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Horst Wessel

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  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Sunday, April 12, 2009 1:26 AM

That Minicraft kit is a reissue of the Imai one.  Imai did a rather large series of 1/350 sail training ships in conjunction with the "Tall Ships Race" that culminated in the big "Parade of Sail" for the U.S. bicentennial, in 1976.  (Geez I with that phrase "tall ship" would disappear.)  They're actually pretty nice kits, bearing in mind the limitations of the scale.  I think, though, that Imai used the same hull for several of them - the Eagle, the Sagres, and at least one other, as well as the Gorch Fock.  (The Gorch Fock in question, by the way, is actually the second ship of that name - quite similar to the original, but considerably newer.)  As usual, Imai didn't recognize the length difference.  I imagine they're all based on the Underhill plans - but that's an assumption on my part.  I haven't looked at the kits in quite a few years.  If that's the case, the hull is about 20 scale feet too short to represent the Horst Wessel/Eagle accurately.

According to the calculator I have in front of me, 20 feet on 1/350 scale amounts to 11/16".  Whether that's enough to worry about is, of course, a decision for the individual modeler to make.  My guess is that few people other than obsessive readers of this Forum would notice.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    October 2003
  • From: Superior, WI
Posted by fuhrman on Saturday, April 11, 2009 4:08 PM

Prof. Tilley,

Thank you for the detailed reply.  I have the 1/350 kit Minicraft kit which is sold as the Gorch Fock.  Having read a blurb about the Horst Wessel serving as a cargo ship in the Baltic and claiming a couple of aircraft shot down I thought it might be interesting to build this kit as the HW.  You've saved me some frustration I am sure.  Much appreciated,

Bob Fuhrman

Bob Fuhrman
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Saturday, April 11, 2009 1:14 AM

Some years ago I had occasion to do quite a bit of digging into the history of this ship - which, for the benefit of anybody who doesn't already know it, is now the U.S. Coast Guard's sail training ship, the Eagle.  My memory (as usual these days) is pretty hazy about some of the stuff I found, but I can't recall bumping into any photos of her in her German days other than a few overall shots.

I do seem to recall, in some book or other, a short series of pen-and-ink sketches drawn by one of the German naval cadets on board her.  I think one of those sketches included an anti-aircraft gun crew shooting at an enemy (Norwegian?) seaplane.  It may have been in this book, which I think is the most recent on the subject:  http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=Barque+of+Saviors , but I'm honestly not sure.

I did get copies of a few of the original (German) builder's drawings, including an inboard profile.  I'm pretty sure that if it had shown any gun mounts I'd remember them.  I think she did in fact carry a handful of light anti-aircraft weapons after the war started, but that's about all I recall with any certainty.

She's a fascinating ship.  Modelers of her working from kits (plastic or wood), however, have a problem.  As we've discussed several times here in the Forum (a Forum search on the word "Eagle" will yield quite a few informative posts), there's been a widespread, long-term, entirely accidental misunderstanding about her dimensions.  She was one of several nearly-but-not-quite identical steel barques built for the German Navy in the 1930s.  All of them looked quite similar but were of different lengths.  The late Harold Underhill published a set of plans for one of them, the Gorch Fock, in his book Sail Training and Cadet Ships.  The text of the book included the dimensions of all the ships in the class, but they weren't listed on the drawings themselves.  The drawings got published separately, and were sold by numerous outlets as representing both the Gorch Fock and the Eagle (ex-Horst Wessel). 

The problem with that tactic is that the Gorch Fock (later taken over by the Soviets and renamed Tovaritsch), was about twenty feet shorter than the Horst Wessel (later Eagle).  I think the discrepancy - or most of it - was taken up between the raised forecastle deck and the mainmast.  It isn't obvious from photos of the two ships, but it's there - and Mr. Underhill knew it.  It needs to be emphasized that he never intended to deceive anybody into thinking his drawings represented the Eagle.  (Neither did the Coast Guard; it was the former Coast Guard Historian, Bob Scheina, who first pointed out this common misunderstanding to me almost thirty years ago.) 

Unfortunately, though, it seems that almost every commercial kit that claims to represent the Eagle has been based on those Underhill plans.  That includes the old 1958 Revell version (which, ironically, is currently being sold by Revell Europe under the name Gorch Fock), the 1/350 one from Imai (which is currently available under either the Minicraft or Academy label), and every wood Eagle kit I've encountered.

The one exception is the excellent plastic kit on 1/200 scale by Imai.  It was originally issued in the late 1970s (I think), apparently in fairly small numbers, and is quite hard to find nowadays.  If you're lucky enough to lay hands on a 1/200 Imai Eagle, though, that's the one to get.

I do know of one quite visible difference between the ship's wartime and postwar configurations.  When she was built she had the characteristic German "double spanker" rig on her mizzen mast.  (The spanker had two gaffs, the lower one about halfway up the hoist.)  The lower gaff was removed shortly after the Coast Guard acquired the ship, and she sailed for many years with a single spanker.  In a fairly recent refit (in about 1990, I think) the double-spanker rig was reinstated.  When I was on board her in 1994 (gathering data - in a huge hurry - for the drawings I was making for the CG Historian's Office) the boatswain told me that the double-spanker rig was actually easier to handle; he considered it a big improvement.  But I'm pretty sure that second gaff isn't included in the 1/200 Imai kit.

Unless something else shakes loose from my unpredictable old memory, I'm afraid that's about all I can offer.  Sorry.  A model of her in her World War II configuration would be of great interest. 

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    September 2005
  • From: Groton, CT
Posted by warshipguy on Friday, April 10, 2009 8:36 PM

According to German Warships of World War II by J. C. Taylor, no armament is listed for the Horst Wessel.  However, that book was published in 1966; there may be more current information of which I am unaware.

Bill Morrison

  • Member since
    October 2003
  • From: Superior, WI
Horst Wessel
Posted by fuhrman on Thursday, April 9, 2009 4:23 PM

As there always seem to be plenty of knowledgeable sailing ship enthusiasts here-does anyone know of a source for the wartime configuration of the sailing vessel Horst Wessel.  Other than a mention of 2 AA guns fitted during her time as a cargo ship in the Baltic I cannot find anything on the web about her configuration pre-Eagle.

 Thanks for looking-Bob Fuhrman

Bob Fuhrman
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