Category Archives: littoral

Warship Wednesday, October 30 Mr. Holland’s toy

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, October 30 Mr. Holland’s toy

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Here we see what started off originally as the Holland VI, a small submersible invented by Mr. John Philip Holland in 1896. The ship was built at  Lewis Nixon’s Crescent Shipyard of Elizabeth, New Jersey for Mr. Holland as his sixth personal submarine (as the name implies).

Mr Holland showing off his boat for the media. Nothing says 1900 submarines like bowler hats...

Mr. Holland showing off his boat for the media. Nothing says 1900 submarines like bowler hats…

Just 53-feet long, she was the forerunner of every submarine today. Yes, there had been dozens of earlier experimental boats that had been produced in the US and Europe from the 1700s on,  but the Holland VI had several unique features that are now standard on underwater boats. These included both an internal combustion engine (in Hollands case a 45hp Otto gas engine) for running on the surface, and a 56kW electric motor for submerged operation. She had a re-loadable torpedo tube and a topside deck gun (a pneumatic dynamite gun!). There was a conning tower from which the boat and her weapons could be directed. Finally, she had all the necessary ballast and trim tanks to make precise changes in-depth and attitude underwater.

 

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What more could you ask for?

After running around the US coast and several interested (and very international ) parties popping in to take a look at it, the US Navy bought the little boat for $150-grand in 1900. This was about $3.5-million today. She was placed in commissioned six months later as USS Holland (SS-1) on 12 OCT 1900. The US promptly ordered six larger boats from Holland’s Electric Boat Company as did the Tsar.  It was Holland boats sold to the Russians that saw limited use in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05, itself a dress-rehearsal for most of the technology used in the First World War.

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Holland (SS-01), at the US Naval Acadamy, Annapolis, MD., summer of 1905. The crew on deck are, L to R: Harry Wahab, chief gunner's mate; Kane; Richard O. Williams, chief electrician; Chief Gunner Owen Hill, commanding; Igoe; Michael Malone; Barnett Bowie, Simpson, chief machinist mate, and Rhinelander. The two vessels on the right are monitors. The inboard vessel has only one turret and is probably one of 3 monitors: Arkansas (M-7), Nevada(M-8) or Florida (M-9). The outboard 2 turreted monitor is also one of 3 probables: Amphitrite (BM-2), Terror (M-4) or Miantonomah (BM-5).

Holland (SS-01), at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD., summer of 1905. The crew on deck are, L to R: Harry Wahab, chief gunner’s mate; Kane; Richard O. Williams, chief electrician; Chief Gunner Owen Hill, commanding; Igoe; Michael Malone; Barnett Bowie, Simpson, chief machinist mate, and Rhinelander. The two vessels on the right are monitors. The inboard vessel has only one turret and is probably one of 3 monitors: Arkansas (M-7), Nevada(M-8) or Florida (M-9). The outboard 2 turreted monitor is also one of 3 probables: Amphitrite (BM-2), Terror (M-4) or Miantonomah (BM-5).

Made quickly obsolete by very rapid developments in submarine design not only in the US but in Russia, Germany, the UK, and France, she was decommissioned in 1905.

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The Navy kept her for eight years in mothballs then sold her as scrap to Henry A. Hitner & Sons, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 18 June 1913 for $100.  Within just a few months of her being sold as scrap, British shipping was being sunk at amazing rates by German U-boats in WWI.

The breaker, with that in mind, held onto the ex-Holland through WWI, then passed her onto a local museum who held onto her for 15 years, only cutting her up in 1932 when the Depression dictated it was worth more in scrap iron regardless of sentimental attachment.

A small chunk of her is still in the National Museum of the Navy in Washington.

Nameplate of submarine Holland Exhibited in the “Dive, Dive, Dive!” display area in Bldg. 76

Today the Electric Boat Company still makes boats as part of GenDyn but Holland is largely forgotten.

