HMS Blake - Guide 326

The Blake class, protected cruisers of the British Royal Navy, is today's subject.

Read more about the the ships here:

[davidblake]

As a Blake, I approve this episode. We make good-looking cruisers.

[phaasch]

Really handsome, well proportioned ships. The RN, right through to the 1930s, somehow produced some of the most aesthetically pleasing light cruisers of any navy.

[rem]

Can we stop and appreciate the sheer quality of the pictures used for the video? Thank you Drach for sharing these magnificent historical documents with us!

[Niels_Larsen]

HMS Blake seems to have been the foreshadowing of both the Dreadnought arms race and the development of the battlecruiser.

[jecny]

Interesting ships and I think I can see some of the civilian influences in their design. The forward part of her superstructure and bridge, the cluster of high standing ventilation funnels, and her two slightly raked back stacks, make her resemble an express ocean liner of the period. See images of the RMS Lucania for an example.

[spartanalex]

Praise Blake and all his Wisdom. Let his word guide us back to the Light of the League.

[paulhannoever]

With their colour scheme, bow decorations and not super obvious gun positions, they kinda look like fancy yachts.

[hunorpapp]

Please Drach make a video about what improvements did the different generation dreadnoughts have. Would be awsome, keep up the good work. Cheers!

[randomobserver]

Damn if that isn't my favourite ever launch image at 5:29. Certainly in the "art" class. Gorgeous work. The ship class is pretty nice, too.

[holdfast]

Great childhood memory - series of magazine articles with beautifully pictured cruisers, one of these about three 1st class protected cruisers: Blake, Edgar, and Powerful, and two armoured cruisers overleaf: Kent and Good Hope. We’d cut them off and pitch them against French or German cruisers and play shooting games strangely dropping pens aiming at the waterline. Blake was my favourite one

[emosmurf]

i love these short to-the-point lectures. you are to naval history, what The History Guy is to general knowledge. well done, as usual!

[monsieurcommissaire]

My, what a spectacular pair of funnels.

[earltaylor]

A truly beautiful class of warships. It combines the lines and majesty of pre dreadnought vessels, but with a more purposeful and logical design than some them.

[evenodd]

Funny how you could be on a ship in the royal navy named something like the indefatigable, the formidable or the queen Elizabeth. And then have a ship literally named blake

[edwardlewsey]

I like that you find such good images of these older ships. Thanks for doing these!

[Trek]

Given the name of the ship, what a pity it was not in Guide 7

[The_Modeling_Underdog]

For all the egregious and cumbersome ships the RN was putting out to sea in those years, the Blakes make for a welcome change. Very pleasing lines to the naked eye and long serving careers.

Thanks for sharing, Drach.

[PaulfromChicago]

Admiral Lord Ventilator, does your ship have enough ventilators?

[SephirothRyu]

Was there anything that in particular led to the demise of underwater torpedo launchers aside from just the internal space needed?

[jp-umfr]

If I remember correctly the longer a ship is and providing the weight and cross section remains the same the faster it will go. There was a formula but I can't find it. There was a 'k' factor which involved the shape of the hull, otherwise it was a doddle. Simply - less water to push out of the way.