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

Dookie · 10-15-2005, 05:37 AM

I need to know anything you know about battleships. I know nothing of sea worthy vessels but I must know everything or even just a bit. I also need to know the directions such as starboard and so on and what direction they are is in left, right. Can you help?

demon_ · 10-15-2005, 05:38 AM

I know there big, and full of iron; this any help to ya'?

Dookie · 10-15-2005, 05:41 AM

Afraid not demon, I'll just have to wait for another to come along who does.

demon_ · 10-15-2005, 05:47 AM

Sorry

*walks away

mammamaia · 10-15-2005, 09:33 AM

starboard is to the right, and port to the left... aft/astern is the back and bow/forward is the front...

google 'battleships' and you'll get all the info/pix you could want...

JustJim · 10-15-2005, 12:55 PM

Port is on the left when facing the pointy end (for'ard).

I can tell you something about Crusiers way back when. I suppose they can be considered small battleships. But it hard to give you everything. Below decks they are compartmetalized with watertight doors and hatches to allow for areas to be sealed off in case of damage. You can get a view of these doors in most wartime movies. One movie that I remember off hand is Das Boot which tells the story of a German submarine. The engine rooms of large ships are pressurized, but I'm not sure why. They are entered through airlocks similar to those seen in SF movies in spaceships. The aiming of the guns is (was) controlled from the bridge or nearby from the rangefinder. The guns in the turrets are offset. That is one aims lower than the other two (in a three gun turret). This is because the blast from the center gun blows the shells from the other guns to the side. Ammunition comes up into the gun turret by hoist from the magazine below.

All this is a bit ancient and I'm not sure what newer ships are like. As mentioned, Google will probably give you lots of info. You might want to ask about armour plate. Bismarck had heavy shielding on the sides to protect the engine room. Thirteen inches so I've heard. Flagship Hood by Ted Briggs and Alan Cole can give you information about HMS Hood which was sunk either by the Bismarck or the Prinz Eugen; there's some dispute. Ted Briggs who was one of the survivors from the Hood insists it must have been Prinz Eugen.

If you have more specific questions, ask. I don't know if I have the answers but there's no harm in asking.

Dookie · 10-16-2005, 05:12 AM

Thank you very much.

journyman161 · 10-16-2005, 05:27 AM

There's aBBC series on Battleships through the ages. Was on here a few months back - very good

teflon · 10-16-2005, 05:58 AM

USS Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin New Jersey are classic battleships. They have a high-test steel armor, 4 boilers, 4 screws, 9 16-in guns, Tomahawk land attack missiles and Harpoon anti-ship missiles.

The battleships have been retired to be museums, with one being preserved for quick reactivation. The numbercrunchers at Pentagon use peacetiem pragmatism, where they would prefer a low-maintenance and low-manpower ship. EAch of the battleships requires up to 700-800 crew to man her, and the boilers alone demand shifts of 20-30 "boiler monkees." To make sure a boiler has the right amount of water, one sailor must be watching the fresh water line pressure gage, one sailor must be at the fresh water valve, another must turn the level control valve, yet another to read the boiler water gage, and that's not counting the sailors and officers in the engineering control, seeing it all through the reduntant safety controls and displays.

US Navy and Marine corps would like to have the battleships return to the forefront of operations, where the battleships would not be endangered from low-power suicide bomber boats, shoudler-fired missiles. They would remain on station and keep pounding the shore, 20 miles inland with the guns, or 500 miles inland with Tomahawks. I think two of the battleships have survived Japanese kamikaze hits.

Modern cruisers and destroyers of Ticoderoga and Burke class are exprememly automated, but they make for an enjoyable peace-time vacation boats.
The CPA-like accountant officers in Pentagon and the GAO have succeeded in talking themselves into the "less is more" philosophy, as the result, having made the modern destroyers and cruisers very lightweight, inderprotected, gentle, fire-missiles-and-run yachts.

Hope this helps, generally.

Phobos · 10-19-2005, 03:30 PM

Battleships in the classic sense:

Construction:

Steel welded/riveted construction. Usually confined armour belts of huge steel thickness to areas of vital combat importance to the ship, like the gun turrets and ammunition hoists, as well as along the waterline to prevent flooding. Hull is compartmentalised with watertight bulkheads with hatches that are sealed tight before action to limit damage as much as possible.

Propulsion:

Coal fired and oil fired were the norm, oil firing from around 1918 onwards. Usually driving steam turbines (although occasionally in oooold ships reciprocating piston engines) to reduction gearboxes in turn to around three propellor shafts for good speed, redundancy and maneuverability. All shafts have the option usually of independent command (Full ahead, half ahead, slow ahead, stopped, slow astern, half astern, full astern. At least in RN parlance. Sub "full ahead" for "flank" if youre an american.) is possible and has been done to steer the ship using engines and no rudder.

Munitions:

Primary: Usually big guns (washington naval treaty of around 1922? ish defines a battleship as any ship with guns of calibre larger than 12", heavy cruisers guns over 8", light cruisers 6".) of around 12" to 16" inches at the end of world war two. Most common calibres for the americans at the time were 16", Royal Navy, 14" and 15", the Kriegsmarine had a fondness for 11" and 15" calibres. Japanese were around 14" but the Yamato and Mushashi (sp?) had guns of 18" calibre. A foot and a half across. Damn big. Used for destroying other ships and land bombardment, and very occasionally anti aircraft. Japanese were in the process of distributing a new anti aircraft shell for the 18" gun battleships when they surrendered.

