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Warship Wednesday April 2, The Lost Dorado

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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 April 2, The Lost Dorado

USS_Dorado_(SS-248)

Here we see the Gato-class fleet submarine USS Dorado (SS-248) fitting out just before commissioning–note the Rosie the Riveter types on deck.  Named after the mahi mahi fish, the Dorado had a very short life, but one that will live on forever in what she left behind.

A member of the famous Gato-class of fleet submarines, Dorado was but one of 77 of that extended family commissioned between 1943-44. These 311-foot long boats could make 21-knots on the surface, which meant they could chase down just about any Japanese Maru that was on the ocean. Her 11,000-mile range and 24 torpedo magazine allowed her to stay at sea, taking the war to the Japanese home islands, for upto 75 days at a time.

The Gatos were some of the most famous of US fleet boats in WWII, and they suffered for it, with 20 being lost at sea. Ships of this class included USS Wahoo who, under Mush Morton, slaughtered an entire Japanese convoy off New Guinea all by her self. USS Cavalla, assassin of the Japanese aircraft carrier (and Pearl Harbor veteran) Shokaku. USS Albacore, who took the carrier Taiho, the flagship of Vice-Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa’s fleet– was a Gato. The USS Flasher, the most successful US sub of the war, with over 100,000-tons to her credit, was also Gato.

All of these 77 Gatos, save the Dorado, would fight in the Pacific, but the ill-fated submarine would never make it that far.

Laid down 27 August 1942 at the famous General Dynamics Electric Boat yard, Groton, Connecticut, Dorado was completed just one year and one day later, and commissioned 28 August 1943.

In September, she took aboard two artists employed by the US War Department, Thomas Hart Benton  and Georges Schreiber to document the ship’s cruise and preserve the images of a fleet boat at sea during wartime operations (although safely in US waters most of the time).

Schreiber and Benton along with the Dorado's skipper, Sept 1943

Schreiber and Benton along with the Dorado’s skipper, Sept 1943

While underway  Schreiber and Benton sketched, painted and interacted with the crew. They even got some excitement when the ship encountered a derelict vessel in the sea-lanes that Dorado dispatched with her deck guns.

The art from that cruise lives on for eternity.

Going Home by Georges Schreiber

Going Home by Georges Schreiber

Up Periscope by Thomas Hart Benton,

Up Periscope by Thomas Hart Benton,

Score Another One, Thomas Hart Benton

Score Another One, Thomas Hart Benton

 

Dorado‘s sea trials proved the readiness of the crew, and she sailed from New London, Connecticut, on 6 October 1943 for the Panama Canal Zone.

She did not arrive.

It is thought that she was sent to the bottom by a friendly fire attack of the US Mariner aircraft (of VP-210 USN/P-9, pilot Lt(jg) Daniel T. Felix, Jr.) stationed on NAS Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on 12 Oct, 1943. The aircraft was patrolling around the convoy GAT-92 and dropped three depth charges and one bomb on a surfaced U-boat at 20.51 hours on 12 October.

Another theory is that she ran into a minefield set by German U-214. Between 15.51 hours on 19.02 hours on 8 Oct, 1943, U-214 had laid a mine field of 15 mines off Colon. It is possible that USS Dorado (SS 248) was lost on one of these mines when she passed the area on her way to Colon on 14 October. The mine field was detected on 16 October and ten mines swept.

Overdue at Colon, Dorado is still considered on eternal patrol.

2085352_med

A memorial to Dorado has been constructed in the Veterans Memorial Park in Wichita, Kansas while the USS Dorado Assoc still keeps watch that some day she will be found. In 2007 a remote sensing survey was conducted to try and find her resting place.

To visit a sister-ship of the lost Dorado, Six retired Gatos are on display in the United States:

USS Cavalla is at Seawolf Park near Galveston, Texas (in SSK configuration).
USS Cobia is at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.
USS Drum is at Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama.
USS Cod is on display in Cleveland. It does not have doors cut through its pressure hull nor stairwells added.
USS Croaker is on display in Buffalo, New York (in SSK configuration).
USS Silversides is on display in Muskegon, Michigan.

Go aboard and pay your respects.

Specs:

Click to embiggen

Click to embiggen

Displacement:     1,525 long tons (1,549 t) surfaced, 2,424 long tons (2,463 t) submerged
Length:     311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)
Beam:     27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft:     17 ft (5.2 m) maximum
Propulsion:     4 × General Motors Model 16-248 V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators
2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries
4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears
two propellers
5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced
2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged
Speed:     21 kn (39 km/h) surfaced,[4] 9 kn (17 km/h) submerged
Range:     11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced @ 10 kn (19 km/h)
Endurance:     48 hours @ 2 kn (3.7 km/h) submerged, 75 days on patrol
Test depth:     300 ft (91 m)
Complement:     6 officers, 54 enlisted
Armament:     10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes  (six forward, four aft) with 24 torpedoes
1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun
Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

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

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

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!

