The Drydock - Episode 290

00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:03 - I know that RMS Queen Mary and RMS Lusitania were both hit by massive rogue waves that destroyed Lusitania's bridge and made Queen Mary list very badly so how much damage could one do to a warship from the same period?
00:04:51 - What would happen if those ships interned in Scapa Flow decided to return to Germany using force and was that a real threat?
00:06:06 - MN Commandant Teste?
00:11:12 - If the Chinese actually have working ammunition at the Battle of the Yalu River. How does this affect IJN doctrine going forward?
00:14:37 - Do vessels of this age through the period the channel covers use gearing? i.e. have a transmission. Why or why not?
00:19:21 - I've seen the photos of the model of Duke of Kent (the unbuilt "largest man of war ever") and the photos of HMS Howe (1860) the largest man of war actually ever built (though never getting to sail as such unlike her sister HMS Victoria) and Duke of Kent comes off as being nowhere near as long as Howe, is this perception correct?
00:21:52 - Which Pearl Harbor survivor should have been saved?
00:26:32 - What if the Scharnhorst's tried to fight HMS Rodney?
00:32:37 - Do you plan to do a video on the actions of the Royal Navy on the Delaware during the American War for Independence?
00:34:30 - Falklands War what-ifs?
00:40:55 - Why didn’t Britain buy or lend lease one of the Iowa's?
00:46:36 - What were the construction differences during age of sail in warships vs merchant ships, other than the obvious things like more gun-ports or cargo holds?
00:50:51 - How did the process of internment work? What would have happened if the Admiral Graf Spee had not left Montevideo?
00:54:04 - Other than convoy escort, what did the US Navy do in World War I?
01:00:42 - Admiral Walter Warzecha

[@augustosolari7721]

Argentinian here. You are correct, the Junta didn't expect a British response for the Falklands. Galiteri later became emboldened by the massive response the invasion had. In fact, the "if they want to come, we will fight them" part of the speech was not originally planned and took a lot of generals by surprise...

[@AnimeSunglasses]

When your autocrat is set to auto-aggro.... Oops. Can you recommend any good accounts of the Argentine reactions, public and political, to that defeat?

[@greenseaships]

Sounds like Hitler thinking the French and British will let Germany have Poland because they don't want to fight. Or Japan thinking that the Americans are too afraid of dying or giving up their luxurious lifestyles to fight back after Pearl Harbor.

[@GrantWaller.-hf6jn]

​@@AnimeSunglassesin fairness alot of political place holders say dumb Saber rattling. If I had a nickel for every US politician saying go go USA I would be a millionaire for or should I say April 15th

[@augustosolari7721]

@@AnimeSunglasseshey mate, I would not recommend any KZbin account on history of Argentina. There Is too much political divide in the present context AND history suffers as a result. I would recommend the books from Carlos Escudé, an expert on foreign policy AND with a very pragmático View on the Malvinas/Falklands issue.

[@augustosolari7721]

@@GrantWaller.-hf6jn I totally agree with you but at least in those cases you had the chance to make them leave office once they finish their term. Galtieri was a dictator of the murderous Junta AND it was not possible to held him accountable for his disastrous foreign policy.

[@ColonelEviscerator]

Turbine ships don't have clutches, they give live birth.

[@GrantWaller.-hf6jn]

I thought more marsupial

[@michaelimbesi2314]

Take my upvote, damnit

[@davidsachs4883]

“Did ships in the period use gearing?” Yes the first Gearings were authorized July 9 1942 according too Wikipedia

[@spikespa5208]

😒

[@richardcutts196]

The question is regarding geared turbines. A turbine has only one efficient fuel speed which unfortunately may not result in the best speed/fuel efficiency for the ship. Geared turbines allow the turbine to work at their best efficiency while changing the propeller speed to match the desired ship speed while maintaining fuel efficiency.

[@keefymckeefface8330]

@@richardcutts196defo a woosh. I will admit its not the greatest joke- but you defo missed it.

[@christianhaupt2637]

@@keefymckeefface8330It was a good joke, just flew over the guys head

[@FltCaptAlan]

"Plus it would give the USN a permanent museum to the fact that the USAF apparently can't hit the broadside of a battleship with a nuke..." Well said mate

[@richardcutts196]

Not just a battleship, but an orange painted, anchored battleship.

[@Wolfeson28]

@@richardcutts196 Nevada with her suntan lotion on.😎

[@ghost307]

Another factor that would have delayed any conversion of an American battleship to service with the Royal Navy would have been the time involved in translating all the nameplates, signage and operating paperwork from English to English. 🤣

[@genericpersonx333]

Given the US Navy's tradition of putting extremely detailed instructions on EVERYTHING in their ships so that sailors didn't have to find the handbooks to use equipment they were not familiar with, I am sure it would have been a very costly endeavor to convert those plates indeed. My Grandfather, a hastily-mobilized US Navy Reserve man during the second world war, remembered spending countless hours literally reading his ship because there was a paragraph of text on every other surface!

[@mbryson2899]

Alas, still no _HMS Pansy!_

[@sse_weston4138]

For the rogue wave question, other than toppling warships, there is also the damage that comes with an impact of that magnitude. Though most liners and warships are well compartmentalized, seeing the damage they've inflicted on modern cargo ships (tankers, bulk carriers, general cargo), it makes me wonder what kind of effect a 25 to 30 meter monster would have against the unarmored part of some Japanese or American hangars on their carriers.

