I haven't had a chance to finalize my air-wing but here is the back story and a nearly done 1939 drawing
The Ballarat was a steamship built in Ireland for the P&O company for the United Kingdom-Australia run, in 1920, being named after a city in Victoria. After an eventful career of 15 years, she was deemed too old for service and was laid up. The Australian Navy bought her with the intent of turning her into an aircraft carrier, work on which started in early 1936 and ending in 1937. She emerged significantly changed(with the exception of her name) and was even different compared to other aircraft carriers.She served out the first two years of the war with not much distinguishing service (with the exception of helping hunt for the Graf Spee) , until May 1942 when she was anchored in off Kimbe, in New Guinea, when a number of zeros and vals took the town unaware and the Ballarat herself shot down a few assailants but sustained a bomb hit forward of the bridge,required major repairs in Brisbane which resulted in her hangar being lengthened to accommodate another aircraft. She was present at the actions off Rabaul in February 1943 and earned an extra battle honor. She was in every major action of the war after that and was in Tokyo Bay during the surrender of Japan. After the war it was clear she was not going to make keep her role as fleet aircraft carrier for the next decade with the arrival of the jet age, even through she was carrying a new squadron of navalized CAC Kangaroos, placed in reserve after the immediate aftermath of returning troops home. In 1950, with the advent of the purchase of the Fleet Carriers HMAS Perth and HMAS Sydney, Ballarat was used as a plane storage and repair ship which rarely left Sydney, let alone home waters. Concerning, irreparable damage from the war and and in her previous life where catching up to her with her already slow speed being reduced to 12 knots on a good day.She soldiered on until 1958 when she was decommissioned for a second time and struck from the Naval list and was broken up in 1959.
Length-158.1m(160m after conversion)
Beam-19.6m(25.4m after conversion)
Draught-9.1m(9.3m after conversion)
Displacement-15,000t(15350t after conversion)
Speed-14knots cruising, 16.5knots full
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Work list(Current)
Miscellaneous|
Victorian Colonial Navy|
Murray Riverboats|
Colony of Victoria AU|
Project Sail-fixing SB's sail shortage
How to mentally pronounce my usernameRow-(as in a boat)Don-(as in the short form of Donald)Dough-(bread)
"Loitering on the High Seas" (Named after the good ship Rodondo)
There's no such thing as "
nothing left to draw" If you can down 10 pints and draw, you're doing alright by my standards