AWFUL Warships From History

At some point in history a French naval architect decided that fitting full sized windows like those from a country manor to the hull of a giant ironclad warship was a good idea... Following on from last month's video today let's take a look at 5 more terrible warships and the stories of their woeful designs and careers!

0:00 Intro
0:37 Russian ironclad Novgorod
5:54 USS Massachusetts
10:46 French warship Hoche
13:45 SMS Wespe
16:46 IJN Tomozuru

Oceanliner Designs explores the design, construction, engineering and operation of history’s greatest vessels– from Titanic to Queen Mary and from the Empress of Ireland to the Lusitania. Join maritime researcher and illustrator Michael Brady as he tells the stories behind some of history's most famous ocean liners and machines!

[Elvis]

I'm surprised the swedish warship Vasa isnt mentioned on this list. It sailed roughly 1400yards before sinking on her maiden voyage, and what should have been the mightiest warship in the swedish navy was defeated by a gust of wind...

[marathonrunner]

Mr. Brady, I thoroughly enjoy how you talk "to" your audience rather than "at" your audience. Your articulate and informative style makes it seem like you are a friend/guest in my home, rather than a disembodied voice on a video. All of the hard work you put into your videos is apparent. Thanks for caring about your audience as much as you care about the quality of your work/content. Kudos all around.... Enjoy your day, sir.

[bertbaker]

Novgorod's guns didn't actually cause the entire ship to spin on its axis. Each gun was mounted on a turntable that allowed it to rotate independently from the other. However, the turntable's locking mechanism wasn't very good. Firing one of the guns caused the gun to spin wildly on its own turntable, not the entire ship. It's a common misconception.

[ChickVicious]

The Tomozuru story and others like it are some of the most terrifying in my opinion. Just finding a ship fully capsized and floating on the surface symbolizes the ultimate danger of what can happen on the sea (or Great Lakes).

[philtkaswahl]

I like to think Popov fantasized about riding giant turtles as a child, and those circular-hulled ships were the closest he could get to that dream.

[suflanker]

To be fair Massachusetts sister ship Oregon performed superbly during the Spanish American War. First she had to steam from the Pacific to Florida and since this was before the Panama Canal was built she had to sail down to South America and round Cape Horn. She did it in 66 days without any major mechanical issues. During the war she was blockading the port of Santigao de Cuba where the Spanish squadron was holed up. Seeing that part of the American fleet had sailed away for resupply the Spanish saw there chance to break out. The Oregon was the only US warship that had steam up to begin immediate pursuit. The chief engineer had been holding in reserve the best quality coal and now began using it. Leading the rest of the US fleet they began to run down and destroy the Spanish fleet. Between her long trip from the Pacific and chasing down the Spanish fleet the chief engineer would make Scotty proud.

[airringtonpresents]

You know it is going to be a good day when Oceanliner Designs posts

[JGCR]

Funny thing is SMS Viper, one of the Wespe class, was converted into a crane ship and survived at least until 1967. There's no record of her being scrapped so there's a small chance of her being still around

[nthgth]

In addition to the video itself, I also LOVE how the comments on these often contain personal stories or other more technical information to do with the subject of the video.
Really adds a lot. Thanks to all of you.

[ThatGUY]

You know something is bad when a guy like me with no background in engineering, naval architecture, etc. can take one look at a ship and spot multiple design flaws that render a ship seeming destined to fail. Lovely work as always Mike, your videos and streams are always fascinating.

[mikecee]

This is how a video should be. Straight, to the point, accurate, and without all the fake fluff that so many creators feel they need to add.

[Scooternjng]

As Drachinifel remarked in his video on French predreadnoughts, the Hoche is definitely a "hotel that went to war"

[geigertec]

My favorite warship of all time was the Czechoslovakian Sicherungsboot 43, armed with a German Panzer IV 75mm tank turret the ship was the largest ship ever used by a landlocked nation. Its only range of operation was a tiny sliver of the River Danube that formed a small fraction of the nation's southern border. Ultimately the Soviet Union superceded the naval presence on the Danube and the ship was removed from service.

[ZGryphon]

The very distinctive shape of the canopy/awning at 2:24 makes the gunnery platform look _uncannily_ like a carousel that happens to have giant cannons instead of the usual painted horses, which is fitting, since it sounds like the _Novgorod_ was basically a carnival ride from Hell. :)

[loficampingguy]

Another excellent video! I have to say, I find your style absolutely excellent, both in your topic and more importantly the way you cover the topic. Your style of speaking and narration is seriously brilliant. Everything is clearly thought-out and well-spoken so that the audience can perfectly understand what you are saying. I'm a tour guide here in the US and I often use your style as one of my examples to emulate how I handle my programs.

[F-Man]

When you said USS Massachusetts, I was ready to lob some tomatoes in the general direction of Australia. Then, I realized that you weren’t talking about the much more laudable BB-59 😅

[adamdubin]

Hoche wasn't the only French battleship that followed the "floating hotel" design aesthetic, most of the French pre-dreadnoughts followed a similar design with one of the worst offenders in my opinion being the Massena which was some how based on the completely acceptable design of Brennus. It is a combination of the pronounced tumblehome and high unwieldy superstructure that truly makes these ships some of the ugliest to ever sail. There was also the French shipyards need to constantly innovate and make additions to ships under construction leading to ships that were supposed to have similar parameters in terms of displacement, main armament, machinery and speed to be wildly different from one another.

[lavafish]

I've also heard about another IJN crackpot design, a ship designed by a man named Kaneda, it was supposed to be a 500, 000 ton ship, outfitted with 50 heavy guns and hundreds of more secondary guns, obviously it never made it off the drawing board but it did show the origins of the thinking that would become Yamato, one ship to do it all, one crucial detail Mr. Kaneda had forgotten however, the ship was never designed to be fitted with anti air weapons, as air wasn't really considered in 1912

[thomasdarnall]

Despite their obvious design flaws, I must admit that the USS Massachusetts and the Osh (hope I spelled that right) had a pleasingly positive Steampunk-ian vibe that I admire.

I STILL say a collaboration between Mike and Drachifinel would be EPIC!!!

[HowlingWolf]

Left out the HMS Captain, basically the 1869 OceanGate; obsessed with having two turrets and the lowest possible freeboard, Cowper Coles twisted a few arms, got his ship, went out to sea... and died when she rolled over in a storm and sank.