pucciManuli - A Remarkable Collection

USS NICHOLAS
The USS Nicholas (DD/DDE-449), often referred to as the “Nick”, named after the senior officer of American Marines, was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy that served throughout most of World War II, and for 27 years and two more wars after. "Outstanding among the destroyers of the Pacific Fleet..." said Rear Admiral James L. Kauffman, ComDesPac in 1944, of Nicholas, "...a noble ship" whose 27½ year record encompassed the history of Fletcher-class destroyers in the US Navy.  Built at Maine’s Bath Iron Works, the second Nicholas was, in 1942, one of the first two, along with O’Bannon, of 175 2,100-ton Fletchers launched and commissioned and, in 1970, one of the last retired from the Navy.

Approaching Japan in August 1945, Admiral Halsey ordered that Nicholas and twin sister O’Bannon with Taylor be present in Tokyo Bay for Japan’s surrender “because of their valorous fight up the long road from the South Pacific to the very end.” Assigned to his Flagship Task Group, the “Nick” steamed ahead to receive Japanese peace emissaries and harbor pilots for transfer around the fleet, escorted Missouri into Tokyo Bay and, on 2 September, transported Allied and American representatives to Missouri for the surrender ceremony.
     
Mothballed and then modified in both 1950 (DDE) and 1960 (FRAM), Nicholas completed fourteen more Western Pacific deployments and saw action off both Korea (5 battle stars and a Korean Presidential Unit Citation Badge) and Vietnam (9 stars). The navy’s oldest active destroyer from 1962, she also participated in the Apollo 7 and 8 spacecraft recovery missions before being retired.

Nicholas was fast, even among sister ships throughout her lifetime.  She may have been even faster after her FRAM conversion.  Finally in 1970, having become the navy’s oldest active destroyer, the “Nick” was decommissioned in a ceremony at Pearl Harbor (again side-by-side with O’Bannon), stricken from the Navy List, towed to Portland, Oregon, and then broken up in 1972.  At the time she was retired, only seven other Fletcher-class ships remained in service with the US Navy.  An estimated 4,000 officers and men served in her during her nearly 28-year career.

About the Model…
Fine Art Models has built this limited edition, USS Nicholas ship model in a scale of 1:96 with exacting detail.  Each Nicholas is built by a team of eight (8) of the most skilled craftsmen in the world, with more than 500 man-hours just to assemble.  Computers were used to generate exact scale drawings from the original plans and more than 1,000 photos.  All of the materials used to construct the ship meet and/or exceed museum quality standards including a space age, high definition hull and deck, and a completely fabricated brass superstructure.  In addition, all of the paint used is custom-made and impervious to ultra-violet light.  As with all Fine Art Models, the USS Nicholas scale model comes complete with a Black Walnut base and leaded glass display case.

Models, or rather miniatures, have been made by man since he learned to stand upright – in the very beginning as objects of religion, and then as presents or for decoration.  In those early days, materials used were bone, stone, or rock and wood – materials readily available.  Tools were crude in the extreme, so the results were crude. 

Accuracy of representation developed as man’s skill to invent and use tools and new materials grew, and this trend continues to the present day.
 By the 14th and 15th centuries, these skills had developed to an extraordinary degree as can be seen in full size artifacts and miniatures made by armorers and instrument makers.  The majority of models, however, were still rather crude – mostly ships, the “votif” models made to hang in churches by way of thanksgiving for journey’s end and a safe return.  As they were intended to be hung and, therefore, seen only from underneath, guns are exaggerated, hull shapes simple, deck fittings almost nonexistent and rigging inaccurate.


By the 17th and 18th centuries, standards and faithfulness to prototype had changed dramatically as, for example, the model ships built for the Navy Board.  These were built by the finest craftsmen, mostly of box and fruitwood as three-dimensional pictures of proposals for future ships so that My Lords of the Admiralty were better able to judge design.  These models were incredibly accurate in shape and detail, and many have survived, located in museums and private collections around the world.  They are important, not only as a record of ship design of the period, but as the first truly accurate models.


During the 19th century, with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, three-dimensional miniatures were made for different reasons.  Steam, the motif power at that time is very powerful and, logically, a small machine, if it is going to explode, will make less of a bang than the full size machine.  Many development models were made, mainly by instrument makers and then by that rapidly developing genre – the engineer.  As the 19th century progressed, on the one hand the making of a model became part of an apprentice engineer’s life – his test piece had to be of a very high standard to pass.  On the other hand the salesman needed a model for the same practical reason as did my Lords of Admiralty, all those years before. 


About this time, miniatures began to be made, originally by those same self-same apprentices, now full-fledged engineers, for fun, in their leisure hours – and thus was born amateur model-making as we know it today.  In parallel, there were commercial organizations making models, kits and toys, as for example, Stevens Model Dockyard, Bassett-Lowke and many others, all trying to satisfy an insatiable desire by man to own miniatures of things he wished to remember for one reason or another.
 Models have, however, been made for entirely different and particular purposes; e.g. the bone model ships made by French prisoners of war in England between about 1775 and 1815 (they were made to supplement their rations), or Patent Models made as part of the inventive process.  These fall outside the mainstream of model making, but are historically important in their own right.



Now, at the end of the 20th Century, a different problem has arisen.  The commercially trained skills of apprenticed engineers are gradually dying out as man’s quest toward computerization develops, and discerning collectors, who understand and seek quality, generally have neither the time nor the skill to make aesthetically pleasing and ever more accurate miniatures themselves. 

Long may serious and discerning collectors exist who demand the best; satisfying their demands will preserve and continue the necessary skills, which will otherwise, gradually, be lost forever.