The Drydock - Episode 223 (Part 1)

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:34 - Kongo's and if they are BB's/BC's again?

00:07:12 - How dangerous were what we would consider childhood diseases to the under nourished crews of age of sail ship?

00:12:02 - Deployment of ships in/around July 1939?

00:13:43 - What goes into the design and construction of a ship's propellers?

00:20:17 - When did the "use it or lose it" approach to US Department of Defense funding come about; and how has it impacted the US Navy?

00:24:18 - NCO's with degrees?

00:27:23 - How integrated was Coastal Command with the Royal Navy in hunting German U-boats?

00:29:28 - Did any ships carry and use both square rigged sails and lateen sail?

00:31:36 - Floatplane operations and rough seas

00:35:41 - WW2 Atlantic Kriegsmarine supply network?

00:41:47 - Why aft deck mounts?

00:45:18 - How effective were air-dropped mines in comparison to conventionally-laid mines?

00:49:13 - For the long-range hits or straddles that were made by some ships, were any able to repeat that similar performance during their engagements or have some degree of consistency?

00:52:52 - If the KGVs had undergone major refits between 1950 and 1955, what would they look like?

00:56:10 - Large 'clocks' on ships?

00:59:14 - Would there be a flagship for convoys, especially the Atlantic convoys?

01:01:32 - Regarding the Mark 14 Torpedo, do you know if any of the personnel at the Bureau of Ordinance ever faced any sort of repercussions for their repeated denial of frontline reports?

01:03:34 - The mysterious loss of the Carroll A Deering

01:10:02 - Torpedoes and Ships of the Line?

01:13:56 - Operation Hannibal

01:17:29 - The Ryan RF-1

01:20:49 - Greyhound's escort group?

01:25:45 - Sampson vs Schley

01:29:35 - Between 1905 and 1945, how many times did battleships actually engage other battleships?

01:32:12 - Why is Royal Navy Procurement and Building historically comparatively free of "show projects"

01:36:22 - Did the Royal Navy have a force similar to the SeaBee's, or a device similar to the pontoon block?

01:37:49 - How stable are modern cruise ships?

01:41:14 - Secondary systems running from the main boilers?

01:43:26 - Cargo submarine designs?

01:48:45 - Two single 18 inch guns on HMS Furious, why?

01:50:37 - Air Void on an Iowa's turret?

01:51:50 - Baden trials?

01:58:41 - Adalbert Schneider

02:03:44 - How much more political or economic damage would there have been if John Paul Jones' squadron had succeeded in destroying or capturing a significant portion of the convoy?

02:09:35 - Fast rescue boats?

02:11:40 - Repair ships

02:16:45 - What planning/contingencies were put in place to preserve some sort of command structure to at least be able to surrender instead of sinking or possibly even keep fighting?

02:20:52 - Cordite dust and shock triggering?

02:27:52 - Can you tell us a bit about the "the Perisher" Submarine training course?

02:36:12 - What are (in your opinion) the 5 worst carrier conversions and how/why have they made it on the list?

02:42:59 - If you could do an around-the-world tour on any one museum ship, which would you choose and why?

02:45:06 - Apart from proximity fused ammuntion, was there ever any study done into advanced ammunition for naval guns in the 1930/40s?

02:51:42 - Lattice gantries on the side of WW2 aircraft carriers?

02:53:26 - Could you discuss how tough it was to sink the Bismarck as compared to other ships in WW2?

[stephenrickstrew]

Thanks to our author for countless hours of Naval History and questions answered… I do believe Drachinifel is the go to source for all things Warship

[allenparmet]

Public Health commentary: Reasonably good discussion about infectious diseases (7:54). Most Age of Sail sailors had the "Usual Childhood Diseases" (Mumps, Measles, Rubella/German Measles, Chickenpox) as children and were immune for life. Smallpox was also very common but after 1796 vaccination (and variolation before that, see George Washington's General Order #1, 1775) minimized this on ships. England introduced compulsory vaccination of children in 1853. Introduction of these diseases to naïve populations, e.g. the Spanish and Portuguese into the Americas, caused massive depopulation, possibly as much as 90% of the Americas in the 16th Century and were the major factor in the success of the European occupation. Even in the 20th Century, measles in Africa caused severe outbreaks during my tenure with case fatality rates of over 25%. A lot of that was probably due to malaria co-infections. Malnourished (not undernourished, just dietary imbalance) could put sailors at high risk of other diseases, particularly Yellow Fever and Malaria. These are both mosquito-transmitted, so if the water sources on ship are protected, they don't propagate, although that knowledge didn't exist until about 1900. Hence the original US Public Health Service sites were quarantine stations for sailors.

[sorover]

Drach, the “large clocks on ships” question you answered is one I’ve had for a while, and was totally unexpected, and another reason you are such a treasure of naval knowledge 👌🏼👌🏼

[Trek]

Perisher is bloody tough indeed - if you make a single mistake then you are kicked off the boat right then and there and never again allowed to try it. The ONLY known incident of someone getting a second chance at the course was an USN exchange officer that when confronted with fishing boats that had been undetected until the very last moment reacted as he had been trained by his "home" navy and not the correct RN method. They had him taken ashore and was going to send him home when he remarked that it was the way he had been trained in the US and so they let him have another go and did it well.

