The Drydock – Episode 223 (Part 1)

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00:00:00 – Intro

00:00:34 – Kongo’s and if they are BB’s/BC’s again?

00:07:12 – How dangerous were what we would consider childhood diseases to the under nourished crews of age of sail ship?

00:12:02 – Deployment of ships in/around July 1939?

00:13:43 – What goes into the design and construction of a ship’s propellers?

00:20:17 – When did the “use it or lose it” approach to US Department of Defense funding come about; and how has it impacted the US Navy?

00:24:18 – NCO’s with degrees?

00:27:23 – How integrated was Coastal Command with the Royal Navy in hunting German U-boats?

00:29:28 – Did any ships carry and use both square rigged sails and lateen sail?

00:31:36 – Floatplane operations and rough seas

00:35:41 – WW2 Atlantic Kriegsmarine supply network?

00:41:47 – Why aft deck mounts?

00:45:18 – How effective were air-dropped mines in comparison to conventionally-laid mines?

00:49:13 – For the long-range hits or straddles that were made by some ships, were any able to repeat that similar performance during their engagements or have some degree of consistency?

00:52:52 – If the KGVs had undergone major refits between 1950 and 1955, what would they look like?

00:56:10 – Large ‘clocks’ on ships?

00:59:14 – Would there be a flagship for convoys, especially the Atlantic convoys?

01:01:32 – Regarding the Mark 14 Torpedo, do you know if any of the personnel at the Bureau of Ordinance ever faced any sort of repercussions for their repeated denial of frontline reports?

01:03:34 – The mysterious loss of the Carroll A Deering

01:10:02 – Torpedoes and Ships of the Line?

01:13:56 – Operation Hannibal

01:17:29 – The Ryan RF-1

01:20:49 – Greyhound’s escort group?

01:25:45 – Sampson vs Schley

01:29:35 – Between 1905 and 1945, how many times did battleships actually engage other battleships?

01:32:12 – Why is Royal Navy Procurement and Building historically comparatively free of “show projects”

01:36:22 – Did the Royal Navy have a force similar to the SeaBee’s, or a device similar to the pontoon block?

01:37:49 – How stable are modern cruise ships?

01:41:14 – Secondary systems running from the main boilers?

01:43:26 – Cargo submarine designs?

01:48:45 – Two single 18 inch guns on HMS Furious, why?

01:50:37 – Air Void on an Iowa’s turret?

01:51:50 – Baden trials?

01:58:41 – Adalbert Schneider

02:03:44 – How much more political or economic damage would there have been if John Paul Jones’ squadron had succeeded in destroying or capturing a significant portion of the convoy?

02:09:35 – Fast rescue boats?

02:11:40 – Repair ships

02:16:45 – What planning/contingencies were put in place to preserve some sort of command structure to at least be able to surrender instead of sinking or possibly even keep fighting?

02:20:52 – Cordite dust and shock triggering?

02:27:52 – Can you tell us a bit about the “the Perisher” Submarine training course?

02:36:12 – What are (in your opinion) the 5 worst carrier conversions and how/why have they made it on the list?

02:42:59 – If you could do an around-the-world tour on any one museum ship, which would you choose and why?

02:45:06 – Apart from proximity fused ammuntion, was there ever any study done into advanced ammunition for naval guns in the 1930/40s?

02:47:47 – Why didn’t the USN have torpedoes on its cruisers? (https://youtu.be/ltKBZxLAq9Y)

02:51:42 – Lattice gantries on the side of WW2 aircraft carriers?

02:53:26 – Could you discuss how tough it was to sink the Bismarck as compared to other ships in WW2?

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35 thoughts on “The Drydock – Episode 223 (Part 1)”

  2. Cargo Submarines. I note the cargo hatches in the design, but no holds. It would be interesting to exactly how they intended to actually load these things. Utube has a video by Calum on shipping containers which describes the pre-container loading process. Look at this, and you will see the problems.

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  4. Polish destroyers. My dad was on Atlantic convoy escort duty in 42 and 43. He served with a Polish ship. He said the escorts had blown a U-boat to the surface and they abandoned ship. The Polish ship sailed thru the survivors, dropped a depth charge pattern, and reported 'no survivors found." Dad disapproved of the action, but said he had trouble blaming the Poles.

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  5. Convoy commodores. At the time, the commodore was typically a retired Navy captain. This was supposed to give the civilian skippers someone they were old enough tnd experienced enough to respect, and give the overall command to someone senior to the escort commodore. When he retired about 1972, my dad (CAPTUSN, RET), was assigned to that duty in case of an emergency recall.

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  6. The origin of “Use it or lose it” funding (at least the inability to “bank” excess funding part) in the US military is actually an easy question to answer: It’s in the Constitution.

    “Congress shall have power […] To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years”

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  12. On Bismarck at the end: it doesn't matter who sunk her, once the guns went silent she was mission-killed. Like if you kill the turret crew of a tank — the driver, down in front, may still be able to drive it around, but at that point it's kinda just a crappy tractor. Or conversely, if you manage to make a tank throw a track, it becomes a pillbox, and is still just as dangerous if the crew doesn't bail out (either to run away or try to fix it).

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  14. No, no drach. The kongos are battleships. You can clearly see them labelled battleships in world of warships…..

    That’s an equivalent argument to the one you mentioned from the other video. 😂

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  15. regarding the Cruise ships, they are actually intentionally built to be less stable. The reason is that they want it to roll side to side slowly and gently to reduce sea sickness of passengers. A stable ship will tend to right itself faster which gives sharper motion that causes motion sickness.

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  18. I think that there was one example of a "speculative" warship back in the early 2000s. There was a trimaran named Triton (I don't think she was ever a RN ship) that was built for demonstration purposes. She was leased to the Australian customs service for a few years, I believe.

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  19. Did it matter if Bismarck sank depends upon how we look at it. If those 8 x 15" guns were mounted on a shore-based fort then no amount of damage would "sink" that fort. But it would be rendered ineffective as a fort, as Bismarck was rendered ineffective as a warship. Being a little frivolous, just for fun, lets say that if Bismarck didn't sink at all and remained afloat as a tomb for its sailors, still drifting in the Atlantic in 2022, it would be as effective as a battleship as is a chocolate teapot, and a permanent memorial to the futility of war.

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  23. Wait, Brits learn to drive with an instructor who has control of the car? I’m American and my first driving lesson (other than a written test) was getting in the driver’s seat of a normal car with the instructor as passenger

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  29. "What is a battleship?"
    I've been seeing the larger topic poke its head out and have come to a decision.

    People make boats then try to impose artificial classifications on them afterwards. This is the same problem your grammar school grammar teacher had. The "rules" of language aren't rules. The rules of boats aren't boats.

    Yes, the classifications are handy. That's why they have them for boats and languages. But they're still fake and wrong. When you lean too heavily on the rules in the face of reality, you lose.

    Yes, I know. I did it on purpose.

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  30. A PROPOS first question, and that rather silly and completely pointless arguement – a warship (regardless of it's actual or mythical designation) need to be fast when escorting a carrier only if said carrier is fast… To escort a CV you aren't really going to run rings around it….

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