The Drydock - Episode 054A (1/3)

[@Drachinifel]

Pinned post for Q&A :)

[@fabianzimmermann5495]

Taffy 1,2 and 3 combined vs Halseys third fleet.

[@wulfie1199]

I recently found out Bismarck and Tirpitz were both fitted with sonar? How useful were these on sutch large ships and could you hear anything over the sound of the battleships own engine noise?

[@Steve9312028]

Hi Drac! A quick question: In the opening of your “5” minute posts, is that a flyover shot of a Pennsylvania class battleship? If it is would you be able to tell if it was the USS Pennsylvania or the USS Arizona? I’m a Arizonan, and have always had a soft spot for her as I have grown up. Thank you for such an excellent group of web programming. Always very interesting and informative! Cheers! Steve in AZ

[@trisf1514]

Why were there limitations to countries warships

[@joshthomas-moore2656]

How many escorts were supposed to escort capital ships in World War 2?

[@mattblom3990]

"Blasted thing will probably last past the nuclear thermal death of the sun." - THAT'S my favourite Drachism so far lol!

[@falloutghoul1]

Timestamp?

[@lordchickenhawk]

@@falloutghoul1 25:10

[@jimh5491]

@@falloutghoul1 @25:14

[@jimh5491]

"Probably would make a good headquarters for the rest of the exhibits" was gold as well!

[@alganhar1]

Another thing to think about when considering the Atlantic Campaign is the Ministry of Food. Yes, I do mean that, and I will explain why. The Ministry of Food was set up pretty much as the war started in September 1939, and while it took a little while to get up and running it was given full responsibility for ensuring Food supply in Britain, and given a broad range of powers to ensure that food supply. Before the war Britain imported 75% of its food, by 1943 that had dropped to 25%. This was acheived by a variety of methods, true Rationing was part of it but the Ministry also heavily encouraged maximising farm yields, as well as encouraging both individual homes and entire communities to involve themselves in growing vegetables either in their own gardens, or on communal land (the Allottment system still in use in the UK is a by product of this). Interesting fact, vegetables were never rationed during the war, many fruits were, grains were, meat was, fats were, but vegetables were not. While this did lead to a fairly (ok, very) boring diet it was still more than adequate, and nutritionally the health of the average Briton actually *increased* during WWII. It also had the very important side effect that it hugely reduced the tonnage of shipping required to keep Britain fed, and much of that tonnage was largely taken up with Beef from South America, and Wheat from North America. By dropping the amount of tonnage required to keep Britain fed by over 60% that freed up those ships to haul critical war supplies such as raw materials and equipment, and it also had the effect of actually increasing the tonnage German U Boats had to sink by well over 100,000 tons a month if they wanted to *starve* Britain out. I brought this up because people tend to concentrate only on the Naval aspect of the Atlantic Campaign (I refuse to call it the Battle of the Atlantic, it was not a Battle, it was a Campaign in its own right). In this case certainly actions taken by the Government to reduce the imports of food required had a significant effect on that Naval aspect of the war, requiring German U Boats to sink far more shipping than their projections actually suggested (and they almost never made even those very often), as well as giving Britain more available tonnage to feed its own industries and equip its own military.... In many ways the Ministry of Food is one of the great unsung British Heroes of WWII.

[@jameshope7933]

That was good stuff sir.A beautiful thing about this channel is the eye opening comment section.Some Writers would give the reader the impression that the British discounted the threat posed by the German Navy to shipping because they had asdic to find Uboats and a surface superiority so large as to be infinite for all intents and purposes.Your comments make it clear that they were absolutely not casual about it.they were preparing for it from the first day of the war.I be watching for your posts in future.

[@fredfarnackle5455]

That's a very good comment. I was born in England in 1940 and well remember my Father (he was in a reserved occupation so was not required to fight) spending a lot of time with his vegetables in the back garden and in the allotment he had. Every house around us had a similar arrangement. Today most people seem to buy frozen vegetables, more's the pity as they taste like crap compared to home grown veggies.

[@dewayneweaver2744]

The poor Brits were eating so much Spam. It inspired the Pythons to write songs about it decades later.

[@cvproj]

@32:20 "Bureau of Ordnance had a moment of clarity..." I thought this channel was about history, not science fiction.

[@TraditionalAnglican]

Someone asked what would’ve happened if the US had managed to adopt the Long Lance Torpedo before the beginning of WW 2. Like most “What if’s?” We’re already in “Fantasy Land”, like we are every time someone asks what would happen if 2 ships that fought in different theaters fought each other, or what would have happened if Von Toma’s plan for going after the Arabian oil fields had been followed in late, 1940. At least some of these require someone to “have a moment of clarity”. FYI, the Von Toma scenario was the war game where Rommel shows up in the desert with 4-5 Panzer Divisions & plenty of support (partly because he arrives 6 months earlier than he actually did)...

[@Colonel_Overkill]

Honestly the adoption of the Long Lance is Stargate levels of sci fi while Bureau of Ordnance being intelligent is Buck Rogers levels of sci fi lol

[@alan6832]

One must subtract the technical and industrial effort that it would have required to both refit factories to produce the Longlance and refit the launchers, from the historical US war fighting equipment in 1941. In other words, if we had spent our budget converting our factories and our launchers, we would have had that many fewer dollars worth of modern destroyers and submarines from which to launch them. This might still have been a net advantage, but not such a big one as might otherwise be imagined. Four engine bombers might have carried Longlances, but not from carriers. One might look at the 2 engine Mitchell payload as capable of flying from carriers, but not of returning to them.

