USS Boston (1884) - Guide 243

USS Boston, one of the first steel ships of the United States Navy, is today's subject.
Read more about the ship here:
www.amazon.co.uk/U-S-Cruisers-Illustrated-Design-History/dp/1682477592
www.amazon.co.uk/US-Cruisers-1883-1904-Lawrence-Burr/dp/1846032679
Naval photos and more - www.drachinifel.co.uk
Model ships of many periods - store.warlordga...?aff=21
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Next on the list:
Des Moines Heavy cruisers.
Hydra Class Ironclads
Audacious class CV's
Malta class
Tennessee-class cruiser
The Merrimack and Mersey class of frigates
Henri IV
USS Marblehead
Pinguin
German Auxiliary Cruiser Atlantis
Project 24 Sovetsky Soyuz class Battleship
HMS Caroline
Ships of Battle of Campeche
PT Boats

[@Drachinifel]

Pinned post for Q&A :)

[@jamesjarrait2231]

Closed captions are labeled Vietnamese?

[@craighagenbruch3800]

This is a question for drydock no. 157 @2hrs 59minute mark as i was unable write in the pinned comment. In reference to the question about Hermes in her anti piracy roles, like modern day civilian crewed vessels did commercial crewed shipping of the time try to defend them selves from boarding by spraying water hoses to prevent the pirates from climbing up the sides of ships? Also when did navies go from shoot first ask questions later to firing shots over the bow with the "heave to we in tend to board you" warnings.

[@TinkeringPaul]

I’d love it if you could review LST-69. My dad’s boat in WWII. “Large Slow Targets” aren’t sexy picks for review but this boat had an interesting history and ultimately ended up being lost during the West Loch disaster in 1944.

[@and15re1]

In March 45, the US canceled six unnamed Essex-class carriers. What were to be named had not been canceled?

[@Knight6831]

Why did the USA set off a South American light cruiser arms race in the 1950s?

[@cartmann94]

“…the first attempt at a capital ship: the USS Maine.” That sounds like a punchline. An explosive 🧨 one.

[@davethompson3326]

It went down well

[@ethanhatcher5533]

@@davethompson3326 she blew up in popularity

[@jlvfr]

That comment wrecked the post.

[@rkelsey3341]

Well, we all remember her.

[@johnwolf2829]

Hey, if you had to lose a BB that way, it might as well have been that one. But about the Boston - if it saw combat at Manila, it would have been nice to have a few lines about how well it preformed, eh?

[@michaelk19thcfan10]

I love these Victorian Era guides. The ships of the era had a lot of quirkiness.

[@MrDmitriRavenoff]

This is the most Stemampunk style Era when it comes to ships. Sails and steam. Turrets/barbets and revolving guns along with broadside guns like an old Man of War.

[@XH1927]

Would have been a helluva time to be alive, when great, life changing advancements in technology and sociology were still coming out of sheds and bicycle shops and smoking rooms, instead of from stupid people on Instagram and giant megacorps hoarding their secrets.

[@frankdantuono2594]

The 1880s was the decade that saw the transition from black powder to smokeless. The latter making the former obsolescence.

[@thomasmacdonough288]

Pre dreadnoughts are incredible, so unique in how they try to 1 up each other, and absolutely beautiful I wish more were around today

[@michaelk19thcfan10]

@@MrDmitriRavenoff Steampunk is sci-fi using Victorian motifs.

[@VosperCDN]

Quite a long service life for a ship of it's era, making it 50+ years.

[@ericfunderburgh6080]

Well spoiler alert

[@CS-zn6pp]

And a sad end.... When you are not even worth taking to a scrap yard...

[@robertf3479]

@@CS-zn6pp Actually an end like that is referred to as a 'Warship's Grave,' a nod to O.W. Holmes poem 'Old Ironsides.' One of my two 'old girlfriends' (nod here to Captain Montgomery Scott in 'Relics') has her warship's grave in 1000 fathom (6000 feet) of water off Puerto Rico. The other is currently in the hands of the ship breakers in Brownsville TX, the 'Harpys of the shore.'

[@VosperCDN]

@@robertf3479 I think when a ship is sunk as a man-made reef, and/or dive site, it's an honourable end for a vessel of any sort - giving back to the sea, so to speak.