He seemingly retired not so long ago with the rank of Rear Admiral

[ssgtmole]

Fun thing about US MREs - they are meant for military duty in a highly active role. If you are lugging a full field pack on the march, they are pretty good calorie wise. If you are an Air Force enlisted type being given one on a simulated war footing doing your normal job, expect to gain weight.

[davidturner]

I loved Patrick Obrian writing Doctor Maturin mulling over the mumps as a more humane way of providing the opera with castrati, all while mumps is making its way through the ship.

[johnsykesiii]

At around 14:35 you state that the North Carolina had outboard skegs. In fact, only the South Dakota class had outboard skegs, making them unique. All other USN fast battleship classes (North Carolina and Iowa) had inboard skegs. They did swap the positions of the four blade and five blade props to help alleviate the vibration problem, but it was never totally solved.

[DamianMaisano]

I always have found it unimportant if Bismarck was scuttled or not. The simple fact of the matter is that the damage she had taken was mortal and would have killed her no matter what, so whether it was helped along or not matters little.

And the biggest thing people seem to disregard in this is fire. The waves and the shell holes would wreak their toll of course, but eventually, other things would begin to explode since the fires were out of control. It’s what killed Blucher, it’s what would have sunk Bismarck if left to her devices

[wellitsjustG]

first of these i've watched. i'm a complete nautical novice...but bigger into military history which includes naval and this type of excellent technical expertise i find fantastic. I AM a huge F1 fan and am just a sucker for engineering details, which concerning sea vessels, this video is chalked full of. bravo. thank you.

[swampyankee]

I absolutely agree with your opinion on cruise ships. They've been very lucky so far, but there have been many close calls. On several occasions for various reasons these vessels have lost propulsion which in turn meant no food or sanitary systems, they were fortunate that in most cases the weather was calm.

[craigfazekas]

Drach; constructs a chart for what many consider to be semantics.... 😆
Keep on Drachin', Drach !!!
🚬😎

[alexkarman]

As they taught us in law school, "Jerry rigging is an art. Jury rigging is a crime." 😁

[lordarathres]

Having spent years working on various Carnival cruise ships, mostly the Fantasy class, calling them unstable is begin nice. There's a reason they sail in calm seas and having to outrun a hurricane in one is terrifying. Good times.

[ogscarlt]

Ahhh the return of the long form drydocks the gods bless us this day.

[craigfazekas]

My imput/suggestion to all ? Geirr Haarr's books are excellent !! Some of the best WWII naval reads I've ever encountered !! His books focus on the northern European sphere- Norway mainly.
His books are engaging, well resourced and read in a way that is completely approachable.
Fact filled but written in a way that is ultimately easy to absorb; heightening your enjoyment- not always an easy task for authors. Mr. Haarr has nailed this aspect down, as I'm on my 3rd volume from him.
🚬😎

[vikkimcdonough]

1:18:25 - And even _with_ those improvements, modern jets are _still_ considerably slower to spool up than piston engines (because of the honking great rotational inertia of the compressor/turbine rotors); also, with a prop plane (assuming it's using a tractor configuration, which most do), an increase in engine power produces an immediate increase in lift (from the prop wash going back over the wings), whereas a jet engine has to accelerate the entire airplane to a higher speed in order to increase the airplane's lift.

[davidvik]

I believe the North Carolina class has a propeller arrangement similar to the Iowa Class with the inboard shafts in skegs and the outboard shafts supported on struts. The builders model and construction photos that I have seem clearly depict this. Not to say there weren't vibration problems. Most of the high speed high power four shaft ships suffered such issues. The SS United States, without skegd, had a lot of attention put into propeller design to deal with cavitation and vibration, but never completely eliminated it.

[JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

I have read of several incidences in the battle of the Atlantic where the commander of the group of escorts that joins a convoy with an escort Commander, would usually defer to the guy who's already in command and not worry about the niceties of rank in time and grade. It prevented confusion among the ranks on the ships. Convoy Commodores they're actually in a lot of instances two of them the commodore and an assistant commodore in case the commodore got Sonic which happened all too often. Their sinking was unfortunate happenstance as opposed to being targeted deliberately. Many of the Commodores were retired Royal Navy officers called back to service. They gave their lives in combat at an age when they should have been rocking in front of a fireplace talking to the grandchildren.

[dmphoenix]

01:25:45 Excellent analysis of historical precedence and a vindication for Schley.

[porpoise]

22:00 To be clear, that isn't a government thing. It happens quite broadly across private entities as well.

And similar to your mention of governments paying for random things at the end of the fiscal year, you quite commonly see corporate departments buying new equipment or stocking up on supplies or other stuff to use up their excess budget at the end of the corporate fiscal years.

One thing you will find it you get to see how a lot of companies operate, most of those wasteful and inefficient things governments do, private companies are doing just as much. It is just less visible.