[@Colonel_Overkill]

Eh, it wouldn't have been too bad on the production side. The way torpedoes are produced a Mk 14 or Long Lance is little difference. The refit of launchers would have been a more significant undertaking but honestly still not more than a bump. The biggest hurdle would be the increased consumption of liquid O2 and the logistical train for that. We had no real need for that quantity of the stuff so the facilities would have needed to have been built en masse.

[@gregnewby6385]

@@alan6832 am 00000

[@The_New_IKB]

Drachisum of the day "I am coming for you with a blunt object"

[@laturnich9507]

I'm by no means an expert, but as far as the Ming treasure fleet, there's a lot of convoluted politics that goes into it (Imperial Chinese Bureaucracy be like that). For one thing, the fleet was a partisan issue, supported by a particular court faction, and when they fell from favor there wasn't much political will to continue the expeditions. Meanwhile various other political interests had their own reasons for opposing the fleet, be they bureaucrats who thought the whole thing was a waste of money, or commercial interests who didn't like the navy crowding in on their smuggling operations. Fundamentally though, the reason the Ming treasure fleet is an anomaly in Chinese history is because Imperial Chinese states were, as a rule, land empires without any vital maritime interests. And, I think I need to stress, China already was a massive empire. In the 17th century, the Ming ruled over a population larger than all of Europe, including the Ottoman Empire, combined. There were individual provinces larger in population and landmass, than all of France! And when you have a giant and rich state like that in the middle of the Asian continent, surrounded on all sides by unfriendly neighbors who wouldn't mind taking a bit of that for themselves thank you very much, the government is unsurprisingly going to be focusing most of their resources on that. As an example of the kind of threats the Ming faced, just about 15 years after the last treasure fleet expedition, the Ming army was destroyed by the Mongols and the Emperor was captured, precipitating a decade long political crisis. And it is worth remembering that both the dynasties immediately preceding and following the Ming were established by foreign conquerors. Aside from sporadic pirate raids no military force of any size ever threatened China from the sea prior to the 19th century. For most of Chinese history before the modern era, naval warfare meant riverine warfare, and focused on controlling internal waterways during times of internal conflict, much like the US during the Civil War. And since that was not a major concern for the Ming at this point in time, it can't exactly be said that their focus on the army was unjustified. A lot of the western confusion surrounding the Ming treasure voyages seems to stem from a very Eurocentric idea about what an empire is, and that if it doesn't have big floaty things and smallpox, it doesn't count. Thus, whereas for the Ming at the time these voyages were probably seen, a bit like the Apollo program, at best as an interesting side project, and at worst as a costly and wasteful PR stunt, the narrative in the west has become that this was a missed opportunity for the Chinese to learn how to empire the "right" way, if only they hadn't been so shortsighted and complacent. By that logic, my question is why the Romans didn't pull all their troops from the German border and instead spend the money on a giant Indian Ocean fleet. Didn't they realize that if they kept doing that for long enough they would have discovered America?

[@huh-64]

Good God that was a long read

[@laturnich9507]

@@huh-64 Yeah sorry. Succinctness is not my strong suit.

[@glennricafrente58]

This is exactly right.

[@glennricafrente58]

@Yar Nunya What's with the name calling? If you had just skipped the first sentence, you would have gotten your point across without sounding so hostile.

[@Shenaldrac]

Very well said. For what it's worth, I'm open-minded enough to admit that a true empire can have any kind of virulent disease it wants, it doesn't have to be smallpox.

[@Kevin_Kennelly]

Drachisms of the Day (1/3): 18:51 "It was commanded by the rather wonderfully named "Manley Power". 19:38 "And they seemed to carry the tradition of the ALABAMA in more ways than one. Especially as they all ended in similar ways." 21:54 "Hmm. Nice merchant navy. Shame if something were to happen to it." 23:03 "By the traditional method, which was 'Pay us or we'll shoot you.' Because the British would have been; 'OK, you want to try it that way. Let's go then.'". 29:18 "But then again, I am British. So I guess eccentricity is somewhere down there in the DNA." 33:47 "Instead of...well, yeah...the 'melee-weapon' that is the Mark XIV." 34:07 "But it's certainly going to put a VERY big spanner in the works." (to my ear, this is a 'Yank-specific' Drachism). 46:44 "If I ever find who made that video, I'm coming for you with a blunt object." 47:00 "As I've said before, if I could BE on any one ship, it would be something like the USS Massachusetts, because, well, if you didn't loose anybody, so I get to live. Huzzah! I like life." 49:56 "Sit there and let the horribleness overtake you."

[@cvproj]

Kevin, "spanner" is not a Yankism; we call 'em wrenches.

[@mbryson2899]

Would sir like a 14" gun with that?

[@Glavenuss]

You forgot 12:32 "...there was quite a large population and, arguably, a number fairly interesting civilizations in North America, prior to the arrival of various interesting European Diseases..."

[@LordDim1]

Don’t forget 25:16 “Come on it’s the Great Eastern, blasted thing would probably last past the nuclear thermal death of the sun”

[@vikkimcdonough6153]

Technically, 19:38 is a questioner-ism, not a Drachism.

