The Drydock - Episode 261 (Part 1)

[@Drachinifel]

Pinned post for Q&A :)

[@JohnSmith-of2gu]

In your old video on the 1919 Baltic war you mentioned the bolsheviks wanting to "Redistribute the means of propulsion" ad swap out the modern dreadnought's oil fired boilers with coal fired ones from pre-dreadnoughts. Is such a swapping on any timeframe reasonable for wartime possible even in skilled hands, and if so how long and what equipment would it take?

[@vikkimcdonough6153]

20:17 - _Did_ anyone ever really fix the magnetic detonators on their torpedoes during the war? It seems like the main "fix" implemented by the navies involved was "disable/remove the blasted thing entirely and use contact detonation instead".

[@jackgee3200]

Naval heavy gunnery spotting was primarily used to _fine tune_ the target tracking model set up in the FCS 'computer' for the engagement - to bring the internal continuously predicted _relative future target track_ into line with actuality. As opposed to simply shifting the gun aim in range and bearing for eg. the next salvo - as would be done with land artillery against static targets.

[@hughgordon6435]

As a fun friday? Hows about a "rage against the Drach" feature of so blatantly wrong rants ?? Anonymity assured of course?

[@rogersmith7396]

Yes, we try to force as many idiots as possible out of the country. Unfortunately as can be seen by the number of Republicans there is a huge backlog. We are knee deep in them so unfortunately for the rest of the world we can't be concerned with the effect on you. We are bailing out a leaky ship.

[@alanzelanski7288]

I remember several years back my wife and I were on a visit to the USS Yorktown and USS Laffey in South Carolina. While touring the destroyer and explaining everything to my wife I ended up with a small group of visitors who followed us around and started asking me questions. It seems a number of them believed I was either a tour quide or a ex crew-member. My wife got a kick out of that because it was not the first time this had happened. The fun of being a naval nut.

[@aldenconsolver3428]

and good on you for taking the time to answer those questions.

[@DardanellesBy108]

Another positive aspect of the USS Cairo is it’s in the middle of Vicksburg Military Park. It’s situated right on the main route through the park so everyone who passes through will see it and have a convenient place to park. It’s display is very well done with an indoor area that is full of displays. The whole park is well worth a visit. -- It’s just a wild dream of course but how cool would it be to raise another wreck and put it in the middle of a well visited area in order to insure plenty of visitors.

[@haldorasgirson9463]

Replicas. I love the HMS Surprise, an 18th century, 24 gun replica of the RN Frigate Rose. During the production of the movie "Master and Commander" she was remodeled to be precisely a Nelson Royal Navy frigate. In my opinion, the ship was part of the cast and she literally carried the day. The HMS Surprise is now a museum ship in San Diego. It was smaller than my mental image from the movie, but that just shows how expert the people who made "Master and Commander" are at their craft. I found her to be fascinating to explore.

[@BleedingUranium]

On the topic of replicas featured in films, there's also _Lady Washington_ which appeared as _Enterprise_ in Star Trek: Generations as well as HMS _Interceptor_ in The Curse of the Black Pearl.

[@PaulfromChicago]

The last time I was this early, warships used a fuel mixture of a half pint rum, 1 quart water, with a small addition of lemon and sugar.

[@Tuning3434]

This early, I am still sticking to coffee.

[@AnimeSunglasses]

Best "last time I was this early" I've seen in a long time, and also, _same!_

[@scooterdescooter4018]

thanks for the recipe!

[@averytiredman4857]

What coffee? Scotch?

[@lucassnyder3957]

​@@averytiredman4857 only if one can reach maximum sugar saturation

[@JohnSmith-of2gu]

1:14:00 petition for Drach to release his off-key cover of the Gascogne song!

[@a2rgaming863]

That's a copyright strike.

[@jeffholloway3882]

Agreed

[@animal16365]

Maybe we could do a fund raiser to have Drach sing it live on one of his live streams ;-)

[@JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

I absolutely agree with you regarding Captain Johan Lindemann. He made the choices that saved his his ship, crew and passengers.

[@Ozymandius1977]

Amazing story

[@vikkimcdonough6153]

Regarding the anti-surface capabilities of 3" DP guns, remember that the Royal Navy went up from 3" to 4" secondaries all the way back in _1906_ (as part of the various minor improvements going from _Dreadnought_ to the _Bellerophons),_ specifically because the 3" gun was too small and short-ranged to effectively ward off enemy destroyers and torpedo boats _even back then._

[@timothymaher5328]

Me, chuckling while listening to Drach's thoughts on American tourists: "Hehe. Yeah... we don't always make it easy to love us."

[@mbryson2899]

I've personally known around two dozen fellow USians who have gone to Europe as tourists. Only six at the most are people I'd want to associate with in public anywhere; the rest are entitled boors with more money than sense or courtesy. I suspect that because most USians lack the vacation time or disposable income to embark on a vacation to Europe that Europeans only get to see the worst of us. Throw in the fact that geography and social studies are woefully underaddressed in most schools coupled with the creed of American Exceptionalism and I can see how other nationals only get to see the most annoying of us at their worst.

