Favorite ships

I have wondered why the German ships of that era all had that strange under bow design. Was it to ride up then over thick sheet ice? Was the bow area specially reinforced?

HB of CJ wrote:I have wondered why the German ships of that era all had that strange under bow design. Was it to ride up then over thick sheet ice? Was the bow area specially reinforced?

That's a good question. I have wondered why they were designed that way, myself. I hear that there was a general consensus by this time that Ram bows were more hazard than help, as ramming an enemy ship, by a dreadnaught, was a remote possibility, where ramming a friendly ship during a maneuver (such as H.M.S. Victoria) was much more likely. these variants of the Strait stem were the design that the German Navy came up with. Other navies (such as the US & UK) went with the bulbous bow (looks like a Ram bow but is not reinforced).

MAD-4A wrote:That's a good question. I have wondered why they were designed that way, myself. I hear that there was a general consensus by this time that Ram bows were more hazard than help, as ramming an enemy ship, by a dreadnaught, was a remote possibility, where ramming a friendly ship during a maneuver (such as H.M.S. Victoria) was much more likely. these variants of the Strait stem were the design that the German Navy came up with. Other navies (such as the US & UK) went with the bulbous bow (looks like a Ram bow but is not reinforced).

I know there was a fetish for building ironclads with rams, due to an incident where one ship got lucky and reached her opponent, which caused ships to be built with ramming prows long after the were really impractical. I thought this had pretty much died out by the era of the central battery "box" ships however. As I haven't seen the book that came from for ages, I can't go and recheck .

As for ships:

Biremes, as used by the Greeks to beat Triremes.

Norse Longships

HMS Warrior, the first iron hulled sea-going warship.

The unbuilt British G3-class battle-cruisers of the inter-war period.

Astute-class attack submarines

WLBjork wrote:The unbuilt British G3-class battle-cruisers of the inter-war period.

I just based and primed a 2400 scale mini,
http://www.panzerschiffe.com/Modern_And_Never_Completed_Warships.html

"Model: B-501, Name: 1921 BATTLECR"

Can't find the N-3 Battleship (which is what I really want!)

WLBjork wrote:Astute-class attack submarines

hmm... I never heard of them before, basically the Virginia without the VLS Tomahawks.

"I" - not a warship but I admit a great fondness for the SS Great Eastern; launched in 1858. (Including the odd though about alternate history where Great Britain was willing to give a big old diplomatic FU to the North and let her operate at a blockade runner. With her speed, 14 knots, and iron double hull the USN would be hard pressed to stop her from sailing right through their blockage - and the amount of cotton you could cram into her holds and cabins should be fairly awe inspiring)

"D" - Hardly original but the Queen Elizabeth class, and HMS Warspite in particular. Everything from Jutland to point blank shootouts in Norwegian fjords, to victim of an early precision guided bomb.

Casablanca class escort carriers.

Ugly and beautiful. Designed to be built in number, by wars end 1/3rd the carriers in the Navy were Casablanca class carriers built in the Kaiser shipyard. They were built also from the ground up to be a carrier, and take advantage of extra production using rotary engines. Using the lessons of liberty ships, these were built fast.

I'm sad none survived the war. Their true use was giving air power everywhere and freeing up the big carriers. Not to mention their use in Hunter-Killer groups to take down subs.

EDIT. I also forgot to mention their performance in Battle Off Samar and hurting the Yamato.

Jonathan_S wrote:"I" - not a warship but I admit a great fondness for the SS Great Eastern;... operate as a blockade runner. With her speed, 14 knots, and iron double hull the USN would be hard pressed to stop her from sailing right through their blockage - and the amount of cotton you could cram into her holds and cabins should be fairly awe inspiring)

I did a paper on the blockade last semester, She would certainly be impressive but there's no way the Yankees wouldn't see her coming, and have every ship in the area converge on the mouth of the harbor. Yea, she was fast for the time, but not as fast as a cannon shell. She would be to big to race in at night (a favorite for the packet ships normally used). If she did make it in, she would be trapped, as all those ships would maintain a tight blockade watching for her to come back out, again to big for a night run I think.

