135 years ago today, on March 16, 1889, a cyclone destroyed a squadron of the Imperial Navy and the US Navy in the port of Apia, Samoa. The two navies had each sent three ships to Samoa as a show of force. They were joined by a British corvette. All three imperialist superpowers were trying to annex Samoa as a colony. The US Navy sent the corvette USS
Trenton and the sloops USS
Vandalia and USS
Nipsic - only the latter was beached and later salvaged, the other two ships were destroyed by the storm.
USS
Trenton was built in 1875-77 and was the last of the US Navy's wooden-hulled cruisers. She was armed with ten 20.3-cm (8") guns and four 4.7-cm (3-pounder) guns and, in addition to all her old-fashioned features, had modern ones such as electric communication between the captain and gunners and electric lights.
The model is based on the 1883s plans from the National Archive in College Park provided by Tracy White. Thank you very much!
The model is scratch built from various plastic plates, metal rods and various parts from all kinds of sources. The 20.3 cm guns (converted 28 cm (11") Dahlgren) are 3D printed parts from
Mulsanne's Model Corner.
More about the original and model here:
Corvette USS Trenton (1/700, scratch built)Here, the unfinished hull:
More photos:
And a comparison of the
Trenton (1877, ten 8" guns guns) with the protected cruiser USS
Olympia (1895, four 8" guns) and the heavy cruiser USS
Wichita (1939, nine 8" guns):
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FAQ
I have not attempted to depict her during or after the cyclone. I wanted to show the ship still complete. Before the cyclone, the rigging was likely reduced.