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Specs:

Displacement:     64 long tons (65 t) surfaced
74 long tons (75 t) submerged
Length:     53 ft 10 in (16.41 m) LOA
Beam:     10 ft 4 in (3.15 m) extreme
Draft:     8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Installed power:     45 bhp (34 kW) (gasoline engine), later upgraded to 160hp
75 bhp (56 kW) (electric motor)
66 Exide batteries
1 × screw
Speed:    First 3knots then later 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) surfaced
5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) submerged
Complement:     6
Armament:     1 × 18 in (460 mm) torpedo tube forward

1 ‘Aerial torpedo tube’ (experimental)
1 × 8.4 in (210 mm) dynamite gun (removed in US Naval service)

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO)

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval lore http://www.warship.org/naval.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Italian Frogmen, Submarine by Germany, Arms by the US

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Italian Gruppo Operativo Incurson

A team of four Italian Gruppo Operativo Incurson (Operational Raider Group) combat swimmers emerging from a Salvatore Todaro (S526)-class diesel attack submarine. The Salvatore Todaro (S526) is a German Type 212 class 1800-ton advanced SSK. These boats are able to transit up to two weeks without surfacing or snorkeling, which is huge for a non-nuclear boat. Manned by just a 27 man crew, one of these boats can float in 20-feet of water and carry up to 13 DM2A4, A184 Mod.3, Black Shark Torpedo, or IDAS missiles and 24 external naval mines. Oh yeah, and naval swimmers.  Note the ease of leaving the sub by the front door. Their weapons of choice are M4-type rifles with the swimmer on the far right carrying one possibly in 7.62x51mm NATO (judging from the straight box mag and longer barrel) which could make it a Mk110 type.

The Operational Raider Group is a unit of just 150-200 hardcore operators inside the more well-known COMSUBIN that are comparable to the US Navy Seals, Royal Marine SBS, or Danish Frogmen corps. They trace their lineage back to the MAS units and X MAS units of World War One and Two, meaning they have more sunken battleships to their record than any other combat swimmers on the market.

Warship Wednesday October 23, The Net Jumping Cricket

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, October 23, The Net Jumping Cricket

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Here we see a rendering of a very interesting boat in the Italian Naval service during World War One. Part tank, part torpedo boat, it was designed to crawl over the nets protecting enemy naval bases, then punch holes in the bad guy’s ships, sending them to the bottom and taking them out of the war.

When the Great War started, Italy, which was officially an ally of Germany and Austria, flung its hands in the air and proclaimed its official neutrality. You see Italy bordered France to the west, faced the might of the combined British and French fleets in the Mediterranean, and had very little to gain for coming into the war for the two Kaisers, with everything to lose. After eight months of wooing the Allies, Italy double-crossed their buddies and cast their lot with the West.  Although the Italian Army found itself in a bloody stalemate in the Alps against the Austrian army that brought nothing but misery, their navy served a genuine purpose in bottling up the rather large Austrian fleet in the Adriatic. This freed up the British and French forces in the Med to move into the Atlantic to face the Germans.

Just look at all of those pretty Austrian battleships at anchor in Pula harbor. Here you see Austro-Hungarian dreadnought battleships ( Tegetthoff class ) at the roadstead in Pula , Croatia , Which Was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Just look at all of those pretty Austrian battleships at anchor in Pula harbor. Here you see Austro-Hungarian dreadnought battleships ( Tegetthoff class ) at the roadstead in Pula  Croatia , Which Was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

For most of 1915, 1916, and 1917 the Italian Navy, (Regia Marina) was content with holding the line across the Adriatic and keeping the Austrians in their ports. Then in 1918, they decided to go north and sink the Kaiser’s battleships where they slept. Two Italian torpedo boats made it into the lightly defended harbor at Trieste and sank the old battleship, Wien. The problem was, the Austrians had years to fortify their largest naval base at Pola (now Pula in Croatia) with anti-submarine nets, anti-torpedo nets, underwater obstacles, coastal artillery, and naval mines. To penetrate these harbors, the Italians had to come up with something different.

1918 - Barchino saltatore 'Grillo'

They came up with the “Barchino Salvatore” or “punt jumper”. These fifty-foot-long wooden hulled boats had a flat bottom and two tracks along each side of the hull, port, and starboard. Each track held a series of metal crampon hooks and was turned by a set of pulleys fore and aft, propelled by a pair of 5hp electric motors. This unusual boat 8-ton could literally crawl over the rows of torpedo nets and anti-submarine nets that separated the Adriatic from the protected harbor. Once over the nets, the boat would drop into the inner harbor, where it would transit, using its spinning tracks to move like a side-mounted paddle wheel, at 4 knots. Then, lining up with an Austrian battleship at anchor, it would send two torpedoes into its side before beating feet (err, tracks) back out to sea. Of course, this required the punt jumper to be towed to Pola and back by a larger ship, but once there, it was good to go.

