u/Hot_Layer_8110

https://i.redd.it/7q5g7xk2p5wg1.gif

About 5.5 pounds.

The World of Warships team spends 800 hours on a single ship model. Five months on Fiume alone, arguing over a ventilation lid shape, checking photos to confirm a rangefinder swap after a 1930s refit.

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Then they tried to put 32 of them in a book and the models broke on paper. 300 DPI on coated stock shows every texture seam the screen hides. So all 32 got rebuilt from scratch, each locked to a specific year, so you'd actually want to sit and study them.

2,500 character cap per spread, eight original illustrations, no stock art. 40 people on the team read through it before print. Most of them got lost in it.

So did I.

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My thing with ships started in the 90s when I first saw Quint's monologue in Jaws.

Three minutes about the Indianapolis the bomb, the torpedo, the sharks, 900 men in the water.

That scene cracked open a world I didn't know existed. Indianapolis is in this book. Chapter 5.

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And every page is like that. Stories I didn't know.

I'm Max. I got the chance to bring this book to a bigger audience, people who love ships and history the way I do.

If you already have this book, what's your favorite chapter? Mine's Belfast.

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The saturation divers who recovered 5 tons of Soviet gold from HMS Edinburgh in 1981. They lived at 800 feet of pressure for weeks to cut through the cruiser's armored hull, 39 years after she was sunk in the Barents Sea.

HMS Edinburgh (16), a Town-class light cruiser, was scuttled in the Barents Sea on 2 May 1942 while carrying 5 tons of Soviet gold. 431 of 465 bars were recovered 39 years later at 800 ft depth. "The salvage of the century." 1941 [1381 x 663]

The British Town-class light cruiser HMS Edinburgh was scuttled in 1942 carrying 5 tons of Soviet gold and salvaged in 1981 from 800 feet beneath the Barents Sea. Divers recovered 431 of the 465 gold bars in what became known as "the salvage of the century."

when the cats are cold and there are no benches around

Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag under tow through the Bosphorus, Nov 2001 bought by a Hong Kong shell company for $20M as a "floating casino," she became the Chinese Liaoning after a 15,000-mile odyssey. [1436×709]

The Soviet-built heavy aviation cruiser Varyag (Project 1143.6) under tow through the Bosphorus, 1 November 2001. She would eventually become the Chinese Liaoning (CV-16). [1280 x 720]

China bought a Soviet aircraft carrier for $20M to build a floating casino. The shell company had no phone number. Macau couldn't fit it. Turkey blocked it for a year. A storm broke the tow and it drifted for 4 days. It went around Africa because the Suez was too shallow. Today it launches jets.

Anyone here actually run Reddit ads for a Kickstarter? Worth it?

USS Phoenix survived Pearl Harbor without a scratch, fought the entire Pacific war, was sold to Argentina in 1951 as ARA General Belgrano, then sunk by a British nuclear sub using torpedoes designed in 1925. First ship ever sunk by a nuclear sub. [2000 x 1125]

TIL the USS Phoenix survived Pearl Harbor without a scratch, fought the entire Pacific war, was sold to Argentina in 1951 as ARA General Belgrano, then sunk by a British nuclear sub using torpedoes designed in 1925. First ship ever sunk by a nuclear sub.

How much does 170 years of cruiser history weigh? About 6 and a half pounds.

After a torpedo blew off 150 feet of the USS New Orleans' bow in 1942, the crew built a replacement from coconut logs and sailed her backwards 1,000 miles to Australia. The severed bow was found on the seafloor 83 years later.

TIL after a torpedo blew off 150 feet of the USS New Orleans' bow in 1942, the crew built a replacement from coconut logs and sailed her backwards 1,000 miles to Australia. The severed bow was found on the seafloor 83 years later.

After the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed in 1945, roughly 900 men went into the water. Only 316 survived. The Navy court-martialed the captain. A 12-year-old kid's school project got him exonerated 55 years later. [3975 × 2181]

TIL a kid watched Jaws in 1996, got obsessed with Quint's WWII monologue, interviewed 150 real survivors, and testified before Congress at 14. A wrongly disgraced Navy captain was exonerated. All because of a 2-minute scene about sharks.

After the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed in 1945, roughly 900 men went into the water. Only 316 survived. The Navy court-martialed the captain. An 11-year-old kid's school project got him exonerated 55 years later.

After WWI, the German fleet sank their own ships at Scapa Flow so the British couldn’t take them. 52 ships went down in one day! The Brits were mad, but also kind of relieved they didn't have to share the fleet with Allies. Germany even made a medal to remember the "honor" of the sinking.

TIL that the first airplane to ever take off from a ship launched from the cruiser USS Birmingham in 1910. Eugene Ely flew a fragile curtiss biplane off a wooden platform built over the bow. The ship was only armed with two 5-inch guns but it accidentally started the aircraft carrier era

In 1864, French tourists took a train from Paris to watch a naval battle between two American Civil War ships off Cherbourg. Hotels were booked out. Spectators lined the cliffs. Manet painted it 26 days later from newspaper accounts alone. [969 x 1031]

TIL the captain of the Confederate raider CSS Alabama captured 65 Union merchant ships in 22 months, was rescued by a British yacht after his ship was sunk off France, escaped to England, and after the war became a seminary professor, newspaper editor, and was elected judge but barred from serving.