[@CS-zn6pp]

@@VosperCDN I agree the man made reefs are a great end to a ship but in this case it sounds like " just take it 12miles out and pull the plug...."

[@gerbil_796]

The 8" guns are at Hamlin Park in Shoreline, North of Seattle. I played softball there and visited the guns several times. No mention of how they got there. Sad end for such a historic ship - took part in the Battle of Manila Bay with the USS Olympia and the rest of the Asiatic fleet.

[@afx935]

Squadron. The "Fleet" was not created until a few years later. Honorable mentions to BALTIMORE, PETERAL, and MCCULLAGH. Oh, and let's not forget CONCORD.

[@gerbil_796]

@@afx935 I should have said Squadron. Fleet is not accurate.

[@esandersonucc]

You omitted a significant event: USS Boston’s role in overthrowing the government of Hawai’i in 1893.

[@sadwingsraging3044]

Now now,,, we were 'inviting' them into the Union.

[@classifiedad1]

That was probably among the biggest things to happen with the ship.

[@Joannes808]

Considering that was the main point that came to mind when seeing this video tag. I was rather shocked to se it missing from the video. While the topic is still a heated one amongst a number of different circles. Something like a general Aurora video without mentioning the October Revolution, USS Missouri Japanese signing in 1945, or HMS Ark Royal minus the hunt for the Bismark would be a rather awkward upload for viewers to say the least.

[@Easy-Eight]

Scuttling is a better fate than scrapping.

[@SaltedKillick]

What a fine end She's at sea Where she'd wanna be

[@airplanenut89]

@@SaltedKillick Also if it's not too deep, you can go for a visit.

[@trooperdgb9722]

WELL SAID! I am so glad that my first "proper" ship...as a real officer rather than a Midshipman...is now an artificial reef.

[@MarcStjames-rq1dm]

'Squadron of evolution' Great jazz fusion band name!

[@rogerlafrance6355]

Most interesting period of naval engineering. Making steel, steam, breach loaders and such all work together without much in the way of electric power, automation, and so on. Many still had donkey steam engines on deck for loading and raising sail.

[@whyjnot420]

Everytime Drach says something about the USN actually getting funding there is a voice in my head that screams "lies lies lies!!!" Then I have to remind myself that even if it was with the same regularity as is with the sighting of unicorns, congress does indeed _sometimes_ give the navy money (before coming up with a reason for stopping the funds after 30% are out)

[@GeneralJackRipper]

Given how many foreigners bemoan us our military spending these days, they don't understand that our military is basically going through a phase akin to a child being given an unlimited credit card with strict instructions to 'use this only in an emergency'.

[@Big_E_Soul_Fragment]

Tea brought on this ship would be thrown overboard

[@hoangho6781]

How much

[@yakumoyukari4405]

@@hoangho6781 a lot

[@cartmann94]

Hmmm, delicious salty tea.

[@species3167]

Well done sir

[@derekjacobs9403]

I Commented before on the USS West Virginia (BB-48). My father Started on the West Virginia, and the last ship he was on was the (CA-1, CAG-1) USS Boston 1958-59, he retired in 61'. I went on the Boston when I was little I was in awe of the size and Missiles. I joined the Navy in 74' and worked on a Guided Missile Destroyer / Cruiser on the Missile System. Thank-You!

[@TheShawna1]

My Neighbor served on USS Boston CAG-1 some time in the 60s

[@BariRich]

My Dad served on the USS Boston during WW II.

[@korbell1089]

I love these ships which were designed by both "I was building ships before you were born!" shipwrights and the young whippersnappers and their newfangled ideas. I can imagine them sneaking in at night and drawing all over each others schematics and that is how we ended up with ships blended with old and new technology.

[@vintagethrifter2114]

Well done, Boston! You served your country in three wars.

[@markjensen8185]

the 8" gun barrels are mounted in hamlen park just north of seattle used to crall on them when I was young.

[@notshapedforsportivetricks2912]

What a pretty little ship. The square rig really suits her.

[@joemaloney1019]

You voiced my thoughts, well done.

[@garyfasso6223]

I saw a picture once of her under sail, it may have been on The History Guy's version of the Boston's story (at 5:55, edit). Has anyone seen a more recent photo of a "first rate" warship under sail? Such as an actual Battleship?

[@poetdriver]

The gun layout was inspired by a street map of Boston.