[@kittenfantastic7730]

I think the test for most folks from the US before they’re allowed to venture abroad to bother other countries should be can you survive NYC and LA without being an annoying tourist? If the idea of renting a car abroad seems like a thing to do, I’d like to pose the question of can you drive in Atlanta? 🤣 If not, please don’t go to abroad; you’re not ready. Edit: I say this as someone from the USA. Even where I live we get tourists…it’s terrible. I feel bad for any county that has a much greater archeological history that’s easily seen than the states have.

[@nicknchicken5381]

Unfortunately a large portion of the US population with the sufficient funds to go abroad tend to also tend to be the most full of themselves and obnoxious. The ones that aren’t don’t tend to try to draw attention to themselves so tend to fly under the radar. We don’t tend to get as much time off at work as a large part of the world.

[@spudskie3907]

Forget about Americans going abroad, how about Americans visiting different parts of the country? My job means I travel all over the country and people from all over the country come to see me in Chicago. There are great people and then there are the idiots, especially those from NYC, Philadelphia, the entire state of New Jersey, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta and San Francisco are the worst. And yes...we have plenty of idiots in Chicago.

[@v0n1b0]

1:49:20 Drach, when my wife and I first visited the UK nearly 30 years ago, the thing we were asked most frequently was if we were Canadian. We quickly figured out the questioner didn't want to insult us if we really WERE Canadian by assuming we were Americans. After we 'fessed up, the usual response was "We don't GET many Americans here". We'd then know we were on the right track. In nearly a score of subsequent trips to both the UK and Ireland we have maintained that low profile and found the people to be friendly and welcoming - except in Cornwall.

[@konekillerking]

The sonar mapping of the Pacific Ocean during the war helped in supporting the theory of plate tectonics, first proposed by Wegener.

[@frjonathanhill9817]

On the subject of replicas - particularly from ships of earlier eras this can be a very good thing. I recall in the museum at Barcelona they have a replica of Don John of Austria's ship from the Battle of Lepanto. It does give a great sense of what the ships of the time were like. Given the funding, it is a great thing to be able to do.

[@GaldirEonai]

59:26 Yeah, Londo's speech hits pretty damn hard. As does the president's speech just after it.

[@glennricafrente58]

1:14:00 Okay, you CANNOT leave us hanging. What are those lyrics to "Gascogne" (adapted, as you say, from "Gaston" from Beauty and the Beast) that you sing, and will you PLEASE sing it for us?

[@Wolfeson28]

Between this and his knife-switch inspired Emperor's New Groove reference in his USS Texas video, this man had a fun childhood of Disney movies. :) Not to mention the Atlantis reference later in this video. Definitely a lesser-known work.

[@longrider188]

Lt. Commander Bruce McCandless and the DC officer both received the Medal of Honor for their performance in that battle.

[@greenseaships]

Funny but until now I had only ever heard of his son! :D

[@kemarisite]

Rocky Schoenland, IIRC.

[@Revolutionarythought]

San Diego native here. While there is technically a river in San Diego (the San Diego River), which is the size of small stream, the USS Midway is in San Diego Bay, and not on a "riverfront." :D

[@Andy_Ross1962]

Leaving off guns, armour, ballast and equipment was another way of getting a good high speed run

[@michaelhitchcock9255]

Re US tourists. I think tourist to Europe don't well represent a cross-section of our citizens. It's very expensive to travel to Europe and the average working US citizen can't afford it. It also takes a good chunk of time, and US vacations (holidays to you) are much shorter. Typically, US citizens get only a couple of weeks per year, and often this time can't exceed more than 7 consecutive days. So, Europe sees mostly upper class and upper middle-class people from the US, and they can be a bit self-important and prickly. Friends I have in Mexico generally have a better opinion of US tourists, because just about any US citizen can afford a trip to Mexico. You can drive there from several states. Remember, the average US citizen doesn't even own a passport and never leaves the country. It is rather large and culturally diverse, so you can see a life time of sights without ever traveling abroad. My experience with tourists from abroad is that those from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Central America and South America are generally pretty friendly, but those from elsewhere, no so much.

[@Trek001]

I see Sgt Shultz got back to back questions at 01:31:00 and 01:35:23

[@Andy_Ross1962]

The last generation of Royal Navy steam ships were all running on diesel fuel. It was more expensive than bunker oil but it greatly simplified logistics.

[@mbr5742]

Was this due to logistics or due to bunker oil getting less common because it could be split up further? That caused some problems for east germany that had a sizeable number of steam locomotives converted to running on bunker oil and had to re-convert them to coal

[@Andy_Ross1962]

@@mbr5742 Logistics. It means you only carry one fuel in your supply tankers.

[@michaelkovacic2608]

Hey Drach, the MTK drew up a design for a pretty decent heavy cruiser in 1918, the Project VII. It was 185 meters long with a 20 meter beam and had a designed speed of 33 knots. Protection was a 150mm belt and a 30mm deck, and armament was six 190mm guns in 3 twin turrets on the centerline, one forward, one amidships and one aft. Displacement was 10.000 tons standard and 12.000 tons tons at full load. There are claims, arguably, that this ship was superior to the US Omaha-class and the British Hawkins-class (which had only a 76mm belt) Anyone interested can find the ship online.

