SSN-721 Diorama

 I started the diorama base and build of  the USS Chicago, SSN-721. This was the last ship I served on and on my last time at sea we were transiting into San Diego on 10 May 1997. I had the Engineering JA Phone Talker as my maneuvering watch station. We were humming along the Officer of the Deck, Look Out, Captain and Control Phone Talker were all on the bridge. I noticed what appeared to be two Gray whales broaching on the surface directly ahead of us. They initially were 1/2 a mile or more ahead and I figured they would soon sound and be out of our path. But it soon became apparent to me that they were not aware of our sub rapidly overtaking them and everyone on the bridge except me was not aware we were rapidly overtaking them. I made the report to the Officer of the Deck of my sighting, immediate action was taken to slow our transit speed and change course to avoid the whales. Surprising to me was that they did not take any kind of action them selves until we were less than a thousand yards from them.

This event is the basis for this diorama, the model is 1/350 scale which is smaller than I like to work with but in order to get the whales into the diorama it has to be this small. They will be centered on the axis of teh diorama near the far edge. If you look close you can see the recesses for them. I have scaled out the whales and will scratch build two scale models to add to the scene.