Know anything at all about Battleships??? - Page 3 - Writers Forum

white-wolf · 10-27-2005, 04:35 PM

Teflon:

I have no idea where my motivation comes from other than I like horror (I think most people like to be scared and I have found so few truly scary books lately) and fantasy (I loved playing D&D and figured they'd make great stories, which they did thanks to Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickman).

JustJim:
You are right. HMCS Warrior was a Colossus-type aircraft carrier with a catapult launcher. It was built in Britain in the mid-40's, loaned to Canada, then returned to Britain a couple of years later. She was sold to -- Argentina, I think -- around 1960.

I can imagine what the drunken Jack said to the OOW LOL

Talking of guns ... one time, in the late 70's, I was on a Britannia College training ship, a 'Sweeper, and we were putting the Midshipmen through their gunnery drill on a Bofor. They were to fire 5 rounds into the air, then stop. Well, one Middie strapped himself in, the loader dropped a magazine into the breech, and off he went. "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! ad infinitum". The loader started to sweat as he tried to keep the shells coming and 'Guns' was screaming like a Banshee. The second, and worse, problem was not the expenditure of ammunition but the fact that one of the Navy's newest Bird Class Large Patrol Boats (HMS Peterel, I think it was) was cruising slowly alongside when the Bofor barrels started to depress. The 'Peterel's' bows went up and she put on a fine turn of speed to escape. Hell, she almost made it undamaged. She would have too, except the Middie was such a fine shot he put 5 shells ointo her bow, straight through the chain locker. Man, the Gunnery Officer grabbed the Middie and beat the tar out of him LOL The surpriseing thing is that those Patrol Boats were unsuccessful and two of ended up as Training Ships at Britannia College themselves. I don't know if Peterel was one of them

Still, serving at sea was the most wonderful experience -- writing about it, however, is not my cup of tea. Maybe, one day, but I'm not holding my breath

When did you sertve? And I guess you were in the Royal Canadian Navy? Unless you're an ex-pat, of course

teflon · 10-28-2005, 06:51 AM

How about being stimulated by the images of Childe Harold walking the shore of a broiling sea; of rugged loners fighting the system to live up to their shipboard duties as well as to the obligations to the people ashore; being a kickass professional officer and yet being a pawn at the hands of a disgusting skipper?

white-wolf · 10-28-2005, 07:04 AM

LOL I don;t care what you say, you'll never convince me to write a nautical novel :p

teflon · 10-28-2005, 07:12 AM

suit yourself, I'll write it then. Move over D. "L" Poyer. Here come an ex-USN security officer. All the case details memorized, the experience seesm to render itself for creative fictionalizing.

white-wolf · 10-28-2005, 07:19 AM

Way to go!

You write it, and I'll read it

ghent96 · 11-22-2005, 02:15 PM

I was under the impression that the ramps were used on European carriers (British, German, Russian) more often, US & Japan going for flat deck & catapults. Also more often on smaller "strike" carriers, and not the bigger carriers. Right?

As far as Battleships, onlything I would add is the class distinction. Very important, and there's a lot more classes than one might think. Dreadnoughts were the "biggest" but were really more of a WWI relic (4 maingun turrets, dozens and dozens of smaller guns all over, massive armor). Then Battleships, Battle Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, Cruisers, Light Cruisers, Guided Missile Cruisers, Destroyers, Guided Missile Destroyers, Destroyer Escorts, Frigates (many classes of them).
...Carriers (nuclear/super), light carriers, escort carriers, strike carriers.

This pic is nice, shows 3 destroyers (DD-712 class) next to a cruiser. A gun destroyers has 2x 5" double barrel turrets on bow, 1x on stern. Some are converted into 2x 5" double barrel turrets on bow, 1x missile launcher on stern. Several AA guns. Cruisers have 3x turrets on the stern, 1 on bow, double barrel usually, and a whole lot of smaller AA guns.

Battleships usually have 2x triple barrell 16" turrets up front, 1x 16" triple barrell turret in the stern, and about 10 smaller gun turrets scattered about amidships (middle). The few that were kept up and modernized were given CWIS vulcans (radar assisted) for knocking out incoming missiles. 4x of those, I think. Iowa was the last to be taken out of service, I think.

US navy & military overall has gone away from the cheap, long-range, mass bombardment & spamming with gun shells approach into using more expensive, finely-targeted missile systems. Guided Missile destroyers & cruisers are the big thing now - The Ticonderogas & Arleigh-Burkes, unleashing tomahawks from 100 miles away... the Aircraft Carriers of course, still reign.