Shipbucket

I'm at work, other can explaine. But you have many black lines that should be dark Grey, due to they are not a 90° break on the superstructure. But the biggest culprit, is the black line going down three decks on the front of the superstructure, that line you can remove totally. The front of the superstructure is round and going smoothly over to the sides with no 90° breaks.

Then you have the support for the bridge.. as you can see on the photo, it's not a 90° angle

Good evening.
The Spanish Republic was aided by two countries, Mexico and the Soviet Union, the aid from France was very intermitent, as the French Popular Front was very dependant of the french public opinion and the british ally. Mexico was a comparatively weak country in the context of a war in mid XX century Europe, so the main source of weaponry in land and air was Russia.

The soviet aid was pivotal for the success in defending Madrid during the late autum and winter 1936-1937. The modern and relatively big motor vessel Komsomol (Комсомол) was manned by a crew of selected cadres of the comunist youth, and was very important disembarking 50 T26 tanks, Polikarpov fighters and many tonnes of infantry weapons and ammo during late 1936. But after her sinking in early 1937, by the heavy cruiser Canarias (qv) (but there are 2 contradictory versions of this: in one, Canarias shelled and sunk Komsomol with her 8 in battery, and in the other, the own crew scuttled the vessel avoiding both the capture of the cargo, and much more important, the clear implication of the Soviet Union with the Spanish Republic in a clear violation of the Non Intervention Pact) most of the cargo was shipped in spanish vessels instead of russian ones, or in british ships, or directed to a french harbour.


Several soviet vessels were sunk or captured, one of the later ones was the steamer Postyshev (Постышев), which was captured by the auxiliar cruiser Puchol (qv) in the strait of Gibraltar in March 1938.


The captured vessel was used by the spaniards and under another name, was an actor in one of the final chapters of this war.

Credits: Colombamike helped me since the inception. Thanks!!! Thanks To Eswube/B and his swiftly given aid with Komsomol! Cheers.

P.S. I will be very thankfull is some fellow bucketeer is able to help me finding blueprints, plans, line drawings or at least, photograps of soviet mercantile vessels of this era: specially the MV Komsomol, and MV Stepanov. Thanks !

Good work, as always.

Regarding Komsomol - not much but perhaps it will be of some help:

Oh! Thanks! Fantastic!

So many very good additions!

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Good morning, guys.

After some weeks of an undesired and forced stop, I am presenting you some lesser known vessels of the Spanish Civil War:

In spite of an hydrographic service stablished in the XVIII century, the Spanish Armada, at the beginning of the SCW only had two ad hoc vessels in service and another one in construction. Both ships in service, Artabro (qv) and Tofiño remained loyal to the Republic, and the one in slips, Malaspina as being built in Cadiz, was seized by the rebels in July 1936.

As almost all the maps and maritime charts were in rebel hands, both Tofiño and Artabro were used by the republicans as survey vessels.

Tofiño was used always in the Mediterranean sea, until she was bombed in December 1938-January 1939 at Barcelona. She was found by francoist forces sunk and later she was raised and recomissioned as survey vessel well after the end of the SCW. She was paid of in the mid 1970s.

Malaspina had a different story as she was finished not as a survey vessel but as armed ship ("buque planero armado") with a 3 inch gun and an old Nordenfeldt 57 mm QF gun. She remained all the war at the Gibraltar Strait zone, and able to capture the latvian steamer Everards.


After the end of the war, she was refited as survey ship and was paid off in the mid 1970s too.

The other vessel was the troop transport Tarifa. This little steamerwas built as New Londoner at Harlepool in 1912, and after several names and owners, she was named SS Janu was used by the belgian company SOCDECO (but under panamaian flag) for the ilegal trade (smugling) of arms to the Spanish Republic, after an initial successful voyage to Santander, she was captured during her second trip by the armed trawler Huelva in the Gibraltar Strait.

Huelva was a trawler of german origin of the Blucher class, during WWI she was armed and used in the North Sea. In the 1920s she was bought by a spanish owner from Cadiz and renamed Virgen de la Cinta and was used as fishing vessel until July 1936. In that date she was armed with a 3 inch gun and a machine gun and renamed Huelva. Based at Cadiz, she remained at the strait area during all the war.


The captured Janu was renamed Castillo Arevalo under the Gerencia de Buques Incautados, and was used as a coastal transport between the rebel mediterranean coast harbours. In the inmediate postwar, she was used as base for the divers that were raising the sunk ships in the spanish coast, both in the Bay of Biscay and Mediterranean Sea. After that, Castillo Arevalo was seized by the Navy as transport and renamed Tarifa. During WWII she was converted to a troop transport for a battalion size unit, and was completely repaired in 1948.

Despite this, she always was a slow vessel with machinery problems, so her life at the Armada was relatively short being paid off in the early 1960s.

Credits: Colombamike helped me since the inception! Lots of thanks to him!

References
ESPINOSA, S. El servicio hidrografico en la guerra civil. Revista de Historia Naval, 149 (2020). p 9-30.
INFIESTA, JL. Una nueva lista de buques menores que combatieron como patrulleros o rastreadores durante nuestra guerra civil. Revista de Historia Naval, 78(2002). p 47-72.
QUERO, M. Buque de transporte de la Armada Tarifa. Aljaranda 57(2005). p 41-43.
Tees Built Ships. info@teesbuiltships.co.uk
Hartlepool History Then and Now. http://hhtandn.org

PS1: This drawings had a very intresting history! I don´t have more spanish vessels (of relevant history during the war, in fact, my next drawings are going to be of foreigner vessels, which were very important in the war ), but Colombamike kindly send me the blueprints of Tarifa and Tofiño. Fortunately with the help of some spanish pals, I was able to find information of both vessels, but I did not found many pictures of the vessels during the war. Huelva history is even more difficult, at first intention, I suppose that she was a british built ship, but in a very complete article in a magazine of the Spanish Navy, I read that she was of german construction, and finding the data of the vessel was a very interesting adventure. . I found the specs of the latvian Everads and some pictures, but I was unable to find the flag of the Grauds Shipping company, and as the pictures were black and white, I don´t know if the funnel color is the wright one (but I think that the bands are white!).

PS2: In the past 15 months I had more health issues than in the previous 25 years! From being bited by a spider, to a tropical fever, and the last weeks a flu and inmediatly a gastro-enteritis ! No Covid, and any problem with any main body system! But fortunatelly for me, bad weed never dies! (but I am getting old!).

As always: Very interesting and fantastic work!

Sounds like you had a tough year. Hope all is well now!

That's a fantastic group of drawings, with a great, very interesting writeups.

List of Your ailments is horrible, but hopefully You've ran out of bad luck by now and things will only get better from now on!

Great additions and here is hoping that your health maladies will clear up soon!

_________________
Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

I have the pleasure of participating in Reytuerto's wonderful thread.

Gunboat Jupiter



The Júpiter was the lead of a class of four gunboats - minelayers that were under construction at El Ferrol when the Civil War began. Franco's side lacked destroyers, and work on the class was accelerated. Three (Jupiter, Vulcano and Marte) participated in the war. During the fifties, two units (Júpiter and Vulcano) were modernized with US equipment.

Greetings.

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Tu regere imperio fluctus Hispane memento