[@leezebede4469]

Drac you done it again. Right off the rip with a great question

[@chrismaverick9828]

In regards to the obnoxious American travelers: Overseas traveling is, by and large, expensive for most Americans. We can go to Canada or Mexico for cheap, but buying a plane ticket for an eight hour+ flight and setting up all the amenities to go overseas is pricey. Also remember that most Americans don't have a passport since we don't often leave the USA. Call it shallow, but when you have some of the most interesting night life in most cities, amazing scenery and vistas only a couple of hours or states away at most, and arguably some of the most diverse and delicious food on the planet set in a regional manner, we don't really have to travel to enjoy life. As a result, many of the people who do travel overseas are relatively well to do, and that often makes for a pompous and inconsiderate American at home, let alone abroad. Karens alone make up 80% of the upper-middle and lower-upper class. As usual there is a bit of stereotyping going on here and not all Americans are jerks when abroad. Cultures are different and some have to work harder than others to really accept and enjoy a different culture rather than complain, often to their faces, that another country's culture is so different.

[@frankbodenschatz173]

For the person asking about the USS BIRMINGHAM I suggest THE UNAUTHORIZED HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC WAR wit Seth and Bill. A great series!

[@sfs2040]

I don't care much for their historical takes

[@frankbodenschatz173]

@@sfs2040 ok.

[@CharlesStearman]

Further to the question about gunpowder handling on age-of-sail ships, I believe that the powder charges were carried from the magazine to the guns in closed containers (rather like a wooden bucket with a lid) to protect them until they reached the guns.

[@AnimeSunglasses]

1:06:06 Kalamazoo is pronounced is primary stress on the last syllable and secondary stress on the first. You did get it right the second time.

[@scooterdescooter4018]

as a dude who lives in michigan and has for his entire life he did infact get it right the second and third times.

[@dandarling152]

In your comparison of Hiyo/Junyo vs Ranger: One other thing to consider is that the two IJN CVLs had sub optimal propulsion. It was always breaking down. Ranger would have been more dependable as a moving platform.

[@Cbabilon675]

If I'm not mistaken going to the name turtleback comes from the Korean Turtle ships. Considering the Japanese Raiders were so flabbergasted in annoyed by for the thick armor plates on the ships.😊😊

[@bkjeong4302]

They’re not really the same thing as turtleback armour: the turtle ships had wooden “shells” proof against light arms (arrows, arquebuses) with metal anti-boarding spikes at the very top of the ship, rather than the turtleback armour scheme which is internal to the ship.

[@matthewbarratt4935]

It sounds like the term turtleback was being used in 19th century Europe, and those aren't the sort of folk who paid much attention to Korean history.

[@gagamba9198]

Re question #1, there's a very informative read about the types of coal and their affect on performance; 'Coal and the Advent of the First World War at Sea' by James Goldrick, which is online to read for free at jstor. Evidently, the cleanest burning coal was a type from Wales known as Admiralty coal. Fewer stoppages for cleaning needed means maximising performance. And the manpower demands of coal-fueled ships was significant. _HMS Hood_ had half the number of sailors working its oil-fueled boilers than pre-War battlecruiser _HMS Tiger_ . There were also labour issues regarding stokers. Goldrick's paper is data rich. Well worth the read.

[@PaulfromChicago]

Yeah. Admiralty coal was semi-bituminous coal from southern Wales. Not anthracite. The Admiralty bought and burnt quite a bit of anthracite, but in shore installations and for metal working. Not in ships. The Goldrick paper is a nice summary, but if you're interested in the topic, Michael Warwick Brown's KCL dissertation is a great guide. Gray's dissertation is not bad either, but his book is fairly expensive.

[@rogersmith7396]

It took a long time to coal a ship and it was brutal work. Oil was much easier and cleaner.

[@rogersmith7396]

Also risk of coal dust explosion like USS Maine.

[@nmccw3245]

@@rogersmith7396 - that was Spanish sabotage. William Randolph Hearst said so and we know the media always tells the truth… 🙄

[@gagamba9198]

@@PaulfromChicago Thanks for your reply. I picked Steven Gray's book. Yes, it's bit steep, but nothing like out-of-print Japanese texts - one I'd love to get is of pre-War statistics (industrial, commerce, power consumption, etc) is about $2000.

[@cdfe3388]

Re: American tourists Speaking as an American, I suspect it’s a bit of the “professional activists vs regular people” thing. For one thing, there’s the fact that Mexico and Canada are pretty much the only other countries close enough to be quick and cheap. I understand it’s different in the UK and continental Europe, but here in the US, traveling to Europe or Asia requires both the financial means to pay for the trip and the free time in which to do it, and an awful lot of us either can’t afford it, can’t take the time off work, or both. If we do take such a trip, it’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing. The regular salt-of-the-earth folks who don’t go out of their way to annoy those around them are just less likely to be encountered as tourists in Europe, while those who consider themselves “entitled” are more likely. There’s certainly exceptions, of course, but that’s my take, and I’m in the “never been overseas” category myself.

[@williammorris584]

Confederate blockade runners of 1861-1865 were selected or built for speed and low profile, they preferably burned anthracite coal for low smoke production as well as speed. Some blockade runners added bales of cotton soaked with turpentine for additional speed.

[@wswordsmen]

Thanks for answering my question with a bonus when it turned out my original question's answer was "nothing of note".

[@warhawk4494]

Love the Babylon 5 reference.