[@spikespa5208]

Refer to photo of USS Hornet (CV-12) after June 1945 typhoon in Pacific.

[@GrahamWKidd]

23:40 Nevada, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and California Take me home, Battleship Row

[@greenseaships]

Following her encounter with the rogue wave, Queen Mary capsized. A small group of survivors made their way perilously up into the bottom of the engineering spaces where they were ultimately rescu------ Oh. Wait.

[@marckyle5895]

There's got to be a morning after, right?

[@greenseaships]

@@marckyle5895 There certainly was for Slim Pickens and Peter Boyle but... we don't talk about that. -_-

[@marckyle5895]

@@greenseaships "Slim Pickens and Peter Boyle"?? Neither of them were in that 1973 movie.

[@greenseaships]

@@marckyle5895 You've never heard of "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure"? Oh I'm so happy for you! I wish I could go back!!

[@marckyle5895]

@@greenseaships I had only seen the movie poster while I was in line for 'Alien'. It must be MST3K 'where-wulf' bad. I feel your pain, I've seen some stinkers myself, like 'Kiss Meets Phantom of the Park'.

[@mattblom3990]

The gearing on Belfast is beautiful in its complexity and apparent tight tolerances. As someone involved in complex parts manufacturing, I can respect.

[@billbrockman779]

Regarding Graf Spee, I have a vision of Montevideo featuring her as a museum ship today. I know it’s extremely unlikely Graf Spee would have stayed there throughout the war and the aftermath, when nations were getting rid of nearly everything.

[@zoranocokoljic8927]

Imagine Urugvay selling her to Argentina and she taking part in Falkland war.

[@gwtpictgwtpict4214]

@@zoranocokoljic8927 HMS Conqueror says 'yes please' 🙂

[@watchface6836]

21:52 I'm suprised Vestel isnt on that list. She's kind of the unsung MVP of the early pacific war. It'd ve very interesting to see what a support/auxiliary museum ship would look like.

[@genericpersonx333]

00:34:30 - Falklands War what-ifs? For me, the real what-if that needs more exploring is what if the Argentinian submarine fleet had more reliable torpedoes. The San Luis successfully snuck up on two British ASW task forces and got torpedoes away, but apart from scaring the hell out of the British sailors as they suddenly found torpedoes incoming, the torpedoes themselves failed to work. What impact would it have had on the wider world to have NATO's premier ASW force, the most lauded, lose multiple ships to a single average diesel submarine operated by a third-rate fleet that is at a nadir of its own performance?

[@augustosolari7721]

Average Submarine of third rate fleet? That hurt mate. That being Said, it Is true. What are you guys waiting to make a movie on the hunt of the San Luis?

[@genericpersonx333]

@@augustosolari7721 If it makes you feel better, my rating system basically is the US Navy is the only 1st Rate Navy, being so massively ahead of the rest, and then the 2nd Rate Fleets are the handful of big navies that try to keep up on the latest tech, so a tiny list including the Royal Navy, the Japanese Navy, and in 1982, the Soviet Union would be a 2nd-Rate Fleet. 3rd Rate would be the small navies that want and try to have good ships and sailors, but have seriously limited resources, like Argentina. They are not likely to win long wars with the bigger navies, but they can give a good account of themselves if they are allowed to. 4th Rates Fleets would be the guys who have enough ships to claim they have a fleet, but are at best threats to each other, no more. Iraq and Iran's navies in the 1980s would be good examples: they could mangle each other and terrorize merchantmen, but a prepared warship from a higher-rated fleet would be a serious threat to either. 5th Rate Fleetss are really are pointless and more for show than effect, being practically incapable of contesting their own territorial waters against a determined force by any of the higher rated fleets. So the Argentine Navy in 1982 is actually quite laudable as a fleet, as it tried to have some good ships, tried to keep up discipline and training, and could have really done some serious harm to even the Royal Navy if they had not been failed so miserable by the government. Odds were still on the British winning the war, but Ol' Blighty should have suffered a lot worse for it if the ships' captains had had more say in the running of things.

[@genericpersonx333]

@@augustosolari7721 And I would agree that San Luis could make for a decent movie, possibly on par with Das Boot. After all, the San Luis was one average diesel submarine against the bulk of the world's premier anti-submarine-warfare fleet, basically a suicide mission. That is a great source of tension right there. Add in the attack runs, the many hours of evasion, and the fury as torpedoes failed to work, you have a proper drama. Also can't forget the emotional ending as San Luis comes home to learn the war is lost, their suffering all for nothing, but they alone can stand proud among Argentines for having survived the enemy that should not have been survived. They fought the enemy at its strongest point and came home, when so many others failed against lesser foes, and for that, San Luis should be a legend! I'd buy a ticket, that's for sure.

[@allancroskery1811]

As unimpressive as the situation reads: Unless the Diesel sub is running its diesels through a snorkel, they are quieter to passive sonar than nuclear powered subs. especially compared to one of the era. Since batteries don't require coolant constantly flowing over them like a reactor does, nor the rest of the potential noises of the steam plant. I do recall reading that diesel-electrics have seen renewed interest in the past decade or so, and not just because of cost.

[@bluelemming5296]

Author and former navy officer P. T. Deutermann explores a scenario with a diesel submarine attempting to sink a Carrier, in his fictional book Scorpion in the Sea. Lots of good information even though it's fiction.

