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PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:01 am 
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We modelers spend lots of time fabricating and installing float net baskets on WWII-era US warships. In 1/350th, they are a pain the neck when forming and bending the PE parts included on many of the advanced scale PE sets that are available. On Bill Waldorf's 1/96th scale ships he goes further by actually putting the floats in them. But what did they do? I've never seen a Navy film where they were deployed. Were they for life saving? Throwing a net over someone who's overboard doesn't seem like an effective way to save a life.


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:37 am 
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Location: Egg Harbor Twp, NJ
Floater nets were not thrown.
They lay in baskets or turret tops and would float free if the ship sank. Like the life rafts of the time, they would not keep you dry, they could provide support and allow some relief and horizontal rest.

I don't have a picture of a floater net in use but here are pictures of a life raft in a deployed configuration.

Attachment:
Balsa raft 4.jpg

Attachment:
Balsa Raft 1.jpg


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 9:49 am 
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I should think they'd also help keep people grouped together in rough seas, a potential advantage when awaiting rescue...?


Last edited by RNfanDan on Sun Jun 23, 2013 2:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:12 am 
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If a warship was torpedoed by a submarine there often wouldn't be sufficient time for everyone to don life jackets and deploy life rafts. Like Russ said the floater nets would float free of the ship as she sank and give the survivors something to cling to besides wreckage. They were very advantageous in the Pacific Theater, where the seas were warm and the vast expanses of the Pacific so wide that keeping everybody huddled together would make them easier to spot from the air. Of course I doubt they were of much use in the ice-cold North Atlantic, but then again pretty much nothing was.

Honestly, I had never heard of them either until I started ship modeling.


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:53 am 
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They were also designed...both the nets and the balsa rafts...to keep sharks away from the survivors...or at least help in that area.
If you stayed inside the net, it was thought, the sharks wouldn't get in. I don't know if they were ever put to that test.
In the atlantic...you froze to death...in the pacific you got eaten by sharks...
Z


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:59 am 
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Builder 2010 wrote:
We modelers spend lots of time fabricating and installing float net baskets on WWII-era US warships. In 1/350th, they are a pain the neck when forming and bending the PE parts included on many of the advanced scale PE sets that are available. On Bill Waldorf's 1/96th scale ships he goes further by actually putting the floats in them. But what did they do? I've never seen a Navy film where they were deployed. Were they for life saving? Throwing a net over someone who's overboard doesn't seem like an effective way to save a life.


I find its real easy to bend them around a small dowel or rod. then superglue...goes real quick.
Does anybody know how big the nets were and how many floats they used??


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 12:02 pm 
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That's a good question. I always thought they were just hung over the side to allow men to climb down if abandoning ship. OR hung over the side when the crew went swimming so they could climb back aboard.


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2018 1:58 pm 
There are several descriptions of floater nets in use as rescue devices about 3/4 of the way though the book "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" by James D. Hornfischer.


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 8:24 am 
Floater nets were nets with bouyant rings evenly spaced throughout, rolled up and stowed in open racks above deck, designed to "release" if the ship submerged. From what I've learned they came in two sizes, large and small, exact dimensions I am not aware. Unrolled, they offer additional buoyancy and served to keep crewman/survivors together in the water while awaiting rescue. This was particularly important at night while individuals slept/napped, and in rough seas. The floater net, deployed (unrolled) offered little to no protection from sharks but could keep large numbers of survivors afloat. Left rolled up, a few sailors could actually ride it like a horse and get somewhat out of the water, offering some protection from sharks. Typical kapok or milkweed life jackets were only designed for 48-72 hrs of bouyancy, and after that often were useless, sometimes trapping the wearer and taking them to their death. Read "Indianapolis" by Lynn Vincent & Sara Vladic, or "Only 317 Survived" by Survivors of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis CA-35. These men were the experts on the effectiveness of WWII lifesaving gear.


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:41 pm 
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What color were floater nets? Tan? Light brown? Or something else?


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PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 1:12 am 
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Here is a color photo. They appear to be flat black or maybe a dark blue. This is onboard USS DYSON (DD-572) in April 1943, while on shakedown.

I didn't realized that I had these in a photo, much less a color image, but this shows what it looked like when the USN was putting floater nets along the railing during the period when floater net baskets high up in the superstructure were not in favor. In this case, the nets are held in a "free-standing basket" of sorts which I had never noticed before, but along the railing. Many of the early ships in the Solomons Campaign stowed floater nets tied directly on the railings of their ships, that could be cut loose quickly. Sometimes they would bind the nets with canvas.

Image

Image


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PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:49 am 
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Thanks for the images. Looks like the floats in the basket were painted maybe 20B Deck Blue same as the ship deck and other structures? Though I thought they'd be maybe a brownish color as I recall the floats were cork or balsa?


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PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 2:23 pm 
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" ... to be painted no matter what they are made from ..."

Not always ...

USS HALSEY POWELL (DD-686) in February 1945, she has non-standard locations for her floater net baskets (relocated by the crew) and has a lot of stuff attached to the floats for survivors needs, like water canisters. The supply canisters are painted "blue", but I'm not sure that the "square-shape" floats are. They look pretty faded.

Image

USS IOWA (BB-61) in about March 1943, doesn't exactly look like they match her 5-H Ms 22 paint. Maybe match her deck blue paint? I think they are black as they came. These are "square-shaped" floats as well.

Image

USS NEW MEXICO (BB-40) in July 1944. Many battleships and cruisers laid out floater nets on the turret tops. The only case where I have seen "not dark" floats, but in this location should be "painted" deck blue, except that she is painted in dazzle. These floats are "cylinder-shaped".

Image

USS NASHVILLE (CL-43) on 13 December 1944 after being ht by a Kamikaze. Not exactly matching her dazzle camo. Her floats are "cylinder-shaped" and they have attached survivor supply canisters as well.

Image


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