[@Tyrs_Finox]

Dangit! Drach has found us out, we ONLY export our worst people! 😆 Not sure why you found this, but my experience on the two trips I've gotten to Europe was that ALOT of U.S. tourists to Europe in particular are school tours, who tend to be spoiled little rich kids. Might be why? Glad you got to see abit of Middle-America in your travels here.

[@haldorasgirson9463]

I love the image of the fish ship. I can imagine something like that for real in some action on Discworld (Terry Pratchett). Just watched a wonderful "Troll Bridge". Film adaptation of the "golden years" of Cohen the Barbarian. Odd and hilarious, which is a fair description of Pratchett's work.

[@hughdanaher2758]

When discussing the contribution of naval officers and ships you should look into HARRRY HAMMOND HESS. He captained US Navy supply ship USS Cape Johnson and had the depth sonar running constantly when crisscrossing the Pacific. His interpretation of these recordings contributed to the theory of PLATE TECTONICS.

[@mudcatfrank7537]

Regarding USS Duke of New York, in the book " British Battleships Of WWII" by Alan Raven and John Roberts, on page 310 they talk about the possible sale of the HMS Duke York in exchange for eight cruisers.

[@marcusfranconium3392]

On the Battle ship shells and bunkers , there was something around called bleu concrete , its immensly tough nearly impossible to blow up or demolish . having bunkers 3 to 5 meters thick capable of withstanding tallboy bombs , you get the idea , the bunkers in the netherlands where created out of this stuff . before the war and later the germans , and most of these bunkers where nod demolished after the war they where sunk under the sand by pumoing out sand underneath them ,, in the 70s and 80s and 90s they tried to remove a few of the underground bunkers , and the companies that got the contract whent bust as it was imposible to break them up . Even now in the town of ijmuiden there is called the Schnell boat bunker B ( originaly tended to service schnellboats . ) its so masive it cant be removed , a tallboy bomb did penetrate by luck during construction when it dropped in to one of the unfinished the ventilation shafts . and damage to the bunker was none existent exept for the people and machinery inside . You can still visit most of the bunkers in ijmuiden as part of the bunker museum , and you will see how tough hard and huge these are .

[@dave8599]

1:41:00 Museum ship condition may vary a good deal depending when how long ago the last overhaul was done. The Texas was in very bad condition a year ago, but post its current dry docking, it will likely be in very nice condition, but 20 years from now it will no doubt be less nice, so it really is somewhat dependent on the drydock cycle.

[@hisdadjames4876]

To this day, there are vast open-cast lignite mines in North West Germany, near Cologne. Its an awe inspiring site…holes in the ground, maybe 10 square kms in size and 400 metres deep…ringed by power stations. Guess they fuelled the High Seas Fleet back in the day. Its not really ‘horrible stuff’, simply younger and less pure carbon fossil fuel material, hence found nearer the surface. A good friend works there as a landscape draughtsman, planning the land use after the mine crawls through, with the spoils redeposited continuously along the trailing edge.

[@michaelimbesi2314]

For burning, lignite really is horrible stuff. It’s the absolute lowest quality of coal available. It makes a lot of smoke and ash and doesn’t burn evenly, so it tends to damage things like grates.

[@u_u4640]

Some might find the tonnes of heavy metals escaping the filtering processes rather unpleasant. Especially since german brown coal is particularly rich in mercury, witch has a nasty tendency to accumulate in the food chain as methylmercury.

[@keefymckeefface8330]

have you ever seen proper Welsh black coal burn? Guess not, or you would understand why lignite is cr"p...

[@hisdadjames4876]

Relax. They’re planning to close them down in a few years…so we can happily progress to even larger scale lithium mining instead. 😐

[@Dilley_G45]

Those lignite mines only feed power plants

[@robin8404]

I can only imagine the sort of noise an early jet fighter would make coming in to land on a rubber carrier deck without any wheels, I assume it would sound like the world's biggest burnout. Probably with the smell of burnt rubber as well! The rubber deck opens out new frontiers for crew entertainment during peacetime as well, with the help of a bottle of washing up liquid and a hose. And some suitably soft barriers...

[@asdfjklol]

59:00 - A good example of ships making important scientific observations is during the evacuation on Pompeii by sea, detailed observations of Mt. Vesuvius were made.

[@kemarisite]

2:35:03 as I've said about the 15" guns at Singapore, using AP (which was almost exclusively what the Singapore guns had) means that the shell digs its own grenade sump before the delay action fuse detonates the shell 0.025 (or however much) later.

[@axelrajr]

24m11s: On the term ‘Turtle-Back’ to describe an armor scheme; could it go back farther? Might the term have originated from the Korean Turtle Ships which were apparently around from the 15th to the 19th century? That late means that there might be a direct inspiration for the idea, or at least using the term for that sort of armor configuration. 2h26m55s: you made an off-hand comment on why would you paint a carrier up as a merchant ship when the US Subs were quite happily going after merchant ships along with everything else. Perhaps there is a bit of a mindset thing going on. Heard you say at several times that they were far more focused on the idea of ship-to-ship combat. Granted there were few allied merchant ships to go after, but they did seem more interested in the glory of killing warships. Perhaps the origin of the paint scheme were still focused on going after warships first and fit the ship’s camouflage into that mindset. Or they were a surface type that didn’t really consider how different subs are, surface ships would probably be a lot more interested in eliminating any escorts first than a sub might. they are thinking…if one of our (Japanese) ships saw some small or medium warships and a merchant ship, well of course the enemy would target the escorts first, those are warships… while a US Sub that hasn’t been detected might think…’hmmm, lot of escorts for that merchie…’.

