Topic Actions

Topic Search

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 44 guests

Considerations about naval designs

This fascinating series is a combination of historical seafaring, swashbuckling adventure, and high technological science-fiction. Join us in a discussion!
Re: Considerations about naval designs
Post by John Prigent   » Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:17 am

John Prigent
Captain of the List

Posts: 592
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 8:05 am
Location: Sussex, England

I remember reading somewhere that many early ironclads were built with a 'ramming bow'. Presumable it was found either to be useless or to reduce seaworthiness, so dropped. RFC might have some history references about this to share with us, perhaps?

Cheers

John
Top
Re: Considerations about naval designs
Post by Keith_w   » Wed Jan 07, 2015 6:41 pm

Keith_w
Commodore

Posts: 976
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2012 12:10 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

n7axw wrote:Hi fallsfromtrees,

You are undoubtedly right on this one, although when Delthak was converted to an ironclad, she was already very heavily braced.

But given the punishment deliberate ramming would incur, even more bracing would be in order. I know I'm the one who came up with the idea, but I'm not sure it's really very practical.

Don


It was a barge - it probably doesn't have a particularly pointy front
--
A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
Top
Re: Considerations about naval designs
Post by Castenea   » Wed Jan 07, 2015 7:14 pm

Castenea
Captain of the List

Posts: 671
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2012 5:21 pm
Location: MD

John Prigent wrote:I remember reading somewhere that many early ironclads were built with a 'ramming bow'. Presumable it was found either to be useless or to reduce seaworthiness, so dropped. RFC might have some history references about this to share with us, perhaps?

Cheers

John

While RFC knows a lot more than I, the major reasons for not putting on rams included the mass of the ram and bracing, tactical considerations like the fact you need to cross your own T, and get close enough for boarding actions.

Just a couple of anecdotes: The CSS Virginia did more damage to itself than to the USS Monitor during a ramming attack. The only victory of the HMS Dreadnaught in WWI was when it rammed a U-boat.
Top
Re: Considerations about naval designs
Post by AirTech   » Thu Jan 08, 2015 8:36 am

AirTech
Captain of the List

Posts: 476
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 4:37 am
Location: Deeeep South (Australia) (most of the time...)

John Prigent wrote:I remember reading somewhere that many early ironclads were built with a 'ramming bow'. Presumable it was found either to be useless or to reduce seaworthiness, so dropped. RFC might have some history references about this to share with us, perhaps?

Cheers

John


The ramming bow improves fuel consumption under some load conditions, look up modern bulbous bows. But the benefits are specific to a particular speed, change the speed and the benefits vanish. Some modern warships have them, some don't.
Top

Return to Safehold