[@blaydCA]

And reincarnated gun barrels turned into MBTA busses?

[@crayonmuncher8532]

The designs of these ships are so strange, like a mix between an old ship of the line and a "modern" warship

[@bd95382]

I kind of like the late 1800s ships for that. They're a weird mix between classic ship designs and industrial ones.

[@douglasdaniel4504]

Early steam powered armored vessels, say from between 1860 and 1895, were by and large victims of naval engineers basically having to figure out how these things worked. Some of the results were odd, and others were plain ghastly. USS Boston seemed not too bad, aesthetically speaking.

[@afx935]

@@douglasdaniel4504 Speaking of ghastly kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6rKiX-kh6agY6M

[@douglasdaniel4504]

@@afx935 Exactly the ghastly I was thinking of...or trying _not_ to think of....

[@markrobinson9956]

Love these videos about ships from the transition from sails to steam. Keep up the good work.

[@jamesgoacher1606]

These type of guides remind me of the best "That's you Life" candidates. Not someone who was famous and in the public eye, but an otherwise scarcely known but "Extremely" interesting person. Thanks. Ask your grand parents about "That's you Life" if you are too young and did not know about B/W TV :-).

[@sadams12345678]

I think that the show was called: "This is Your Life"

[@jamesgoacher1606]

@@sadams12345678 Of course, thank you. Strange I did/do a passable immitation of Eaomon (or however you spell it) Andrews saying the phrase at the programs culmination. The thing I was stressing is that it is not necessarily the KGV, Bismark ships which are interesting but the suprising ones, and that wonderful one about the VC eventually awarded to the Aussie. It puzzles me why there was Top Brass reluctance for so long. C'est la vie.

[@jeffwaddell66]

I would just like to let you know that I really appreciate everything you are doing. As an old sailor I love your channel I have listened to everything thing you have done on this channel. At least once if not more. Thank you for putting all that effort out for us.

[@TricksterColonel]

You are right about Boston being launched in 1884, however the ship's commissioning delay was due to forging the right quality of steel for the warship, during a time where America didn't have the best capabilities to make steel plates, it took time to get the quality of steel right, and so once they finally got the right quality steel for her, it was installed on the ship over time. She was finally commissioned in 1887. USS Chicago was worse off, she was launched in 1885, however with the john roach shipyard gone bankrupt, the ship had to be completed by the American Navy, this took a fair while due to the Navy not knowing how to complete the ship, so it was a few years before she was finally finished for service, and of course there were delays in manufacturing steel plates for this warship too. And so Chicago wasn't commissioned till 1889.

[@oldcremona]

I really enjoy learning about these archaic, forgotten ships of history.

[@matthewrobinson4323]

As always, an excellent video. You have.a knack for making history both information-packed and entertaining.

[@peterblood50]

One of the first pictures in the video showed a number of ships at anchor and it struck me at how different their prows were. An old rigged sailor had a 'beak' type prow sticking out over the water while a more modern ship had a prow that was perpendicular to the water. Battleships had a raised prow and some newer ships have prows that recede aft as you near the top. I thought it might be an interesting story as to why the different types of prows were incorporated into the designs.

[@afx935]

All the better to ram you with (if I understand your post correctly).

[@raigarmullerson4838]

love the videos and cheers from Estonia

[@PC-qb1ug]

"at a fraction over 3000 tons , she was exceptionally heavily armed".. how do you manage to sound surprised anymore, every ship in the US navy was an exercise in second amendment rights 😂

[@williamswenson5315]

"Egg shells armed with sledgehammers." D.W.

[@rutabagasteu]

I doubt you have read the second amendment. It has to do with each state's national guard. Not the military.

[@PC-qb1ug]

@@rutabagasteu it is a running joke...

[@rutabagasteu]

@@PC-qb1ug okay.

[@richardm3023]

@@rutabagasteu No. It's not. There was no "national guard" when the Bill of Rights was Written. There was only the "militia". Perhaps you should look that word up, then study the Heller decision from the USSC.

[@pegzounet]

That's remarkable longevity for a ship of that era

[@ErikHare]

Love the decoration on her bow.

[@robertf3479]

Not a bad lifespan for a ship designed and built as much as a learning experience as for a meaningful warship.