1918 - Barchino d'assalto 'Grillo'

The Italians built four of these boats and named them the Cavalletta (Grasshopper), Locusta (Locust), Pulce (Flea), and Grillo (Cricket). The were made a part of MAS 95 and 96 squadrons, which became famous for irregular naval actions in the war.

Four times in early May 1918, two Italian destroyers, two torpedo boats, and the punt jumper Grillo left the Italian side of the Adriatic and made their way in convoy to Pula. On the first three of those attempts, conditions were less than ideal Then on the night of  May 13-14, 1918, the Grillo made a go of it with a mission to make it through Pola harbor. Crewed by Stoker Giuseppe Corrias, Seaman Angelino Berardinelli, and commanded by Lieutenant CC Pellegrini, the Grillo made it through four of the five Austrian obstruction nets but got caught on the last one. These obstacles were rows of timber balks and wire hawsers six feet apart.

Four out of five doesn’t count in harbor defenses and the Austrians opened fire on the helpless Grillo when it was caught in the searchlights, which sunk.

Italian crawling MTB Grillo after the attack on Pola on 13 May 1918

Pellegrini

Pellegrini

Her three-man crew was captured and ended the war as POWs, winning the Italian Gold Medal for Military Valor.

The Austrians Grillo clone

The Austrians’ Grillo clone

The Austrians thought it interesting enough to make one of their own as a testbed to make sure the Italians couldn’t get successful using one of these tank-boats in the future.

With that in mind, the Italians shelved the other three and concentrated on human torpedoes, which they used to penetrate Pola in November and sink the battleship Viribus Unitis (20,000 t) and the nearby steamer Wien (7,400 t) in the last days of the war.

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Specs:
Displacement 8 tons
Length     16.0 m (52.29ft)
Width     3,10 m (10.17 ft)
Draft     0.75 m (2.46ft)
Propulsion     2 electric motors on the axis for 10 HP total
Speed     4 knots
Range    30 mn at 4 knots
Crew     4
Armament     2x 450mm torpedoes

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO)

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval lore http://www.warship.org/naval.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!

The Navys Big Guns

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Since World War 2, the United States Navy has owned the oceans and will likely continue to do so for the near future. Although the Navy has thousands of missiles, modern jet attack aircraft, nuclear powered submarines, and advanced torpedoes, most surface combatants still carry a big gun up front as a hood ornament.

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Ever since 1363, when cannon fired from a ship at sea killed a Danish king on another; naval ships have carried large caliber guns. The United States only became a world power in 1898 after the proper application of the US Navy’s big guns on its battleships and cruisers against Spanish fleets in the Caribbean and Pacific during the Spanish American War. The First World War started after a naval arms race over building large-gunned battleships increased tensions to a point of no return. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor at the start of World War 2, they did so to target Battleship Row, to take America’s big guns out of the fight.

Although the number of battleships at sea has dropped to zero from then to now, the US Navy is one of the few forces in the world that still has cruisers and destroyers. Moreover, all of these ships still carry 5-inch (127mm) Mk 45 naval rifles. Moreover, these guns are far from obsolete.

Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk.com

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Warship Wednesday October 16, The Ship that Wouldnt Die

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday October 16, The Ship that Wouldnt Die

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Here we see the  USS Franklin (CV-13), one of the 24 Essex class fleet carriers that were completed. Laid down a year to the
day after Pearl Harbor, the 800+ foot long ship was built in just over 400-days, commissioned 31 January 1944.

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She rushed out to sea, did her shake down cruise, and was almost immediately in combat. Among her crew was bandleader Horace Kirby “Saxie” Dowell, who had just had one of the largest hits in the country before the War started with “Three Little Fishes”, which was famously covered by the Andrews Sisters. Saxie at 37 was one of the oldest of the 2600 men on the boat.  But like Saxie, most of the rank and file had only a year before been a civilian.

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By June 1944 she was neck-deep in Japanese disputed waters, sending sorties into Bonin and Mariana Islands, Peleliu, and other islands on the final push towards the Empire. Then came the Philippines in October where Franklin and her escorts fought in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea in which her planes helped drop ordnance on the Japanese battleships Musashi, Fuso, and Yamashiro. This was followed by the Battle off Cape Engano where her planes helped scratch the Emperor’s carriers Zuiho and Chiyoda.

