Ships Lighting (Help)

[Kevin ShiresParticipant @kevinshires72481]

I started my ship modelling with a 1:72 scale Revell corvette kit namely the Snowberry. Converted this to R/C with several additions eg. sound modul, signal lamps (Morse message is:- UBOAT CONTACT AM ATTACKING) controlled by a PIC, and rotating gun turret. Now I am in the process of converting another corvette kit into the HMCS AGGASIZ. Apart from rotating gun, sound etc. I am fitting the ship out with virtually full lighting and my question is :-

This ship itself has, amongs others, external lights as follows, NAVIGATION, fwd. mast Head FLASHING LAMP and CRUISE LAMP, aft mast STEAMING LAMP and a OVERTAKING lamp on the rear deck of the engine house.

Does anyone know under what circumstances and in what combination these lights are used. I am trying to control them individually so as to represent a ‘real world’ condition. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

By the way my first ship (HMCS SNOWBERRY) sails very nicely and IMO Revell have produced a very good plastic kit with this model, even if the fittings need some trimming and scratch building the hull must be among one of the cheapest to buy in the R/C ship world. 

[merlinParticipant @merlin]

  Kevin

Under wartime conditions at sea, No Standard navigation lights would have been shown ( red green or white ) and all scuttles would have been shuttered  Closed Bridge and wheelhouse lighting when used was subdued blue or red, open bridges were not lit and any lit instrumentation was masked heavily, indeed in some ships even smoking on deck at night was banned

A stern showing light was sometimes allowed if the vessel was leading in a convoy, if so allowed it was blue and the total angle of view was 11degrees PtoS and 11 degrees vertically from horizontal to keep the fields narrow from subs and aircraft  some american ports allowed standard lighting in the port environs some were restricted, as far as I know all UK ports followed  strict blackout rules. I must confess I have no Idea what a flashing lamp could possibly have been used for,   Sorry if this makes for a dark model, but there was a war on you know! 

Hope this helps      Merlin

[Kevin ShiresParticipant @kevinshires72481]

Thanks merlin for your info. I do realise that at the time these ships were sailing there was of course a war going on. The corvette which i am representing (AGASSIZ) has all the above mentioned lights fitted as per. the book The Flower Class Corvette – AGASSIZ by John Mckay and John Harland. My intention is to have the lights operating (war or no war) hence my question regarding which lights would show under which sailing conditions. I rather think that the flashing light on top of the foremast would be used, for instance, in fog. If anyone can give info. for peacetime ship lighting I would be most gratefull. I lve by the way in Hamburg, North Germany, and really do not want to start another war with my German modelling friends only so that my corvette should comply with wartime requirements. Ha! Ha!.

Should anyone be interested in the Revell Corvette model, or indeed any other WW2 corvette models please indicate this on the forum, perhaps we could then share modelling experiences of modelling this truly remarkable little ship.

[TelstarParticipant @telstar]

Hi Kevin These are modern nav light setup hope this is some use Tom

Larger pics on my gallery

[Kevin ShiresParticipant @kevinshires72481]

Tom, these could be a great help, I didn’t realise that there were so many combinations. I have tried enlarging your pics but they turned out blurred and unreadable, could you send me a link to the originals or something, maybe email me the full size ones. Would be a great help if you could.

[merlinParticipant @merlin]

Kevin

Further to your remarks about anybody with an interest in corvettes, you might like to try this site,I have found it very useful myself.

 http://www.cbrnp.com/RNP/Flower/                                             

Merlin

[merlinParticipant @merlin]

Kevin

I am still very puzzled by this flashing light can you tell me where in ‘Anatomy of’  ( page no.)  is the reference to light, or if not from book where you found info  the only flashing light I can think of is used on a hovercraft, not relevant I think.  By the way if I had realised you wanted peactime lighting,this would be exactly the same for any vessel Merchant or Naval , as Tom has quite rightly shown above,  I am checking that there are no significant changes since 1945+ that I am not aware of.

Hope you find site in earlier post useful

Merlin

[TelstarParticipant @telstar]

Kevin    Try looking at my gallery, Vintage model  on this site.   If you view ‘full size’  I can just read the text..    If not let me have your address  and I will Email larger copies.  I don’t know where I got these from, probably from another forum, or one of my pals at Tynemouth model boat club.