[@M.M.83-U]

Wonderfull! A transition era one, so strange, so interesting.

[@lutherpolaris8230]

These kinds of ships were critical at the formation of the embryonic U.S. navy. Sadly, they rarely get checked out or revisited which made this video a welcomed addition to the many we have already seen here. Thank you for the research and effort.

[@afx935]

Chester A. Arthur gets so little credit, but he was the one who pushed through the ABCDs (then along came Grover who cut funding again).

[@daveyoder9231]

Interesting transition from the ironclad navy to armored ships. Thanks!

[@GrumpyGrobbyGamer]

Well done, sir. I enjoyed the brief history.

[@lauraainslie6725]

Scuttled in peacetime... That's a different fate. Though one does imagine the following conversation taking place: "She's got to go, Jack! We need her berth NOW!" "I know, but nobody will take her." "Just take her around the corner and dump her! They do it to kittens, don't they?"

[@Tergara1]

Yeah that one caught me. Too old to even be sold for scrap.

[@RCAvhstape]

At least use it for target practice...

[@afx935]

@@RCAvhstape On post war defense budgets?

[@RCAvhstape]

@@afx935 They were using ships as nuke targets on post war defense budgets. They were developing antiship missiles as well. Gotta test 'em on something.

[@jimtalbott9535]

One of those vessels that had excellent timing - in terms of being just useful enough long enough to get to certain points of historical high need.

[@avnrulz8587]

So early, the Redcoats are still occupying Boston...

[@agesflow6815]

Thank you, Drachinifel.

[@stemogstel22]

Imagine that, a well-armored US ship. Somethings never change.

[@afx935]

Armed. Armor left something to be desired.

[@timclaus8313]

Last ships of this era left to walk are the Olympia in Philadelphia, Deway's flagship at Manila Bay in 1898 and the Mikasa in Yokosuka Japan, Togo's flagship at Tsushima Straight, 1905.

[@lnchgj]

A story about the USS Mugford (DD-389) might make for an interesting topic, given your unique and enjoyable presentations.

[@RCAvhstape]

She was a pretty ship in her day, with the color scheme, ornamentation, and rigging.

[@Huntress236]

Hey Drac, I've been working on a replica of HMS Thunderchild based on your design in a game called From The Depths. It's not done yet, but I've got most of her built. I've got her set to be able to make 21 knots right now. I've got the twin 12 inch turret on the bow and the single 9.4 inch gun on the stern. I'll let you know when I upload it to the steam workshop so you can check her out and give me advice.

[@minotaurei]

I found a monument erected by the crew of the USS Boston in Mare Island today dedicated to 13 of her sailors who died in 1892. An article from the NY Times reports that they where filling explosive shells and one of the apprentices dropped one, blowing the entire building up and shattering windows in Vallejo.

[@potatosinnato1767]

Pls do more ships of the ironclad era this era is so extensive and so underrated

[@scottjackson5173]

The textbook definition of a "grand old ship!"

[@06colkurtz]

Good job

[@jamesbaker7112]

The protective stopper in the end of the gun barrels at the beginning is called a "tampion".

[@robdgaming]

Also "tompion", allegedly pronounced "tomkin".

[@jamesmasonaltair1062]

When I was a kid, it always struck me as funny when a ship had a screw(s) and sails. It was that uncertain era, where engines weren't quite powerful or reliable enough yet to get rid of wind powered propulsion.

[@paulqueripel3493]

SS Great Eastern, screws, sails AND paddle wheels. Surprised they didn't add oars just in case.

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

Aircraft had the same odd transition of design.

[@jamesmasonaltair1062]

@@WALTERBROADDUS never really thought about aircraft that way before, but now that I am thinking about it (thank you,.sir), I completely agree with you. And now that we're discussing it, I bet there are many technologies that went through similar processes or evolutions. It would be an interesting list.

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

@@jamesmasonaltair1062 We went from the Wright Brothers to jets in under 40 years. And jumped to the speed of Sound in about 10. That is a lot change in tech....

[@robertsneddon731]

The sails would be used mainly for cruising to save on coal for both cost reasons and bunker space, a perennial problem before oil became the fuel of choice for large Naval ships.

[@marekkarlikowski5421]

A beautiful ship

[@warhawk4494]

I wish sea militias we're still a thing! That sounds so cool!!!!!

