Calling all Fletcher-class (DD-445) fans

[Rick E Davis]

ussvf17 (what is your name?),

I don't have the Action Tonight book, so scans may help.

I don't know a great deal about the interior of the bridges of Round-bridge Fletchers ... I have never been on any of them, since none have been made into museum ships unfortunately. Destroyer History's website, linked to the NICHOLAS Organization website, has a large number of images of onboard views of the NICHOLAS and some of her sister O'BANNON ... http://www.ussnicholas.org/images.html ... there may be some views there.

I have attached a view of the Navigation Bridge showing the Pilothouse layout for DD449-451, I got from the BIW Engineering Drawings DVD (available from destroyerhistory.org ... store ), hopefully this helps us communicate. The layout of the bridges changed throughout the war, but I think the basic pilothouse layout stayed the same at least when looking at the drawings for the remaining Round-bridge FLETCHERS built at BIW. There was a hatch on the centerline that went into the Chart House, but what is mounted, if anything, on the bulkhead between the pilot house and the chart house isn't spelled out and there wasn't a section cut with that view in the drawings. You guys building the 1/144 scale kit are challenging the knowledge base.

[Sauragnmon]

I've been squinting over the writing in that plan view, and I find some of it interesting.

First to note, there's a girder that runs all the way along the centerline along the roof - it's noted as "girder above" and is a line with small crossbars on it.

The access hatch between the pilot house and the chart room is off-center to starboard of that girder - if you line up one edge with the girder, you're dead on. Hinges would be on the Chart Room side, as the hatch opens aft - all the hatches do, their swing is noted for clarity. Hinges are on the starboard side.

Also to note, there is one Open viewing hatch between the chart room and the pilot house, a circular viewing port over the chart table. This would indicate that the cabinet that stands out from the bulkhead would be of no more than possibly waist height - it's also ostensibly used for passing charts through, as there's a chart board on the forward bulkhead, a folding one, for charts in use.

Equally of interest, the Centerline window, second from centerline, and last window on the bridge are fitted with electric window wipers, both sides.

I can't decipher what the notations are on the two, I would surmise, cabinets that are set against the bulkhead to the chart room - Gear something is my guess, and it could well be an abbreviation.

That's all the insight that I can bring right now, from reading that plan - my eyes are going a little buggy for it. HTH

[les]

Rick,

I have a picture of USS Fletcher with the floater net baskets in front of the seachlight platform. Also have them in the back of the platform. I take it they were installed upon building in front. Do you or anyone else know when they were moved?

[Rotorhead]

Rick,

I certainly do thank you for posting those blow-ups of photos. They are a big help for detail.

Regards
Steve

[Rick E Davis]

I rotated and expanded the image focusing on the rear bulkhead. The "rectangular" boxes are actually hand "grab" rails. Also, note there is a step down from the pilot house into the chart room.

In the BIW Engineering drawings, there are two more Bridge layouts for other later ROUND BRIDGE FLETCHERS. The chartroom layout was revised each time and I suspect kept changing as more equipment kept being added to the ships. But, I didn't notice changes to the pilot house layout.




Les,

The first Federal-built FLETCHER class units (DD445-448) built had the searchlight platform on the aft stack and the floater net "baskets" built with wood slats were installed by the Navy Yard on both the front and aft edges of the searchlight platform(s) ... I posted some images on this earlier that showed the early basket. One of the things the USN did was play with where best to put floater net baskets. I read an interesting memo about the early practice of tying floater nets at the deck edge for easy access by crews in the South Pacific. But, officials wanted them up out of the way, fearing fouling crew movements. On units delivered after DD-448 well into 1943, the floater net baskets were deleted from the searchlight platforms as completed. Even when the searchlight platform was moved to the forward stack initially no floater net baskets were installed on the searchlight platform. On the West Coast as the destroyers were overhauled/upgraded in mid-late 1943, either the metal round contoured basket (see FLETCHER's 1943 image above) or the metal straight basket were installed on the searchlight and 40-mm director platforms. When completed and at least into March 1943, FLETCHER had the wood slat floater net baskets on both the front and aft edges of the searchlight platform. On at least RADFORD in early 1943, the baskets forward of the searchlight platform were removed. On the other hand, the early BIW-built units (DD449-451) did NOT have ANY floater baskets on the searchlight platform from completion until being upgraded with five twin 40-mm mounts.

