Well gentlemen, I have decided and would like to introduce my entry:
The Mousquet torpedo destroyer in 1:350 scale:
I accidently found Inside the Armour´s lovely multimedia kit of this ship with his remarkable story. Although it is just ridiculously 17 cm Long there is quite some work with all the resin and etched parts for her - some joyful hours building time are guaranteed:
This is my starting line:
And, as usually in my builds, at the beginning I would like to tell you the interesting story of the Mousquet´s combat history:
The Mousquet was the second ship of the Arquebuse destroyer class with a displacement of 323 tons. It was armed with 1 × 65 mm gun, 6 × 47-mm guns and two single 38,1 cm torpedo launchers. Crew was 77 officers and enlisted and maximum speed was 28 knots.
At the outbreak of the first world war the ship was stationed at the important harbor of Penang / Malaysia which was at this time an important base of the triple entente and home of several warships.
At the 28 oktober 1914 the Imperial german light cruiser Emden entered penang harbor and immediately opened fire at the anchored Russian criser Schemtchuk and quickly sank him. As the Emden was about to leave the harbor area she met the Mousquet who just retourned back from a patrol. Already with its third salvo at a range of 4.300 meters the Emden achieved one hit with a 10,5 cm projectile which caused flooding in Mousquet´s boiler room. Mousquet tried to return fire and even fired one torpedo but quickly veered away. Emden also ceased fire after this.
Because of its damage engine room Mousquet couldn´t hold its high speed and was finally catched up again by Emden. As the Germans feared Mousquets torpedoes and there were no signs of a capitulation visible Emden opened fire again. Mousquet was hit by about further ten 10,5 cm projectiles began to sink heavily devastated. 40 poor souls went down with her but 36 crewmembers were picked up by the Emden. One single crewmen made it safely back by swimming to the shore.
As there were too many seriously wounded and burned French sailors Emden was not able to competently tread them aboard. Two days later she stopped the English freighter Newburn and ordered their crew to take over all French captives and sail them immediately back to Sabang at the Netherland´s operated hospital. This action saved some more french lives which brought the Emden later high credit by her enemies and contributed further to her reputation.
Let the games begin