[@Dog.soldier1950]

They still are; The US Navy Reserve

[@rayalbaugh4149]

Waiting to jump in. So early Boston Harbor is still a little mud hole

[@georgedistel1203]

Not for sure if you've done one or not but length of service ship would be USS Kersarge. That ship really had an interesting career

[@misterjag]

Related to receiving ships were prison hulks, and more than 11,500 American POWs died in captivity aboard sixteen British prison ships during the Revolutionary War.

[@afx935]

Sad to say, but a Continental soldier had a 50/50 chance of being killed, wounded, captured, or dying of disease. A tad over 100,000 served out of a male population of just over 500,000. We tend to look at 18th Century warfare and say "How quaint," but completely forget just how bloody the Revolutionary War was in its day, and its affects on the population. There was a reason it took a full century before we had any real rapprochement with the British as a result. Contemporary anglophilia is fairly modern phenomenon only dating back to WWII. This is often forgotten.

[@johnladuke6475]

I got here when the video was 20 minutes old and it already has a dislike. I assume that it was left by a congressional appropriations committee.

[@BuzbyWuzby]

Why scuttle rather than scrap? Target practice, yes. Diving attraction (much later on), yes. Artificial reef, yes. Block ship or break water, yes. But just dumping her? What a waste!

[@constantdrowsiness4458]

Great video!

[@scottybeegood]

Wonderful

[@imouse3246]

"Surplus to requirements." Alas, that awaits us all. 😆

[@fordprefect80]

Could you do a video on the transition from sail to non sail war ships. Thanks.

[@aidanmattson681]

Her 8” guns are in a park near where I live in Shoreline Washington.

[@77thTrombone]

"a sort of naval national guard unit..." Yes, some states did have naval militias, as some states (West Virginia) have air national guard units. I never saw a good accounting of states with naval militias, much less an account of their demise.

[@afx935]

They pretty much went the way of the Dodo after WWI. Illinois, Michigan, I think Ohio, New York, and New Jersey all had them. Usually had one of the Span-Am prizes or one of the small auxiliary cruisers purchased and armed during the Span-Am War. Michigan had YOSEMITE IIRC. The Naval militia was the closest thing to an naval reserve during the late 19th early 20th centuries. When was the Naval Reserve created? I would expect its creation mitigated against the survival of the naval militias. Good topic to be told. Hint hint.

[@77thTrombone]

@@afx935 I was hoping I'd shake someone like you out of the trees! I suspect the state maritime schools are the last vestiges of the naval militias. I thought about mentioning the topic to Drach, but I thought US reserve personnel history might be a little out of his domain for a global audience. (Tho he did cover the US reserve fleets recently.)

[@dyerwulf5459]

I'm really looking forward to this one.

[@frankkoolosko4255]

My father served on the USS Boston during World War II.

[@GeneralJackRipper]

If I had a time machine, I would bring along a color camera.

[@stephenrickstrew7237]

Gunnage per Tonnage…or GPT …. Would it be best expressed in broadside weight or inertia plus payload squared maybe cubed …?

[@fixeshousestuff9159]

Wow!!

[@herrhornbuckele5227]

Is there a guide for the Independence class or Bogue class escort carriers planned or even better a video on US escort carriers?

[@pwcraig65]

Review the Le Fantasque-class destroyer

[@johnfisher9692]

Thanks Drach That's a really odd layout for the main guns. Was there any reason for it beyond quirkyness? Having them so close to the sides of the ship would make them very vulnerable to magazine penetration, especially given their weak armour protection,

[@afx935]

Centerline guns tend to eat up a lot of space and tonnage, and makes it harder to find room for machinery. (This is why DREADNOUGHT and her improved versions had those wing turrets. The SOUTH CAROLINAs sacrificed a great deal of machinery space, and speed, for their super firing arrangement. Also design tends to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Even the aforementioned DREADNOUGHT was evolutionary (despite claims to the contrary). Pretty much everyone in the 1870s and 1880s were throwing every design they could think of against the wall to see what would stick, and it was happening so fast that ships were obsolete before they commissioned. Interesting times.

[@jeebus6263]

Scuttled at sea? Let's go find her!

[@thishominid871]

It seems like "incredibly heavily armed" is a prerequisite for US.

