The Collector: John Simanton’s ship model started when he was a teen and helped during his Navy career
The large number of palm-sized models of the world’s WWI and WWII naval ships built by John Simanton, a career U.S. Navy veteran, can be arranged to show the many different navies around the world. The collection fills drawers and tool boxes in his Spokane basement. (Jesse Tinsley/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)
John Simanton’s collection reflects a time when world wars were fought at sea – when mighty ships battled each other across roiling oceans.
“I have been collecting 1/1,200 scale model warships of the two world wars since 1969,” he said.
His collection has grown to more than 1,200 models.
Raised in a Chicago suburb, Simanton said he was always interested in ships, models and World War II.
Model ships served an important military purpose.
“The U.S. Navy contracted to have models made in this scale for aviators to identify enemy and friendly ships,” Simanton said. “They had difficulty telling the good guys from the bad guys.”
Simanton’s fleet represents a veritable United Nations of navies. Ships from Britain, Germany, the United States, Italy, Greece and Argentina fill drawers in red Craftsman tool chests.
He picked up one of his favorites, displaying it in his palm – the SMS Goeben. This German battlecruiser played a significant role in World War I.
“Goeben is remembered as the ship that changed the war,” he said. “At the outbreak of the war, she was showing the flag in the Mediterranean.”
The British pursued the Goeben, but it evaded them and entered the Dardanelles, reaching Constantinople. Transferred to the Ottoman Navy and renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim, the ship brought Turkey into the war. It remained the flagship of the Turkish Navy until decommissioned in 1950.
“The Germans didn’t want it back,” he said. “It went up for sale in the ’60s and I went around asking people for spare change so I could buy the Goeben.”
Ultimately, the last surviving ship of the Imperial German Navy was sold for scrap.
“A tragedy!” Simanton said, as his eyes filled with tears.
Another favorite, the HMS Argus from the British Royal Navy was one of the earliest aircraft carriers. Simanton built the model, and a friend painted it for him.
“He painted it from black and white photos.”
With a passion for ships, it’s no surprise that Simanton enlisted in the Navy after obtaining a history degree.
“In 1975, I’d been on the USS Worden for two weeks when we were sent to evacuate Saigon,” he said.
He served 25 years, and his expertise was often called upon to identify abandoned vessels. During World War II, thousands of ships were disabled, sunk or partially sunk in the Pacific Ocean.
“It was like floating museums,” Simanton said.
Once, he even identified a ship when all he could see were the masts and the tips of its smokestacks on the horizon.
Much of his knowledge came from using his models in war games. Forget video games – these are floor and tabletop games developed by novelist and historian Fletcher Pratt.
For many years, Simanton used his models and refereed tabletop naval war games at a now-defunct gaming convention called Tactical Solutions where re-enactments and imagined battles occurred.
When adding to his collection, he often looks for the unusual.
“I like the oddballs,” he said. “Ships that never got into a fight – and ships that never existed.”
Following World War I, the major naval powers agreed to limit the construction of battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers. Thus, some ships that had been designed were never built.
He pointed to a model of the German battlecruiser Ersatz Yorck.
“It would have been completed in 1920.”
Its construction was canceled, but Simanton built a model of what the ship would have looked like.
Ditto the USS Hawaii, a large cruiser. Construction was suspended in 1947 due to post-war budget cuts.
“It was never completed,” he said. “But mine is.”
For Simanton, every model has a history of battles fought (or not) and a unique place in the navies of the world. Even their colors tell a story.
He pointed to a row of models with bright red and white stripes on their decks.
“The Italian fleet tended to get bombed by the Italian Air Force,” he said. “So they painted candy stripes on them.”
The fascination that began as a teen hasn’t waned.
“I’m autistic,” he said. “We love trains, planes, automobiles and boats.”
He’s also a rail enthusiast and said there’s a term for collectors like him.
“We’re ‘foamers,’ ” Simanton said. “We foam at the mouth when we see something new.”