by Bob Nandell
1/600 S.S. Pipestone County (Scratchbuilt)
S.S. Pipestone County, completed in 1918, was one of the over 100 "Hog Islander" freighters built at Philadelphia in the first use of prefabricated ship building. Driven by an oil-fired boiler and triple expansion steam engine, the sturdy but relatively ugly ships could achieve 11 knots "in calm seas." Some were still in service when World War II broke out over 20 years after they were builit. My model of S.S. Pipestone County, named after a county in Minnesota, is built from balsa and typing paper. In the background of the photos is another of the Canadian built 'Fort" class freighters, and a T2 tanker. The Pipestone County was lost to a torpedo from a German U-Boat off the U.S. east coast on April 21, 1942. Thirteen of her crew were rescued by a Coast Guard cutter.