[@timandellenmoran1213]

May I suggest the Washington, because she actually sunk an enemy Battleship/Battlecruiser, to be saved.

[@blue387]

Saving a four piper from Pearl Harbor would have been interesting, as no four piper was saved from scrapping

[@Khym515]

I absolutely concur.

[@richardcutts196]

If she hadn't been sunk USS Ward would have been perfect. Ironically she was sunk on December 7th 1944 by USS O'Brien (DD-725), commanded by Commander William W. Outerbridge, who had commanded Ward during the attack on Pearl Harbor. the gun from Ward that sank the Japanese midget sub. is on display on the state capitol grounds in St.Paul Minnesota.

[@jameshain1248]

Drach, love getting my naval history fix. Thank you. The coverage on the rogue waves was aesome

[@richardcutts196]

00:40:55 A better choice for Tiger would have been to use the same 14" guns as use in the KGV's. They were designed to fit in the 13.5" mounts as used in Iron Duke and Tiger class. As long as you don't mind stretching the treaty a bit you could have 'demilitarized' the Iron Dukes and Tiger. Then refit them with the new 14" guns. With a new set of boilers and if someone had kept some of the armor from the scrapped Orion's or the 1911 KGVs they could have even tacked thicker armor on Tiger like they did with HMS Refit and HMS Repair

[@stevevalley7835]

How about this one: instead of trying to do a piecemeal update on Tiger, which, iirc, had never been converted to oil fuel, nor had torpedo bulges installed, so add that to the work order. let's take a Sawzall to the Revenges, about midships, and add an 80 foot, or so, plug in the hull to house more propulsion machinery, and improve the length to beam ratio. An 80 foot plug amidships would give almost exactly the same length to beam ratio of the Lion class battlecruisers, that could make 27.5kts. without the modern propulsion machinery the Revenges would be retrofitted with.

[@richardcutts196]

@@stevevalley7835 Possible. I do see a problem that there is a treaty limit of 3k tons to increasing the displacement of the R Class, as well as all capital ships. You could gain some displacement by updating the engineering plant with lighter/fewer boilers. As I recall the problem for all our plans with Tiger and Iron Dukes and R's is money and the political will to raise and spend it. Unfortunately, It was not just the Italians that thought the war would not happen before 43. By then the RN hoped to have new construction and to have scrapped the R's. In my biased opinion they would have spent the money on the R's, as well as kept Tiger and the Iron Dukes around, if they had expected war when it happened. Unlike the USN, or the MN, the RN was in an enviable position of having a group of ships that could have been useful (in secondary rolls at least) if their crystal ball had been working correctly. Unfortunately it wasn't

[@stevevalley7835]

@@richardcutts196the treaties would have prevented the proposed changes in Tiger too. You could not increase the main guns or side armor. You could only improve torpedo and anti-aircraft protection. When the US started modifying the mounts in it's older battleships to increase elevation, there was an argument about whether the modification was a change in the mount that the treaty prohibited. Once the treaty tonnage was increased to 45,000, in mid 38, I doubt the increase in displacement from the plug would be an issue, especially if the lengthened Revenges were deemed their own replacement as most of them would age out in 42 anyway. The long lead items, that British industry was capacity restricted on, were big guns and armor. By reusing the guns and armor of the Revenges, it might expedite the work. Modernizing the QEs also relieved the gun and armor capacity issue. What I don't know, is if lengthening the Revenges as proposed would be any faster, or cheaper, than building new from scratch. The QE rebulds were less ambitious, and took three years.

[@CurtisWebb-en5kh]

Excellent.

[@Eric_Hutton.1980]

Thanks!

[@greenseaships]

The Michelangelo, a ship much much larger than Lusitania received very similar damage to her bridge and forward superstructure from her own rogue wave encounter.

[@augustosolari7721]

Compounded by the fact her superstructure was built of aluminium...

[@myparceltape1169]

​@@augustosolari7721 Not the only one with that kind of superstructure.

[@TheDoctorMonkey]

46:35 I may have been an idiot and missed this, but WHAT IF… Tiger had been given 14” guns either from the ever hopeful and helpfully offering Elswick Ordnance Company salesmen of meme value in themselves, or the ones actually adopted by the RN for the KGVs of the 1930s If Tiger had been undergoing a very slow dismantling under the Treaties that just happened to lay her open perfectly to have engines changed and armour layout improved just when the Treaties fizzled out (😉 perfidious Albion and all that) could this have been an even realistic option or is it a case of just being easier to start from scratch and open up one more of John Brown & Co or someone’s building slips for a new ship in the 1930s and we should just all get over ourselves and accept that while Tiger was pretty, she was a dated design - similar to trying to upgrade a 20 year old PC or iPhone (except I don’t think it’s even been 20 years since the first iPhone was released!) rather than just getting a new one?

[@richardcutts196]

The new 14" guns for KGV were designed to fit in the same mounts as the 13.5" used in Tiger and Iron Duke classes. Quite a coincidence, almost as if someone had left open a possibility. Though I suspect this was originally done so they could mount one in Iron Duke and take the gun out for sea trials, not with plans to save the Iron Dukes and Tiger for later. The main two objections, other than finding the money, to saving the Iron Dukes and Tiger are that they used a shell size that was no longer used (logistics) and that their turbines/boilers were nearing the end of their life. Using the new 14" guns would solve the first problem. The new 14" gun had a considerably lighter barrel than the older 14", just as the new 16/50 used on the Iowas was much lighter than the 16/50 intended for the 1923 South Dakota's. As for the new turbines/boilers that would have been a good 'pork barrel' for some constituency that had a shipyard and high unemployment in the 30's. If you tried you might, with new turbines/boilers, have been able to get the Iron Dukes up to the same speed as the Italian rebuilds but with bigger guns and better armor.