[@niclasjohansson4333]

The light green camouflage paint used during the last years by the IJN, mostly on carriers and supply ships, was a flame proof paint, developed during the war, it happened to be green because of the ingredients, and not because they wanted there ships to "be green".

[@papps44]

When I was a kid the house I moved into had a solid fuel burner. The difference between black coal and anthracite was apparent. Burning good quality coal produced a very hot efficient burn with minimal byproducts whereas anthracite burnt at a lower temperature with a lot of crap so one can understand why Germany had piss poor coal for use in their warships.

[@shalafi4]

Regarding the first US ironclad rhat would have a descent chance against HMS Warrior. One ship that would fall under an "honorable mention" would have been USS Dunderburg. It was a BIG ocean going ironclad that the US navy had procured but never commissioned. (no need for it by late 1864) The shipyard completed it and then sold it to France. (to keep it out of Prussian hands) In its original configuration it had a mix of 11 and 15in Dahlgren's. It had comparable armor and descent enough speed to potentially push an engagement.

[@TheWareek]

RAN ships in the 50's to 90's were painted a green shade of grey. I served on the HMAS Hobart which was known as the Green Ghost.

[@Rocketsong]

One more time, Gato... Gah-to. It's Spanish, because American English uses Spanish and Native American words natively. As in El Gato "the cat", because the Submarine, and thus it's class, is named after a type of cat-fish.

[@Drachinifel]

I've used both in the past, but period film of USN officers has them using the 'American' version.

[@davidknowles2491]

An American rebuild of Duke of York would be interesting to see!

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

It makes no sense. The whole idea is Goofy. And Admiral King would never go for it.

[@davidmcintyre8145]

It is worth remembering that had any late 18th/early 19th century gunner(the man who looked after the magazine)seen the practices aboard British battlecruisers before and at Jutland He would have demanded a boat to get as far away as possible

[@davidmcintyre8145]

@@jackgee3200 Look at the precautions that a gunner of that time would take. The magazine was lined with copper,the gunner and his mates wore soft soled slippers and there was as has been said an interlock between the magazine and the rest of the ship. Anything that could be done to reduce the risks of sparks near powder was done. Now compare That to how Beatty operated

[@mtgAzim]

52:27 Whenever he says "Human Torpedo" I just hear it in Rudy Ray Moore's voice. "Thuh Hue-Mon Tore-Peedoh!"

[@PaulfromChicago]

2:05:45 Semi-bituminous, not anthracite. Edit - anthracite wasn't used in naval vessels (some well-publicized USN trials aside in the late 19th century). USN burnt Pocahontas semi-bit and the RN burnt Welsh semi-bit. (Also the RN liked West Port NZ semi-bit when in the general vicinity, and Svarbald if they had to make do - curiously it's why that island is occupied more or less, being a rough competitor to Welsh semi-bit.) The RN bought a lot of anthracite during World War I, but that was for cooking, heating, or machining etc. Not for shipboard power. (The RN had a lot of cooking, heating, and machining to do.) Anthracite is not Admiralty coal. It doesn't burn hot enough to get to be Admiralty coal and creates too much ash. Anthracite is a clean burning coal, but it is not the best choice for ships intent upon speed. There are better BTU/smoke/ash choices available such as semi-anthracite, semi bit, or even very high quality bituminous.

[@davidvik1451]

02:09:47 Once coal went the way of the Dodo, and the modern oil fired boiler express boiler ruled, the length of the funnel was mainly to get the smoke and fumes off the deck as the boiler air was supplied by steam driven forced draft blowers that did not depend on the chimney effect to draw air through a grate in a fire box. Yes damage that caused a blockage to the exit gases would cause a reduction in capability at the point at which you could no linger stuff enough air into the boiler to keep a clear stack.

[@MrTScolaro]

Although a very niche case, the 3"/70 caliber gun, did outrange the 5"/38. the 3"/50 was ~80% the range of the 5"/38. I think however, that the stopping power for surface actions of a 3" gun is rather limited.

[@WilliamClodius]

I suspect that tourist sites in general are staffed by pleasant outgoing people, and have people in general that are more used to dealing with people from other countries and cultures. Also tourism to Europe in general is expensive, and likely results in a unusually large fraction of financially successful people who tend to have large egos.

