Armed Merchant Cruisers & Raiders - Bearing Deadly Cargo

Today we take a look at one aspect of armed merchantmen, when they end up fighting each other.

[scottdrone-silvers]

Carmania v. Cap Trafalgar: When Hotels Go to War - Round 2

[Kevin_Kennelly]

"three-legged, drunken elephant tIhat had started running downhill and suddenly discovered gravity was not, in fact, it's friend."
This is a very well written episode. I enjoyed your sentence gymnastics.

[sirrliv]

My only disappointment in this episode is that Drach couldn't find a moment to cram in the voyage of the SMS Seeadler, Imperial Germany's armed windjammer. Or if you want to be more romantic about it, the last hurrah of the Age of Sail.

[sarjim]

As shown by the _Hopkins_, the US 4"/50 was a hard hitting and deadly gun in the hands of a well trained Crew. The naval armed guard was led by Lt. (j.g.) Kenneth Martin Willett, and he drilled his crew constantly in loading and firing. He also trained volunteer merchant mariners in ammunition passing and as backup loaders. The standard rate of fire for a well trained crew was nine rounds a minute. According to one of the gunnery officers on _Steir_ who was directing fire from the forward 5.9" guns thought its rangefinder, and was closely observing return fire from _Hopkins_, that ship fired 16 rounds in the first minute, an astounding rate of fire for a hand loaded weapon. Even as more and more men were being mowed down by the 20mm cannon aboard _Steir_, others ran to take their place, most of them being killed after getting off a few rounds. Finally, after the intense six minute battle, there were no more left to man the still intact gun, with the few survivors taking to a single lifeboat.


The German ship moved in closer to asses the situation, sure that resistance had ceased. They didn't count on Merchant Marine Cadet Edwin Joseph O'Hara. The survivors in the lifeboat watched in amazement as the mortally wounded O'Hara somehow dragged himself to the gun. There were still three shells in the ready rack. O'Hara dragged all three shells over to the gun, hiding behind remnants of the shot up gun tub. He must have been in great pain as he lifted the first round and rammed it home. He was able to reach down to the firing pedal and pressed it home with his hand. The first round was on its way before the Germans knew what hit them. OHara repeated the feat with the second round in about nine seconds. He had the last round loaded and either fired the gun and it exploded, or the gun emplacement was hit by a 5.9" round from _Steir_ . Either way, when the smoke had cleared, neither O'Hara nor the gun were to be seen. Although this is disputed, it's possible O'Hara's last round may have severed the steering controls of the _Stier_ . Drifting and unable to respond to the helm, the captain realized his ship was doomed. With the supply ship standing by, the crew was moved to the supply ship in lifeboats, then _Stier_ was sunk with scuttling charges.


Merchant Marine Academy Cadet O'Hara, only along for a training cruise, was awarded the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal while Lt. (j.g.) Kenneth Martin Willett, USNR, was awarded the Navy Cross for this action. Very few ships, naval or merchant marine, have ever fought such a gallant battle in the finest naval tradition of sink the enemy or be sunk trying.

[RileygoodVideos]

As a US Merchant Mariner seeing this on my dash made very happy

[FirstMetalHamster]

"Don't mind that ship over there, that's just us".

[Big_E_Soul_Fragment]

Cap Trafalgar and RMS Carmania looking for an open space to duke it out is basically every Dragonball Z fight.

[BB.]

3:27 Shout out to SS Red Oak Victory! Though it was not an armed auxiliary nor has any notoriety, it is one of the few remaining victory ships still extant. It was named after a town in Iowa (where I'm from) that had a disproportionately large number of casualties in WWII. Thanks for including it on your video!

[BHuang]

"Cap Trafalgar and RMS Carmania exist"
*Insert Spider-Man Pointing at Spider-Man meme*

[Gunninator]

The line about a 3 legged elephant and gravity had me burst out laughing in the middle of the office. Thanks Drachs

[notknightbean]

Personally I would have gone with the title: armed merchant ships: when literal hotels go to war

[admiraltiberius]

Fantastic video as always Drach, love your work.
The fight between the Carmania and the Not Carmania reminds me of the "So I started blasting" meme.
Hopefully in the future we dont have a battle with cruise ships lobbing missiles at each other.

[martijnreicher]

The results of combat between commerce raiders kind of remind me of this saying about knife fights: "The loser dies in the street, the winner dies on the way to the hospital."
With the lethality of the weaponry in WW1 and WW2, and their lack of armor and damage control, any confrontation with an enemy that can fight back is extremely risky for a commerce raider, and even if you "win" you are still likely to lose.

[petej]

Have you considered doing a video of the "Shetland Bus" operations?
It was the boat's which covertly ran from the Shetland Islands (most northern British lands) to Norway for the duration of WW2.
They ran Norwiegen fishing vessels until gifted 3 American Sub-Chasers in 43/44 & were involved in some extremely interesting operations. They towed the underwater Chariots which were to be used against Tirpitz across however on reaching Norway ran into bad weather in a fjord & they broke free. This was just one operation & they were usually transporting agents, guns, explosives etc etc.
Although they weren't actually RN ships, they were run by the Admiralty & under the command of an RN Officer. The ship's mostly being crewed by Norwegian volunteers.
It's an interesting subject & I would like to see your take on it.

[nadtz]

Me at the start: "this one might be boring."
29 minutes later
Me: "More!"


Great vid as always.

[blackrabbit]

One of the ships I sailed on had a supply of dazzle paint, a de-gaussing ring to combat magnetic mines and, as Drach said, strengthened decks for guns.

[KPen]

Speaking of Merchant raiders, I highly recommend the book called "The Wolf" about arguably the most successful merchant raider of WW1, the SMS Wolf. It is a fantastic tale about a fantastic ship. Also a good candidate for a Drachinifel Guide or special

[donaldwrissler]

I've always had a fascination about german raiders ever since reading a book about the raider Atlantis back in the'70s. Would love to see an individual video series on all the raiders/Q-ships and the variations in guises. Every Drach vid is just a teaser for wanting much more on each subject, thus many lost hours revisiting books i've forgotten about or purchasing something done.

[Optionsaregood]

I find the careers of the armed merchant raiders of both world wars really interesting.
Thanks for posting this.

[lawrencewestby]

My father's training ship after joining the RCNVR was the merchant cruiser HMS Voltaire, a former passenger liner. He served in her in early 1940, the exact dates unknown. The Voltaire was lost on 4 April 1941 in a battle with the German merchant raider Thor about 900 nm west of the Cape Verde Islands. By this time my father was "safely" serving in corvettes on convoy escort duty.