Then by March 1945, she was the closest US carrier to the Japanese coast, lying just 50 miles offshore. It was then on 19 March that a single Japanese aircraft came in low and slow on Franklin and dropped two 550-pound bombs right on to her deck. There she had 31 fully armed and fueled aircraft ready to take off for strikes against the home islands. The resulting explosions and fires led to an amazing struggle between men and flame. This left the ship dead in the water, charred, and listing at 13-degrees. Suffering 807 killed and more than 487 wounded, half of the ship’s crew had been killed or seriously injured. Cumulatively on the magazine explosion on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor caused more loss of life in US Navy history.

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Well within a day she had made enough repairs to make it off to Ulithi Atoll at 14-knots. Within six weeks she had steamed across the Pacific, through the Canal, and into Brooklyn Naval Yard. Her war over, she spent months being restored to near-new condition. Unneeded after the war, she was decommissioned 17 February 1947, having spent just over three years in service. Her condition kept her in mothballs for almost two decades but unlike her sisters, she was never converted to the post war Essex-type pattern with an angled flight deck.

On 1 August 1966 she was sold for scrap.

A monument to the ship is at Bremerton Washington.

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Specs:

Displacement:     As built:
27,100 tons standard
36,380 tons full load
Length:     As built:
820 feet (250 m) waterline
872 feet (266 m) overall
Beam:     As built:
93 feet (28 m) waterline
147 feet 6 inches (45 m) overall
Draft:     As built:
28 feet 5 inches (8.66 m) light
34 feet 2 inches (10.41 m) full load

Propulsion:     As designed:
8 × boilers 565 psi (3,900 kPa) 850 °F (450 °C)
4 × Westinghouse geared steam turbines
4 × shafts
150,000 shp (110 MW)
Speed:     33 knots (61 km/h)
Range:     20,000 nautical miles (37,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)

Complement:     As built:
2,600 officers and enlisted

Armament:     As built:
4 × twin 5 inch (127 mm) 38 caliber guns
4 × single 5 inch (127 mm) 38 caliber guns
8 × quadruple 40 mm 56 caliber guns
46 × single 20 mm 78 caliber guns

Armor:     As built:
2.5 to 4 inch (60 to 100 mm) belt
1.5 inch (40 mm) hangar and protective decks
4 inch (100 mm) bulkheads
1.5 inch (40 mm) STS top and sides of pilot house
2.5 inch (60 mm) top of steering gear

Aircraft carried:     As built:
90–100 aircraft
1 × deck-edge elevator
2 × centerline elevators

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO)

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval lore http://www.warship.org/naval.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval

vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide

information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of

which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!

SEAL Droppings Claimed in Somalia

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After a recent series of raids along the coastline of the Horn of Africa, local jihadist rebels have been spouting about lost equipment supposedly captured from Navy Seals. We give our take on this.

Along the Eastern coast of Africa, where the ‘horn’ of the continent reaches out towards the Indian Ocean, lays the confusing country that is Somalia. Divided and mired in a civil war that has been raging off and on over the past quarter century, American involvement has been off and on in the area. Blackhawk Down was twenty years ago this week, pirates are often blown out of the water there with the help of the US Navy, and a combined task force, Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa is based at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti– just a stone’s throw away.

Its CJTF-HOA’s mission to combat terrorists in the area. Namely against Al-Shabaab, a fundamentalist group with Al-Qaeda ties. That’s where the raid comes in.

In of Barawe, a coastal town in Somalia on October 5, 2013, a group of commandos crept in during the dark of night. These frogmen were looking for one Somali ideas man who worked for al-Shabab. After making contact with the shibabist terrorist foot soldiers, the small group of allied troops broke contact and withdrew….and apparently left some stuff behind.

Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk.com

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Royal Austrialian Navy Turns 100 this weekend!

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Looks like one heck of a party

Torpedoes and Sandals

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Israel’s Ynetnews has a pretty interesting article up on life aboard one of the country’s German-made diesel submarines.

“The most sensitive part of the drill – sinking into the deep after leaving the harbor – is accompanied by an endless flow of orders, read allowed by every soldier and officer according to his role.

