Curtiss Seaplane Tender Summary

This is a 3D printed sculpt of the Curtiss seaplane tender from EBard Models.

The Curtiss class was a seaplane tender named for Glenn Curtiss, an American naval aviation pioneer, and consisted of two ships.

The Curtiss class were the first seaplane tenders built from the keel up for the US Navy. Previous tenders had been converted from cargo ships. They were designed to provide command facilities for forward operating long-range patrol seaplane squadrons. To accomplish this, they were heavily armed with four 5-inch (130 mm)/38 caliber dual-purpose guns, and contained repair and maintenance facilities, along with supplies for operating in forward areas for many months.

The ships had a large seaplane deck located at the stern with the maintenance shops located in the superstructure just forward of it. They were built with three large cranes, one located at the starboard extreme of the stern, the second was at the aft of the superstructure on the port side, with the remaining crane located midship on the starboard side. The starboard crane at midship was removed from both ships during WWII and replaced with a 20-millimeter (0.79 in) Oerlikon cannon gun tub. Two of the 5-in guns were staggered on opposite sides of the rear superstructure, with the remaining two in a superfiring configuration at the bow of the ships.

Curtiss spent the war in the Pacific while Albemarle was assigned to the Atlantic. Curtiss was extensively damaged during the war. Both remained in the post-war fleet and eventually decommissioned in 1950's. Albermarle was reconstituted as a maintenance ship for helicopters and rechristened the Corpus Christi Bay and served until 1973.

Ships of Class:

• USS Curtiss (AV-4)
• USS Albemarle (AV-5)

Approximate dimensions (LWH): 46mm x 6 mm x 9mm

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