Cap Trafalgar: The craziest naval battle of WWI

History has produced a lot of naval battles. Some epic in scale. Some decidedly less so.

But none is as crazy as the story of the SMS Cap Trafalgar, and the SS Carmania....

[sirrliv]

One of my favorite weird naval incidents of history. I must point out though that it's still debated whether or not the Carmania was also in disguise; it seems most historians have now discounted that as a myth, so it was only the Carmania fighting herself, not each liner fighting their own doppelganger (despite that being a hundred times funnier).

This also showed the inherent flaws in the "armed merchant raider" concept. For one, while these ships had very high speeds for their time, they were usually built with a specific route in mind, like Liverpool to New York, and didn't have much range beyond that. So the idea of extended patrols out at sea was just not something they were built for. For another, these ships were big targets with no armor protection; some accounts of this battle claim one side or the other tried to augment their protection by piling sand bags against the hull, but the result was that even machinegun rounds could penetrate parts of their structure. They also carried roughly half the crew as warships as they normally had in civilian service, so even the basic running of the ship; stoking the boilers, etc. was harder, and damage control was practically impossible. So you have these big ships with surprisingly short cruising range and no protection, with crewmen running around dodging bullets and shells trying to plug up holes that are being made faster than they can get to them. It's little wonder that the merchant raider concept failed so quickly; it was kinda doomed from the start. The only way the concept really worked was if the fact that they were raiders was carefully disguised like on Q-ships or when used as convoy protection.

If you're looking for an idea for a sequel to this, I highly encourage you to look up the voyage of the SMS Seeadler, Germany's most successful merchant raider and the last commissioned warship to enter combat powered by sail. Or, if you want to be more romantic about the title, The Last Pirate Ship.

[rorschach]

A very odd but entertaining tale, thank you for posting it.

[ladyellice]

Fascinating stuff! If this incident was ever made into a “based on a true story” film, I’m sure it would be lambasted by critics as unbelievable and ludicrous! 😳😱

[glendanison]

My first thought on seeing the title was some WW1 ships time traveled to 1805. But this was a fascinating, darkly humorous event I had never heard of. Thanks. People think of WW1 as trenches and dogfights and overlook the naval war except for an occasional mention of Jutland.

[canyonmann]

Thanks for the all the hard work and effort you put into making these videos. I'm sure that 16k subscribers is just the beginning. I'm happy to be one of the people that discovered your channel and subscribed early on. Keep up the good work.

[scocon]

This reminds me of when I and 1 or 2 of my friends were playing Poker: Someone called, and I announced I had 3 Aces. One of my friends exclaimed, "Wait - I have 3 Aces, too!"
I asked to see the box the cards came in, and said, "Guys - this is a Pinochle deck!"
Somehow this tale seems similar, but I'm probably wrong :\

[BinroWasRight]

That is WILD, two converted cruise liners duking it out!

This is a similar concept to privateering, which began with the French and Scots in the very late 15th and early 16th centuries. England and others got on board with the idea a bit later by the mid-16th century. They often disguised themselves as neutral or enemy vessels to get in close, usually in the jacks they flew. This tactic was well-used by pirates too.

But England relied on merchantmen in time of war for many centuries. They helped win the massive Battle of Sluys in 1340 early in the Hundred Years' War, so much so that the Cinque Ports in the southeast received special privileges in exchange for providing ships for royal service each year. A clever solution when the Navy Royal was still a nascent idea.

[aarongerard]

This was basically an IRL version of the pointing Spiderman meme.

[chidoman]

Cap Trafalgar/Carmania: Imposter!
Carmania/Cap Trafalgar: Imposter!

[annsmith]

Keep up the good work, best story teller out there!

[chadsekeras]

Another interesting and strange tale from the war. Thanks for sharing it.

[sonofeyeabovealleffoff]

Another youbtuber "Lazerpig" covered this and it was hilarious.
I like this version too because the storyteller isn't drunk like Lazerpig and he's serious.

[michaelandreipalon]

Feels like a Charles Dickens level coincidence, this.


And I'll be expecting some Among Us references in the comments.

[wilhelmkaiser]

As others have pointed out, the idea that the Carmania was also disguised isn't true. But it's still a funny situation to have occured, ye. Big love for all the videos!

[madtrucker]

Weird for sure. Thanks, now I'm more smarter 😜

[whoiami]

Talk about the wackiest ship in the Navy

[kimberlybiss]

May God bless the souls that were involved in this. May they and their family somehow find peace. Shame on the government.

[michaelandreipalon]

Say, care to talk about the War of Jenkin's Ear?