Even the tone is mandated: A report of a switch flipped, valve released or wheel moved in unclear tone will have the commander demand the report repeated. In a depth of several hundred meters, the submarine under the heavy pressure of the sea, the heavy silence can be misleading.

 

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After the giant tanks were emptied of air and filled with hundreds of tons of water, causing the submarine to sink like a giant weight, the lights in the vessel’s combat intelligence center go off and the mission is on. The goal: Search and destroy two enemy ships, simulated by two Navy Dabur-class patrol boats.

Every several minutes a soldier passes and shines a beam at the ceiling, chock-a-block with valves and dials, to make sure there is no leak. The tension on board can be cut with the navigator’s compass, whose eyes are glued to the map on his desk.

Without radar, the ship’s only sensory data comes from the ears of the sonar operators, the “sonarists,” who can decode the sound waves echoed from every object in the sea, according to distance, range, and quality. It’s as if a man could identify every type and model of vehicle with his eyes closed, based on hearing the sound of the motor alone. ”

More here 

Warship Wednesday October 3 The Phoenix of Pearl Harbor

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday October 3 The Phoenix of Pearl Harbor

uss west virgina

Here we see the Colorado-class battleship USS West Virgina (BB-48) as she appeared at the end of her WWII refit. You wouldn’t know it at the time but she was over 20 years old and had already seen severe combat, even being sunk in the first hour of the war.

Commissioned on 1 December 1923, with Navy Cross-winner Captain (later Admiral) Thomas J. Senn in command, West Virgina was the last US battleship built for nearly two decades. The end of World War One and the resulting Washington and London Naval Treaties stopped further battleship construction. In fact, one of her sister ships, the USS Washington BB-47, was canceled while some 75% complete and sunk as a naval target.

Her appearance in the 1920s and 1930s was far more 'old-school'

Her appearance in the 1920s and 1930s was far more ‘old-school’

West Virgina was arguably the most powerful class of battleship afloat in the world at the time. Displacing nearly 35,000-tons at a full load, their clipper bow set them apart from earlier US battlewagons and made them far drier, especially in rough weather. Turbo-electric transmission pushed four screws and could make 21-knots. Keeping enough oil in her bunkers for a 8000-mile round trip at half that, she was capable of crossing the Atlantic without an oiler to keep close to her.  Upto 13.5-inches of armor (18 on turret faces) shielded her while 8 powerful 16-inch guns gave her tremendous ‘throw’.

The closest rival in any fleet around the world to her in 1923 was the British HMS Hood. Hood was bigger and faster (47,000-tons, 31-knots) but had thin armor and 8-15-inch guns. The Japanese Nagato-class were also slightly larger (38,000-tons), slightly faster (25-knots), and 8x 16-inch guns, but like the Hood had less armor.

As a hold back of pre-WWI thinking, she was the last US battleship commissioned with torpedo tubes and a four-turret main battery.

The West Virgina is seen forward, settled and burning after 7 torpedo hits. Half-sister USS Tennessee is just behind her

The West Virgina is seen forward, settled and burning after 7 torpedo hits. Half-sister USS Tennessee is just behind her

A happy ship, she spent the first 18 years of her life in the peacetime navy, participating in naval gunnery exercises, showing the flag, and taking part in war games. On December 7, 1941, just a week after her birthday, she was sitting peacefully at the quay on Battleship Row. Japanese torpedo bombers sent *seven* fish into her sides while at least two Type 99 bombs hit her decks (one of which failed to explode).  Catastrophic damage, flooding, and oil fires resulted and the battleship sank in 40-feet of water, settling on her hull with her decks awash. No ship can withstand 7 torpedo hits. Incredibly, only a hundred of her crew (about 10%) were lost in the battle.

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After spending six months on the bottom of Pearl, she was one of the first ships salvaged. Patched up and pumped out, she refloated and spent the next year at Pearl under repair. Following this, she was able to steam to Puget Naval Yard for modernization. There she spent 15-months being converted from 1923 to 1943. Her old 5-inch/51s and 3-inch guns were removed as were her dated observation towers. She was given a new camouflage scheme, a wider hull (with more torpedo protection), a new radar package, and a huge new AAA suite that included 16 new rapid fire 5-inch guns and nearly 100 40mm Bofors and Oerlikon 20mm cannons. Likewise, the entire interior of the ship was upgraded from keel to bridge.

