David Wooley is from the Wirral, with family connections to the local Cammel Laird shipyard at Birkenhead where, as a boy, the sight of regular ship launches kindled a life-long passion for warships and ship modelling. He has contributed to the Rangefinder column of Model Boats magazine for many years, and his models have been exhibited at national competitions such as the Model Engineer Exhibition. William Clarke was born in Washington DC and has spent most of his working career at NAS Langley with a technical background in electrical engineering, finally retiring from NASA in 1995 after 35 years service. His abiding interest in USN warships combined with his skills as a photographer has resulted in a personal archive of many thousands of photographs which have inspired ship modellers and naval historians around the world. Apart from his skill as a photographer, Bill Clarke has been an active researcher at the US National Archive and the National Historical Centre on behalf of individual modellers and historians from aorund the world. He is also actively involved with the Hampton Roads Ship Modelling Society and the National Research Guild. He currently resides at Poquoson, VA.