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[Jerome Morris]

Check out my latest acquisition. Her name is Fra Berlanga, a ship from the United Fruit Company circa 1945, No history on the model yet.

[cos918]

hi there. Wow thats big. Is that a ex shipyard builders model. Are you going to do a full restoration to her.


john

[dougal99]

I guess that won't be a sideboard model then. 

Best of luck with the project

Doug

[Colin Bishop]

That's an interesting looking model. My SS Granada of 1925 was a United Fruit Co. ship. You can see the resemblance.

There are plenty of Google references to Fra Berlanga.

Colin

[DickyD]

Nice photo Colin, how come we dont have more, you miserable g** ?   

[Jerome Morris]

The intention will be for a full up restoration. Possibly a ride in model...plenty of room you know.
 The model WAS aboard the Liberty ship John W. Brown. and used as a teaching aid years ago when the Brown was  part of the New York school system. The good Captain of the Brown say's he remembers a box full of parts stashed away on the ship......the Brown's ONLY 400+ feet long.....It should be easy enough to find a box...Right?
 I suspect that this model is indeed a shipyard model. The detail of inked deck planks and such is spot on.
 I also suspect the model was in pretty good shape till they started to move the Brown around on the high sea's, the cradle was totally destroyed, so I think the model became  loose on a steel "tween" deck and went where ever the roll of the ship took her.

[Colin Bishop]

This was the best model I ever made Richard. Everything is 100% scratch built except for the anchor chain. It got a Silver Medal at the 1981 ME Exhibition and after 5 years on the regatta circuit it now sits in a glass case in my living room. I often look at it and wonder if I can ever get back to that standard. These days it would probably only get a certificate as it's nowhere near the quality you see from people like Brian King or Alex McFadyen. It still gives me a lot of pleasure though as it's a proper ship.

Colin

[Colin Bishop]

Best of luck with the restoration process Jerome. I hope you can get sufficient information to restore her to her previous glory. I found it quite difficult (almost impossible!) to get information on United Fruit ships when I built my model but maybe there are more sources available these days. Do keep us informed of progress. There are quite a few people on Mayhem who would be very interested.

Colin

[Arrow5]

Nice find, that`ll make two manned models in Maine. (The other is a 30ft Graf Spee.)  We want pictures, we want pictures , we want....... !

[herrmill]

You could always modify it into a tanker, rename her Altmark & then team up with Graf Spee. 

Logically, that would then lead to someone building HMS Exeter, Ajax & Achilles so you can relive the Battle of River Plate. 

Chuck

[Jerome Morris]

But Herrmill, I don't want to have some other ship firing rounds at me, and have her go down. I will leave her as a fruit ship, you know steaming in southern climes with the smell of bananas wafting thru the air.
 A couple of funny quotes from the United Fruit day's:
 Every banana a guest, every passenger a pest!
 If you go fruit! Go United
 $100 bucks a month and all the bananas you can eat.  I think they had low wages at the time with a statement like that.

[herrmill]

True, undoubtedly a better choice & besides, you'll find much better rum on those banana boats.   

[Jerome Morris]

Some more photos.
http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q147/photosjeromemorris/Fra%20Belanga/

[Arrow5]

Jerome, good selection of photos. That is about the state of my Invincible when I inherited it from the RN except for the condition of the paint. Yours looks like it has the original paint since new. I was lucky in that there was about 20 coats of good quality navy paint, I presume applied regularly as each show season demanded. She was over 30 years old when I got it.  Your superstructure I think should be redone completly from plans or photos and as lightweight as possible. I see your deck is 1&1/8th" thick, very heavy, reduce that by half at least I think.  Can you see any fixings (screws, nails etc) ?   Most of the ones on mine were near powder, just rust skeletons of what had been a nail. Luckily the wood was of top quality and only one internal former was affected by woodworm, this was replaced. The transom was/is a beautiful 7ply (red and white layers) piece that must have been part of the navy yard specialty stores. We are all dying to see the internals of your project.  Agree with your epoxy opinion.

[Colin Bishop]

Jerome,

You've certainly got a job on there! I see that the loading doors in the hull, which are typical of reefers, appear to have been drawn on the hull rather than actually fitted. However they would have been flush with the side of the ship but the hinges appear to have been external. Certainly a lot of research needed before you attack it!