I have not tried to figure out when baskets were moved or added, because it happened often. Best to try and find photos of the ship you want to model for the time period and use that configuration or take a guess based on sisters at that time.

[ussvf17]

Thanks for all the help guys

Below are some of the pilot house photos I can find:

1) A picture I found on http://www.ussnicholas.org. It shows the port side of the pilot house of USS Nicholas

Now compare to the scan from the book "Action Tonight" which shows port side of the pilot house of USS O' Bannon. I don't see how large radio? can fit into the space based on the USS Nicholas photo

Finally, this is the photo of the pilot house of USS Kidd I took.

[Rick E Davis]

That would be more like what I would expect to see on a WWII ship. Cables, communication gear, misc stuff stuck/routed every-where an unoccupied space existed.

The KIDD of course is a Square-bridge unit and was operational post-WWII and would be configured differently.

Looks like you are as close as you may get to an answer as to what needs to go on the bulkhead.

[AndrexP]

There was a hatch on the centerline that went into the Chart House...

A minor point, perhaps, but please note that in USN parlance, large, hinged vertical closures for personnel access are properly known as "doors", not "hatches" (e.g. WaterTight Door (WTD); AirTight Door (ATD), joiner door (NTD), etc.). Hatches are horizontal access closures that lead to a different deck or level.

Great pictures, by the way - thanks for those!

[Rick E Davis]

Sorry, you are right about doors vs hatches and I knew it ... just went brain dead.

[les]

Thanks for the info Rick.

[prowannab]

I was doing some research for the original paint on the porter. I found a good picture of the port side which I can use greatly, but on the porter's web page I found the starboard side pic and something didn't look right.If you look at the top pic ,and then compare to the bottom ,to me they seem to be the same ship. The bottom pic is hull#794 not the Porter. If anyone can help me with a starboard pic of the porter I would be greatly appreciative. Thanks for any and all help.

[Timmy C]

If you are basing your suspicion on the paint scheme, both Porter and DD-794 (USS Irwin) had the same scheme - MS 32/13D, according to shipcamouflage.com. Here's the design sheet for that scheme: http://www.shipcamouflage.com/DesignShe ... DD-445.jpg

[prowannab]

Timmy that is a lot of help as far as the colors go. I appreciate it. As far as the paint goes ,I think they both are the same measure but have different schemes of that measure. The top pic below is the Porter, the bottom the Irwin.

[Timmy C]

That looks like design 6D: http://www.shipcamouflage.com/DesignShe ... DD-445.jpg
It's entirely possible that a ship carried more than one pattern throughout her life (might even use port and starboard patterns from different designs, like USS Franklin CV-13), though the Shipcamouflage database does not indicate anything other than 13D - the database is always being worked on though, so it's not necessarily a final word on it.

[prowannab]

That's it that's it !!!!!!! God love you man. That is the best thing i've seen all day. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you.

[Timmy C]

You are most welcome. For future reference, here's the link to the SC database: http://www.shipcamouflage.com/camouflage_database.htm

[Rick E Davis]

A tiny bit to add to Timmy's post.

C. Lee Johnson has a book titled: USN FLETCHER CLASS DESTROYERS IN WWII DAZZLE CAMOUFLAGE. He has done research on the dazzle scheme that the FLETCHER class wore in 1944. He lists IRWIN and PORTER (as well as PRESTON) as both being painted in 32/13D with a note that PORTER maybe was in 31 or 32/6D at some point. As a note, for whatever reason, some ships were repainted from one scheme to another ... sometimes over a short period of time.

[falcon04]

Somewhere on the web is a site with some pics of Loren Perry's builds of the Charles Ausburne ( DD-570) from the Tamiya kit. One build was OOTB "as launched" and the second was later in the war with suitable mods - both built to illustrate use of his GMM p.e. set.

I failed to bookmark the link and for the life of me can't find it again - it was a "stumble on" found while Googling something else - Google no help - any help would be appreciated !

[carr]

..

[Sr. Gopher]

I'm sorry for butting in on your conversation, but, as one of my at least 10 planned projects, does anyone know where a guy can find pictures (or builds) of the Fletchers fitted with the catapaults? Thank You.