The Drydock - Episode 265

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:04 - Did the English govenment leave its sailors to die?

00:07:13 - The scuttling of HMS Implacable

00:12:42 - How did the boilers get air when the ship was locked up for battle?

00:14:45 - Could the spanish fight the french republic/empire on equal footing at sea if things had been different?

00:18:15 - If the british had managed to tow Santissima Trinidad into a port and later commission her, would they have left her as she was or razeed her down to a more manueverable and thus feasible first or second rate?

00:19:21 - What was the design role of the Chester class cruisers?

00:22:45 - During the Guadalcanal campaign: When the Japanese were bombarding Henderson Field area. Was there night air fighting?

00:25:38 - USS Yorktown (CV10) flight deck material?

00:27:39 - What would be result of an engagement between larger ship of one era (say top predreadnought battleship) and smaller, but more advanced ship of later era (say treaty cruiser)?

00:30:47 - Did other nations apart from the British/French/Spanish build 1st rates?

00:33:11 - How would the Anglo-German Naval Arms Race go without WW1?

00:35:58 - USS O-Bannon and the Potato Incident

00:40:44 - Were merchant ships over-crewed?

00:43:31 - How would you make the F2A Buffalo a better aircraft, without basically just making its subsequent replacments?

00:47:15 - What was the French reaction to the Battle of Tsushima, given that much of the fleet that had just sunk was either built by them or based on their designs?

00:49:41 - How many Royal Navy submarines operated in the Pacific/Indian Oceans and how much tonnage did they sink?

00:54:25 - When did clenched nails become popular in ship designs, and why?

00:56:11 - British post-war carrier doctrine?

[obitime]

I never knew I needed to know about warships until I stumbled on this channel. Thanks drach.

[jackray]

I look forward to your Drydock episodes each week. Thank you.

[marckyle]

27:28 When I toured the USS Hornet, the docent proudly pointed out the wooden beams on the flight deck. I think the port and starboard elevators were all metal from what I saw.

[JetleanSam]

8:11 I am convinced that the primary requirement for being in charge of British finances to be some kind of gremlin that derives joy from unnecessarily destroying nice things.

[davidbrennan]

At this rate Drach will have worn out his Machinery and he will have to go in for a full refit, maybe swapping out his casemated Secondary battery for a few Aircraft signalling guns.


“Engaging a Third Rate with Melee Weapons” is today’s Drachism I feel.

Looking at French Pre-dreadnoughts... you have to for this ... is a close second.

[Andy_Ross]

'One of Our Submarines' by Edward Young is a good account of submarine operations in WW2.
He commanded a sub in the North Sea, Med and Far East.
His account of coastal operations in the Pacific is very good.

[mikeynth]

HMS Implacable "I'm not dead yet!"

[stevewindisch]

Thanks for the great video, as always. Regarding those large cowl air vents, they were often called "Dorades", because they had a "dorade box" to keep water from getting below. They can be recognized by this box built around the base of the cowl, inside it has the air input shaft from below raised several inches and offset from the cowl base which is raised a bit from the bottom of the box. A hole in the box allows water coming down the cowl to drain out before it reaches the actual vent's input level. A ship may have had several of both types with the non-dorades usually being able to be blocked in bad weather. The down side is since the air flow is rather serpentine they were less efficient in calm weather and often required forced air of some type to be really effective, although a vessel's speed does have a "ram air" effect.

[mikolajgrotowski]

The radial engine was a requirement imposed by the US Navy. The idea was that such an engine would be more reliable and resistant to damage in combat. Liquid-cooled engines have an additional weak point, the cooling system, which was often the reason why Bf 109s were unable to return to France after combat. Even minor damage to the system could result in coolant leakage and engine seizure. This was confirmed in the case of the P47 and P 51 planes, the former tolerated damage much better, to such an extent that the pilots asked to replace the P51 with P47 in Korea, because there these planes mainly attacked ground targets and damage to the radiator was a common problem. Therefore, all U.S. Navy aircraft had radial engines until the jet age.

[michalsoukup]

Drach tearing government to pieces is...

Amazing!