[@siremilcrane]

Very slight correction, HMS New Zealand was never operated by the royal New Zealand navy, we didn’t even have our own navy until 1942 when a few Leander’s were transferred to us from the Royal Navy. Fairly fierce debates were held in parliament about this but it was decided that providing funds for a battlecruiser for Britain was preferable to having one ourselves, the complete opposite of what Australia did with their ship. I did my dissertation on the various reasons why but it mostly boiled down to “we can’t afford to operate it but we can fund it’s construction”

[@Drachinifel]

True, but I imagined the demand for the ship to operate in home waters might change a bit with an IJN fleet nearby :)

[@siremilcrane]

Drachinifel oh absolutely, it was something they were talking about as far back as 1910 or so, the Anglo Japanese alliance was a cause for great concern here in NZ and was the beginning of Australia and New Zealand starting to consider getting friendly with the Americans However for your sake saying HMS instead of HMNZS New Zealand is actually historically accurate :)

[@randomguy-tg7ok]

Part 1 of 3. There must be a LOT of questions to answer.

[@deeznoots6241]

random guy by next year there will be 24 hour long drydock episodes

[@attempttoreview4411]

@@deeznoots6241 24 hour drydock episodes. At that point, I think it would be hard to switch between them all. I would also lose my entire Sunday. :(

[@catfish552]

Somewhat related to the rowing/towing question at 48:50, there is also the practice of warping (or kedging): Throw out an anchor in the intended direction of travel and then winch it in. Or, if you have a boat, row the anchor some distance from the ship, drop it, and then pull the ship towards it. Could also be used to move a ship upriver against current if you have two boats and two anchors.

[@hart-of-gold]

If current trends continue, within the decade Drachinifel will be spending every waking moment answering drydock questions. Edit: missing word

[@voiceofraisin3778]

It'll all be over by christmas

[@Edax_Royeaux]

"Every waking answering"?

[@ReclinedPhysicist]

Dry dock is gaining in popularity. It's something I look forward to every Sunday

[@klobiforpresident2254]

@@Edax_Royeaux It is so every, you don't even need a when.

[@Edax_Royeaux]

@@klobiforpresident2254 I'm sorry, I don't speak gaelic.

[@DarkFire515]

Pretty sure foresight would have saved Hood. The magazine penetration that Bismarck achieved was a 1-in-10,000 event. That would be *extremely* unlikely to have happened a "second" time, especially given more favourable engagement geometry.

[@johnfisher9692]

Three video's in a row. Both loving it and definitely needing a refit for my brain's storage capacity.

[@user-ol5lw3md3h]

Why is there an empty space in the body? Fool, put a memory card there!

[@arctictiger8690]

@@user-ol5lw3md3h Nice one

[@mikolajgrotowski]

About using the boat to tow a ship, in late 80 I sail onboard polish sail ship "Pogoria" (36 meters brigantine) as a student for "school under sail" program. I remember a couple times when we tow Pogoria. The reason was part of teching life lesson, part for short of fuel and cash. We were enormously proud when another sail ships turn motors and we paddled.

[@christopherconard2831]

Yes vote for breaking up longer vids. It works well for Drydock because of the jumping around between subjects.

[@jony663]

The image of the long lance I believe was on the walk to ComSubLant in New London were many submarine trophies were housed. They were latter moved to the USS Nautilus museum. As a student at sub school we were able to climb on and around these WWII weapons and many mini subs. Thought you would like this info.

[@kemarisite]

If the USN had better information on the 24" Type 93 before the war, then the more important difference will lie in ship captains and flag officers realizing they're in torpedo range and taking evasive action. It won't help at Savo Island (surprise will do that), but at many later battles (notably Tassafaronga) ships stayed on base course and speed because the range was too great for torpedoes, and got hammered. By Samar, the problems with the Mark 13, 14, and 15 torpedoes had been resolved, so while a larger (1,000 lb vs 700 lb) warhead would have been useful it wouldn't have made a huge difference. As noted, it (1,000 lb of torpedo rather than 700 lb) might have resulted in some outright sinkings rather than cripples that had to be sunk by aircraft later.

[@johnshepherd8687]

And if the USN have developed the technology it would probably have been implemented as a 21" torpedo first. The existing submarine force would have had to go through a significant refit to upgrade the 21" tubes to 24". Probably at the cost of a reduction in the number of torpedoes and tubes carried. Given that the MK 14 did the job when fixed a 21" long lance version would have been good enough.

[@akacurmurdar1]

That's it! I'm naming my future son "Manly Power"

[@davidryall-flanders6353]

my memory is probably off but each time i see the cap band on your avatar, i think of stephen fry as general melchett. "yes, yes, splendid, splendid." every time.

[@RonJohn63]

It's my understanding that the Chinese fleet was (pun intended) junked because the Emperor didn't want an admiral to become too powerful.

[@eric24567]

Chinese American here, so technically I never studied Chinese history academically. But from what I know, that sounds perfectly reasonable, Ming dynasty emperors were known to be useless and/or suspicious. But I'm also a bit skeptical because China, at least historically speaking, has always been a land-power nation.

[@RalphyNoPants]

Mostly it comes from the fact they had far more pressing issues coming from their northern border. A Search for Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence would be a good place to start for the end of the Ming and Chinese the following Chinese history if you are interested.

[@eric24567]

Christmas care to share a bit more? What kind of disaster and how severe was it?

[@talltroll7092]

More specifically, the Treasure Fleet demonstrated the potential for a route to Imperial power that bypassed the Court. That clearly could not be allowed to stand

[@Justin-rv7oy]

Keep up the great work Drach, your drydock episodes make my Sunday mornings.