Secondary: For smaller targets that didnt justify the use of the primary armament. Typically 4" and 6" for the royal and american navies, kriegsmarine 5.9s, the japanese were fond of 5" IIRC. Used also for AA, as they typically had a higher rate of fire than primary armament.

AA: Different strokes for different folks. Virtually all the navies used Oerlikon guns (20mm) in some form or another. USN used quad and double 40mm mountings, the RN used multiple pom poms, a 4/8/12 ( i think) barrelled automatic two pounder gun, as well as numerous smaller calibres.

Depthcharges: Unusual but not unknown for battleships to carry depth charges.

Torpedoes: Ornamental largely. Only one recorded instance AFAIK of one battleship torpedoing another, the HMS Rodney torping the Bismarck in 1940.

bane · 10-21-2005, 09:37 AM

Some useful replies, but your best bet is to just buy a book, all the research I ever do is from books. (I've got about 19 books for my story I'm writing at the moment, so far, god, so much research!) The internet is a good source, but a book you can carry with you anywhere : )

JustJim · 10-21-2005, 03:18 PM

The Swedish 40mm Bofors gun was also much used for anti-aircraft defence. Battleships tried to avoid submarines as avoiding the expense of losing a battleship (sunk or out of commision) when a destroyer could be sacrificed is an obvious thing to do. That's why battleships have their escort ships. It's the same with aircraft carriers.

By the way, bulkheads are the walls. Hatches (at least in the RN) are the flat doors horizontal with the decks. Watertight doors are the vertical openings. Damage control is the reason for all the watertight hatches and doors.

You might be able to learn more if you Google naval slang or jargon. Watch out for any that is written by an officer, they really don't know the half of it and some of their interpretations can be quite funny to an old sailor.

white-wolf · 10-25-2005, 03:54 PM

The front of a ship is the bow or forward (for'ard) and includes the forecastle (foc'sle).
The back of the ship is the stern, or aft and includes the quarterdeck.
When you face forward starboard is to your right (showing a green navigational light) and port is to your left (showing a red navigational light).
The floor is the deck.
The walls are bulkheads.
The ceiling is the deckhead.
Doors in the floor (deck) are hatches and the jamb is a hatch coaming. (ie 'Close all watertight doors and hatches' means shut the metal doors and close the hatches in the floor).
The levers that they are secured with (both doors and hatches) are called dogs (ie 'Dog that hatch' means turn the levers and secure the door in its seal).
You go 'below', not downstairs.
Reversely, you go 'up top', not upstairs.
You climb up and down ladders not stairs.
A corridor is called a passageway, companionway or, rarely, a corridor.
A bed is called a bunk which is in the crews quarters, called a mess (both figuratively and, usually, literally) LOL
The kitchen is the galley and the Dining Area is a messdeck.
The toilet is the head.
The hospital is the sickbay.
The ship is steered from the wheelhouse but is commanded from the bridge. The bridge has open landings on either side called bridge wings or, simply, wings.
The 'building-like' structures on a ship are called the superstructure and the radar, radio, etc. antennae are masts.
The massive chimneys on steam ships are funnels or smokestacks (sometimes abbreviated to 'stacks).
The very bottom of a ship, on the inside, is the bilge.
The ammunition for the big guns is stored in a magazine.
You board a ship, usually, by crossing a gangway (a bridge between the dock and the ship) which, on most military vessels, leads to the quarterdeck. When boarding a ship in uniform, it is cusomary to face aft and salute the ensign (the flag of the ship's country) which flies at the stern. In civilian clothing it is customary to turn and face the ensign to show respect.

I spent 8 years in the Royal Navy so I know that much. It still gave me a headache remembering it all, though LOL

As for a specific ship? Well, ships have different designs dependent on the class of battleship and its country of origin but I'm sure, as was posted previously, a Google (or other search engine) search will provide everything else you need

I hope this is helpful?

Mike

teflon · 10-25-2005, 04:12 PM

white-wolf, what did you sail on? If my memory serves me right, RN's largest ship is a smallish cruiser, by U. S. standards, and she had suffered a casualty a year or so ago somewhere in South Pacific, having to return to Portsmouth on board a Dutch Cormorant-type float-on rescue ship.

white-wolf · 10-25-2005, 04:43 PM

I jioned the Navy in 1974 and served on aircraft carriers (HMS Ark Royal and HMS Hermes), an assault ship (HMS Fearless), a destroyer (HMS Lynx), frigates (HMS Jupiter and HMS Lynx)), a minesweeper (HMS Walkerton) and I was in the submarine service (serving on HMS Oberon and HMS Sceptre). I left in 1982.

Oh LOL I forgot to add that, regardless of the size of the ship, the terminology is the same and I never professed to know anything specific about battleships from any country. Nor did I actually say that the RN had any battleships left in commission although HMS Belfast is a floating museum and belfast is a Battleship - a 6" Battle Cruiser (referring to the size of the guns, of course) to be specific but a Battleship, nonetheless.