[@guestmatejek9029]

In re: Invasion of Bougainville and Empress Augusta Bay, 01:35:29. Thank you, Drach, for answering my question. This means a lot to me. For anyone else who is interested one of my relatives, my grandfather’s younger brother on my mother’s side, was a bow 40 mm gunner on the Birmingham when she was torpedoed (and skip bombed). (I bring up the skip bombing because during my regrettably short conversation with my veteran relative before he passed he did mention the skip bombing along with torpedo.) Drach did a wonderful video about the Birmingham, “Three Strikes & Not Out,” m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnvcdXukqqish8U&pp=ygUsRHJhY2hpbmlmZWwgdGhyZWUgc3RyaWtlcyBhbmQgeW91J3JlIG5vdCBvdXQ%3D. I thought it was ironic the Birmingham’s first deployment was the softening up of Sicily during Operation Husky; my great-grandfather was born in Sicily. Not be outdone, around the time I posted my question, another video came up “Episode 220: The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay with special guest Drachinifel” from the Unauthorized History of the Pacific War Podcast, m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/paOqmKBvZsqVecU. Wow, bravo! I highly recommend this channel, as well. I might have to watch it a few more times, however, my takeaways are Bougainville was a significant stepping stone in being able to provide fighter air cover over Rabaul and that during the naval night action, on Nov 1, 1943, the US Navy decisively pushed back the IJN. In other words, this engagement demonstrated US Naval supremacy at night whereas previously, even with radar, the US Navy and the IJN would go toe to toe inflicting losses on both sides.

[@nickdanger3802]

The Malta-class aircraft carrier was a British large aircraft carrier design of World War II. Four ships were ordered in 1943 for the Royal Navy, but changing tactical concepts, based on American experience in the Pacific War, caused repeated changes to the design, which was not completed before the end of the war. All four ships were cancelled in 1945 before they were laid down. Wackipedia

[@jamesmchenry4708]

6:10 So...this is _really_ only true if your car is intended to run on premium fuel, like, for example, you have a relatively modern car designed for efficiency, with a very small, direct-injected turbo engine, or one meant for high performance. The ECU will back off timing (and in some cases, boost) to keep the fuel from pre-igniting and causing damage to the engine. Older high-compression cars will simply start knocking and eventually self-destruct. This said, if you have something with a relatively low to moderate compression engine that's meant to run on regular fuel, you won't see _any_ benefit from using higher octane fuels, and might see some deposits from them causing issues instead. Always use the fuel grade prescribed in your owner's manual.

[@EdMan102292]

Yeah the issues caused by running too low of an octane rating in a car engine (knock) would be completely different from running low quality fuel through a ships boiler (I'm assuming fouling caused by impurities and hydrocarbons that don't combust). Internal combustion engines function a lot differently than external combustion engines.

[@johnsmith-sp6yl]

lower octane fuels generally [GENERALLY] have a lower BTU value, thereby producing slightly less power, and depending on the exact composition of the fuel can produce more or less gunk in your engine depending on a bunch of factors. fuels are made to match a certain parameter when burning, not to be compositionally consistent, maybe beyond 15% ethanol in the US. eg; more benzene/xylene etc will produce more soot, but be higher octane. as an aside; direct injection is a passing fad, carbs will reign supreme once again very soon.

[@craigfazekas3923]

The question @40:35, about seaplane spotting ? Buy the book Naval Aviation in the First World War, to read in depth about the birth of seaplanes & their rival, the airships. Mainly an excersize in the RN development, a decent dose of German, Turkish, Italian, French, ect. is a minor feature in this read as well. A pretty comprehensive volume on the subject, straight back to the beginning. A barge that was towed & launched WWI wheeled aircraft from behind a speedy vessel/destroyer ? Along with the seaplane tender that was a converted passenger ship or freighter ? Yes, these existed prior to the proper flight deck & so on. Pretty informative !! 🚬😎👍

[@graveyard1979]

Deck armor being laid "in a turtleback manner" or somewhat similar was the first time I've encountered term turtleback armor and I can't recall the book, but this was about the Esmeralda-class so definitely older than Bismarck and modern YT channels. I can't recall the book but I think it was English and as I've read it in the nineties so I do think there miiight be a sliight chance it predates WoW video streams.

[@chpet1655]

Yes would love a video about Lidemann and Krakatoa

[@bo7341]

1:06:07 the way that Drach pronounces Kalamazoo hurt my soul as a former resident of the city. Especially after he nailed Cairo, despite that pronunciation being different from a much more famous city. All of the As are pronounced short in Kalamazoo.

[@suflanker45]

Actually the US did complete three warships that could take on Warrior. The USS Dunderberg was a seagoing casemate ironclad.She could carry 16 heavy guns. Also the US built two broadside ironclads for Italy. The Re d'Italia and the Re di Portogallo, All three ships were wooden hulled so the Warrior has the edge there.

[@vikkimcdonough6153]

1:20:56 - Er, the _Maltas_ _didn't_ have an armored flight deck; they moved the armor to the hangar deck, in the style of the U.S.'s floating-bonfires-in-waiting.

[@jonathanstrong4812]

@drachinifel Hi Mr D I'm using the Malta class battle carrier in the Operation Musketeer in October |November 1956 fictionally I'm using the then Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet war ships Along with the Marine National Mediterranean Fleet And the 1950 vintage United States Navy's Sixth Fleet and during this story they were teleported towards the Andromeda Galaxy You know about the Malta class along with the fictional and not built Royal Navy warships But along with more of the single battleship of the Vanguard class and more of the Abercrombie monitors Along with false and actual destroyer and light cruisers classes of the actual amount of Cold War which who was whittling down all of the WW 2 heavy and light cruisers until HMS Belfast and the HMS Cavalier which who was the only ones left It was a damn shame of getting rid of all the battleships and battle cruisers en masse No Black Swan ASW Sloop | Frigate No Hunt class escort destroyers Even the escort aircraft carriers or light fleet aircraft carrier Including the Illustrious armoured carriers SHAME ON THE ROYAL NAVY!

