Robert E Peary

Built by Joshua Henry Ironworks, Sunnyvale, California.

In 1940, Great Britain stood alone, fighting the Axis Powers, and after nine months of war had already lost one million tons of shipping that had been sent to the bottom of the Atlantic by German U boats. The U boats were sinking ships faster than the British yards could build them.

In September 1940, a British Merchant Ship-building Mission, headed by a representative of J. L. Thompson & Sons of Sunderland, was sent to the U.S.A. with the sole motive of ordering ships to be built there. To speed up possible production, they brought with them the Thompson designed "Dorrington Court" plans, and so it was, with slight modifications that the Liberty Ships came to be built.

A total of 2,700 ships were constructed and whilst "built by the mile and chopped of by the yard" they are credited with saving not only Great Britain, but in the Allied cause, the whole world from disaster.

The model shown is of a standard armed cargo ship serving with the United States Navy.

Details of the kit

Scale 1/96 Length 1 384m Beam 185mm Sailing weight 16kg

The large one piece fiberglass hull of this model, with its belt detail, gives a vast amount of space, with plenty of access through the 5 holds. It makes an ideal model for those who wish to add working features such as lights ,sound ,smoke, and even music. It will all go into this cavenous hull.

As in all the kits in our range many fittings of cast metal and plastic, the boats, ventilator cowls and funnel are supplied as vacformed plastic mouldings. A large battery will fit into the midships section, giving a long running time and this model steers very well for its size. She is fitted with the "split rudder" as in the prototype.

A full size plan is included in the kit, along with a set of comprehensive instructions, stainless steel propshaft, proptube, and rudder.