Warship Discussion Thread - For all boats, ships, and subs of your flavor

Rule was if it Floats it gets a Hedgehog mount, I mean during WW2 they where giving Fishing trawlers Lewis Gun mounts for anti mine and anti German raider use.
That it was lol. It still continues today in other countries, with ASROC torpedo systems
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And dumbfire rocket systems like in Russia that basically copied the hedgehog. You brits revolutionized anti sub warfare.
To be fair that sorta is our Navy's past time.
Gotta keep the frenchies at bay lol. Even in modern day, your fleets are about neck and neck, especially with your new frigates like the Type 26 and Type 31 coming online soon
 
Gotta keep the frenchies at bay lol. Even in modern day, your fleets are about neck and neck, especially with your new frigates like the Type 26 and Type 31 coming online soon

The best French joke ever was - "Sire Sire! It is with great pleasure I can say our Knights are far braver than the English" the king looks at his Jester and say's "Without a doubt, this has never been a question" and the jester looks back at the king an says "Yes Sire, English Knights wouldn't jump in the Water with their full armour on".

You see what happened was, the French didn't have enough ships for an invasion so they hired in the greatest navy mercenaries that they could in the form of the Genoviese and then like a typical Frenchman decided they knew best and ignored all the Naval expertise they where paying serious money for and tied the ships up side by side, so the English King got about 1000 men in small fishing boats and during the night Chased nearly the whole of the French Nobility from one end of this row of ships to the other resulting in them jumping into the sea an drowning, what ships we didn't burn we captured and got rid of a lot of French nobs at the same and got a Top Notch (for the era) Fleet of Ships - everybody was happy.
 
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The best French joke ever was - "Sire Sire! It is with great pleasure I can say our Knights are far braver than the English" the king looks at his Jester and say's "Without a doubt, this has never been a question" and the jester looks back at the king an says "Yes Sire, English Knights wouldn't jump in the Water with their full armour on".

You see what happened was, the French didn't have enough ships for an invasion so they hired in the greatest navy mercenaries that they could in the form of the Genoviese and then like a typical Frenchman decided they knew best and ignored all the Naval expertise they where paying serious money for and tied the ships up side by side, so the English King got about 1000 men in small fishing boats and during the night Chased nearly the whole of the French Nobility from one end of this row of ships to the other resulting in them jumping into the sea an drowning, what ships we didn't burn we captured and got rid of a lot of French nobs at the same and got a Top Notch (for the era) Fleet of Ships - everybody was happy.
Now that is some good history this thread is meant to bring out! Old age of Sail history like that has such charm man, the US took relatively little part in that era sadly
 
Now that is some good history this thread is meant to bring out! Old age of Sail history like that has such charm man, the US took relatively little part in that era sadly

Don't do yourself down man, the US Navy has it's own history an glory you also have the benefit of English Naval history and traditions as it's jumping off point (the US navy was almost a 1:1 copy of the British navy at it's inception) I mean that's why our Navys have historically worked so well with each other and share so many traditions and ways of fighting even before the world wars.

I mean back in the age of Sail it was the British Navy who had a reputation of insane gunnery skills that the US used as well, Navy doctrine at the time was to kill a ship by taking out it's crew and rigging the primary goal was the take a ship as prise, so all other navys shot when the guns where raising, not so in the English Navy and later the American Navy we shot when the ship was rolling down to put holes in the hull and into the gundecks during broadside engagements and came up with the modern concept of Marines i.e. dedicated soldiers onboard fighting ships so the crew could get on with the job of fighting the ship better and longer than the enemy, and they also tended to carry more carpenters who where responsible for damage control than most other navys and the captains paid attention to them about ship condition.
 
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Don't do yourself down man, the US Navy has it's own history an glory you also have the benefit of English Naval history and traditions as it's jumping off point (the US navy was almost a 1:1 copy of the British navy at it's inception) I mean that's why our Navys have historically worked so well with each other and share so many traditions and ways of fighting even before the world wars.

I mean back in the age of Sail it was the British Navy who had a reputation of insane gunnery skills that the US used as well, Navy doctrine at the time was to kill a ship by taking out it's crew and rigging the primary goal was the take a ship as prise, so all other navys shot when the guns where raising, not so in the English Navy and later the American Navy we shot when the ship was rolling down to put holes in the hull and into the gundecks during broadside engagements and came up with the modern concept of Marines i.e. dedicated soldiers onboard fighting ships so the crew could get on with the job of fighting the ship better and longer than the enemy, and they also tended to carry more carpenters who where responsible for damage control than most other navys and the captains paid attention to them about ship condition.
I guess when I think about the Navy, it's the Civil War era with the monitors and all those advancements. I guess we invented the submarine too in the 1700's, though it never killed anything lol
 
I guess when I think about the Navy, it's the Civil War era with the monitors and all those advancements. I guess we invented the submarine too in the 1700's, though it never killed anything lol

Yea the Hunley was amazing that people even tried it, they took a steam engine boiler capped the ends and stuck a bunch of men inside, in the dark underwater to hand crank a axle to drive the propeller - Brave bastards, before the History channel turned into pawnstars and 24/7 Aliens crap I watched the documentary when they raised it and i was really impressed by what they where trying to do and how they did it.
 