[SCjunk]

Best fix for the F2-A would be to reduce the weight - the Finns used them to great effect for point defence well into the continuation war by running them light, as did the KNIL in Bornio Sumatra by only loading out to 50% so half fuel and ammunition -evidently in that configuration the F2-F was well cabable of giving a Claude a run around and probably even a partial match (no cannons) for a Zero but most Zeros encountered were in fact A5Ms. So as a refit, relatively simple rebuild, the answer would have been just like the Zero -fit a drop tank or even two drop tanks, maybe reduce the ammunition stowage -even for fleet use with a drop tank it could then serve effectively as long as the pilot was trained well enough husband his range -but for a CAP fighter this wouldn't matter much, get to patrol altitude run on reserve and then drop the tank (s) on engagement. One of the good things about F2-A which no-one mentions is the comparatively good cockpit visiblity which was on a par with Zeros and the open cockpit of the Claude, but alot better than an F4 -f wildcat.

[jimmahon]

I think you nailed the F2A question with your initial comments about Brewster's poor production capability (ignoring the persistent tales of supposed production line sabotage) and the fact that the design had little capacity for easy upgrading. On your Merlin 20 idea, I think that the USN was VERY strongly inclined against liquid cooling for their carrier aircraft at this time and Brewster's questionable general competence at this point would quite likely have manifested in a poor engine installation.

[joshkamp]

Re: Merlin F2A, the USN was completely against any engine but air cooled radials, especially at that point.

[thestonedabbot]

19:21 Fun fact about the USS Chester, she served as the escort ship for the Carpathia on 17th-18th April 1912, when she was bringing the survivors of Titanic into NYC

[lilidutour]

Regarding metal cladding on top of the wood on Essex class carriers. Memoir from a S-2 Tracker pilot on USS Hornet in 1965 stated and pictures confirm that the flight deck was wood with metal cladding over the wood in the location of the arresting wires.

[nozdormu]

16:30 so in other words in order for the Spanish Empire to fight the French, the French navy would to need to cease to be the Unofficial Unpaid Strategic reserve of the Royal Navy . I am sure the RN would object rather vehemently.

[slightlyshabby]

Drach, my grandfather was an interwar USN sailor. According to him, bluejackets regarded the deck locker potatoes as weapons from a cultural perspective, to include heaving them at unsuspecting misliked officers. This completely supports the o’bannon’s enlisted men.

[stevevalley]

wrt the question on the F2A, as Drac said, the first problem was weight. The early models were quite agile. "Pappy" Boyington praised it's handling. But the Navy wanted armor, self-sealing fuel tanks, more guns, more ammo, and weight grew. Besides a disastrous impact on performance, the increased weight lead to more landing gear failures. In Aussie hands, the planes were put on a diet: all the armor, except that directly behind the pilot, was removed. The wing 50 cal machine guns were replaced with .303s. Besides the reduced weight of the .303 guns and their ammo, putting the weight reduction out on the wins would also reduce rotational inertia, which improves roll rate. The life raft and Brewster provided radio, which did not work worth a hoot, were also removed. As modified, the Aussie Buffs apparently pretty much held their own against the early Japanese army fighters. Another problem was the engines installed on the Aussie and far east RAF Buffs. There was apparently a shortage of Wright Cyclones, so the planes built for export were fitted with worn out airline castoffs (the DC-2 used the Cyclone) that had been 'refurbished" by Wright. Whether due to the engines being refurbs, or the fundamental design of the engine, I don't know, but the Buffs in far east service also tended to overheat and blow out their oil. Given that the Cyclone was also used in the SBD and B-17, I would lean toward laying the engine's ill temper in the export Buffs on their state of wear, in spite of being "refurbished". Best moves to improve the Buff, besides the weight reduction program the Aussies gave them, would be actual, new, Cyclones, or Pratt Twin Wasps, like the earlier, Grumman-built, F4Fs had. Or, take the entire program away from Brewster and give it to someone who knew how to run an aircraft factory, and had capacity available.

[stanleyrogouski]

Three British Sailors on a raft:

Sailor 1: "So the crown has left us here to die of the plague just to save a few quid?"

Sailor 2: "It's the violence inherent in the system."

Sailor 3: "Maybe we should have a revolution like the French, storm Buckingham Palace, drag the King down to the public square and chop off his head."

Sailor 2: "We tried that back in 1649. All we got was a military dictator who wouldn't let us celebrate Christmas or go to the theater."

Americans: "God I love British humor. Nothing like those cheese eating guillotine monkeys."

[Charliecomet]

Maybe they could have gotten the public to support saving the Implacable by printing it's picture on their ration books...