Meeting, October 2003

London Class

(bottom of model was labeled Devonshire class)

Ships in Class: Devonshire, London, Shropshire, Sussex

Answers:

The London class is a subset of the County class. The label read Devonshire class. As HMS Devonshire is a member of the London sub-class, London class was assumed to be the correct answer at the time the contest was held. Bill was awarded one point for naming Devonshire as a ship of the London class.

Years after the contest, it was noticed that this model only has two funnels, and the London class were all built with 3. Only HMS London was later converted from 3 funnels to 2.

The middle funnel of the County class is larger than the other two, but all three are of equal height. The two funnels of the modified HMS London have the same cross section, but the forward one is higher. Yet the aft funnel of this model is larger than the forward one and they appear to have the same height. It appears the aft funnel of the model was simply removed. Also, this model does not reflect the significant changes in superstructure that HMS London underwent at the same time her funnels were reconfigured.

Was the model damaged, the aft funnel snapped off? To save time and resources, did someone (presumably during the war) intentionally cut off the aft-most funnel of the ID model (or alter the mold) to approximate HMS London? The model is no longer available for inspection to see if the funnel was obviously damaged and the photo does not have enough resolution to make a determination.

If the model was noticeably damaged, then full points should have been awarded for any answer related to the County class, the differences between Kent, London, and Norfolk sub-classes being too superficial to distinguish at this scale. If intentionally modified, the difference in funnel count is more prominent than the changes in superstructure and funnel shape/size that are NOT reflected, so the label should have read HMS London, not (erroneously) Devonshire class or London class.