LEGO Day Preview on WVEC (Channel 13)

LEGO shipbuilding day at HRNM is this Saturday!

HRNM educator Laura Orr was recently on WVEC-TV Channel 13 Noon news to talk with anchor LaSalle Blanks about what we have in store for this event.


 When: Saturday, February 2, 2013
Time: 10am to 5pm
Where: At HRNM (2nd floor of Nauticus)
Cost: FREE

LEGO Ship Model Previews #6 and 7- USS Monitor and CSS Virginia

Shown above are our sixth and seventh preview models for LEGO shipbuilding day at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum. On the left is the ironclad USS Monitor and on the right is the ironclad CSS Virginia. The two ships were radically different approaches to ironclad construction. Virginia's designer went with a sloping armor in the shape of a casemate. John Ericsson, Monitor's designer, created a single revolving turret. The battle between these two ships on March 9, 1862, is among the famous battle in world history.

Throughout the rest of the Civil War, the respective sides used Virginia and Monitor as a model for future ironclads. The Confederacy built several more "casemate"-type ironclads, including CSS Tennessee, Albemarle, Arkansas, Virginia II, Richmond, Atlanta, and Fredericksburg. The U.S. Navy contracted for several dozen more monitor-type ships, but only commissioned about twenty. After the war, the U.S. Navy continued the monitor-type design well into the early 1900s, using steel instead of iron. Monitor-type ships were also used by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. Several nations around the world built "monitors." The name can refer to any warship that has a turret, a low freeboard, and is designed for coastal or river duty.

And don't forget--
When: Saturday, February 2, 2013
Time: 10am to 5pm
Where: At HRNM (2nd floor of Nauticus)
Cost: FREE!

LEGO Ship Model Preview #5- USS Wisconsin

Shown above is our fifth preview model for LEGO shipbuilding day at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum. This ship, USS Wisconsin (BB-64), is very familiar to our readers, as it currently docked in beautiful downtown Norfolk right next to the Naval Museum. The model is built as the ship looked in 1944, with the aircraft retrieval crane on the fantail of the ship.

For those not familiar with Wisconsin's history, she is the third of the Iowa-class battleships and displaces about 45,000-tons (USS Missouri, BB-63, was launched AFTER Wisconsin). Equipped with nine Mk7 16-inch/50 rifles, eighteen five-inch guns, and several dozen anti-aircraft guns, the ship was one of the most heavily-armed surface warships in history. Even more remarkable is the ship's engineering plant and hull design. Most battleship designs had to sacrifice speed in order to put bigger guns and/or more armor on. Wisconsin had the firepower and sufficient armor protection to stop an 18-inch shell and still manage 30+ knots of speed.

During World War II, she served mainly as a heavy anti-aircraft gun platform and protected the valuable aircraft carriers. She also unleashed her 16-inch guns during the Okinawa Campaign and on the Japanese home islands.

Wisconsin then served in the Korean War, providing support to the U.S. Marines and South Korean ground forces. Upgraded in the 1990s, she served one last combat tour off the coast of Kuwait and Iraq. She is now a museum ship under the care of the City of Norfolk and Nauticus. 

And don't forget--
When: Saturday, February 2, 2013
Time: 10am to 5pm
Where: At HRNM (2nd floor of Nauticus)
Cost: FREE!

LEGO Ship Model Preview #4- USS Norfolk

Shown above is our fourth preview model for LEGO shipbuilding day at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum (February 2, 10am to 5pm). This model is of the nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Norfolk (SSN-714). The boat is a first generation Los Angeles-class submarine.  Officially her stats are "Length: 360 feet Breadth: 33 feet Displacement: 6,900 tons Speed: Greater than 25 knots Depth: Greater than 800 feet, Complement: 127 officers and enlisted crew."

Built by Newport News Shipbuilding between 1979 and 1981, the Navy commissioned Norfolk into the Fleet in 1983. Norfolk is based at Naval Station Norfolk and is equipped with four torpedo tubes that are capable of firing either an MK48 torpedo or a Tomahawk cruise missile. She completed her most recent deployment in November 2012. While many of her sister boats have been deactivated, the twenty-one year old Norfolk is expected to serve at least another three years.

HRNM's model of USS Norfolk, built by Greg McKay

And remember.... 

When: Saturday, February 2, 2013 

Time: 10am to 5pm 

Where: At HRNM (2nd floor of Nauticus) 

Cost: FREE!

LEGO Model Ship Preview #3- USS Connecticut

Shown above is our third preview model for LEGO shipbuilding day at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum (February 2, 10am to 5pm). This particular model is the battleship USS Connecticut (Battleship Number 18). Launched in 1904, Connecticut helped expand the U.S. Navy's battleship inventory. USS Connecticut displaced 16,000-tons and came with a mixed battery of 12-inch, 8-inch, and 7-inch guns.

USS Connecticut is world famous for being Admiral Robley Evans' flagship for the Great White Fleet's world voyage. After this historic 1907-09 voyage, Connecticut served in the 1914 Vera Cruz expedition and later as a coast defense vessel in World War I.

And remember.... 

When: Saturday, February 2, 2013 

Time: 10am to 5pm 

Where: At HRNM (2nd floor of Nauticus) Cost: FREE!