[@genericpersonx333]

00:40:55 - What about an up-gunning of HMS Tiger to 15-inch guns? My question is why bother? Assuming a British-style modernization sometime in the 1930s, HMS Tiger with 13.5-inch guns would have been as dangerous as the Kongos were in 1941, a fearsome battlecruiser afraid only of concentrated airpower and the newest fast battleships only just coming into service as the 1940s began. Even then, she could hurt those fast battleships, scoring possible mission kills at least. Keeping a supply of 13.5-inch shells also was not really a significant issue because there were huge stocks to spare in 1922, and indeed the cost of disposing of the un-used 13.5-inch ammunition arguably was more than storing the same shells would have been.

[@troy242]

Ten away from 300!!!! THIS... IS...DRACHINIFEL!

[@user-hw1qo2mu9e]

Thanks Drach.

[@LeeBrasher]

300 views on a 90 minute video three minutes after release. You're doin' numbers!

[@scottgiles7546]

They said there would be no math...

[@Trek001]

Patreon viewers get it a day before

[@ph89787]

Scharnhorst: Sis. Gneisenau: Ja? Scharnhorst: There’s an oil tanker heading straight for us. Gneisenau: Oh cool, that’s another kill for us. (Scharnhorst looks again before breaking out in a cold sweat). Scharnhorst: Sis. When did the Brits build oil tankers with 16-inch guns? Gneisenau (cold sweat): They don’t. (Rodney comes over the horizon). Rodney: Hiiiiii. Scharnhorst: RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!

[@Eboreg2]

Gneisenau: DON'T SHOOT! DON'T SHOOT! I'M THE HMS EMERALD!!!

[@jonyungk]

Now you have me hearing Jurgen Prochnow, from the 1984 version of Dune, yelling "You, over here! Run! Ruuuun!" as a giant sandworm attacks a spice harvester. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z3iYm4CdrZ16jLc

[@TheDoctorMonkey]

32:25 I want a picture like the “drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword” for an Imperial Guard tank commander joke one also used by The Chieftain but with Dalrymple Hamilton coming out of the superstructure of HMS Rodney to say something different Or just ”faster, Bismarck/Scharnhorst/Gneisenau [delete as appropriate] is getting away!” with the options all listed

[@notshapedforsportivetricks2912]

Commandant Teste? A very short-tempered officer, I believe.

[@kerryblanchard9425]

Drach might have gotten slightly mixed up on the Delaware River question. Fort McHenry wasn't a Revolutionary War battle, but a War of 1812 battle. Fort McHenry wasn't even built until 1798, although its' site was the home of Fort Whetstone during the Revolution.

[@GrantWaller.-hf6jn]

He knows but he saw stating some of his videos on inland water ways preformed very well so he is planning on a full history of the Delaware River and wants to wait til he has been to Fort McHenry to do the video to his standards

[@beboy12003]

Hi Drach. Your answers on the Pearl Harbor Battleships were great. i was surprised that you had Nevada as one of them. I had California, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Mainly because of the fact that they can be preserved in their home state, and have access to a dry dock. Nevada, I say if she was preserved, she should be in Pearl Harbor, at the spot she was moored on December 7th 1941.

[@williammorris584]

I wish those clutch war posts were readily available.

[@hughfisher9820]

@Drachinifel, question on Tiger refit: dropping X turret would allow the citadel to be shortened, but wouldn't that also be a big reduction in reserve buoyancy as well? (Reserve buoyancy that can't be lost unless the main armour is penetrated.) And as a fan of HMS Tiger I am mildly offended by your description of the 15" refit as a "poor man's Renown". She would be a couple of knots slower due to a lower length to beam ratio (although new engines could bring her up to 30?) but otherwise she's got the same big guns and the armour, and with her heavier displacement more space for adding on all the AA guns and radar that WW2 ships acquired. Renown was the marathon runner of the RN in WW2, being sent everywhere to do everything, so while yes it would have been very expensive to refit Tiger, with hindsight I think it would have been worth it.

[@toddwebb7521]

Well on Rodney vs the twins I'd definitely put money on Rodney because 16 inch guns will put holes in armour much further out than 11s and generous British bursting charges make a big boom any round they hit armoured area or not and the gigachad Captain Hamilton. But to play devil's advocate for a minute there's 18 guns vs 9 and the 11s have a higher rate of fire regardless of having 2 ships worth and you don't have to pierce the armour to take out fire control/range finders/radar etc so in a scenario where the twins win pretty much they blind Rodney and at that point it's an execution instead of a fight, not to mention Rodney specifically does NOT have an updated Renown/QE/Valiant/Warspite style fire control it's got a 1920s not that different than Hood setup.

