Welcome to the forum Patrik!
As we are members of the same club, I have seen this work-in-progress up-close. I can tell you it looks even much better in the flesh! Patrik is one of the very best scratchbbuilders I have ever met: the finesse, complexity and accuracy of the work are amazing. That Toureau crane even has a scratchbuilt engine in it!
I can't help with the historical information, but there are plenty of extremely knowledgeable people with anything USN on this forum, so I hope they will chime in.
Cheers,
Marijn