Page 1534 - Dive the Seas and More-2

and I had still not even conceived of what rearranged the map for the next 12 hours,
I was to do for side two, the map of
modern-day Pearl Harbor, which we can
all visit. This might sound ridiculous, but
that enormous hurdle that I had to get over
was regarding the size of the map. I had
made a map that measured 16.8 inches
wide by 21 inches high. But you see, since
Franko's Maps has numerous dive, guide
and surf maps for the islands of Hawaii,
and since they are all standardized as for
size to 14” wide by 21” high, this map
needed to be the same size and shape as
all of my other products to fit in our retail
displays for the numerous stores that
would eventually sell it. But while I was
hard at work creating Franko's Map of
Pearl Harbor, I chose to fit the new map to
whatever size it seemed to require, rather
than try to fit it to a standard size format.
I was simply trying to lay out the land and
sea where the attack occurred, and didn't
believe it could be done on a 14”x21” size
sheet. It was an impossible task, or so I
thought. I had been working from 6 or
7am until after midnight for a month on
this project, with a burning desire to get it
done in just one more month, but the map
was indeed the wrong size and shape,
even though it contained most of the
information I wanted to convey already.
What would I do about my Pearl Harbor
Historical map? I went to sleep late, as
usual, stewing over this problem. Two
hours later, at 3am, I suddenly awoke with
a clear vision of how to lay out Pearl
Harbor, all of the battleships, the direction
of the attack, and so forth. My prayer had
been answered! I got up at 6am with
confidence, knowing just what to do. I
again forgetting to eat, concentrating on
the solution to the impossible Pearl
Harbor problem, which had come to my
mind in my sleep. I can't explain how that
sort of thing happens, but it did and it
worked. I still had days of editing,
tweaking sentences, adjusting font size,
and all kinds of details, but the basic
layout of Franko's Map of Pearl Harbor,
December 7, 1941 was done!
I knew that side two of the map would also
be daunting. I intended to draw a top view
and side view of the USS ARIZONA, as
if it were still in World War II condition.
I also planned to draw the USS
MISSOURI, our beloved “Mighty Mo”,
in it's present-day condition, as it sits
docked at Ford Island for thousands of
visitors every day. These two ships - the
wreckage and memorial which is the USS
ARIZONA, and the magnificent and
awesome battleship which is the USS
MISSOURI - are situated in the present-
day Pearl Harbor practically end-to-end.
They represent respectively the beginning
and the end of World War II for the United
States of America. I had to depict both
ships with diligence and naval
architectural beauty. This map was not
only to serve as a guide top present-day
Pearl Harbor, but it would also be a
souvenir and an educational item. Being
an ocean engineer with a bit of naval
architecture background myself, these
drawings seemed doable. As it turned out
the drawings were indeed not nearly as
daunting as the job of trying to lay out the
whole map in a complete and respectful