Yamato
Recently I came across a replica of the German WWII battleship, Bismarck. In fact, there is something of a trend emerging for giant ships in Second Life, the largest of which actually spans 3 sims. However, the one I want to mention today is more modest, stretching just the full width of its sim. This is the Japanese WWII battleship, Yamato. Built at Kure, Japan, she and her sister ship, Musashi were apparently the largest battleships ever built and their nine 460mm (18.1-inch) main battery guns, the largest battleship guns ever to go to sea. Commissioned in December 1941, the Yamato served as the flagship for Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and was active until her sinking in April, 1945, aside from a 4 month break for repairs at the start of 1944, following a torpedo attack by the submarine USS Skate.
The sim itself is a slightly odd affair. Aside from the battleship there is not a great deal to it. At each end of the island is a funicular railway, while the dockside has some nicely textured single-storey brick buildings that appear to be for rent. The funicular goes up to a plateau that is dominated by an ultramodern tower, but there is nothing to indicate what the purpose of this tower might be. I am assuming that this is intended for commercial letting, but I am struggling to see where the costs of the sim are going to be covered. There does not appear to be enough space currently developed to make for a viable rental. That said, it is possible that the sim is still in development, and more buildings may appear on the largely deserted plateau.
Anyway, for your delectation, here are some snaps of the rather splendid battleship:
UPDATE 22-11-07: Fixed typo: thanks to Nock (see comments) for pointing out that this is Yamato, not Yamamoto. Obviously I have confused my admiral and my battleship!
4 comments:
wow as a kid I remember playing games - driving these huge battleships to war... now I get a chance to be in one of these( at least virtually)
If only I had known Second Life then :)
It's not "Yamamoto" but "Yamato" ( in japanese "大和"). It's means ancient name of japan landscape itself. Anyway, it's quite detailed ship :)
It reminds me of my childhood when I used to watch an anime series called "Starblazers" (In Japan is was called Space Cruiser Yamato). The Yamato was reincarnated as a spaceship on a mission to save the earth.
I notice Yamato is in her 1945 config (when she was lost off Okinawa), with the beam 155mm turrets replaced by a second bank of 127mm heavy AA and 25mm triples bolted down all over all the decks. (This is also the most popular config in plastic models, as well.)
Has anyone done Yamato in her original 1942 "as-built" config? The 1942 fit is much cleaner and sleeker.
And has anybody thought of consolidating these battleship sims and others into a proper Maritime Museum?
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