New ships

[gap]

Hi Alex, I am currently reviewing the units you have added to the game and I must say that I am impressed by the quality of your models!

I have a couple of questions/remarks regarding two vessels contained in you ship pack #2, if you don't mind.


Supply ship: as I understand from the file name you chose (AE), this model is supposed to represent an ammunition ship. To the best of my knowledge, most WWII belligerents used a wide array of requisitioned merchant vessels for shipping their explosive ordnance, but only the USA had ships specialized for this role and commissioned in their navy. US ammunition ships of WWII were:

• USS Pyro (AE-1) and USS Nitro (AE-2) (sister ships, no class name);
  
  
• Lassen-class (modified Type C2, C2-T and C2-N) - USS Lassen (AE-3), USS Mount Baker (AE-4), USS Rainier (AE-5), USS Shasta (AE-6), USS Mauna Loa (AE-8), USS Mazama (AE-9)
  
  
• USS Sangay (AE-10)
  
  
• Mount Hood-class (modified Type C2-S-AJ1) - USS Mount Hood (AE-11), USS Wrangell (AE-12), USS Akutan (AE-13), USS Firedrake (AE-14), USS Vesuvius (AE-15), USS Mount Katmai (AE-16), USS Great Sitkin (AE-17), USS Paricutin (AE-18), USS Diamond Head (AE-19)

None of these ships bears any remarkable similarity with your model. From the look of it, your supply ship looks more like a navalised collier, probably not the best choice for carrying ammunition in crates, so my question is, was your ship modelled after any real vessel, or it is an entirely fictional design?


Richmers: going by name and funnel colors, it is easy to conclude that your model is supposed to represent one of the cargo-passenger ships operated by the German steamship company Richmers Reederei, whose vessels were (and still are) named after members of the Richmers family. Compared with Richmer's wartime fleet, your excellent model displays a close resemblance with the following ships: Sophie Rickmers (1920), R.C. Rickmers (1921), Bertram Rickmers (1923) and Claus Rickmers (1924). Despite their difference in linear dimensions and tonnage (the largest half-sister, Sophie Rickmers, had a tonnage of 7033 grt and she measured 134.5 m lbp versus 4188 grt and 112.1 m of Bertram Rickmers, the smallest ship in the quartet), all these vessels shared similar designs and they all were built by the same shipyard, Norddeutsche Werft of Wesermünde. As above, my question is: is your model supposed to represent one of them in particular, or it is a mix of the four of them?