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Yea the Hunley was amazing that people even tried it, they took a steam engine boiler capped the ends and stuck a bunch of men inside, in the dark underwater to hand crank a axle to drive the propeller - Brave bastards, before the History channel turned into pawnstars and 24/7 Aliens crap I watched the documentary when they raised it and i was really impressed by what they where trying to do and how they did it.
With me, I found out about the Hunley from that video I posted a ways back. Subs are interesting. Even now they're dangerous to get into, and very stressful on the crew, being in a tin can with possibly a nuclear reactor and even nuclear ordnance stuck inside with you. I got to go inside a sub in Chicago when I lived in Illinois as a kid, though I don't remember what was in the museum.
Russian-Navy-Improved-Kilo-Class-Submarine.jpg
I think one of the most interesting to me are the old soviet Kilo class subs
They aren't fast, at all, but there's tons of them, with cool features like special tiles to dampen sonar. Even NATO has a few
 
ORP Orzeł (Eagle)

ORP_Orzel.jpg
A polish sub that was forced to escape to Tallinn after polish warplan went tits up and it got strafed by german minesweepers. But, estonians being cucks then and now, they boarded the boat under german pressure, removed all the navigational tools and interned the crew. Poles however managed to overpower their guards and escape the port, running aground underway, and set out to britain after receiving a radio message of another polish sub, Wilk (Wolf) being welcomed there. The crew left two hostage estonians in sweden with clothes, food and money. The sub eventually made its way - without any nav tools - to west coast of scotland, where brits picked it up, originally believing she was sunk weeks before. Makes for quite a story. In late 1940 the ship disappeared during patrol, and it's still unknown what caused her to sink.
 

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With me, I found out about the Hunley from that video I posted a ways back. Subs are interesting. Even now they're dangerous to get into, and very stressful on the crew, being in a tin can with possibly a nuclear reactor and even nuclear ordnance stuck inside with you. I got to go inside a sub in Chicago when I lived in Illinois as a kid, though I don't remember what was in the museum.
View attachment 5073073
I think one of the most interesting to me are the old soviet Kilo class subs
They aren't fast, at all, but there's tons of them, with cool features like special tiles to dampen sonar. Even NATO has a few

Yea the Anicoic (I know I spelled it wrong) was a direct steal from NATO as well on the Kilo's, what's really amazing is they are still loud as fuck to Sonar People anyway something to do with the Steam Plant being designed initially for another sub class and there was something Off with the two designs being put together the way they where.

You couldn't pay me enough to get in a sub anywhere other than a dry dock too small for me and well I watched "Das Boat" and "Hunt for the red October" with my dad as a kid and learned about crush depth... yea... no....

Also listen to this about the USS Thresher -


He's a former Sonar Guy and navy consultant and he was pissed off about that they knew the sub an crew where alive an pinging, likely using the little power they had to generate a sonar ping an sitting in the dark, cold waiting for the air to run out.
 
Yea the Anicoic (I know I spelled it wrong) was a direct steal from NATO as well on the Kilo's, what's really amazing is they are still loud as fuck to Sonar People anyway something to do with the Steam Plant being designed initially for another sub class and there was something Off with the two designs being put together the way they where.

You couldn't pay me enough to get in a sub anywhere other than a dry dock too small for me and well I watched "Das Boat" and "Hunt for the red October" with my dad as a kid and learned about crush depth... yea... no....

Also listen to this about the USS Thresher -


He's a former Sonar Guy and navy consultant and he was pissed off about that they knew the sub an crew where alive an pinging, likely using the little power they had to generate a sonar ping an sitting in the dark, cold waiting for the air to run out.
The thresher has been coming up in my feed recently, now that's a sad fate, being at the bottom of the drink with only a ping to signal for help. Also glad that there's another Hunt for Red October fan. Sub warfare is scary as fuck. Didn't know that they stole NATO tech for the Kilo's but makes sense, especially if it's loud, they'd want to reduce the signature any way possible. Again I just find the Kilo class interesting since so many were built and improved variants are STILL being built with shit like cruise missiles and Strela-3s for taking out helicopters.
ORP Orzeł (Eagle)

View attachment 5073092
A polish sub that was forced to escape to Tallinn after polish warplan went tits up and it got strafed by german minesweepers. But, estonians being cucks then and now, they boarded the boat under german pressure, removed all the navigational tools and interned the crew. Poles however managed to overpower their guards and escape the port, running aground underway, and set out to britain after receiving a radio message of another polish sub, Wilk (Wolf) being welcomed there. The crew left two hostage estonians in sweden with clothes, food and money. The sub eventually made its way - without any nav tools - to west coast of scotland, where brits picked it up, originally believing she was sunk weeks before. Makes for quite a story. In late 1940 the ship disappeared during patrol, and it's still unknown what caused her to sink.
The polish navy is interesting, always has been, small but up to their necks in action. Thanks for that story man!
 
