The Drydock - Episode 129

Q&A for drydock - Early dreadnaughts had elaborate rigs for torpedo nets. And there has always been some discussion about how there should have been torpedo nets at Pearl Harbor. Can you think of any instances where such torpedo nets actually did the job of protecting ships from torpedo attack?

There have been a few TV episodes on the MHC and Smithsonian Channel that mention it, particularly in relation to the famous double agent code named Garbo.

Oh yes, plastic armour. A really interesting story, I read about it in a book on the Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development. Not the safest place in the world to work in my opinion!

Wayne Borean

That did happen as chronicled by R. V. Jones in Most Secret War, but the sabotage campaign is also chronicled. I can’t remember specific books, but one I think covered the capture of the assembly tunnels and Allied discovery of sabotage to the production lines.

Wayne Borean

Hey Drach, Im wondering if you can talk about the plastic armour (asphalt) used on merchant ships during ww2. Could this have been developed further for use on combat ships? maybe with a different aggregate like silicon carbide (mass produced from 1900) or something similar?

Drach, in regards to munitions output being sabotaged by slave labor, I think you are surely right (it's only natural that at least some of them would want to get revenge for the treatment they and their families got), however, I believe there is a confounding factor in regards to the targeting of V2's. From what I've learned about the captured German spies in Britain (most if not all of whom were turned into double agents for the British), thry gave false information about where V1's and V2's landed, resulting in the "corrections" making the fall of those weapons further and further off their marks.

this is a big what if scenario so I will try to be brief about it. suppose the US became a british commonwealth instead of an independent nation. and now suppose that during the Napoleonic wars that the north american commonwealth had similar frigates to what we had in our timeline (I.E. diagonal bracing, live oak backing, basically a similar hull). with those two points in mind what would their contributions be if the royal navy ever called them up for service during this time period?

Dmechanico Dude

Can I ask have you ever done a video on the French (well obviously) battleship Napoleon 0f 1850 - or any of the other screw/steam battleships of those few years?

Roger H

Same here, joined when he lost his job. :) Prefer he'd do this instead... :D

Staffan Lindell

I also joined his Patreon when I heard about his job

Hi Drach - Oil as ballast - One of the problems I came across in submarine oil tanks (nuclear subs use oil as a secondary propulsion system) which also applies to surface ships is at the interface of oil and water there lives a little worm that is in the water and feeds on the oil; unfortunately this little worm also likes steel and organic coatings (paints) and corrodes the tanks quite significantly from the inside. There is a solution by utilizing phenolic epoxides but is not liked by current safety philosophy because it can leech into the water much as the older antifoulants do. The problem using oil/water as a variable ballast is that it does create an accelerated corrosion process in the tanks. Regards

John Hargreaves

Same here

My first early Drach dry dock. Keep up the fine work my friend!

Kennit Lynch