Jonathan_S wrote:"D" - Hardly original but the Queen Elizabeth class, and HMS Warspite in particular. Everything from Jutland to point blank shootouts in Norwegian fjords, to victim of an early precision guided bomb.

I read a book named Narvik, can't find it in google (won't even show me books ). It described the entire campaign, including the U-boat that nearly torped Warspite.
One thing I find interesting is the "R" class. They were basically the same, but were intended to have 21kts, coal boilers (so they could used readily available Cardiff coal instead of imported oil incase the U-boats succeeded and England was cut off from supplies). by the time they were being built though, it was not considered necessary and they change to oil fire during constructions, making them basically modified QEs.

feyhunde wrote:Casablanca class escort carriers.

Ugly and beautiful. Designed to be built in number, by wars end 1/3rd the carriers in the Navy were Casablanca class carriers built in the Kaiser shipyard. They were built also from the ground up to be a carrier, and take advantage of extra production using rotary engines. Using the lessons of liberty ships, these were built fast.

I'm sad none survived the war. Their true use was giving air power everywhere and freeing up the big carriers. Not to mention their use in Hunter-Killer groups to take down subs.

??? many served till the late 50 & early 60, What I find odd is that right after the war (47-48 after being used as troop return-ships), the Navy dumped ALL of the Independence class CVLs. they were faster than the CVEs with the same air capability but the Navy didn't want them (they had been forced to take them by FDR & got rid of them at the first convenient excuse but kept the CVEs - some till VN). It was jealousy, they didn't want anyone getting the idea that they didn't need fleet carriers.

MAD-4A wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:"I" - not a warship but I admit a great fondness for the SS Great Eastern;... operate as a blockade runner. With her speed, 14 knots, and iron double hull the USN would be hard pressed to stop her from sailing right through their blockage - and the amount of cotton you could cram into her holds and cabins should be fairly awe inspiring)

I did a paper on the blockade last semester, She would certainly be impressive but there's no way the Yankees wouldn't see her coming, and have every ship in the area converge on the mouth of the harbor. Yea, she was fast for the time, but not as fast as a cannon shell. She would be to big to race in at night (a favorite for the packet ships normally used). If she did make it in, she would be trapped, as all those ships would maintain a tight blockade watching for her to come back out, again to big for a night run I think.

Hmm, I assumed they'd be able to get some ships in range but failed to look up the top steaming speed of some of the blockading ships, so eroniously assumed she'd be able to steam past quickly while taking only a few salvos (which she was big enough and tough enough (double hull of 19mm iron wrought iron plates) to largely ignore. But that's far short of the double layer of 2" (51mm) iron plates defending the casement of the CSS Viriginia, and it looks like she'd take more fire than I naively thought.

A Mohican-class sloop-of-war, like the USS Kearsarge, is supposed to be capable of 11 knots (vs the SS Great Eastern's 14). And at least her 30 lbs Parrot Rifle has a max range of 6,700 yd. In theory you might be under fire for almost twice that, but that's unliekly. Still even 6,700 yd, with a 3 knot speed advantage, will take over an hour to cross. And even at 2-3 minutes per round that's a lot of 30 lbs shells thrown at a big target. The worst would be if one managed to penetrate deeply enough to hole a boiler, but almost as bad would be smashing up one of the side paddle wheels; even if the wreckage didn't cause drag she can't go as fast on just her screw propulsion alone.


So you're probably right, my vision of her serenily racing past the blockade is probably a mirage. Oh well, I still really like her as a ship, and she did great work in laying and repairing transoceanic cables. (Which amusingly made her probably the first ship to receive current news reports while at sea; but via telegraph well before the invention of ship to shore radio).

USS Santiago de Cuba was a gunboat that caught treasonous rebel blockage runners. It could do 14 knots as well, as well as having twin 20 pound Parrot rifles as well as 8 32-pounders.

7 of her crew earned the Medal of Honor. At least 11 captures to this ship, going all over the Atlantic and Gulf.