[@jonsouth1545]

oh 1/3 and an hour+ vid, I'm gonna enjoy this possibly up to 3 hours of Drach

[@matthewjones5731]

Hi Drach, will always apprecite what a nice person you are ! Loved the answer to the copycat channel question.

[@keithplymale2374]

As fantastic as the Long Lance was the IJN found that the equipment of the day (mid 1930's) could not shoot the torpedo accurately enough to use that long range and speed at any range beyond what normal torpedo's could do. So doctrine was for a division of ships to basically shotgun there torpedo's all around the same bearing and then pull away to reload. It's they reason why ships equipped with Long Lance carried reloads. The IJN considered the torpedo to be the ships main battery for anti-ship work not the guns.

[@ErikHare]

I believe that if Canada had built Queen Elizabeth class battleships before World War 1 many things would have changed. Most importantly the United States would have felt compelled to respond. This would have made the u.s. Navy significantly stronger upon entry into the war

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

Battleships for Canada? Makes no sense then, even less today.

[@ErikHare]

@@WALTERBROADDUS no it doesn't make sense. But it would have been interesting if during the Washington Naval treaty negotiations they had insisted the Canada was actually a separate nation with its own right to battleships and therefore deserve to have two of them.

[@jjquinn295]

Might have made the US more likely to treat the British as the bigger threat. Given the number of US ships headed for Germany searched and seized, it could change the result of of WW1 but not in the British favor

[@bkjeong4302]

Note that turtle ships were specialized anti-boarding ships used to break up enemy formations, so there were only a few of them (the Battle of Hansan Island, for example, saw only three). The main warship of the Korean fleet during the Imjin War was the panoeksun, which is similar to a turtle ship in shape (and also carries heavy cannon) but lacks the dragon head and the covered roof, instead having a raised command post in the centre of the upper deck and having gunwales at the rim of the upper deck.

[@rex290]

Been watching quite a bit of your content. All good stuff! Thanks!

[@Tuning3434]

054A (part 1 of 3) What, are you implying 6 hours?

[@Drachinifel]

Nearly 3 total :)

[@Tuning3434]

@@Drachinifel I should prepare some more tea.

[@jonsouth1545]

@@Tuning3434I'm looking forward to this the Rugby isn't on for another 4 hours

[@christianoutlaw]

The Novgorod and the Vitse-admiral Popov certainly put a new spin on the concept in the survival at sea video of "Oh Lord the ship is disagreeable". That would be a rather interesting sight of a ship turning into an improvised yeet cannon.

[@onecertainordinarymagician]

"Save any 4 naval ships and 2 civillian ships from time" #Save Enterprise

[@konac6610]

#SaveWarspite

[@LostBeaver]

Why not both?

[@kendramalm8811]

"from time"? Are we counting forward too? USS Enterprise NCC-1701!😉

[@Lord_Foxy13]

#SaveBonaventure

[@bkjeong4302]

The Lost Beaver Because one of them deserves her reputation far more than the other.

[@ablethreefourbravo]

"The melee weapon that is the Mk 14." Nice.

[@godalmighty83]

There has been huge debate on the size of chinese treasure ships, made more difficult by some very recent revisionist history inspired by the current rise in Chinese nationalism.

[@WildBillCox13]

Drach has picked up a torch carried quite ably by NavyReviewer before him. And I'm glad he has. Navyreviewer's coverage of US and IJN ships of WW2 was good and well researched. So is Drach's. Reviewer's stable of fleet elements is truncated, I assume, due to health problems. Drach is now the default Ships Hub for naval enthusiasts.

[@slavkovalsky1671]

I think these videos should be recorded on coil (or other extremely durable medium) and put into the data equivalent of the Svalbard Seed Vault.

[@mysss29]

@@slavkovalsky1671 "coil"?

[@slavkovalsky1671]

@@mysss29 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_recording I could be wrong, but I heard this could be more robust than tape and other media

[@admiraltiberius1989]

Fantastic video Drach as always.....good to know you are willing to use blunt objects to defend the honour of naval history. Bring on the pine tar !!! Also, thank you for answering my question. Your naval museum would be amazingly eclectic and wild. But it would be the greatest thing ever. I cant imagine seeing all those different ships in dry dock or moored together. I agree with saving the Great Eastern, I'd definitely do that. I'd also save the SS Normandie. As far as warships, give me a Greek or Roman multi tier galley like the Syracusia as you suggested. The USS Alliance(1778) the HMS Warspite and the USS Enterprise CV 6 would round out my warships collection.

[@themadhammer3305]

I'd agree with your choices, however some honourable mentions for ships that I'd personally like to see. HMS Repulse (the last British battlecruiser standing), RM Littorio (simply for being good looking and I don't think Italian battleships get remembered enough), HMS Argus (for being the first aircraft carrier capable of launching and recovering wheeled aircraft) and Finally INS Viraat (formerly HMS Hermes the flagship of the British squadron during the Falklands war and until it's decommissioning in 2017 was the oldest serving aircraft carrier in the world. She's not yet met the scrap yard but it's looking like this will be her eventual fate since the plans for museum ship conversion from both the UK and India have failed currently) Apologies for this post being a bit rambly just love the rabbit hole that this question opened up

[@NickPoeschek]

I think I’d have to save Warspite, Enterprise CV-6, Vanguard, and Nagato.

[@genericdave8420]

I like idea of a "kids fun park", Ride the white water rapids on the Popov ;-) ps, "be splendid" is a Steampunk meme I think.