Compare this picture of the USS Alabama, a brand new SoDak class battleship in 1943 compared to the refurbished Wee Vee at the top of this post...

Compare this picture of the USS Alabama, a brand new SoDak class battleship in 1943 compared to the refurbished Wee Vee at the top of this post…

In the end she looked more like a new 1943-era South Dakota class battleship than a 1920s Colorado.

She took her new act on the road and steamed West for some payback. As the flagship of Battleship Division Four (BatDiv4), she led five other WWI-era battleships into the epic Battle of Leyte Gulf. These ships included the USS Maryland (BB-46), USS Mississippi (BB-41), USS Tennessee (BB-43), USS California (BB-44), and USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)— three of which had been at Pearl Harbor with the Wee Vee.

Wee Vee in 1944, post-refit

Wee Vee in 1944, post-refit

In combat with the Japanese battlewagons Fuso and Yamashiro, the Wee Vee sent more than 16 salvos into the Japanese line in a night action, being credited with numerous hits on Yamashiro, leading to that ship’s sinking.

USS West Virgina off Okinawa April 1, 1945. That’s one heck of an April Fools day payback to the Japanese, who had already marked the WV off their “to sink” list once before

She finished the war with bombarding Iwo and Okinawa, coming to within 600-yards of the beach (which is close for a ship that needed 31-feet of water under her keel to float). She caught a kamikaze for her trouble.

Decommissioned on 9 January 1947, the Navy kept the newly rebuilt old battlewagon on red lead row for 12 years before striking her in 1959.  With several newer ships around for donation to museums such as the Massachusetts and Alabama, no one seemed to want the Wee Vee and she was sold for her value in scrap metal per pound after 36-years of service.

Her bowflag is preserved in Clarksburg, WV, and her mooring quay is retired on Battleship Row, in mute testimony to that quiet Sunday morning in 1941.

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Still waiting for her to come home.....

Still waiting for her to come home…..

Specs:

US_BB-48_West_Virgina_Drawing_1923

uss-bb-48-west-virginia-1945

 

Displacement:     33,590 tons
Length:     624 ft (190 m)
Beam:

97.3 ft (29.7 m) (original)
114 ft (35 m) (rebuilt)

Draft:     30.5 ft (9.3 m)
Speed:     21 kn (24 mph; 39 km/h)
Complement:     1,407 officers and men
Sensors and
processing systems:     CXAM-1 RADAR from 1940[3]
Armament:

8 × 16 in (410 mm)/45 cal guns
12 × 5 in (130 mm)/51 cal guns
4 × 3 in (76 mm)s
2 × 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes

After Reconstruction:

8 × 16 in (410 mm)/45 cal guns
16 × 5 in (130 mm)/38 cal guns
40 × Bofors 40 mm guns
50 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannons

Armor:

Belt: 8–13.5 in (203–343 mm)
Barbettes: 13 in (330 mm)
Turret face: 18 in (457 mm)
Turret sides: 9–10 in (229–254 mm)
Turret top: 5 in (127 mm)
Turret rear 9 in (229 mm)
Conning tower: 11.5 in (292 mm)
Decks: 3.5 in (89 mm)

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO)

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval lore http://www.warship.org/naval.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Out Harpooning the Harpoon

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Since the late 1970s, the US Navy has relied on the Harpoon missile in its submarine, aircraft, and ship-launched versions to poke holes in the bad guys ships.

Oddly enough, it hasn’t really had to be used in the past forty years. The only time the US Navy sank a foreign ship and a ship-vs-ship engagement that was over the horizon in that period, it did so in the Persian Gulf with a Standard missile, which is technically a SAM.  Notably, in that engagement, the Harpoons that were fired did not find their targets…

But anyway.

DARPA is experimenting with the Harpoons replacement:

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(DARPA and the Office of Naval Research are collaborating on the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) program, which successfully launched its first prototype on Aug. 27. DARPA designed the free-flight transition test (FFTT) demonstration to verify the prototype’s flight characteristics and assess subsystem and sensor performance. Designed to launch from both ships and planes such as the B-1 bomber, the test vehicle detected, engaged and hit an unmanned 260-foot Mobile Ship Target (MST) with an inert warhead. A black circle indicates where the missile hit and punched straight through the target.)

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