Here’s an aerial photo showing the barges that facilitated the transfer of wounded soldiers to Haven, obviously taken before the installation of the ship’s helipad.
One of the best items in my Vietnam War collection of stamps and covers is a Japanese postcard, posted by an American sailor from Haven after it had transited the Suez Canal on its way to drop off French Army survivors of the battle of Dien Bien Phu at Oran, Algeria and Marseille. Those prisoners had become POWs of the Viet Minh following the battle, which played a major role in ending French colonialism in Indochina.
no problem. was the shipping cost $12 or are you doing pickup? you are the 2nd Canadian that i know off that served in Vietnam as i worked with 1 during the early 80’s who was there with the 101st airborne.
Modelma’am knocked the shipping price down to $10. North Van’s not far but I don’t drive and don’t want to risk public transit, even though BC has very nearly flattened the COVID-19 infection curve through social distancing and wearing of masks in public.
I was still an American when I was in Vietnam, although I did not volunteer to go to Vietnam. I’d become a Navy hospital corpsman and was seconded to the Marines, which don’t have their own medical personnel. About 10,000 Canadians did volunteer for Vietnam. Those who survived, even if wounded, receive no benefits, and their records were destroyed soon after the war. My wife and I emigrated to Canada in 1969 and are now dual Canadian-American citizens.
You were sot of correct when you said “Hope is a Comfort Class ship. Her sisters are Comfort and Mercy. They have no real resemblance to the Haven Class.”
The deal is that we made a point to say USS Haven and SS HOPE, as SS HOPE was actually the former USS Consolation (AH-15), not to be confused with the Navy’s USS Hope (AH-7). You are certainly right that AH-7 was not similar to the USS Haven class.
Note - I capitalize SS HOPE because that was how it was painted on the side of the ship, but it doesn’t seem to have been any kind of acronym and it was a part of Project Hope, so I should try to write it in mixed case just like the name of a Navy ship.
I know I am late to the conversation. I would definitely do the rail removal thing. REVELL always told you in the instructions to paint the “Rails- Walls”? silver? Who ever would paint warship or other vessel rails silver, anyway? Even on the S.S. Lurline in the seventies the rails were white with Wood cap-rails.
This is a collective question. Looking at that photo, what color is the deck?
Looks a little pale to be Deck Gray, but the contrast of all that white could be throwing off the contrast, too.
Or, is that a green deck?
These were often MSC ships, even with “USS” names, and they often were more merchant painted than USN painted.
One thing is for sure, the half-yellow half rust color called out in the Revell instruction sheet is flat wrong.
I’ve never found more than a scarce handful of colour photos of any of the Haven-class hospital ships, but these links will show you two of the seemingly helpful ones:
I remember how surprised I was when I went aboard an American cruiser at Yokosuka, Japan to deliver a message. Sailors were holystoning the wooden deck, which was a soft, light grey, perhaps with overtones of brown. I also remember getting chewed out when I leaned against a bulkhead waiting for an officer to reply to the message. We corpsman weren’t always squared away!
Following advice in this thread, I ordered a Revell model of SS Hope in hopes of building it as the hospital ship U.S.S. Repose, where I had surgery following my being wounded in Operation Utah in South Vietnam in 1966. Yesterday, our letter carrier called to say he’d left a package for me in our apartment building’s mail room. I went right down there to retrieve it, and was pleased to see that it contained my SS Hope model. However…
When I opened the box, out slid a model that certainly wasn’t SS Hope. It was the “atomic cruiser” USS Long Beach. I immediately sent a message to the dealer, via eBay, and he immediately apologized for his error and said he would get back to me. He did, several hours later, saying that he would “try” to find the SS Hope model, and that he wasn’t sure it was worth having me return the Long Beach model, unless it was the only one he had in his stock! I’m sure that I’ll eventually obtain an SS Hope model, but I am just a little irritated! Ebay sales don’t always go smoothly, but I’ve never hae one that was screwed up that badly. And I may end up with a Long Beach model that I don’t want.
You can bet that the seller felt terrible for sending something different from what you had arranged.
Was this Long Beach in the plain white box with just a paper picture glued on? That was the wayRevell sent their Master Modeler Club offerings, many years ago. Many years ago (but some less than “many many”) I got a couple of those - a Long Beach and a harbor tug. Don’t think I have opened them yet. I assume they have the right kits inside…
Here’s Haven, whih what appear to be Deck Gary decks
Then, this one, of Repose, seems to show the 100 and 01 Decks in Deck Gray, and the 02 and above decks in tha “wood” color. (Which, frighteningly enough, seems to resemble the Sand Yellow + Rust color recommendation by Revell–unless those aew redwod decks, maybe?)
All of these VN era photos of Repose show here without the green stripe, which is curious.
I think there’s are explanations for the odd colours in these photos.
The photo of Haven seems to me to be a black-and-white photo that has been rather badly coloured by hand or perhaps with a computer. If you enlarge the photo, you can easily see that the red crosses are not even close to being “squared away”:
You can even see parts of the cross that weren’t covered by red, and look tan; I think this is an old photograph, “sepia-toned” by age, that someone has tried to “accurize”. In addition, there is a very blotchy cross midship on the topmost deck, and an odd “Christmas tree” antenna “decorated” with red blotches that are apparently supposed to be lights.
The “green stripe,” I’m thinking, is actually an age-toned dark grey stripe. I don’t think it was painted like the “red” crosses — the stripes’ edges are perfectly straight and parallel. (During the Vietnam War, Repose didn’t have any stripes on the hull, red or green. Other Repose photos, from the 1950s show only the crosses, too.)
Before the advent of inexpensive, accurate colour printing, there were professional artists who used watercolours and oils to colorize black-and-white photos. This photo of the Haven wasn’t coloured by a professional!
Now about that Repose photo: There are no obvious, distinct shadows, so the day was probably lightly overcast, which is excellent for photographing high-contrast subjects. The upper decks are well lighted by the sky, whereas the lower decks are lightly shadowed by the overheads and therefore appear darker than the upper decks.
I’m sticking with the “theory” that Repose’s decks were wooden.
Bob
P.S. I’ve now seen a similar image of Repose similar to the one at the top of this post. I’m now convinced that some postcard company hand-painted a black-and-white photograph of Repose so they could publish “color” postcards. That technique is not at all uncommon, although it’s usually done with more finesse.
Navsource has a series of pictures taken on commisioning day for the Repose. These show a wood deck on the level that had the whelen davits and perhaps others. As to the color, it would appear that the steel decks were painted white and perhaps the wood as well.
