One of my medium term projects, I am currently gathering documentation and history to model and 3D print this mythical ship.
Any additional documentation is welcome from you.
This ship will be easier to draw than the SS Hydrograaf.
Background:
When the late Richard McKenna's first and only novel, 'The Sand Pebbles', was published in 1962 (New York, Harper & Row), critics praised its 'thunderous action' and 'flesh-and-blood characters'. They also noted the novelty of the subject matter - the adventure aboard a Yangtze River gunboat, the USS San Pablo, at the very moment when China is bloodily awakening to its new destiny.
Now "The Sand Pebbles", which spent twenty-eight weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, won the $10,000 Harper's Award and was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post, America's most popular magazine, has been made into a major motion picture to be released by 20th Century-Fox.
Oscar-winning producer-director Robert Wise chose this relentless story as the follow-up to "The Sound of Music". "West Side Story" and such compelling films as "Executive Suite", "Somebody Up There Likes Me" and "I Want To Live".
Location shooting began in mid-November 1965, when Wise took a Hollywood crew of more than 100 to Keelung, Tam Sui and Taipei on the island of Taiwan for the first shots. Additional shooting in Hong Kong followed, followed by two final months of production at the 20th Century-Fox studio in Beverly Hills, California.
"The Sand Pebbles was photographed spectacularly in Deluxe Color and Panavision.
"But the real star of the film is undoubtedly a 150-foot steel-hulled gunboat built by Vaughn & Yung (misspelled Jung) Engineering Ltd. of Hong Kong. The San Pablo itself, the river house of the Sand Pebbles. An authentic replica of a type of US Navy gunboat used in China in the 1920s, the present-day San Pablo is diesel-powered, can accommodate a crew of six and can reach a speed of 10 knots. It has made the sea voyage from Hong Kong to Taiwan and back to Hong Kong, which is a testament to its stability."
USS San Pablo
For many years, fans have wondered what happened to the San Pablo, the ship in the film. The film's memory book simply stated, "After the film Sand Pebbles was completed, the San Pablo was saved from scrap - the fate of all gunboats - by an American construction company that had a contract to rebuild bridges in Viet Nam. The ship returned to the Vaughn & Yung shipyards for some minor modifications and is now used as a floating hotel and dormitory for US construction crews working behind combat zones." A National News Agency article, dated August 29, 1966, tells essentially the same story about the future of the San Pablo:
"The USS San Pablo, a quarter-million-dollar, 150-foot gunboat built for Robert Wise's film, The Sand Pebbles, has been sold to Hong Kong interests and will be used as a floating hotel for the war effort in South Vietnam. The San Pablo, a replica of the gunboats that sailed the Yangtze in the 1920s, will be towed to Saigon this month. The buyers, Vaughn & Yung, Ltd, will charter the ship after its conversion. Company spokesmen said it will be used to house US engineers involved in the construction of docks in Saigon. The ship was built in Hong Kong last year." Press clipping.
After that, nothing else was known about the fate of the San Pablo until I received a letter on 4 November 2008 from Murray Bollen, Mandurah West Australia:
"...In 1975 I came across the "Nola D" - unpowered and abandoned against a wharf at Tarakan, Indonesia. It was being used as a base camp/accommodation camp for a seismic survey company, Delta Exploration, then based in Houston. I was working on one of their other ships at the time, the Rio Das Contas, and I happened to see it in Tarakan. I didn't realise the significance of this ship because I hadn't seen the film at the time. It was only years later that I saw the film and can virtually confirm that it is the same ship. On 29 March 2009, I received a letter (with photo) from Horrie Hunt, Australia:
"I have noted that no one has come forward with information about the San Pablo. After the film, I believe it was sold to the De Long Timber Co. in the Philippines. It was renamed the "Nola D" after Nola Dianne Delong, the wife or daughter of the owner. She was then sold to Seiscom Delta Exploration Co. and used as a base camp in Indonesia until the mid 1970s. I was on board in 1974 and have a photo of this boat at that time. The aft deck became a power station and the helipad was on top. I lost track of it after that.
Then a follow-up letter from Horrie Hunt on 2 April 2009: "...I spoke to a person who was a supervisor at Delta Exploration at the time. He lives in this part of the world. Brisbane, Australia.
Delta Exploration (later Seiscom Delta) bought the Nola D in the very early 1970s. It was then without an engine and had to be towed around. The last job it was involved in was in 1974-75. It was in the Mahakam River Delta area and at a place called Bontang, Borneo, Indonesia. The photo was taken in Bontang. I last heard about her on a radio message while she was being towed to Jakarta, I think in 1975.
It was never used again and was sold and scrapped in late 1975 or 1976. The guy I was talking to is going to Jakarta next week and is going to find out where it is going. Some of the people who were working at the time are still in Indonesia. Maybe we can still find out exactly what happened.
San Pablo. It was converted into a base camp for seismic operations. The area between the forward and aft cabins was built up and became a mess hall. The upper part of the aft cabin became the kitchen, cold rooms and accommodation for the cooks and cleaners. The area directly below this was the mechanical workshop.
