Re: [TML] Ship Design & the 'Plankwells' Kurt Feltenberger 19 Jun 2014 22:09 UTC

On 6/19/2014 3:47 PM, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) wrote:
> Considering this new info, I wonder why this problem seemed to plague only BC's?
>
> The problem seemed to be confined to that class as the german ship at Dogger Bank was a BC also.

The German ship, IIRC, was pretty well pummeled before she sank. The
Brit BCs took a hit and catastrophically blew up.  It would be like that
scene from Blazing Saddles where the truck just taps the Pinto's bumper
and the Pinto catches fire.

> I can imagine that if a 'real' battleship had blown up instead of just the BC's, the conclusions arrived at would've been a lot different.

They originally blamed it on the only real difference between a BC and a
BB - the armor.  IIRC, one of the recent documentaries even mentioned
that there was a report at the Admiralty that suggested it was ammo
handling that caused the three losses at Jutland, but the First Seal
Lord (IIRC, it was him) at the time quashed it.

--
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