Cheers Tom

[Kevin ShiresParticipant @kevinshires72481]

merlin wrote (see)

Kevin

I am still very puzzled by this flashing light can you tell me where in ‘Anatomy of’  ( page no.)  is the reference to light,

Flashing light is to be found on page 125 of ‘Anatomy, between E2/1 and E3/1.

Thanks for the site link but I have alredy visited this site several times, the contact to the site manager (J. Pearson ?) seems to be non existant at this time. I have tried emailing several times without success. However many thanks once again.

[Kevin ShiresParticipant @kevinshires72481]

Telstar wrote (see)

Kevin    Try looking at my gallery, Vintage model  on this site.   If you view ‘full size’  I can just read the text..    If not let me have your address  and I will Email larger copies.  I don’t know where I got these from, probably from another forum, or one of my pals at Tynemouth model boat club.

Cheers Tom

Hi Tom, my email is  /forum/smilies/confused_smiley.gif[/img][email protected]][email protected].  Look forward to receiving your pics, many thanks in advance.

[merlinParticipant @merlin]

Kevin

Thanks for reply about light have found it,  sits on top of foremast Hmmm! still not a clue but now need to find out for myself or RHN ‘ Sachtouris ‘ could be wrong, good job my mast isn’t built yet, well done keen eyes!, when I find out and I will!,  let you know, if nobody else out there has given answer for both of us in the meantime.

Try googling Tin Can Navy  not a lot on corvettes but interesting info about USN small ships, Keep trying Bob Pearson he sometimes takes a while and I do mean a while.

Merlin

[merlinParticipant @merlin]

Hi! Kevin

Im back  ,have just tried a google  Ships Flashing Light WW2 and the predominant answer to come  back was that our flashing light is signal lamp for communication between ships also checked in two places for overtaking light, to see I was right  in Uk it was called a stern light at that time, other countries called it an overtaking light  whatever it was white could be seen from two miles astern  and over an angle of two points abeam  P/S (about 22.5 deg each side)

Hope this helps                           Merlin

[Kevin ShiresParticipant @kevinshires72481]

Great reserch Merlin, I do see however that AGASSIZ carried two 10 inch signal lamps for morse signals, can’t think why they would need one on top of the mast, perhaps for some other type of signal ?

Was just about to order Blue LED’s for the overtaking light, now I can change to white, well done and thanks a mill.

Kevin.

[Kevin ShiresParticipant @kevinshires72481]

Kevin Shires wrote (see)

Telstar wrote (see)

Kevin    Try looking at my gallery, Vintage model  on this site.   If you view ‘full size’  I can just read the text..    If not let me have your address  and I will Email larger copies.  I don’t know where I got these from, probably from another forum, or one of my pals at Tynemouth model boat club.

Cheers Tom

Many thanks Tom, received your email today, great info and I sure can use it.

Kevin

[merlinParticipant @merlin]

Kevin

Masthead light was an all round light so could signal entire convoy or battle group morse lamps diectional to ships only on that beam P or S.

Good Luck lets see her lit at night when finished        Merlin

[Mike DavidsonParticipant @mikedavidson22772]

Hi Kevin ships lights are very much a method by which the boat showing the lights can inform other mariners what is going on. You may know that I worked for a time in the Royal Naval Submarine School. Well in the school, sub mariners are taught the lights displayed by fishing boatswhen they are streaming their nets, essential knowledge to prevent the fishermen catching more than they bargained for. Also, the number of white lights shown on the mast indicate the length of the vessel. Most of this information is contained in the manual of seamanship, but then if you are making a true model, all this detail is essential, cheers. Mike D

[Mike DavidsonParticipant @mikedavidson22772]

                   Youcan relax now Kevin, we’ve found someone else to beat up now, it’s in one or two papers. It would have been a very bad idea to pick a fight with us when I was sailing the shiny sea with a squadron of scimitars, we could make bigger bangs than you ever thought you could hear as Tommy Cooper said, Just like that.   I’ve just left a squadron of Sea King helicopters, and they could certainly give a submariner a headache

[Kevin ShiresParticipant @kevinshires72481]

HMCS Corvette

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