The lower middle section was the electronics and wiring workshop, the upper and lower sections of the forward cabin were the expatriate accommodation. The (empty) deck was left bare. The area below deck (coolies quarters in the film) was turned into fresh water storage The engine was removed. If I remember correctly, the steam engine was still in place. The fuel tanks were built in the rear part of the steering. The electrical shed was built on the rear deck. All in all, it was probably the best base camp I have ever stayed on. You could still see the name "San Pablo" on the stern where it had been cut.
Her construction was of welded steel, and to make it look like a riveted steel boat, all the rivet heads were glued to plastic domes. The steel shutters on the deck windows were still there and the gun turret mounts were still there. I will let you know if I have any more news..." A final letter from Horrie Hunt on 14 April 2009:
"I have received a reply from Jakarta. The Nola D was taken to Singapore and dismantled in 1975.
The information comes from the person who organised the dismantling.
My thanks to Horrie Hunt and Murray Bollen for providing the information here that helped answer the question - "What happened to the San Pablo?". - CG
The USS San Pablo in the film is a fictional ship based on the hull of the USS Villalobos (PG-42), a former Spanish gunboat captured during the Philippine War.
The architect kept only the hull and reduced its draft to allow it to pass through the Taiwanese Keelung River. The superstructures are a mix of 1930s gunboats (USS Panay and others). The San Pablo was built in Hong Kong by Vaughn & Yung for $250,000.
The San Pablo was sold several times after the film and ended its career as a "base camp" under the name of Nola D in Indonesia... with a heliport mounted on the superstructure! It was demolished in 1975.
Some pictures, there is a kind of figurehead, not represented on the models:
I love this picture, typical.
I think that the MRB plan represents the ship with its living works from before its transformation so that it is a much shallower draught.
The other plan represents the transformed ship, the bottom of the hull has been "scraped" so to speak. The ship had to be lightened to stay within its lines as there is of course less volume under water and therefore less thrust from Archimedes, MRB may have favoured a hull more suited to a stable sailing model. Two propeller tunnels have been fitted.
The emergency wheel bar on the aft.
The original model of the San Pablo shipyard, photo taken at the shipyard.
Gun:
It would be a 3"/23 according to this site which lists all the weapons found in the films.
Here all the weapons of the film are described with photographs.
This is also valid for the rear machine gun and the one on the bridge.
"A series of low powered weapons originally designed as boat and landing guns. Mark 4 was a Bethlehem Steel design with a side-swing carrier breech block. Mark 7 was Erhardt-type landing gun built by the American-British Manufacturing Company with a horizontally-sliding breech block. The Mark 9 was a monobloc Bridgman "wet" gun designed for submarines and used a vertically-sliding breech block. This mark was used in a special retractable mount, as can be seen in the photographs below. Mark 9 Mod 0 was a built-up gun while Mod 1 was a monobloc design. Mark 11 a similar design used as a landing gun and built by Bethlehem with a vertically-sliding breech block. Mark 13 was a boat gun built by Driggs with a semi-automatic horizontally-sliding breech block. The Mark 14 was a boat gun adapted by the Poole Engineering and Machine Company during World War I as an AA gun for destroyers. Mark 14 Mod 1 was used aboard patrol craft and had a muzzle blast reducer and a breech counterweight.
Landing guns were mounted on mobile carriages, each gun being provided with a limber for the transport of ammunition. Some guns were given AA mountings during World War I and then used on flush-deck destroyers. Many guns remained in service on these destroyers until the middle of World War II.
About 80 guns were supplied to Britain during World War II, mainly on Lend-Lease ships.
All guns fired fixed ammunition and had similar ballistics, but were of differing construction, the early guns being of the built-up type while the latter were of monobloc construction. The built-up guns consisted of a multi-tube, forged-steel barrel, with one hydraulic recoil cylinder located above the barrel, and one hydropneumatic counter-recoil cylinder located beneath the barrel."
I also found a plan, it will be easier to model it in 3D.
An interesting project! A somewhat more modest vessel than the Panay but was just right for the movie production. Having spent cumulatively many months in Northern Taiwan, it was a very good substitute for operations in interior China. I somewhere have a copy of the movie, all an author has to do is have one great novel. Many great Novelists should have stopped with their first, some did.
I still remember Steve McQueen teaching his Chinese assistant about the workings of the engine "Good stem... bad stem". The beginning of a very turbulent time. It is a very real Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times". I still have friends in China but I am afraid to communicate with them for danger of getting them in trouble. With the Brandon Gang in charge, who knows what might get you on list.
The photos in the Hong Kong boatyard were interesting, a very different place then, the mid 60's. William Holden did a couple of Hong Kong films in that era and they were notable in there were virtually no tall buildings on Hong Kong Island. However some places hadn't changed a whit such as the Kowloon Star Ferry terminal, the boats and parts of Wanchai.
Just reading a biography of the four US Admirals who achieved 5 stars during WWII. In 1907 Nimitz was skipper of the gunboat Panay putting around the Philippines. His executive officer was none other than John S (Slew) McCain who became one of the principal fleet commanders during WWII. As discussed previously in this thread the misadventures of Panay featured in the San Pablo story and film.
Reading along a bit further (several chapters) the Attack on the Panay is referred to. As it turns out the Panay that Nimitz and Slew McCain putted around the Islands was a Spanish American war Relic and the Panay on the Yangtze was a newer specially constructed shallow draft gunboat. Old and Older!
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