Still Motions Photographics

Gearing & Sumner Destroyers 1944-1974 A photo DVD Album of USN Fleet Destroyers

by  Ray D. Bean

Reviewed By  Charles Landrum, IPMS# 26328

MSRP: $25.00 Website: www.stillmotionsphotographics.com Ray Bean is an armchair sailor and professional photographer in Winnipeg, Canada (the prairie, about as far away from water as you can get) who offers a series of DVD's consisting of still photographs of the warships of the US Navy and other nations. Just in time for the release of the Dragon kit of the Gearing Class, his 57th DVD covers the Gearing and Sumner classes. While referred to as two separate classes, the only distinction was that the Gearing Class was 14 feet longer to accommodate more fuel and anti-aircraft armament. It was a mainstay of the US destroyer fleet into the 1970s and served longer in the Navy’s of many allies. The DVD comes in a standard slim case with decorative cover and provides 432 images, nearly 800 mb, including pictures and drawings. The DVD is dense with images, color and B&W, which range from general views to detail shots of the ship systems. The images cover the full lifespan of the class from commissioning to their swansong in the 1970s (although the last of the class did not leave USNR service until the early 1980s). Through its 30+ year lifespan the Sumners and Gearings were subject to a series of modernizations to keep them viable as Fleet destroyers. Few of these configurations were consistent across the majority of the class and resulted in a few one of a kinds like USS Gyatt – the first DDG, and USS Carpenter – an extreme ASW modernization. Ray includes good images of these oddballs as well as the mainstream configurations like FRAM II. Included are the Booklet of General Plans for Sumner in FRAM configuration, the class Measure 32 camouflage patterns and the differing FRAM configurations within the two classes. It also includes images of a Gibbs and Cox (the New York based naval architectural firm) model of the original configuration of USS Gearing. The number and type of images are terrific but I do have some concerns with this disk. The first is that there is little organization. The .jpg files are primarily arranged in numerical order by hull number; however the naming convention is not standard. So in several cases the same ships are not clustered together. At least with my review sample there is no additional organization of the files. On the other hand it is easy to scroll through. There is also not source information. It is unknown if these are US Navy images, from Ray’s personal collection or provided by other photographers. I think a watermark on the image would protect Ray Bean and the source. Lastly, the classes are not put in context and you will need other sources to better understand which ships were converted to which configuration and why. Still this is disk filled with great images unavailable elsewhere. It is a great resource for modelers and armchair sailors alike, but the modelers will relish the close up shops and larger image size which allows for clear enlargement. While I have several books on the class, none offer the image density and variety as this DVD. It is a must for the ship modeler. I would like to thank Still Motion Photographs for the sample allowing me to review this DVD.