C4 and S4 type ship

[Woof1701]

Hey there,

Among the mass produced freighters and tankers like the C2, C3, T2, T3, Liberty, Victory ships etc. was also a type known as C4. Although by far not as common as the Liberties and Victories, it might make a nice addition Anyone working on that? IABL perhaps?

http://www.usmm.org/c4ships.html

Then there were the S4 ships, but I can't seem to find out much about them. The only thing I know is, that the S4 hull design was also used to build the Casablanca-Class escort carriers. Apart from that ...

[U49]

That would be very interesting :hmm:!

More variance in the ship models always provides more feeling of realism.

[lutzow]

Same here I love sunk big ships

[donw]

Originally Posted by lutzow

Same here I love sunk big ships

I love UNsunk big ships, so I can sink them!!

[bigboywooly]

S4
Not heard of that one

There was a C1 too

http://www.usmm.org/c1ships.html

And Fort ships
And Oceans
And Parks

http://fortships.tripod.com/

The list goes on

Still plenty to keep builders busy

Edit
Mystery of the S4 ship

Kaiser built CVEs in the 1943 article are listed as modified S4 hulls. There is no such thing as an S4 hull. They were built on heavily modified P1 hulls which was smallest of the four sizes of, what the US Maritime Commission classed as "standard" pre-war transport designs. The confusion comes from MarCom's designation of S4-S2-BB3 assigned to the Kaiser CVEs. Deciphering contemporary Maritime Commission parlance, all the S4 meant was it was the 4th time it was asked to build a "Special" military type for one of the services - S, in the S4 meant Special Military Type, the 4 meant 4th special ship type built by them. The center portion of the S4-S2-BB3 designation connotes length of final design. It asks two things: 1) Was the length modified, and if so 2) how long is it now? And since the length of the P1 hull was indeed lengthened to accommodate a minimum required length for a flight deck, the S in S2 answers "yes", it was modified, and 2 means it was lengthened to within the range of our standard types with a 2 suffix - ie C-2, P-2, etc. Lastly, the final subset in the S4-S2-BB3 connotes on whose request are we building these ships for, and which iteration of preliminary designs actually got built. The BB, in BB3, was "MarCom speak" for they received the task by direct order of the President on 08JUN42. FDR's files were arranged such that anything warship related had a BB prefix. The 3, in BB3, indicates that the Chief of Preliminary Design at MarCom, Ivan J. Wanless, had two prior versions of his design before getting approval to turn it over to a design agent who would then take his preliminary design and convert that into detailed working plans. Example: His first design was called BB1, second BB2, and so on. It's merely a tracking device used by Naval Architects in the course of preliminary design. In other words, all S4-S2-BB3 is/was/will ever be is a file name. Kaiser CVEs are built on P1 hulls - albeit heavily modified. Using the S4-S2-BB3 designation is tantamount to calling what is essentially a "design name" and elevating it to a "hull form", which it is not at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...hips/Archive09

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Woof1701

Then there were the S4 ships, but I can't seem to find out much about them. The only thing I know is, that the S4 hull design was also used to build the Casablanca-Class escort carriers. Apart from that ...

A little bit...
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/ships-mc.html

Ooh! I just stumbled on this site I had not seen before! It doesn't cover S4 types, but it does give some interesting information:
http://iancoombe.tripod.com/id50.html

Wiki lists both escort carriers and transports, but of course doesn't provide any useful information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergen...ilding_program

Another good one I just found! It only lists the carriers, but states that 'S' stands for 'Special Types'; but it has a lot of cool info, including specs and drawings of the 'R' type refrigeration vessels.
http://drawings.us-maritime-commissi...rawingmain.htm

On the other hand, that was all I could find in the time I have.

[sparkomatic]

Didnt the US try making some ships out of concrete?

[sparkomatic]

oh yeah, just found a whole web page dedicated to them...McCloskey Ships

[Woof1701]

@BBW and Sailor Steve

Thanks for digging up that info. Explains a lot.
About the C1. I had asked about this one a few months ago and I believe IABL has something similar looking in his merchant mod. But I'm not sure.

[Sledgehammer427]

Originally Posted by sparkomatic

Didnt the US try making some ships out of concrete?

yup, theres one right offa cape may...its all green though, and you need a pair of binoculars.

if you ever manage to hit the east coast from japan.

There were actually alot of Concrete ships done.
Not sure how many sailed and where or when though.
One of the BEST ideas?
A FROZEN ship!!!
Seems up in Canada area they tried freezeing saw dust into
water to create a carrier?
I'll leave the details to Mush.
I KNOW he has the answers!!!
:rotfl:

[KeptinCranky]

The whole Pycrete supercarrier thing cool idea that was...

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Woof1701

Hey there,

Among the mass produced freighters and tankers like the C2, C3, T2, T3, Liberty, Victory ships etc. was also a type known as C4. Although by far not as common as the Liberties and Victories, it might make a nice addition Anyone working on that? IABL perhaps?

http://www.usmm.org/c4ships.html

Then there were the S4 ships, but I can't seem to find out much about them. The only thing I know is, that the S4 hull design was also used to build the Casablanca-Class escort carriers. Apart from that ...

Thanks for the link. It's good to see a picture of a C-4 again. I last saw one in a book with a section on the "Omar Bundy". She had been sold to a civilian company after the war and disappeared at sea (circa 1980 I think).

I am working on two medium-large engines aft freighters superficially similar to the C-4. However, they are both old-fashioned and not based on mass produced ships. One is about 5,000 GRT and the other is 8,500 GRT.

The less well known mass produced ships are quite interesting. I think that the C-1 and C-4 were both much better looking than the Liberty Ship, and if I'm not mistaken they had better performance, too.

[Woof1701]

My pleasure,
Glad you like the link.
BTW: do you have a C1 in your Merchant Mod

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Woof1701

My pleasure,
Glad you like the link.
BTW: do you have a C1 in your Merchant Mod

I love the C-1 to death but I decided against it. I already had two modern composite deckhouse ships and adding three would seem excessive. I might make one as a separate mod.
Below is one of the large freighters designed to represent ships like the C-3. It is by no means an exact copy but it has several modern stylistic features, such as lots of kingposts, a slanted bow, short funnel, and shrouding on the deckhouse (designed to give a ship an aerodynamic, "modern" feel". Although it is shown in Japanese colors it will also serve all of the U.S. companies that had large modern freighters - Lykes, American Export, Alcoa, and Moore-McCormack.