dec 8, 2009
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So you learn anything cool in your journey in building boats that pertains to the boat itself or the history of the subject?
 
Good question!

I have garnered great enjoyment reading/learning about my current subject (IJN Yamato) and the prosecution of the war in the South Pacific. What I found particularily interesting was narratives from survivors on both sides as they recount the same battles.

Imperial Japanese Navy battleships were VERY distinctive and, in my opinion, the most attractive... structurally speaking, of all the battleships with their "Pagoda" superstructures. The Yamato, in particular, had very significant cultural importance to the Japanese populace, both then and now.

One of the other interesting things I learned was on its final sortie to Okinawa to attempt to stem the US invasion there, the Yamato battlegroup was ordered to sea with only enough fuel for a one way trip. It was to be a suicide mission...the navy having adopted, in complete desperation, the Kamikaze philosophy with their ultimate flagship and symbol of national pride. The Yamato didnt make it half way there before being sunk...but it put up a |-|3LL of a battle, absorbing 18 torpedo hits and an estimated 40+ bombs from 300 US aircraft before the Golden Chrysanthemum on her bow slipped below the waves, taking with her 2500 sailors and the hopes of the Jap Navy.

One of my family duties is to take my 86 yr old mother (god bless her soul) to the library every Saturday afternoon so she can restock on reading material. My God that woman reads alot...anyway...I used to just sit and wait for her to pick out her volumes (and i DO mean volumes!) but when I started Yamato I thought I would look for a book myself about it and found Requiem of a Battleship: Yamato and its been a new book about the war in the south pacific about once a month for me ever since.

So modeling also got me back into reading...and appreciating what the veterans on both sides of the war went through. It was also a motivation for me to do the best job I could with my model given the historical significance of the subject.
 

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