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Historical Oddities #3

N

Novascotian

Joined
Sep 25, 2025
Messages
36
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28

What person. who was a model ship builder and an amateur self educated naval architect, designed a famous vessel and the name of such?
 
Bill Gibbs - SS United States. Did you know a lot of her information was classified for years as she was built so to be used as a troop ship if necessary. Her top speed and horsepower were confidential. If I remember correctly she could do 38 knots. She holds the official record for the fastest transatlantic crossing by a passenger liner, set during her maiden voyage in July 1952. She crossed in 3 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes at an average speed of 35.59 knots (roughly 41 mph), breaking the previous record held by the QM

And to add to the trivia, the engineering building at the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York was named Fulton Hall until a few years ago when it was renamed Fulton Gibbs Hall.

Allan
 
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Dear Alan,

Indeed she was the fastest she was the first American ship to win the Blue Ribband
 
Novascotian said:
Indeed she was the fastest she was the first American ship to win the Blue Ribband
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A lot of my classmates sailed on her as cadets in the mid 1960's I was not so lucky but did sail on the SS Brazil for two months before going to freighters

Gadus morhua - Cod fish? Can't find anything about a naval architect- ship modeler- ship with that name.

Allan
 
AllanKP69 said:
A lot of my classmates sailed on her as cadets in the mid 1960's I was not so lucky but did sail on the SS Brazil for two months before going to freighters

Gadus morhua - Cod fish? Can't find anything about a naval architect- ship modeler- ship with that name.

Allan
Click to expand...
You have to connect cod fish with the vessel....that's my dime's worth
 
Well I guess this was a puzzler but not many (just one brave soul) answered. Clue, taxonomic name for cod would indicate a vessel having to do with fish ergo, fishing boat. My dime's worth= on the back of the Canadian dime is an engraving of named vessel. Name the vessel then you'll find the designer.
 
Novascotian:

Thanks for the info- I checked it out and will read about his entire history. Excellent resource!

I have been building the Model Shipways Bluenose and am up to the point where I’m measuring and fabricating the sails. So I’m very interested in her history as well as Roue.

As a young guy I worked as a puller for various pinhookers and sometimes we’d fish the Grand Banks. Superb cod, pollack and halibut fishing not to mention the other bottom fish. We’d catch 4lb “sea porgies”, sometimes hundreds of pounds per man. Boy, those were the days!

It’s one of the reasons I started on the Bluenose in the first place. She’s gonna be a beauty at least to me. Here she’s getting dressed up

IMG_1295.jpeg
 
Impressed by what I see. It may be too late or you're ahead of me but you might look at Howard Chapelle's book on "Fishing Schooners"....full of pictures and illustrations on every aspect of these vessels and some on the Bluenose. Are you out of New England......I'm from Yarmouth, NS but now live in Kansas, where KU is located
 
I grew up in Brooklyn, NY and currently live in Florida in the Tampa Bay Area. I’m 71 years old, as a kid we would drift right off the beaches in Brooklyn and catch 30-40lb cod as well as many other bottom fish. As time went on the cod moved off to deeper water and eventually only on wrecks and rocky areas. By the time I was in my twenties they were far offshore and we had to go out to the Grand Banks to catch good numbers. Now you can’t even get one or two even on the Grand Banks.

We used to go up to New England for great fishing, from New Bedford and Glouster up to Maine. Never went out of NE though although I want to take a trip to the Canadian Maritimes maybe next year. I think the Bluenose II is berthed up in Lunenberg and I wanna see her.

I lived in Vancouver, BC for two years in the mid 90’s, the halibut and salmon fishing was superb! God I miss those days :)
 
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