[@ScholRLea]

1:00:13 I think that the _USS Monitor_ as crewed would have outfought and out-sailed a number of the 2nd Pacific Fleet's ships as crewed, despite the _Monitor_ being entirely unsuited for the high seas, maneuvering like a garbage barge, being loaded with guns incapable of overcoming any amount of steel armor thicker than foil, and maybe being out-tonned by the shells fired by those ships' main guns... OK, so that's hyperbolic (but not as much as it probably should be), but ship handling is sort of a thing.

[@catfish552]

"I don't think you're gonna be chucking around a Long Lance equivalent from an aircraft anyway" I believe you're underestimating the Americans. They would've tried.

[@alecblunden8615]

As I understand it, New Zealand paid for the battle cruiser New Zealand, but it was never part of the RNZN. It was always HMS New Zealand.

[@iansadler4309]

Until 1 Oct 1941, ie part way through WWII, there WAS no RNZN. At the River Plate, Achilles was still HMS, NZ manned but part of the NZ section of the RN.

[@akoponen]

What would have been the consequences of the IJN having passive acoustic homing on their Long Lance torpedoes?

[@LordEvan5]

Thank you for your channel it’s a gift from King Neptune himself

[@WildBillCox13]

The idea of an American trade ship expedition to the Pacific is the central theme of my novel Conversations with a Dragon. My take on subject is that there was trade going between Japan and the Americas, leading to the tradition of setting the abbot of Fudarakusanji (it's a real tradition) adrift in a sealed boat at age 60. That boat was "loaded with treasures and crafts, including sword blades and other articles of Japanese manufacture". My feeling is that the temple was trading with the American trade "fleet" of "Ra" type ocean-going boats somewhere off the coast of the Home Islands. In my novel, the outgoing abbot would travel to the Americas as an agent, and the older, returning, abbot would, therefore, be returned, anonymous, and alive. This idea explains a few anomalies of Japanese culture, such as the Tengu. "Bird Men . . . Men who look like birds . . ." The teachers of arcane "arts". Sounds like contemporary Maya/Aztekki (or even Inca) to me. My spin was that the myth of Tengu came about because of an embassy. In this way, certain American traders brought in Japanese steel (which would be long gone today, considering the climate), trading for it in American Silver, Gold, and gems. Those items are valuable enough to set up a smuggling ring around. The story is convoluted in a peculiarly Japanese manner to hide the facts. It's a great novel with an intriguing premise (according to my one vote). ;-)

[@WildBillCox13]

sacredjapan.com/Temple%2001/Fudarakusanji.htm

[@WildBillCox13]

Here's the good bit: "For over a thousand years, up until the late 19th century, many of the abbots of this temple set out to sea on a small rudderless boat when they turned 60 years old. This practice was called 'Fudaraku Tōkai', and is one of the 'Shashin Gyo' trainings in which priests performed an act of self-sacrifice for the purpose of human salvation. People entrusted the priests to carry their prayers for happiness and enlightenment to Fudaraku (Potala in Sanskrit) Island, Kannon’s Paradise, which was said to lie somewhere off the southern coast."

[@GingerMan69420]

Be Splendid a steampunk reference?

[@JopardBDS]

Yeah I'm thinking a Professor Elemental connection

[@GingerMan69420]

@@JopardBDS Same

[@stevenflebbe]

To illustrate Drach's comments in answer to the Daz Turk question regarding additional crew accommodations as equipment was added to ships. In 1952, the US Navy conducted a study of living conditions aboard the destroyer USS Saufley, a Flethcher class DD which had been converted to an experimental ASW ship. The Navy photographic report is available on KZbin at kzbin.info/www/bejne/boOrlK1ngLhqfJo

[@derptank3308]

Great Drach’s getting influenced by German Tank variant doctrine...

[@seanmac1793]

Then he needs to make a major format change and call it F2

[@Colonel_Overkill]

Or at a minimum 054 Ausfrum A Ein/Drei

[@chrisgott3456]

Currently crashing drydocks about one a day more or less. Fascinating for most part.

[@kamiladankowska5145]

Hello from 2020 when Drydocks takes about 6 hours XD

[@sergarlantyrell7847]

23:50 - So you mean... "aggressive negotiations"? So that's where the Jedi got the idea from!

[@Alex-cw3rz]

I think if I had to save a ship, one I'd have to save is not any particular ship but a 74 3rd rate ship of line with a balcony on the captain's cabin, the most numerous ship of the line ever built yet not one survives, or failing that a large 2 decker ship of the line I just love the look of them Idk why.

[@joshuatan7628]

Hey I agree on the 2 decker ships of line haha ur not alone m8

[@viking1236]

There was a French 74:that survived up to the 50s possibly later before being given back to the Frenchbqfter WW2 who then sank it in the Channel! once saw a book that had numerous photos of it lots of detail of the construction. Wish I'd bought it but too expensive for a poor student in the 80s :(

[@Alex-cw3rz]

@@viking1236 The last 74 was HMS Implacable and It certainly wasn't the French it was the royal navy admiralty that scuttled her by an explosive charge on 2 December 1949. they had offered her to the French, who as well as the british declined to spend the money to turn her into a museum due to having no money. her figurehead and stern galleries were saved and are on display in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, while her capstan is on display at the maritime museum at Rochefort. Her Captain's Cabin doors are in the collection of HM Frigate Unicorn, Dundee. The public reaction to the "criminal action against the maritime history of Britain" forced the government to support the preservation of Cutty Sark.