[@vikkimcdonough6153]

47:52 - Hello Floppy! 🤭🐕👋

[@toddwebb7521]

Well on the 3inch it's pretty well too small for surface action, after the war started the US started removing the 3 inch dual purpose mounts from Submarine chasers and mine sweepers and replacing them with more Bofours 40mm mounts

[@johnmoore8599]

I believe that Royal Navy ship logs are being used to map the historical magnetic fields of the planet for contemporary geomagnetic research. The Royal Navy commissioned the ship's chronometer for longitude measurements resulting in Greenwich being the ultimate time observatory. I did not think about the volcanology aspect.

[@peterbrezniak7224]

Hi Drach...2nd time you have misplaced Portsmouth...For future reference Portsmouth New Hampshire ...not Maine. As always the best to you and yours

[@greenseaships]

Drach- Perhaps the transatlantic flight is some sort of soul crusher that turns nice Americans into grumpy hooligans?

[@stevewaldorff4327]

I have a an Inert (never armed) royal navy's QF 3-inch 20 cwt complete round that was manufactured in or around Detroit Michigan, during WW2. My Great Uncle was a watchmaker that worked on the warhead fusing mechanism and somehow wound up with an inert shell that he kept on his desk. How many other Royal Navy Guns & Army Artillery rounds were made in the US, before and during WW2?

[@greenseaships]

The day you discovered that the astronaut you liked as a kid had a father who fought in World War 2...

[@kkupsky6321]

Yay. It’s not Sunday till I head this opening jam. Cab Calloway killin it…

[@88porpoise]

2:15:30 - I would also add that while such artillery could be nice to have in certain engagements and help operations on the Black Sea coast, the critical battles of that campaign were far from the Black Sea and no artillery is firing from Rostov to Stalingrad (the Paris Guns of WWI could only fire about 1/4 of that distance). In addition, it wasn't firepower the Germans lacked, it was lostics capacity.

[@davidsachs4883]

It’s not sending obnoxious people overseas as ambassadors, it just sending them away, anywhere else. Thinking of the age of sail rating system. The Bellerophon class battleships had ten 12” guns and sixteen 4” guns making a 26 gun sixth rate. The New Jersey had nine 16”, twenty 5” and eighty 40mm making a 109 gun first rate without even counting the fourth nine 20mm guns which would bring the total to 158 guns

[@pauld6967]

There is a road bridge to Ford Island now?!? That would've been handy when I was last there, decades ago.

[@TrickiVicBB71]

I went to Wakiki on my honeymoon in June. There is a bridge to Ford Island from the main island. Used only by the tour busses

[@pauld6967]

@@TrickiVicBB71 Thanks. It still helps, even if it is only for tour buses.

[@AndrewDibb-ro3uz]

Really into the coal terminal pictured in the first question. It reawakens my childhood obsession with model railroading - wouldn't it make a fantastic feature in a layout? Obviously a high point would be getting to model a naval vessel coaling at the terminal. Question is, what would be your choice and why?

[@Drachinifel]

Well, thr cooking station is it at Pearl Habour, but I suspect on most railroad model scales you'd have to put a destroyer or similar there.

[@camenbert5837]

Anyone who ever tries to add a vaguely scale ship to a model railway finds out just how effing big ships are. The give away is scale. Model railways are generally 1:32 (O-gauge), 1:76 (00-gauge) 1:85 (H0-gauge) , and model ships are generally 1:200 etc.

[@camenbert5837]

Eg if you had a 00 gauge layout. HMS Hood would be 11 feet long. That's quite a project in itself

[@AndrewDibb-ro3uz]

@@camenbert5837 you'll be amazed at what model rairoaders get up to in their basements

[@AndrewDibb-ro3uz]

@@camenbert5837 Z scale at 1:220 would just about work with 1:200 scale ships. If you're building your own ship N scale at 1:160 would be doable - USS Texas would come in at 3.5 feet. Ultimately if your eyes are a lot better than mine there is T scale at 1:450 (no kidding) giving a USS Texas at a cracking 1.25 feet.

[@christopherdoyle3419]

Could someone point me to the video where drach talks about swapping the Yorktowns for the midways please? I think I might've missed it, but i don't know how recent it is

[@heikkiremes5661]

If a hurricane can throw a battleship around, I think you might have other things to worry about. :D

[@TheWareek]

On the subject of multiple hits on Battleship armour. How did navy yards deal with dints and bumps in armour plating. Did a fitter get a big hammer and bash it out from the other side or what.

[@christineshotton824]

Many of the secondary ships in the US Civil War (tugs, cargo ships, ferries, etc.) are referred to in the history texts as wood burners. I have not come across any details on performance based upon the type of wood used. I would think that soft woods like pine would yield less energy than hardwoods like oak, but I have not found any resources detailing this. Does anyone have any relevant reference material?

