Model Boat Mayhem
The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Working Vessels => Topic started by: Walter Cooper on May 02, 2009, 01:47:21 am
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Hello friend's.I have decided to build this kit as it has been sitting around my house for a few years because I was unable to sell it.It is RC compatable but Im probably am going to keep it a static build many delicate parts The kit is mostly plastic with a one piece ABS hull,wooden decks and various brass fittings.Im going to have to pick up some plastic cement because I have not built a plastic kit in years . Here is abit of history about the ship.Calypso was originally a wooden-hulled minesweeper built for the British Royal Navy by the Ballard Marine Railway Company of Seattle, Washington, USA. She was made from Oregon pine.[2]She was a BYMS (British Yard Minesweeper) Mark 1 Class Motor Minesweeper, laid down on 12 August, 1941 with the yard designation BYMS-26 and launched on 21 March, 1942. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy in February 1943 as HMS J-826 and assigned to active service in the Mediterranean Sea, reclassified as BYMS-2026 in 1944, laid up at Malta and finally struck from the Naval Register in 1947.After World War II she became a ferry between Malta and the island of Gozo, and was renamed after the nymph Calypso, whose island of Ogygia was mythically associated with Gozo.Jacques- Yves Cousteau's Calypso (1950–1997)The Irish millionaire and former MP Thomas Loel Guinness bought Calypso in 1950 and leased her to Cousteau for a symbolic one franc a year. Cousteau restructured and transformed her into an expedition vessel and support base for diving, filming and oceanographic research.Calypso carried advanced equipment, including one- and two-man mini submarines developed by Cousteau, diving saucers, and underwater scooters. The ship was also fitted with a see-through "nose", an observation chamber three meters below the waterline, and was modified to house scientific equipment and a helicopter pad. Cheers Walter
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A few more photos :-)
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Thanks for sharing Walter, this looks like a very interesting build! O0