[@kamdenbarclay486]

Liberty ship hulls were actually made into carrier. They were the small CVE types used heavily by the United States and Great Britain as escort vessels

[@animal16365]

Liberty ships coverted??? The Bogue class were built on C3 cargo ship hulls. Unless theres new infromation on the Bogue class. No Liberty ships or hulls were converted. One thing to. The Bogue class were steam turbin equipped while the Victory class had reciprocating steam engines.

[@murderouskitten2577]

this format is nice :) i know i am selfish , but i really apriciate videos being about 1 hour long in parts instead of one 3 hour video ! :)

[@alecblunden8615]

A smallish ship which retained oars as secondary propulsion was known as a galleas. Only popular in the Mediterranean.

[@Edax_Royeaux]

In reference to "starving out Britain" a study was done showing that Britain had enough domestic food production to keep everyone "fighting fit" anyway. The British Isles is also quite rich in metals, the only reason Britain imported ores was that it was simply cheaper to have it mined elsewhere. Even if every tradeship of Britain had been sunk, there's still no way Operation Sealion is going to get viable.

[@TraditionalAnglican]

PM Churchill’s comment from his autobiography - www.churchillarchiveforschools.com/themes/the-themes/key-events-and-developments-in-world-history/was-churchill-really-worried-about-the-battle-of-the-atlantic-and-if-so-why The history according to “The Beeb” - www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/battle_atlantic_01.shtml

[@Maddog3060]

Am I the only one who sees the massive Treasure Fleet ship and thinks "smaller sailing vessels would sail circles around it and hit it from opportune angles"? Size matters, but it has its own drawbacks.

[@alganhar1]

I was thinking the same, especially with all those masts and sails, which would need to be carefully coordinated. One advantage of a ship that big is it would be able to fit a fairly substantial stern chase battery, though its bows would still be relatively unarmed in comparison, so smaller ships would be better off I think raking them from bow to stern, rather than the other way around. Another issue I see is although they are *big* enough to mount substantial cannon, that does not mean they *can*. If you look at the lower gun decks especially of Western Ships of the Line you will notice their hulls are massively built. Now, granted, this is in part for 'armouring', but it is also in part to deal with the recoil of 24 and 32 pounders, especially if you went crazy and double shotted the things with a measure of grape for kicks... which was a fairly common RN tactic at least for the initial broadside of a close in engagement. If those big treasure ships had never had to mount guns of that size I would think it fairly unlikely that the timbers and structure of the ships would be able to handle them without substantial alterations or even a full redesign....

[@TraditionalAnglican]

alganhar1 - I wouldn’t be so sure about the lack of strength - Archeologists have found watertight bulkheads & cement between wooden layers in the hull of a Treasure Ship they unearthed. That’s part of why they could make them so big (wooden ships tend to “hog” when they get longer than 54m/180’ or larger than 2,000 tons). I had read somewhere that the archeologists had found some cannons during the dig.

[@mancubwwa]

You're definetly not the o ly o r. There are a lot of problems with Tresure Ship design, problems specific to using them as warships. While they have a lot of masts, the sail area-to-draft ratio is not good. Also there is a very good reason why most sailing ships keep all their masts on the centerline: it works in most courses and both tacks. The way Tresure ships were designed, they were very efficent when sailing out with monsoon, and coming back home when monsoon changed direction. But at any suboptimal course related to the wind these sails will start to interfere instead of working together. Even if you arm them with giant cannons at all sides, they're still made of wood. All it takes to take one out is a fire ship, and this thing is not dodging any.

[@glenn1035]

What?! 30:52 No mention if the SS Stephen Hopkins the only U.S. Liberty ship to sink a German surface vessel. Actually an interresting story as the Stephen Hopkins ran across a German raider and her supply ship and the battle resulted in both ships sinking each other. The surviving crew of the Hopkins were in their lifeboat for 30 days before finally reaching Brazil. www.usmm.org/hopkins.html

[@corporaltommy4407]

SWEET MERCIFUL BATTLESHIPS! We are getting three videos!

[@willrogers3793]

28:34 you say that outside of Warspite, you tend to like “the more eccentric, off-the-wall designs”, yet you didn’t include a single French pre-dreadnaught. For shame, sir!

[@davidthomas2870]

I wonder if it would have been possible to refit a treasure ship as an armored steam ship by turning the cargo holds into machinery spaces and possibly having paddle wheels mounted amid ships, and having the gun decks outside of the wheels. Idk if armoring such a large ship would be possible, but if it could be armored and still semi steam powered and armed with decent cannons, it would have to be incredibly formidable. Would have been quite a nasty shock to find one of those. Also, with the ship's bow shape, it could mount quite a number of guns forward facing allowing it to rush down enemy battle lines, punch through the middle and cross up the bow and stern of ships in the middle of the line, and with armor it would be quite hard to stop it.

[@biscuit4705]

I just want to point out some thing, the Chinese is involved in the first and second Korean Japanese war but they mostly focused on the land war

[@realjohnnyhippo]

Just catching up on old Drydocks. With regards to the cap badge for Splendid, submariners do not have individual cap tallies for each submarine. There is an all encompassing cap tally for "HM Submarines".

[@dougjb7848]

2:20 Was Canada anti-superfiring?

[@mattapacka54]

Drach the Infogarphies show put the fuso as the 3RD most deadly battleship, but the video was taken down because of backlash for not only that but also the fact GRAF SPEE was 4th. Edit: I rechecked the criticism video from ichasegaming and more to note is that kongo was 6th (ahead of hood, Jean bart, Tennessee and Roma) and most of the ships looked like coast guard cutters and kirov class battlecruisers.