[@marcusbewley1]

what your not putting into the equation, and which when on W of W platform, i and others have got on the tail of nelson or rodney, and sunk it, as you are then fighting a ship of 6 imch guns, 6 or 8 depending on bearing, and thee,s guns would, and have not even come into play , as the 11 inchers outrange the 6 quite alot. so by keeping on the tail the ship is slowly taken out, to the point where one can get within point blank range and just pour 11 inchers thru the lower hull even though rod an nelsons main guns can fire quite a bit to the rear, they ..cannot fire.. ahead, so the 16 inchers are a total waste of time, as the shell always falls way behind, as the other ship has moved forwards alot. Lutjens should have been relieved of command for declining battle with a 6 inch gunned ship, IF he had played his tactic right.

[@johnfisher9692]

A fairly major point Drach forgot is that German WW2 heavy naval shells had a proven very high failure rate and that shifts things even more in favor of Rodney.

[@meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee2]

@@marcusbewley1 Is it actually possible to keep directly astern of Nelson or Rodney? As they can turn at their minimum radius, while the ship trying to keep astern of them would have to travel miles in the same time frame to keep in position.

[@bluelemming5296]

Rodney received a type 279 radar in her refit ending 10 September 1940. I think these typically included a Precision Ranging Panel which was tied into the fire control system - it could pass accurate radar ranges into the fire control system. Admittedly, S+G also had radar that could feed the fire control system (the log for S indicates the radar was turned on as an aide to fire control when the ship encountered Glorious during the Norwegian campaign). Not sure how well the two systems would compare. The German system is higher frequency, which should imply more accuracy, but historically S seemed to have a lot of problems with it's radar system. The British system has more power, which should imply longer range (within the limit implied by antenna height). We would probably have to assume 'good weather' for S+G to have a chance: the two ships were bow-heavy and had poor sea-keeping characteristics: this created lots of problems when the wave height increased (as indicated by the ship's logs during the encounter with Renown, which probably could have taken both ships under those circumstances had they not fled).

[@joshuarickwood3214]

​@@marcusbewley1 i see absolutely no way that both scharn and Gneis could keep on rodneys rear to the point of not allowing rodney to get her guns to bare. Infact, ill go so far as to say its downright impossible since it would require rodney to be moving away from the pair, and as drach said, given the captain of rodney at the time, he would absolutely be pressing in the range. Not to mention that the further away from the enemy you are, the more distance you need to cover to stay in such a gunnery blind spot.

[@hoppish088]

Drach, for the next alternative history episode, how about Spruance for Halsey for the Battles off the Philippines. Halsey always stated that Spruance should have been there and he should have been at the Mariana’s Turkey shoot.

[@metaknight115]

Could we see a video on the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro? She changed the tide of the battle of the Java Sea, crippling the heavy cruiser Exeter with a shell to the engine room and sinking the destroyer Kortenaer with the longest ranged naval hit at. 22,000 yards, and later sank the allied flagship the light cruiser De Ruyter with a torpedo hit and helped to finish off the crippled Exeter in separate long range night skirmishes. Alongside numerous shore bombardment and carrier escorting missions, she damaged the light cruiser Denver at the battle of the Empress Augusta Bay, and served in the battle off Samar, helping to sink the destroyer Hoel and helping to cripple the escort carrier Kalinin Bay. She was sunk in the very last surface engagement of WW2, ambushed and sunk by a British destroyer flotilla in March of 1945.

[@MrWansty]

you may have seen this but i'll post it anyway the last gunfight featuring ijn haguro kzbin.info/www/bejne/rovSm2qCi7R3rJI

[@mkaustralia7136]

There are several others too if you search Haguro, including an animated map/course tracking one

[@williamhoward8319]

i have been in drydock in pearl harbor several times and also youska japan and san frasciscu floating drydock in long beach

[@mamascookin]

In a movie that's free on KZbin The Great War of Archimedes They depict The Yamato going through a Design change to take on typhoon sized waves it reminded me of the Queen Mary Segment excellent video XD

[@garyjordan3914]

You do know that there is a Pearl Harbour survivor still afloat , don't you ? The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Taney is still afloat and docked in Baltimore Maryland .

[@ernestcline2868]

Although it's not named the Taney anymore, just USCGC WHEC-37 because of her former namesake.

[@HistoryNeedsYou]

Re Falklands - the Junta accurately surmised that it would be impossible to retake the islands once they had been seized. But they hadn’t factored in Harry Leach! Let us all raise a tot to the great man ⚓️🥃

[@notshapedforsportivetricks2912]

The West Virginia should have been saved on the grounds that the reconstruction made her absolutely bloody beautiful.

[@hansbroger946]

I imagine would be more efficient to upgun HMS Tiger with twin 14 inch mounts like the superfiring twin on the KGV's.

[@toddwebb7521]

Well of the 4 potential museum ships mentioned I'd like to point out that Nevada and West Virginia are both land locked and most of the museum ships saved are in their home state (and all the ones that aren't Iowa class are in their home state) So realistically if we had one it'd be California or Pennsylvania.

[@stevevalley7835]

wrt the question about a lend lease Iowa, When I was reading "Fifty Ships That Saved The World" a while back, the thought crossed my mind, what if the US offered New York, Texas, and Arkansas, in addition to the destroyers? Those three battleships were operating together in the Atlantic in early 40. The book I read mentioned that one of the groups of destroyers was en route to the UK when they picked up radio traffic from Jervis Bay, when it was being attacked by Scheer. The destroyers, which the USN had handed over with full magazines and torpedo tubes, rushed to Jervis Bay's location, but arrived too late. What if the US had handed over those three obsolete battleships, and one had been traveling with Jervis Bay? Scheer's recon plane had reported the convoy was unescorted. If the plane had reported a battleship escorting the convoy, regardless how old, Scheer may not have attacked at all.

