by Bob Nandell
1/700 SS Elk Park (Scratchbuild)
While the US built dozens of WWII Liberty Ships, Canadian shipyards built dozens of "Park" and "Fort" class cargo ships on a simple, basic design. Early versions were coal-fired, with the bunkers being between the pilot house and the boiler spaces. Later versions burned oil and the bunker space was used as an extra, albeit small hold. On a good day they could achieve 11 knots. The vessels were usually equipped with an obsolete 4.5" gun on the fan-tail fruitlessly entended to take on surfaced U-boats. SS Elk Park was one of the later oil-fired vesions. These ships, with their scattered superstructure design and low free-board, are seen in the background of many grainy black-and-white photos of North Atlantic Convoys, and even in some D-Day beach-head photos. Unlike the welded Liberties, the Parks were of rivet construction. Several even survived torpedo hits and were towed to safety. The model is paper, balsa, and sheet plastic construction.
