Saratoga Model Shipyard 1/1250 SMY47 USS Albermarle, AV-5, Seaplane tender, 1941
A model of the Curtiss-class seaplane tender, as built. Albermarle was equipped with PBY Catalinas and her aircraft were used to assist the Royal Navy to hunt for the Bismarck and she remained in the Atlantic for most of WW2. Retained after WW2, she served off Vietnam, re-named Corpus Christi Bay, ARVH-1, and was scrapped in 1974.
The sistership, USS Curtiss, AV-4, was at Pearl Hatbor on 7th December 1941 in the same configuration (3 cranes) as this model. Saratoga MD previously modelled Curtiss with two cranes after one was damaged in the Japanese attack and removed. The SMY-47 Albermarle model is therefore best representation of Curtiss in 1941.