[@Eboreg2]

42:22 - Interesting callback there...

[@davidsachs4883]

On the question of Britain getting an Iowa during the war. The French wanted to use lend lease to get far more then the USA would provide. They asked for cruisers and fleet destroyers but were told that not only were all that were being built at the time were already assigned to future commands, but ships already on order for the USN were waiting for empty slipways. USN needs were to be met first.

[@kimbaldunsmore4633]

Would be good if you as an engineer addressed the stability problem here that even l had to learn as a exec branch midshipman 40 odd years ago. That is; the centre of gravity, the centre of buoyancy and the resulting metacentre jobbies. And for interest my granddad was in the battleship Emperor of lndia at Scapa Flow to escort the High Seas Fleet at the surrender in 1918. He was a diver as well as an Ordinance Artificer and later did a fair bit of work to raise various German ships after they were scuttled by their crews at Scapa. Loves your show anyways. Cheers Australian/Kiwi cuz

[@ikke12345]

If I remember correctly, having a few inches of water on a large surface (see Herald of free enterprise disaster), like in a hangar could cause a ship to capsize

[@danielkorladis7869]

Even though I'm from California and therefore have a bit of a soft spot for the ship of the same name, I have to agree about Nevada, mostly because she was the only ship to get underway at Pearl Harbor and that's just cool.

[@bluelemming5296]

Nevada was the only battleship to get underway. She was not the only ship to do so: USS Aylwin (a destroyer under the temporary command of an ensign) was underway a few minutes after the second attack wave arrived. Unlike Nevada, Aylwin would make it out of the harbour, with some minor damage to a screw from a "near miss" of a Japanese bomb. The attention paid to Nevada probably helped keep Aylwin alive, with the Japanese pilots focusing on the bigger ship.

[@donshively9395]

Bahhahahaha! Someone … or better yet a group of “someone’s” actually said “you know nothing about shipping”? Sir, you are a living testament to shipping knowledge! You handled the situation in a true gentlemanly fashion in proving them all wrong, as well.

[@xavierisrael3320]

Yo a year by year American revolutionary war naval series sounds dope

[@michaelpiatkowskijr1045]

The Independence was going to be a museum ship. She survived both nuclear weapons, but it was so radioactive that it couldn't be decontaminated. Nevada should have been a museum because it was the first standard battleship. It was the first of the all-or-nothing armor scheme. She's also the sister of Oklahoma that capsized, refloated, and lost on the way to being scrapped. On that token, what about preserving Oklahoma? She could have been rebuilt back to her former state as well as preserved from the possibility of sinking under tow.

[@grognard23]

I daresay the US should have preserved the USS Robin as a museum ship!

[@tylerservies3380]

Your research and analysis is very ‘clutch’ to all interested persons! 😂

[@micheallinke9278]

IF Bolivia had a battleship, what kind of vessel would it have been? Thinking of the War of the Pacific, when it had a coastline. I sometimes think on this late at night.

[@augustosolari7721]

A giant tank.

[@onenote6619]

The only success that Argentina had against ships was with Exocet missiles. Destroyers and a cargo ship. Exactly what effect an Exocet would have had against a ship with actual armour is a question I cannot answer, but lacking any kind of amour-piercing warhead there is a fair chance the answer is 'not a lot if it hits the armour'.

[@michaelibbetson1747]

A question that has been raised elsewhere, if the Japanese had had more cruisers and battleships with the carriers at midway would they have been more helpful or a hindrance to the carriers?

[@TheDiablotak]

@Drachinifel, I was watching the video on HMS Renown and was struck by the placement of flying off platform atop the turrets. Would those platforms be reinforced to withstand the blast pressure of the main battery? Or were they just written off and made of cheap materials so I wouldn’t matter if they got blown away in the first few salvos?

[@johnshepherd9676]

There is a video of water coming over the bow and on to the flight deck on USS Kitty Hawk.

[@craigfazekas3923]

@6:24 ? My eyes done popped out at the prospect of building that puppy in 1:700th scale. Has anyone seen an available kit of her on the market ? I'm hitting eBay now- see ya in a bit !! 🚬😎👍

[@Christopher-os7eo]

Although never built, were the Montana class battleships the last designed battleships for the U.S. Navy? Were there other original designs not including conversions to hybrid battleship missile ships?

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

The Montana's are the last to have full plans developed. Everything else is just an idea or a concept.

[@erichazuriki2947]

Soo... Does the fact that some ships did have clutches imply that some engineer successfully mastered powershifting for extra acceleration?

[@williamhoward8319]

watched the building of the arizona memerional in pearl i served 10 years on tincans great boats one a gearing class dde 719 and 4 years on uss preston dd795 out of long beach

[@richardgibson6647]

Was there also an HMS Del Boy and did Uncle Albert serve on either ?

[@GrahamWKidd]

Ten to 300. I say again, ten to 300! Saturday Night and everything is alright.

[@scottgiles7546]

The MN Commandant Teste, of COURSE it was capable of offensive action. It was FRENCH. (Rudeness counts, right?)

[@andreisrr]

Could you please include in the description the armoured cruisers question, with timestamp?

[@TomFynn]

As for the preservation of salvaged Pearl Harbor ships: USS West Virginia. Reason? Clifford Nathan Olds.