[@astiwine2354]

You mentioned Boston's contemporary, HMS Calypso - she ended up in St. John's Newfoundland as the base of the local Royal Naval Reserve unit. During the Great War she was renamed "HMS Briton' to free up the name 'Calypso' for a new ship. Later she was sold off and ended her days as a salt hulk. Her sister ship, HMS Calliope, was the ship that escaped the typhoon during the Samoa crises that you mentioned recently. Many of the Reservists from the Calypso, having been fishermen and used to small boats, served on the trawlers and other small craft maintaining the blockade of Germany during the war. Their story might prove a suitable topic for a Wednesday video. I recently read a book by a local author about the loss of the new cruiser HMS Raleigh in the coast of Labrador just after the Great War. you might be interested in investigating that story as well. Thank you for producing one of the best, if not THE best, channels on KZbin.

[@abrahamdozer6273]

And now, HMCS Cabot is a great place to get a beer.

[@afx935]

"Aye, Calypso, the places you've been to The things that you've shown us, the stories you tell Aye, Calypso, I sing to your spirit The men who have served you so long and so well"

[@jmullner76]

Random thought: is there a video on the Battle of Manila Bay?

[@species3167]

It is covered in the video on USS Olympia: Pint-Sized Battleship in a Cruisers Hull, but no video just on the battle itself...yet.

[@mpetersen6]

Scuttled at sea surplus to requirements. The proper way to scuttle a naval vessel in deep water is via naval gunfire IMO. I think it is reasonable to assume the US Navy had large surpluses of 5", 6", and 8" shells on hand in 1946

[@yes_head]

Wow. That's a hell of a career.

[@jacobmoss6830]

Well it’s nice to be early

[@TheHomelessDreamer]

Right? And we get to see a video about a ship nearly as old as the city it is named after (hyperbole intentional)

[@williamharvey8895]

Wish it became a museum ship.

[@afx935]

Is that CHARLESTON at about 5:00?

[@whyjnot420]

Dispatch is a fitting name for that change at the end.

[@Myomer104]

That was a mispronunciation on Drach's part. Her WWII name was "Despatch."

[@whyjnot420]

@@Myomer104 My statement was in reference to a band called Dispatch who first got popular in the Boston area 20something years ago. (check out their song The General, if you want something good and haven't heard them before) btw, "despatch" and "dispatch" are the same word. They are also almost identical in pronunciation. dəˈspæt & dɪˈspæt, using the IPA.

[@toveychurchill6468]

A battle between USS Boston and HMS By Jove should be interesting

[@yakumoyukari4405]

That's some weird decision to offset guns, why was it done? What are the benefits?

[@TheHomelessDreamer]

Some guy named Joe suggested.. "hey let's offset the guns, the earth is flat and vaccines are a conspiracy'

[@MuzzCat05]

Without looking further into it, maybe a passageway or ammunition loading/handling space; the beam width may not have allowed this with half the room each side if they didn't.

[@nicjobro_4653]

Top get a secondry gun top give end in fire (?)

[@calvingreene90]

My guess is so that two guns could fire both fore and aft. And and possibly Absinthe.

[@steventoby3768]

@@nicjobro_4653 That rings true. An 8" gun of the period was cumbersome and slow firing, and torpedoboats did exist at the time, small agile targets that were much easier to engage with a secondary gun.

[@benjones4365]

Why do they scuttle these ship's at sea, is it not worth recycling the steel, after all there is a lot of metal there?

[@Flatmint911]

Small thing but the subtitles appear to be in Vietnamese , entertaining translation into English though .

[@RonOhio]

Trying to come up with a reason for the gun layout other than, "why not". Was there some structure down the centerline that forced the main guns to be offset?

[@bjturon]

RN's Calypso-class was fully rigged w/ higher freeboard, arguably a better design and a better fit for the USN's needs in the 1880s. The Atlanta and Boston should have been fully rigged (as the large "frigate" Chicago was) sloop of war/corvettes w/ 6-inch guns for distance station or Armstrong-style mastless cruisers for coastal defense and power projection in the Caribbean. Instead the Atlanta and Boston were a weriod hybrid.