Colin

[Stavros]

Cor just the job for LLanberis lake,you bringing her along to the North Wales Boat rally next year



Stavros

[Ghost in the shell]

i think even mini steve's svitzer powerful will struggle with that baby !

[tigertiger]

You have found yourself a great project Jerome.

You don't see a model like this very often.

[Garabaldy]

When i get around to getting a driving license im going to take on a prject like this.  I love big models.  Im quite jealous actually!  Where do you find models like this?

[Bryan Young]

Jerome, good selection of photos. That is about the state of my Invincible when I inherited it from the RN except for the condition of the paint. Yours looks like it has the original paint since new. I was lucky in that there was about 20 coats of good quality navy paint, I presume applied regularly as each show season demanded. She was over 30 years old when I got it.  Your superstructure I think should be redone completly from plans or photos and as lightweight as possible. I see your deck is 1&1/8th" thick, very heavy, reduce that by half at least I think.  Can you see any fixings (screws, nails etc) ?   Most of the ones on mine were near powder, just rust skeletons of what had been a nail. Luckily the wood was of top quality and only one internal former was affected by woodworm, this was replaced. The transom was/is a beautiful 7ply (red and white layers) piece that must have been part of the navy yard specialty stores. We are all dying to see the internals of your project.  Agree with your epoxy opinion.

Just a quickie...but on one refit (Fort Austin) over 200 tons of paint was removed. Horrendous noise, but at least the "Load Lines" and the Fresh Water Allowance started to match up again!. BY.

[Bryan Young]

When i get around to getting a driving license im going to take on a prject like this.  I love big models.  Im quite jealous actually!  Where do you find models like this?

I was once offered a 12' long model of a Leander frigate and a similar sized "Ark Royal" (WW2) for nothing..if I could take them away. But I believe they were just scrapped. This was from MoD (Phoenix). These items come up now and again, but I haven't a clue how to go about contacting the relevant department. Good luck.

[Colin Bishop]

They were probably training models Bryan. When I visited the Britannia Naval College earlier this year, the curator of the model collection said that many models had just been disposed of when no longer required (ship no longer in service). I got the impression that there had been no particular policy, if they were taking up room that was wanted for other things, out they went!

Luckily the College now takes more enlightened view.

Colin

[Jerome Morris]

Guy's, I picked this model up from the Project Liberty ship John W. Brown, For FREE, I just had to go to Baltimore and pick it up, a little over 550 miles ONE WAY, so Free is relative in this case.
 And actually my nephew was the one that made the trip, I gave him some Maine Lobsters for his trouble.
 Believe it or not, I cannot find any fastenings on the deck that suggest it is screwed down to the hull. Perhaps it is pinned? and glued. I don't know and will not find out till spring, or warmer weather anyway. The shop it's in is heated with a wood stove but, It gets quite cold when the fire is out...bone chillin' actually.
 I can't burn all my friends wood while he's in Florida, though I'd like to. So for now all I can do is look her over and wait for spring.
I have thought I would cut the original deck away and put in it's place 1/2" or 3/4" marine grade plywood. And then draw new deck seams on that. be a hell of a lot easier then trying to fix what is there.

[Arrow5]

Jerome is it possible to estimate from the weight of the hull just how hollow it is?  If bread&butter construction the top layer may be the deck ie maybe two or three inches thick ! What were you showing with the tape measure ? That looked like the deck. 

[Jerome Morris]

Arrow, The reason I know it's hollowed out is on the starboard side at the turn of the bilge there is a section / plank missing. It's about 4 feet long. I stuck my hand in and the hull at that point is about 2 1/2" to 3" thick, the bottom plank is also about 3" thick. I'm guessing 600# because three of us slid it off a bunk trailer with a little resistance, Two of us couldn't move it alone.
 And yes Arrow, the tape measure is showing the thickness of the deck, perhaps it is thicker, but we won't know till the deck is removed.
 I'm contemplating cutting a hole in the deck this Sunday the 28th, so I could get some decent photos for view. I can safely cut a hole where the hatch cover should go, since there is one missing on the fore'deck.
 Off course who knows what the weather will be on Sunday, this past Sunday I was headed down to the Garage, to eat, drink and watch the New England Patriots play the Arizona Cardinals AND admire my boat, but the snow storm was a little too much to risk the 16 mile trip.