[@Eric_Hutton.1980]

I don't remember if you've answered this or not; but would Lusitania have survived a bit longer had she not had those longitudinal coal bunkers? What do you think the cause of the secondary explosion was?

[@mkaustralia7136]

The picture of the scuttled Graff Spee at 53:03 seems to have the aft triple turret very close to the stern of the vessel. Is it just a foreshortening or did the turret get displaced or did the stern break away and slide forward under the rest of the ship? Or is that the lower part of the barbette and it is not a propeller at the bottom left of it.

[@mkaustralia7136]

X

[@glennsamson3050]

As a variant of the HMS Tiger up gunning question, could she have been fitted with 8 X 14” guns of the King George V class.

[@AnimeSunglasses]

13:23 Japanese torpedo boats, you say‽‽ *_KAMCHATKA INTENSIFIES_*

[@crazyafrican9955]

Hear me out HMS Warspite formally know as USS Iowa

[@Trek001]

Decided to look up Admiral Warzecha - had quite the time as a naval officer and was involved, somehow, in the court martial of a U-Boat skipper for cowardice and saying bad things about Hitler

[@jaredcore8888]

Why did battleships have problems losing power after firing salvos? Didn't they test this before war? Lee's BB Washington vs Japan

[@wideawake1361]

When talking about the UK buying an Iowa. What if the UK bought one of the unfinished hulls (Kentucky or Illinois).

[@keithmoore5306]

hey Drach what's your opinion on the current theory on methane eruptions and ships sinking without a trace?

[@blue387]

Will Drach be headed to Philadelphia to see the battleship New Jersey in dry dock?

[@Drachinifel]

Indeed

[@davidvik1451]

In your earlier comments regarding clutches, transmissions/reduction gears, and reversing, you made statements about shifting gears and that throwing a ship in revers from full speed ahead would "strip" the gears in the transmission which is the part I voiced objection to. Yes the Belfast has a clutch to engage or disengage the cruising turbine, but not for reversing or changing gear ratios. Reversing is is done by the reversing elements in the low speed turbine as shown in an HMS Belfast video. Some of the early steam engines turned so slowly that they had increasing gears rather than reduction to get an acceptable prop speed. I believe the Great Western is such an example.

[@Drachinifel]

There is of course a huge difference between a disagreement on how gears could be (mis)used as you pointed out vs those who denied they existed at all. 😀 And whilst Belfast herself uses her turbines themselves to reverse, some ships with geared turbine, particularly some of the smaller ones, did have reverse gears instead of reversing turbines of reversing elements in their main turbines :)

[@johnfisher9692]

Should the Armoured cruisers be separated into different categories much like Dr Clarke advocated for Battleships? There are "sovereign" style mixed battery armoured cruisers and then the Invincible class which were designed as Dreadnought Armoured Cruisers.

[@bholdr----0]

Vis-a-vis the Falklands, and which ships the UK could've used: I think that if the UK ever took the gloves off, the entire Argentine Navy could have been easily sunk, as quickly as their ships could have been found- by the UKs SSNs... I'm not sure exactly why they didn't just send Argentina's entire fleet to the bottom- which would have made it immediately clear that their invasion was untenable, even IF they could resupply theor garrison on the Falklands by air... I suppose the UK demonstrated proper restraint, but, the bottom line is that the UK couldn't possibly have lost the Falklands- I suppose political considerations had their place. (Simaler to why the UK didn't test article five of the NATO charter- Would the US have refused to one to theor aid, and if so, how would that have impacted the tenuous balance of power that made any Soviet invasion of Western Europe basically unthinkable at the time- If the US didn't back up the UK, that would have had massive geopolitical ramifications, definitely changing the calculus of war, especially when the USSR collapsed and the communist hardliner's coup was attempted... It is interesting how a regional conflict like the Falklands War (vis-a-vis NATO article five) could have had fundamentally altered the global transition away from marxisim/Leninism (not to say communism, in particular regarding China, Southern Africa, Cuba, etc, etc.) I suppose it has all worked out... so far. BUT, The UK could easily have destroyed the Argentine Navy within a week or so of the arrival of only two or three SSNs...

[@keefymckeefface8330]

Article 5 would not have worked- Galtieri is a right wing scumbag dictator in south America. The CIA normally fund them as a bulwark against communism, if he been a lefty scumbag dictator- no problem, you get major US assistance to bury them...

[@thomaslesser9708]

Ft McHenry was not American Revolution, it was War of 1812. BTW, 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, perhaps timing naval series to 250th events

[@flambegaming503]

Hey Drach just curious I bought my HMS Victory Picture back in late December and it’s still pending waiting for shipement have you just not shipped them yet or is there something more going on?

[@Drachinifel]

They were all shipped ages ago. We had one returned as incorrect address but the email associated with the purchase didn't respond. Drop me an email with your purchase info and I'll look into it :)

[@flambegaming503]

@@Drachinifel dropped you an email

[@Drachinifel]

@@flambegaming503 I have replied :)

[@leftcoaster67]

Overwhelming superiority is too small. Lets get the US Navy to help so we can have "STUPIDLY OVERWHELMING SUPERIORITY!"

[@tcpratt1660]

Could you imagine those ludicrous speed MN destroyers crossed with the Fletchers? Now, could you imagine Admiral Kurita's mental state seeing Hoel, Heermann, and Johnston whipping about Samar at plaid?