Also glad that there's another Hunt for Red October fan. Sub warfare is scary as fuck

Red Storm Rising is even better - it was so well written that it war recomended reading for Army, Navy and Airforce and politicians on BOTH sides of the Atlantic, the audiobook of it is amazing.

The Soviets where always trying to get their hands on NATO tech I mean there was the 2nd Cuban Crisis where a sonar tow line got caught in a Russian Warships prop off the cost of Cuba and there was essentially a tug of war between a US Sub and a Russian missile cruiser and both sides called in reinforcements because the Russians where trying at the time to get there hands on the NATO sonar hydrophones I think it ended when the US Sub dumped more power into the circuit to try an destroy it an cut the line and the Russians still copied a lot of it.

The polish navy is interesting, always has been, small but up to their necks in action. Thanks for that story man!

The Polish are fucking amazing for what they have done with there army and the quality of there Soldiers an Sailors is fucking amazing for what they can pull off with so little kit, they have a real hate boner for the Russians (thats a subject for another thread) and knowing that they pulled off that navigational feat that @Yak-130 Mitten posted makes me respect them even more.
 
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Sorry for the double post but I thought this was cool enough to share, of Henry the 8th Flag Ship there was a find of something called a Dolphin Plane (looks like a Boat Builders Scrub or Try Plane hybrid) found intact with most of it's iron -

Mary Rose Dolphin plane.png


Interestingly if you look at it that Sole looks to be detachable or was another bit bonded with glue to to rest of the body.
 
Sorry for the double post but I thought this was cool enough to share, of Henry the 8th Flag Ship there was a find of something called a Dolphin Plane (looks like a Boat Builders Scrub or Try Plane hybrid) found intact with most of it's iron -

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Interestingly if you look at it that Sole looks to be detachable or was another bit bonded with glue to to rest of the body.
That's really cool, it's fun seeing the tools they used back then to build and maintain those old wood ships
 
I can expound on the tools used if there is enough interest, some of the shipwrights / carpenters tools of the era where really really interesting and where really well made.
That would be neat. I do have my own question: what do you think of Sloops, like the Black Swan class?
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They're like really heavy corvettes
 
That would be neat. I do have my own question: what do you think of Sloops, like the Black Swan class?
View attachment 5085508View attachment 5085511
They're like really heavy corvettes

Cool I'll put something together about how they did it.

And yea the Black Swan Class where nice little sub hunters, I mean just look at this U-Boat tally -


They also really packed a punch way above their weight class, you can see a lot of early ASW techniques and ideas getting trialed on them as well things like less focus on Ship to Surface munitions but more focus on Sub Surface and anti-air they would have been a good screening ship for larger fleets if that kind of engagement was more common place in WW2 and the post war world.
 
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They also really packed a punch way above their weight class, you can see a lot of early ASW techniques and ideas getting trialed on them as well things like less focus on Ship to Surface munitions but more focus on Sub Surface and anti-air they would have been a good screening ship for larger fleets if that kind of engagement was more common place in WW2 and the post war world
Cool on the tools :) . Screening seems to be the Black Swan's thing. I wouldn't count out it's anti surface ability, it had 6 120mm guns that could preform AA fire as well. But yes their main duty definitely was ASW. I guess the modern equivalent would be corvettes really, with how big they've gotten.
 
Cool on the tools :) . Screening seems to be the Black Swan's thing. I wouldn't count out it's anti surface ability, it had 6 120mm guns that could preform AA fire as well. But yes their main duty definitely was ASW. I guess the modern equivalent would be corvettes really, with how big they've gotten.

Oh I am sure they could poke surface targets shit back in - I am sure they where involved in shore support on D-Day - then again anything that had a decent sized gun was used for that as well honestly the amount of ordnance fired at shore targets for the first few weeks was insane.

I mean in there final WW2 refit config they carried 120 depth charges with about 3rd of them ready to go at any one time and German sub's where the only marine threat the allies where realistically worried about during D-Day, and what limited aircraft the Germans could get into the fight and by mid 44 that wasn't much but Black Swans, Towns and prety much any ship was armed to the teeth in that regard by late in the war.
 
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