When I purchased a copy of H.H. Gilmore's "How to Build a Model Navy", I was fascinated by his model drawings, and how they compared to the prototypes.
Most of them were a bit dubious.
The basic shapes were there, but there were a variety of problems with the details.
The answer came to me by accident with the arrival of a copy of " Jane's Fighting Ships 1906-1907". I decided to look up the Arkansas class monitors, to see how their armor was distributed, something Jane's did quite well.
When I saw the drawing, I recognized it immediately. It was almost identical to the one Gilmore used for his USS Ozark, the former USS Arkansas.
As the most recent Jane's I have is 1931, I wasn't able to verify the more recent designs from Gilmore's book, but I did confirm that the USS Pennsylvania was, again, almost a match, as was the four stacker destroyer.
Knowing this, it is easier to forgive Gilmore. He simply went with the best information he had available, which appears to have been Jane's.
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