[@richardcutts196]

After Operation Crossroads they tried to decontaminate the surviving ships by spraying them with sea water. Did anyone try this with sea water that had not just been nuked? ie. seawater after the ships had been towed far enough away so it was in clean water.

[@williamhoward8319]

watched as quean mary was broght to long beach years ago

[@ROBERTN-ut2il]

Speaking of Yalu River "Philo Norton McGiffin (December 12/13, 1860 - February 11, 1897) was an American soldier of fortune serving in Chinese service as a naval advisor during the First Sino-Japanese War. Although primarily skilled as an instructor and administrator, he proved a talented tactician during the September 17, 1894 Battle of the Yalu River as well as the first American to command a modern battleship in wartime." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_McGiffin

[@bkjeong4302]

Thanks for answering my question! I was more thinking of how worse results for the IJN at Yalu River might push Japan towards being less confident in terms of foreign expansion, meaning the Russo-Japanese War might happen rather differently, not to mention WWII (if it even happens)

[@jameshope5365]

At this point drac should invite you to cohost some of his live streams. I've been a battleship lover since I was 5 when I saw USS Missouri in Bremerton Washington, but I agree with you that they never justified the expense in money and manpower. Every time a new drydock drops I immediately seek out your comments. So much more interesting than the usual "if such and battleships blah blah how does this change the course of a war that was largely decided by airpower?" Thank you and keep it coming!

[@bluelemming5296]

Japan started off well in the fighting with the Soviets in Khalkhin Gol (1939) - a series of battles involving surprisingly large numbers of infantry, tanks, and aircraft that constitute a short, undeclared, and poorly known war - but eventually it turned into a complete disaster for the Japanese. This didn't stop them from going to war again in 1941. Even a major defeat does not always teach the right lessons to the right people.

[@VintageCarHistory]

I've often wondered how many (if any) questions you answer is due to you personally liking the name of the commenter...

[@gerardlabelle9626]

I can testify, as an American, that hardly anyone can sing the American anthem properly. Worse, it’s about a campaign we lost, in a war we didn’t win, no matter how you hard try to spin it. Plenty of us would prefer “America the Beautiful” as our national anthem. It’s singable, upbeat, mellow, and celebrates our excellent geography. Suitable for all occasions.

[@JonBrase]

Apropos of nothing, has anyone here noticed that Imperial March bears striking similarities to Heart of Oak?

[@kumaflamewar6524]

Drach i love you, but what would bourgeoisie lies have to do with the Qing dynasty?

[@greenseaships]

25:46- or better yet, Nevada is NOT AT Bikini, like Texas...

[@Pusserdoc]

Could someone *please* photoshop Nevada as a current museum ship alongside Ford Island... *painted orange*...

[@Tim.NavVet.EN2]

@0:40:55, what about USS Illinois and/or USS Kentucky? If the RN was paying for it, they could have been possible?

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

They do nothing as the shipyards are still occupied with other projects. You can pay for them, but who's going to do the work on them? Everything else has a higher priority.

[@hmsverdun]

I hope I am not the only person who thinks that the idea of USS Texas serving in the RN hilarious. Not just the history of the girl or how angry she would be at not serving the US. Particulalry given British crews (or even worse if they gave her to the Poles). The thing might just sail off on her own to shoot things like Warspite was known to do.

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

Where's the joke? They've already done Lend lease with other vessels.

[@davidlewis9068]

Interesting that the British had 13.5 inch gun's. Why 13.5 and not 14? They had 14 15 and 16?. Dreadnought had 12 inches if memory serves. You have probably already done a show on British Dreadnought and newer gun's. If not that would make a good show.

[@kemarisite]

There is a short article on the navweaps site called "Pounders" that discusses British gun size increases. Up to about 12", the shell weight roughly doubled with each increase, while from 12" to 13.5" to 15" it's a roughly 50% increase in shell weight at each step.

[@niclasjohansson4333]

The RN increased the gun caliber by 1,5" everytime they "uppgunned". Dreadnought and the first generation had 12", from that they went to 13,5", than 15", and the plan was to go from 15" to 16,5", and than 18".....

[@TrickiVicBB71]

USS Nevada pre-nuking

[@RectalRooter]

Mr. Drachinifel --- This is a December 7th 1941 question What other outcomes could have come if the Russian S.S Kamchatka was patrolling the entrance to Pearl Harbor and firing at Japanese torpedo subs ?

[@user-pf9of8dz8v]

Interesting question. I also want to know the possible outcomes

[@GrayD1ce]

Iowa took a massive wave during onr of the typhoon that the idiot admiral found and the reports were the iowa wasn't a fan as i damaged a shaft and almost rolled her

[@Yandarval]

The RN would likely not be able to run an Iowa anyway. The lack of the super high pressure steam knowledge used by an Iowa would create lots of problems. As the RN has no institutional knowledge of using it. You really don't want the entire Snipe crew to all be straight out of training. This is ignoring all the other logistics issues.

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

By 1942, there's a lack of experienced crews everywhere. Learning the US ship would be no more complex than learning how to run a new kg 5.

[@jaredcore8888]

I'm sorry it was Chang Lee who got screwed over by the Burial of Ordinance more then 3 times. Please explain them. and or a whole video of their stonewalling career of people and or why they are historically such "Badies" I had ask about this earlier thought it was Nimitz. maybe it was too. but Chang has had a tuff time. Fat electrican on KZbin has brought this back up. reacent video he's made. "Stand aside, I coming through..." Lee