[@jasonkaczynski8218]

Drach please do some Kriegsmarine light cruisers ❤

[@tommeakin1732]

47:50 Generally speaking, the "modern western ideal" for historical artefacts and places seems to be "lightly cleaning them and looking after them in roughly the state we found them". This seems to contrast with places like Japan, which seem to be far more aggressive in how they treat historical items. To think of something like sword blades, western museums just remove rust and lightly clean in situations where the Japanese see it fit to bring the blade to a mirror polish (inherently taking away material). Likewise, I believe the Japanese are more aggressive in preserving buildings, to the point where you have a bit of a ship of theseus case. I generally bias towards the more "western" way, but when it comes to large things like ships and buildings, I think there's the interesting chance for both ways at the same time. I went to Caerphilly castle a while back, and like many British castles, the castle was heavily crippled during the civil war (some battlements blown off, part of the wall blown up and a tower almost fallen). One of the things they'd done there was build back a small part of the battlements "as they would have been", as well as putting up wooden hoardings along one wall (as had clearly been added at one point). I think this was a great middle ground of being able to see the effects of history on a place, and what it would have looked like before history took it's toll.

[@crd260]

Is it me or is Drach missing last month's alt history dd?

[@Drachinifel]

Coming soon (TM)

[@crd260]

​@@Drachinifeli've been looking forward to your take on my crazy idea of a "scarecrow pinata yorktown variant" :)

[@UnderTrack_]

11:10; so, excluding potential trim and balance issues; how sound would it be to make 2x triple turrets forward and 2x twin turrets aft ? In theory you have the same 6 guns forward, 4 guns aft; getting down to 2 turrets forward allthough larger, means you can de-cluster them slightly and reduce the chance of a single blow taking out many turrets; sure you loose 1 turret worth of redundancy overall but it's still 1 more turret than 3x triple; it seems to me like a fair compromise between 3x triple and 5x twin. If the width difference of the triple is too big you can change to having the triple superfiring over the twin so 5 guns aft, 5 guns forward; that would eliviate the problem slightly as the ship should be wider as you get further towards the inside; sure, it would have significant stability implications but it's not like the japanese seemed to care too much about their ship designs begging to capsize the moment sea gets rough, at least early on.

[@vikkimcdonough6153]

Not quite sure if this technically counts as a _ship_ request, but could we get a video on the various iterations of the Kaiten?

[@SuperchargedSupercharged]

The best complement I got over in your neck of the woods was, "you are not like most Americans" LOL Yes we as a whole can be hard to love.

[@ic3olate]

I can certainly attest to first encountering the term "turtle-back armor" around 2000 with the special Korean naval unit in Age of Empires II, in regards to that very angry commenter!

[@MasterSawdust]

What do blast bags do on main and secondary guns? I've always wondered

[@fredvieth2587]

On sending Americans overseas, if you meet a overbearing american you recognise them as an american, if they are nice you might know they are from the US but not make the association. also americans are generally very friendly, when they are in their hometown it is easier for them to be helpful and they are not jet lagged.

[@onenote6619]

I wouldn't fancy being near a rubber flight deck if it caught fire.

[@todd.r.5990]

With your comment regarding “ugly Americans” visiting Europe… I’ve been married to a European for 15 years so we are somewhere in Europe every summer. And yes I concur I see plenty of my countrymen being absolute asses out there, but I also see others..particularly folks from the far east behaving just as badly if not worse. I think it’s more to do with a country’s population size for how noticeable it is (and finances). Working in the tourist industry myself in the states I can say also there’s plenty of people from other countries as well behaving badly in the US. I think some people just lose there minds on vacation….

[@rogersmith7396]

Americans expect other countries to be the same as America. They are no doubt bewildered by the US being so much more right wing than everywhere else. They expect people to kiss their A**. Try that in France.

[@timengineman2nd714]

@ 0:40:36: When did Dye Packets started being used?

[@bigsarge2085]

"Unlucky" sniper.

[@fin-jx5vx]

1:19:53 Midways for Yorktowns swap in 1941 Which video is this topic get dicussed?

[@Andy_Ross1962]

Holes in funnels weren't such a problem once forced draught was introduced

[@Drachinifel]

Often the vents for the forced draught were at the base of the funnel, so a hit could still be a problem :)

[@88porpoise]

2:37:00 the one place that a rubberized flight deck could make sense to me would be if there waas a need to mass produce a new ewcort carrier around that time. They are likely to be smaller and it would enable operating more capable aircraft. Turnaround time is generally going to be less critical in escorting a convoy than in a fleet engement. You are more likely to have aircraft operating from one carrier and a few specific bases that convoys travel between. But that would beed to be pretty specific circumstances for it to make sense.

[@hughgordon6435]

In fiction it seems a popular theme that sailships load their guns with the gun ports liwered and the "ahaaa" moment is sailing upto the enemy with pirts clised until the last moment, and boom! Was this even possible? Hiw far back would the guns need to be run to load without the ports being open?

[@corringhamdepot4434]

I remember my grandparents in Germany around 1970, used to have a completely enclosed coal fire heater in their flat. With my grandfather one day poking at the compressed coal briquettes they burnt, and complaining about the quality. I figured out later that Germans didn't have open fires because of the coal based muck they had to burn. I wonder about the quality of coal that the German navy had to burn? 🤔

[@hughgordon6435]

Re Mataplan?? What difference would have happened if the air craft carrier had not fouled its intakes and had not have to reduce speed?

[@lxtechmangood9503]

Some types of steam locomotives worked better on welsh boiler nuts or other types of coal depending on the designer/company. Were navy boilers like that or would any old coal do.