Re: [TML] Ship Design & the 'Plankwells' Phil Pugliese 19 Jun 2014 19:32 UTC
Hadn't read that, thanks for the info. So, in the end, we're back to the old axiom that there's no precaution that a dedicated human being can't bypass! -------------------------------------------- On Thu, 6/19/14, Kurt Feltenberger <kurt@thepaw.org> wrote: Subject: Re: [TML] Ship Design & the 'Plankwells' To: tml@simplelists.com Date: Thursday, June 19, 2014, 12:14 PM On 6/19/2014 3:04 PM, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) wrote: > Except that it wasn't as design flaw that caused > Indefatigable, Queen Mary, and Invincible to > catastrophically explode and sink, it was extremely bad > ammunition handling that should have seen everyone involved > cashiered and beached. > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Well, I do recall that something similar happened to at least one german BC at the Dogger Bank & it survived 'cuz it had decent armor. After which the german navy changed their designs/procedures to prevent it from happening again. > Also, as I recall, the 'fix' involved hardware installation (flash suppressors) as well as procedural modifications, so I think it could be classified as a design flaw. > Everything I've read labels it as such & I don't think I've read anyone that thinks those ships were good designs. > Heck, I even read somewhere that the first RN BC's were assigned as flagships to CL squadrons! > Even then it seems that they were never meant to be placed in the 'line-of-battle'. > But, as more than one author has written, those big 12" guns were just too tempting. Recent visits to the wrecks (within the last 8-10 years) by wreck investigators have pretty much proven conclusively that it was the gun crews' practice of storing cordite in the turrets and keeping all the anti-flash doors and hatches open to facilitate faster followup shots that was the root cause of the three ships catastrophically exploding. Had the doors and hatches been closed and no cordite stored in the gunnery spaces then it's highly likely that the ships would not have been put out of action. A good example of this is HMS Lion, Beatty's own flagship. She, too, received a turret hit but because of the fast thinking of the turret commander, Royal Marine Major Francis Harvey, who flooded the magazines she didn't explode. Lion followed the same practices as the other three battlecruisers that sank that day, but Major Harvey's actions saved the ship. -- Kurt Feltenberger kurt@thepaw.org/kfeltenberger@yahoo.com “Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough." - Me ----- The Traveller Mailing List Archives at http://archives.simplelists.com/tml Report problems to listmom@travellercentral.com To unsubscribe from this list please goto http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=EwREIRgLK8vaUEhNlnoNdSGKwnjoID8a