[@colingibson8018]

This is probably going to sound a bit biased. I understand that you try to spread your coverage across the globe. but you seem to be USA, heavy. Being ex RN, I know that there is a great deal of ships that a Brit like your self know of . Anyway thanks for the small rant. I actually would like you to do a video on the fast minelayers of WW 2. In fact any minelayers including destroyers​ merchant ships . My reasoning is that I think that mines and the laying and sweeping of ,is a very under studied subject. Maybe as soon as you drop them they are largely forgotten. But as you know they have had a decisive role in sea war fare. Anyway just saying. thanks for all you time and effort. it is appreciated.

[@Justin-rv7oy]

US population is like 320 some million. UK population is around 65 million. Maybe the American viewership is a tad higher? As an American who doesn't have an equivalent youtuber, I enjoy that drach spreads the love.

[@ImperialGuard322nd]

I also agree. Mine warfare is very interesting to learn about IMHO. Perhaps ironically, at the same time I find that ASW is rather boring.

[@wrayday7149]

Well, who doesn’t love a good story about a country’s sole doctrine of... let’s put a gun everywhere and see what happens?

[@MrTScolaro]

Actually the aptly named Operation Starvation is perhaps the single most effective and unknown mining campaign.

[@colingibson8018]

Tony Scolaro Too true.

[@Blacksheep1968]

IRT HMS Exeter poor gunnery. After the major battle damage at the River Plate and the refit required afterwards I would assume the RN considerably altered the crew and command personnel? Perhaps this affected HMS Exeter's later performance? Similar to HMAS Syndey situation? Just a thought. I know from my own experiences that every military command I was at was either positively or negatively affected by replacement personnel of any rank. Command chemistry is vital to an efficient happy organization.

[@Sliverappl]

@31:30 Merchant ship disguise as iceberg and raid with tanks! man what a badass LOL Love to know more in detail

[@attempttoreview4411]

Three hours of Drach. This is where the fun begins.

[@blogsblogs2348]

I know that 2 or 3 battleships were torpedoed by german submarines... only to have them malfunction.... this would have cost RN at least 1 prob 2 units early on... need to go back and check this... but I remember a u boat captain having to be sedated and relieved of command when he went back to HQ I once ran a humorous ww2 game... Yes the whole of ww2... where hitler helped his nation by having them. Do things ... like... 'magnetic detonator... ok.. get an old merchant ship into the north Sea and try them out' ... or 'this is a wooden mock up of a panther tank... I have a pencil... I move pencil towards tank... it hits mantlet and deflects downwards'.... the ordnance officer notices the pencil streaks.... Hitler asks why they don't check for shot traps like that and gives the officer some pencils from his desk... ... tsushima. .. I remember one garabaldi class cruiser on the IJN side... it was one of those 2 x twin 8 inch ... options... having 3 gun barrels sliced off by Russian fire... I do think that Yamamoto was a junior officer on board. .. it was a long time ago... lol... so memory not that good

[@Betrix5060]

What game is this? It sounds amazing.

[@blogsblogs2348]

@@Betrix5060 I have been wargaming for at least 35 years.... you literally record everything that they had and go for it.... just use some percentiles and a few d6 for even odds... you can find out almost all true details.. armour ... weapon ranges... likelyhood .... influencing factors... everyone agrees up... Unless you have to debate a point and then the GM makes a ruling.... battles... dice it out.. not dificult ... detection... ranges... likelyhood. .. hit within area of unit.. dice for location on a diagram... ie.. if a part not filled by water... 73 percent down ship... 42 percent across... work out angle of hit... roll for dud... check charts... work out how far it penetrated... or maybe didn't penetrate... did shell burst or whatever and area of effect vs bulkheads and status of ship... usually battle ready.... maybe didn't penetrate... ok you hit a turret... ruling against jamming turret etc.... fragments ? Still have your arado on deck.... not anymore.. lol.... and repeat... hour after hour reichmark pound dollar after each other... economy ... manpower.... resources... alliances.... equip your men in the 17th and 34th division with some different kit... you ordered up... allocated for... and produced.. transported.... etc.... it's all there you just need to spend several decades taking it in... start small and use limited rules then expand as time and knowledge allows... pre boxed games and rules are just someone else's interpretation ... I often read other peoples rules for a laugh... as they may be perfectly ok... even rather good... but you can quickly assess what they know and really.. it's often not a lot.... with wikipedia... and other online sources to back up several hundreds of choice texts you get a different picture... add politics... which is interesting to roleplay and you have lifetimes of deep amusement

[@semicolontransistor]

I am guessing that this Video has nothing to do with the Type 054A Frigates.

[@karlvongazenberg8398]

0:37:47 The first part, that of British shipbuildig to compensate for the "ideal" (yeah, depending on perpective) German kills - exactly how the british shipyards depended on imported materials needed for merchant ships? Would a successfull U-boat campaing hinder that ability? Another one on fully functioning German torpedoes: it is not just the Ark Royal. If memory serves, the HMS Barnham (while "eating a fish") lucked out another hit by malfunction, same for HMS Warspite in the Norvegian campaign, Also during Günther Prien's raid on Scapa Flow the HS Royal Oak was blown up by the SECOND salvo (since most of the first malfunctioned), so maybe Prien would pick another target before leaving.

