It's a Small World - the modelling thread.

[Pyan]

They wouldn't necessarily have bread, as by this time all Dreadnoughts baked their own on ship, but the lack of flour is puzzling. Possibly, as this is slightly cropped (as you can see by the onion cart on the extreme right), the flour was behind the onions and beside the eggs.

 

[Vertigo]

They wouldn't necessarily have bread, as by this time all Dreadnoughts baked their own on ship, but the lack of flour is puzzling. Possibly, as this is slightly cropped (as you can see by the onion cart on the extreme right), the flour was behind the onions and beside the eggs.

Yes flour rather than bread is what I would have expected. As you say, maybe cropped out. Also no rum but I don't know if this is a British ship or even if other navies had an equivalent.

 

[Foxbat]

They have cakes and biscuits but, apparently, no bread or flour?

They possibly used the biscuits instead. Hard tack maybe (made from flour and water). I'd imagine stuff like flour would not only be subject to contamination (weevils) but possibly moisture too.

 

[Pyan]

No salt pork, or lemons or lemon juice.

I think this is more of a "Wow, look at how much food is needed to feed our heroic Jack Tars every month..." picture rather than a serious infographic.

The picture is from “The Great War” Ed. Wilson/Hammerton (Amalgamated Press, 1918) - you can pick up individual volumes quite cheaply.

 

[Foxbat]

If it was a coal fired rather than oil fired ship, I could see the stokers burning up huge amounts of calories. Might account for the large amount of food.

 

[Pyan]

Yes, according to the details of the picture, it's a Bellerophon/ St Vincent class ship, which were built in 1910, and still coal-fired.

 

[Foxbat]

Those ships are like classic cars. They just have so much more character

 

[Pyan]

Those ships are like classic cars. They just have so much more character

You might enjoy this, then... (no sound)

 

[HareBrain]

They have cakes and biscuits but, apparently, no bread or flour?

The Marie Antoinette school of procurement.

 

[Foxbat]

Part of the reason I enjoy building models is because it often becomes a catalyst for gathering much more (useless?) information than you'd think. Take Chitose as an example. I've just started building and, like all ships of this scale, you have to make a decision early on about when to paint. This model is quite intricate so I've decided to go with a bit of modular building and paint each section as it is built. So far, I've built the open hangar with portico. I looked at other builds of this model online and I wasn't happy with the wooden deck colour. It looked far too dark to me. I have some Tamiya deck paint as used on the IJN carriers and it is much lighter. But every model I saw had this brown, almost ruddy colour, so how can they all be wrong?

I finally found the answer. The wooden decking is not wood at all. Apparently IJN cruisers and destroyers (Chitose is a kind of hybrid cruiser) often used linoleum to cover the deck rather than wood. And now it all makes sense about that odd colour.

Another utterly useless fact to clog my brain

 

[HareBrain]

Apparently IJN cruisers and destroyers (Chitose is a kind of hybrid cruiser) often used linoleum to cover the deck rather than wood. And now it all makes sense about that odd colour.

So they could have had any colour? Why not a nice blue and white check?

 

[Pyan]

The US Navy used lino on the decks as well, but ripped it all out after Pearl Harbour, as a fire hazard.
The RN used it on the bigger ships, under the trade name of 'Corticine'. HMS Hood used it on her shelter/boat deck:

 

[Foxbat]

The US Navy used lino on the decks as well, but ripped it all out after Pearl Harbour, as a fire hazard.
The RN used it on the bigger ships, under the trade name of 'Corticene'. HMS Hood used it on her shelter/boat deck:

And I’ve learned even more today

 

[Foxbat]

I wondered what linoleum actually was given how early in the 20th century it was in use. It turns out that it is made from stuff like linseed oil, pine resin, cork dust and sawdust. I always assumed it was a product of the oil industry.

It made me think that, in a way, perhaps the key to our future lies in our past and maybe we should give up vinyl and resurrect this organic alternative. I’m sure modern science could find many more uses than just flooring for this substance.

But the big question is: what kind of person harps on about linoleum.

I’m such a sad sack

 

[Pyan]

If you are, then that makes two of us...

I did wonder about the thinking of the shipbuilders, though - here we have the biggest warships ever built, armed with the biggest guns firing the most destructive shells ever. So what do they think is a good idea to coat their decks with? A material made of oil, resin, cork and sawdust...

 

[Foxbat]

As far as I can find out, it looks as if lino is cheaper than wood and will flex with the deck in rough weather without breaking or cracking.

 

[Vertigo]

If you are, then that makes two of us...

I did wonder about the thinking of the shipbuilders, though - here we have the biggest warships ever built, armed with the biggest guns firing the most destructive shells ever. So what do they think is a good idea to coat their decks with? A material made of oil, resin, cork and sawdust...

Thinking about it I guess they weren't that bothered. At that time they weren't that long out of all wood sailing ships and so, I guess, from a fire safety perspective, they were still better off than before!

 

[Foxbat]

I think that’s a good point. We probably need to look at the use of materials in the context of their historic availability. The fact that the US navy ripped lino out after Pearl Harbour is likely an indicator that not all of the material’s shortcomings were known at the time.

 

[Toby Frost]

I painted a plastic spaceship in a battered style. This is a model from Mantic Games. It's not incredibly detailed but it does the job.

 

[Pyan]

@Foxbat - did you say you'd aquired the IJN Akagi?

IJN Akagi - 1/700 Hasegawa