LEGO Ship Model Preview #2- USS Ranger

Shown above is our second preview model for LEGO shipbuilding day at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum (February 2, 10am to 5pm). This particular model is USS Ranger (CV-4), a pre-war aircraft carrier built by Newport News Shipbuilding in the 1930s. USS Ranger has the distinction of being the first US Navy ship built specifically to be an aircraft carrier. Previous carriers Langley, Lexington, and Saratoga were all converted from hulls of other ships.

At a 16,500-ton displacement, Ranger was significantly smaller than some of the previous carriers. But designers still believed she could carry upwards of one hundred aircraft and serve as a squadron flagship. Before World War II, she spent much of her time in Latin and South America. In 1940, she served in the "Neutrality Patrol," an operation meant to keep German commerce raiders on the eastern side of the Atlantic. Once the United States officially entered the war in 1941, Ranger was deemed too vulnerable to serve in the high intensity naval aviation operations in the Pacific. She did, however, provide valuable service in the Atlantic with the 1942 invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch), anti-shipping raids off the coast of Norway in 1943 (Operation Leader), and as an aircraft transport for the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Read more about Ranger in Robert J. Cressman's USS Ranger: The Navy's First Flattop from Keel to Mast, 1934-46.

And remember.... When: Saturday, February 2, 2013 Time: 10am to 5pm Where: At HRNM (2nd floor of Nauticus) Cost: FREE!

LEGO Ship Model Preview #1-"Higgins"-type LCVP

Pictured above is the LEGO model of a Landing Craft Vehicle/Personnel, or LCVP. It was commonly called the "Higgins Boat" after its designer, master small boat builder Jack Higgins.

The "Higgins Boat" was a valuable war tool that solved the problem of how to land troops and vehicles close to land while under enemy fire. Higgins originally designed a small landing craft that the Navy called "Landing Craft Personnel, Large," or LCPL. The Navy discontinued it in favor of Higgins' LCVP design that incorporate features like an armored ramp, which dropped down when needed.

Read more about this craft and the myriad of other craft built for the Navy's "Gator Fleet" in this 1944 issue of Popular Mechanics.   You can also read how to use one of these crafts with the Navy's official user guide.

And remember....

When: Saturday, February 2, 2013
 Time: 10am to 5pm
Where: At HRNM (2nd floor of Nauticus)
Cost: FREE!

Ironclad USS Roanoke Ship Model

In HRNM's Civil War gallery are several ship models with an unusual-looking design. One of these is the ironclad USS Roanoke. Master ship model builder Greg McKay built the all-wood model and delivered it to the museum in 1987. The first quality a viewer might notice is that it looks like USS Monitor, except the USS Roanoke has three turrets and a big ram on the front.

Roanoke was originally a steam frigate of the same class as USS Merrimack and USS Minnesota. Shortly after the Battle of Hampton Roads, John Lenthall, the Navy's chief designer, got the idea that if the Confederacy could convert a ship like Merrimack into an ironclad, the U.S. Navy could do the same.  With the Secretary's approval, Lenthall sent shipyards and ironworks in New York City plans to convert Roanoke into an ironclad monitor-type warship with three turrets. Lenthall's design called for the turrets to be armored with single iron plates that were each 22 feet long, 4 1/2-inches thick, and weighed four tons. Each turret housed either XV-inch Dahlghrens or a 150-pounder Parrott Rifle. If that was not enough firepower, Lenthall wanted a "huge axe" on the bow of the ship in order to ram.

The conversion was a remarkable feat of American engineering.  Iron forges in four different states provided the huge plates to the Novelty Iron Works in New York City. Each plate then had to be heated and bent to correct curvature. In all, workers placed 1,000 additional tons of armor.

While she was a marvel of engineering, the brains at Scientific American magazine were skeptical of Lenthall's design. "If she makes nine knots, we shall be agreeably disappointed," they wrote.  "As the Roanoke will sit very low in the water, we hope that proper arrangements will be made for ventilation on the main deck.  The defects of the Galena and Monitor, so clearly pointed out in the Scientific American of last week, by an intelligent correspondent, will be reproduced in the Roanoke.  [This will render] her very deficient as a 'sea boat,' unless this advice is heeded."

Photo of Roanoke as an ironclad.

The advice was not taken.  The Navy charged forward and Roanoke put to sea as the most powerful warship in the world in June 1863. Sent to Hampton Roads, her captain quickly discovered what Scientifc American writers predicted.  Monitor-type ships in general did not have very good sea-keeping traits to begin with, and Roanoke had the worst of them all.

First, she lacked speed.  Scientific American was hoping for nine knots.  Captain Sanders, however, reported to Secretary Welles that the ship would not go more than five knots.  He concluded that he could "not consider the Roanoke adapted to fighting a battle at sea, on account of her rolling render her guns unserviceable and exposing her to shot below her iron plating."  All Sanders could recommend was that the ship serve as a coastal defense vessel.  Once she arrived in Hampton Roads, Welles did just that and ordered the ship to remain in the region for the rest of the war.  The Navy would not try to build a three-turreted warship again until the 1890s.