[@Drachinifel]

Pretty much all the material needed for building merchant ships themselves could be sourced in the UK. And yeah, a number of RN ships were 'victims' of dud German torpedoes, picked Ark Royal as a major example to demonstrate the impact.

[@karlvongazenberg8398]

@@Drachinifel Thanks ;)

[@halo51997]

Drach you should war-game out Beresfords four vs 2nd pacific squadron as a pheasability exercise

[@alecmay2418]

Chinese would not have been able to maintain the naval tradition, because the dynasty after Ming, Qing was far more land bound and did decree that stopped all naval activity during the late 17th century

[@tttt3487]

Splendidly Audacious from 1943? A good motto for ship and life. God save the Queen.

[@desert_jin6281]

24:40 - What? No saving the Kamtchatka ;-) ?

[@Jimorian]

Posting from September 2021 looking back at people who think 2-hour Patreon Drydocks are too long. :P

[@TraditionalAnglican]

37:57 - Were the German estimates at the start of WW 2 accurate? Doenitz said he’d need a minimum of 100 subs “on station” to functionally cut England off - The U-bootswaffe had a total of 57 submarines at the start of the war. Even with that low number of submarines, his subs were the one thing that Churchill worried about from the October, 1940 - March, 1943.

[@AdamMGTF]

Just a note on Churchill.... I love him as a historical character and as a true hero of his time. However. When reading anything his wrote you do have to take it with a big pinch of salt. He had a way of writing a great quote and be damned to accuracy. His quote implys he had no greater worry. His other writings suggest plenty of bigger worries. It's more likely that "my greatest worry was that the US wouldn't enter the war on out side". Wasn't quite as good a quote lol

[@altiramoongara9968]

Is "Be Splendid" related to a Surrey Steam Punk festival?

[@Steve9312028]

Hey Drach! Sorry for asking a stupid question, but I pinned a question for you in the: “Pinned post for Q&A” section. I wasn’t sure if I put it in the proper spot or if I should have posted it in this particular comment section. I’ve seen others ask questions in the public comment section, so I was a bit confused about the proper protocol in this matter. Once again, I apologize for asking a seemingly stupid question. 😎😎🖖🏼😎😎😜

[@Drachinifel]

Basically I'm far more likely to see a question if it's put in the pinned post reply thread :)

[@henrysimpson9094]

I think that the fuso video was from the infographics show channel

[@michaelkaylor6770]

Oh good Lord, the image in my head when Drach says, at the hands of Johnston and Friends”. Was a bunch DD and DE with Thomas the tank engine faces spitting Long Rifle torpedoes with Roundels painted on them!

[@user-ol5lw3md3h]

You should have kept the by jove!!!

[@ant4812]

00:48:50 - If I remember correctly it was the 1741 Establishment that finally eliminated oarports from new British frigates/6th rates.

[@dereseemdereseem]

3 HOURS OF DRACH! I do believe that I have died and entered naval history heaven.

[@connannbarbarin3033]

If you could choose to command any ship in ww2, which one and why? i would go for French battleship Strasbourg

[@pioneer_1148]

Why didn’t you include the enterprise on the ships you would save list?

[@Drachinifel]

She's in my top ten, and would easily make a list of ships from the modern era, but when faced with all of time to get ships from...

[@chrisgott3456]

and only for "most part " because my ADD kicks in at about 1/2 hour. If I take a break it is freshly fascinating.

[@Scoobydcs]

Beast of a drydock!!

[@ryanmcdonald1868]

How long does it take to answer a question

[@danieltaylor5542]

First an away win with a clean sheet now I get almost 3 hours of Drachinfel goodness!? Is it Christmas in August?

[@chubbycakes6446]

7:45 it would be something like "Chern or Churn" for Zheng and "hur or her" for He

[@Dreska_]

Ooo baby a triple!

[@MakeMeThinkAgain]

USN Long Lance: This would have also saved a large number of Allied ships since they would have known about extended "torpedo water" from the beginning. Still wouldn't have changed the outcome in the Dutch East Indies because of the lack of air power.

[@MS-gr2nv]

British built Liberty ships?

[@MS-gr2nv]

Here in the states we are taught that one of the reasons for the war of 1812 is that British kept on Raiding our merchantmen enslaving our sailors into their navy....

[@lebverderben]

Pretty sure that "Be Splendid" is the motto of the Steampunk community.

[@NoNameAtAll2]

HMS samures time stamp is wrong

[@collins.4380]

46:46 A Mark 14 Torpedo?

[@christopherconard2831]

Wouldn't carry an airborne Long Lance? Suddenly I'm envisioning B-17s and 29s with externally mounted torpedo launchers.

[@TraditionalAnglican]

Marry Christmas - But the Japanese aerial torpedo was much better than ours until 1942. Substituting those in place of the “toy rifles” (Prien’s description of the German G7E & G7A during the German Invasion of Norway) would’ve resulted in the loss of multiple Japanese ships at the cost of fewer American planes in 1941-43. Actually, what the Japanese did to protect their aerial torpedoes would probably have worked with the Long Lance. ATP, the question becomes how you’re going to carry that 2.7t monster on any aircraft smaller than a B-17...

[@doe_maar365]

I remember that you wanted to do a spring sharp tutorial, is the video planned to release within 3 months?

[@Drachinifel]

Hopefully next month

[@stevechambers4810]

Save any 4 naval ships ? Easy USS Oregon,USS California,USS Washington,and USS Enterprise.

[@AdamMGTF]

Are you by any chance American? 😂

[@williamoldaker5348]

i enjoy the long videos