French modifed Fletcher-class DD "Jules Verne", March 1961

[nönöbär]

French 'Navire de sauvetage sous-marin "Jules Verne", March 1961

As part of the Mutual Defence Assistance Act, France acquired two USN aircraft carriers in the early 1950s, the La Fayette and the Bois Belleau.  Part of this deal were also four Fletcher class destroyers, but the French Navy had no real use for those ships. Therefore, new roles were searched for them.

With the development of more modern submarines, the French Navy saw the need of developing some kind of rescue vehicle to get access to sunken submarines, something that would later be called DSRV in the US Navy.
This development led to the 'Véhicule de sauvetage en haute mer' – or short VSM – a small submersible, being able to dock to a sunken submarine. As a fast transport for the VSM was needed, one of the mothballed Fletcher class destroyers was reactivated and rebuild as a transport ship for the VSM, a 'Navire de sauvetage sous-marin'.

The former DD-474 Fullam was chosen for this and while the forward part of the ship – including its armament – was kept as it was, the superstructures on the stern were removed and a transport rack for the VSM was added. A huge crane was added and the complete torpedo armament was removed and replaced with additional boats to support the operation of the VSM.

In 1958, the now called "Jules Verne" was commissioned but as the development of the VSM took longer as expected, it only got fully operational in 1961. The VSM – called "Nemo" was able to carry 20 persons and had a maximum diving depth of about 1000 meters.

Both, the Jules Verne and the Nemo were operational until 1989 when they were put out of service. During its 28 years of operation, the Jules Verne took place in several training operations not only with the French Navy, but also with other NATO forces.
The only time where the Nemo was used in a real operation was the accident of the Norwegian Submarine Kaura which had a diving accident in its last year of operation in 1961. Stuck in a depth of about 180 meters, the Nemo was able to rescue most of the crew in three dives until the remaining crew was able to free the Norwegian sub and surface the ship.











The Model:

The model is based on a 1/700 scale Matchbox Fletcher kit. The VSM and the transport rack are 3D printed with a SLA printer, additional boats, cranes and other parts were taken from the spare part box. PE parts are from Eduard. The model is painted in Revel Aqua Color.

3D models used:
DSRV by RRWerft (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3911353)
Rack: Designed in Tinkercad

[NARSES2]

Come out very well 

[PR19_Kit]

Not only a darn good model, but an excellent and wholly believable backstory as well! 

[Rheged]

Another good model with a credible backstory.   Bravo!!