Building a Legacy: One Man’s LEGO Tribute to His Great-Grandfather’s Ship

If you happened to be at Patriots Point this April for the USS Laffey events, you may have caught a glimpse of something truly unexpected — not just a legendary warship, but a fleet of her LEGO doppelgängers painstakingly crafted by a soft-spoken farmer from Iowa. That man? Sam Singewald: CDL beer hauler by day, LEGO naval historian by night.

Yes, really.

Sam isn't your typical LEGO builder. When he's not working the fields or delivering beer across northern Iowa, he's elbow-deep in thousands of tiny plastic bricks, recreating pieces of naval history one stud at a time. His most recent visit to Patriots Point wasn't just a casual stop — but a full-circle moment. The USS Laffey was the first warship Sam ever visited and, more importantly, the ship his great-grandfather served on as an electrician during the Korean War from 1952 - 1955.

That connection? It's what sparked the whole obsession.

During the pandemic, like many of us, Sam picked up a hobby. But instead of banana bread or sourdough starters, he went with something a little more ambitious: building a fleet of LEGO WWII Navy ships. Armed with a lifelong love of history and a steady hand, Sam began collecting blueprints and ship schematics — because, yes, he really does his homework — and started designing his models to scale.

The result? A fleet of eleven jaw-dropping replicas that had visitors at Patriots Point doing double-takes. His showstopper was the massive USS Iowa, stretching a whopping 7 feet long — a build that took four years to complete. But the star of the show was arguably the USS Laffey, rendered in two versions: a compact 2-foot model (his very first build) and a 5.5-foot reproduction of ship post-kamikaze attacks composed of over 50,000 bricks.

All told, Sam rolled into Patriots Point with a full-scale tribute to WWII naval power — in brick form.

There's something quietly profound about what Sam does. His builds aren't just cool models; they're miniature monuments to history, made with patience, purpose, and an eye for detail most museum curators would envy. Every brick tells a story — and behind them all is a guy from Iowa who just wanted to feel a little closer to his great-grandfather's legacy.

From quarantine craze to model mastermind, Sam Singewald has built quite the Lego legacy with only a few bricks and a dream.

________________________________________

Hear more about Sam's story in the video below and be sure to follow @legohistorysam on Instagram to see more of his incredible creations!