[@bjturon]

The USN ended up in the 1890s with warships that in construction quaility (not design or armament) were superior to the RN because the USN forced domestic industrial development (steel) by having the ABCD ships (and those that followed) be built entirely out of steel with very heavy fittings, the RN going the path of a incremental transition from iron to steel. However this delayed completion for many years and bankrupted the shipyard which after making a big investment in the plant necessary to build iron ships in the 1870s, had to go onto steel, without being able to use iron for some heavy structural pieces like the keel. I think it would have been better to get new ships sooner in the USN in the 1880s by ordering a mix of all-steel ships and composite iron-steel. So maybe ships ABC are steel, but XYZ are mostly iron and those are completed and put into service earlier, very important given that the cruisers of USN in the 1880 were all wood, like the newly built large cruiser USS Trenton.

[@bjturon]

I think fully-rigged and copper bottom composite iron-steel-wood corvette-protected cruisers like Calypso and Calliope would have served the USN well in the 1880s and 90s.

[@benywidodo]

Finally a 5 minutes guide that's closer to 5 minutes 😂

[@alanbilton2547]

Css Albemarle

[@Trek001]

I am seeing sailing masts on an age of steam vessel - is this the USN response to HMS By Jove!

[@transmaster]

What sort of speeds could these ship achieve under sail. I have never seen a photo of any of this type of cruiser under sail.

[@Drachinifel]

By this point in ship development sail speeds were pretty low compared to speed under power. Something in the order of 8-12 knots was typical depending in the ship.

[@davidthefirst6195]

Looks like there was plenty of deck space for 20 and 40 mm weapons

[@afx935]

Ye Olde Big Book O' Cruisers says 2x 6pdrs (57mm I think), 2x 3pdrs (47mm), 2x1 pdr (somewhere around 25mm), 2x47mm Hotchkiss revolving cannon (these things is reeeeeal kewl), 2x 37mm Hotchkiss revolving cannons. Lotsa dakka for the 1880s.

[@afx935]

Oh, and I think they would have at least one landing gun (probably an old muzzle loading 3-inch boat howitzer originally).

[@rickhobson3211]

Scuttled at sea where? Probably not within sports diving range I am guessing...

[@timothycook2917]

I always thought it was ironic that the "Boston" was sunk in the San Francisco bay

[@daguard411]

Forgive me, I have tried finding this out myself, but I am having difficulty and I think it is having to do with how to phrase the search question. What I am hoping to learn is that the final design for a US battleship was the USS Montana, were there other gunships that had four turrets with the large caliber guns like the USS Montana? Thank you for any help.

[@bfrobin446]

Most battleships of the mid-WWI to Washington Treaty generations had four turrets. There were the U.S. Standard battleships with ten or twelve 14-inch guns, the Queen Elizabeth, Revenge, Bayern, Hood, and Bismarck with eight 15-inch guns, and the Colorado and Nagato classes with eight 16-inch guns. If the treaty hadn’t interrupted, the 1920 South Dakota class would have matched the Montana’s armament of twelve 16”/50 guns.

[@daguard411]

@@bfrobin446 Thank You Very Much! The only information I could find had the four, or more, turrets in unique patterns. Since you have given me references I will look into them. Don't take it lightly, my Thank You's are sincere.

[@purpleunicornmedia]

Scuttled at sea means she is still down there?

[@abrahamdozer6273]

"Almost all white with tan" also reflects the manning practices of the USN circa 1880s.

[@scootergsp]

Interesting video, Drach. Any further insight on why they went with such a weird gun layout?

[@dclark142002]

I would assume it was so that there was all round coverage from the secondary battery... ...but would definitely love to hear the actual reason.

[@dtkinoshita]

The USS Boston was present in Honolulu during the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. Troops were sent ashore to protect American interests.

[@nerva-]

@Drachinifel, if I disable ad-blocking on your channel, do you get a share of the money?

[@Drachinifel]

I believe so :)

[@comentedonakeyboard]

I wonder if they had Tea on the Boston 🤔

[@lafeelabriel]

Even staying afloat for 62 yeas is a achievement in of itself even if she did little else of note.

[@classifiedad1]

Oh, but she did. The USS Boston and her sailors and marines played a critical role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. Namely, they provided a considerable degree of firepower to the coup leaders, which convinced Queen Liliuokalani to (unsuccessfully) pursue diplomatic means to resolve the overthrow. I mean, that strat did work before.

[@lafeelabriel]

@@classifiedad1 I stand corrected.