Warship Wednesday March 26, The Church-house Rattler

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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 March 26, The Church-house Rattler

Note the big red "1" on the wheelhouse and the folding smokestacks, to allow movement through densely forested bayou

Note the big red “1” on the wheelhouse and the folding smokestacks, to allow movement through densely forested bayou. This paining by Herb Mott is at the Depot Museum in Vicksburg.

Here we see “Tinclad Gunboat #1”, the USS Rattler, as she moves into the Yazoo River in Mississippi in Feb 1863, leading nine ships in an ill-fated attempt to navigate the narrow swamp to reach Vicksburg by surprise. The Rattler has one of the weirdest tales of naval lore in the world– and it includes a very spicy church service.

Built as the 165-ton, stern-wheel flat-bottom steamboat Florence Miller in Ohio, she was purchased in 1862 by the Navy and rapidly converted to a warship for river combat. Her important sections (paddlewheel, boiler, etc) were armored by lumber planks and two sheets of half-inch iron to protect the ship from shore fire. As such she was called a tinclad, and officially named as such, Tinclad Gunboat #1, the USS Rattler. Her armament was a pair of 30-pounder Parrott rifles and quartet of 24-pounder smoothbore Dahlgren Napoleon guns, plus small arms.

rattler

Under command of Master Amos Longthorne, she was commissioned 19 Dec 1862 at Cairo, ILL. With Rattler in the lead to the fleet of David Dixon Porter’s Mississippi Squadron, she was instrumental in the capture of Fort Hindman at Arkansas Point in January 1863, closing so close to the fort that she took the rebel rifle pits in enfilade. Following this, she served as the flagship of a force of nine tinclads and Army transports carrying some 6000 men of Sherman’s division in an effort to slip through the Yazoo River north of Vicksburg during that siege (in the painting above). Battling tangles, impassable bayou, and logjams, they were forced to turn around.

rattler 24

After this date, Longthorne left the Rattler for service on the ironclad USS Mound City before commanding the USS Alabama at Fort Fisher.

Her next three skippers all had a harder experience on her decks.

Rattler briefly raided up the Black, Red, Tensa and Ouachita rivers following the fall of Vicksburg before being assigned to patrol the crossings near Rodney to watch for Confederate troops. To keep the threat to his ships at a minimum while all along the still very wild Mississippi, Adm. Porter’s General Order No. 4 (18-Oct-1862) required that gunboats “must not lie tied up to a bank at any time,” when south of St. Louis and north of New Orleans, except for where Federal troops held garrison.

While stationed near the important (but ungarrisoned) river town of Rodney, Mississippi in Jefferson County, between Vicksburg and Natchez, USS Rattler had its crew invited to church. It seemed a passing Presbyterian minister, with Union sympathies, was going to run the services the coming Sunday and asked the captain to attend.

Rattler’s Master Walter E. H. Fentress (today considered a LT or LT(JG)), took the ships XO and Engineer, navigator, and 19 enlisted ashore “dressed in their best toggery” on Sunday Sept 13, 1863, just two months after Vicksburg and nearby Port Gibson, to attend church service at the First Presbyterian Church. The group was unarmed except for a revolver concealed by the engineer. Fentress even wore a civilian suit!

Well all went well for a minute but sometime between the first and second hymn, a Confederate cavalry officer, most likely one Lt. Allen of the 4th Mississippi Cavalry Regiment, which was largely a group of small mounted partisan and ranger type units drawn from across South Mississippi, walked in and placed the group under arrest.

Apologizing to the minister, he turned and announced that his men had surrounded the church and demanded that the Union sailors surrender. Allen had some 15-20 troopers lined up outside the church windows who were well armed. The most common Mississippi cavalry weapons being shotguns and revolvers, although the size in forces was comparable, the rebels had the drop on the bluejackets.

One of the very few pictures of Mississippi cavalry, this one of the 1st MS. These Gray Ghosts were not photographed very often and wandered across the state in small bands throughout the war.

One of the very few pictures of Mississippi cavalry, this one of the 1st MS. These Gray Ghosts were not photographed very often and wandered across the state in small bands throughout the war.

Well according to most accounts, the Yanks fired first, with the Engineer standing and firing a shot ‘through the hat’ of the Confederate cavalry officer (maybe it was a big hat, they did like to be flamboyant). This resulted in much confusion, yelling, and gunplay with the troopers firing through the windows, Allen firing a shot into the ceiling, and a good bit of fisticuffs. In the end, 17 Yanks ended up as prisoners of war (including Master Fentresss) while six (including the pistoero ship’s Engineer) made it back to the boat.

The Rattler, in an effort to get their captain and crew back from the scoundrels who seized them in God’s house, bombarded the town with at least 20 rounds of 24-pdr shrapnel, and 5 of 30-pdr Parrott shells that were aimed both into the town and the roads leading into and away from. These hit the church and damaged at least four homes. One of these rounds is still rumored embedded in the church at Rodney today.

Click to embiggen. The 'cannonball' (most likely a fragment from a 24-pdr shell if its the real deal) is seen embedded in the wall of the church between the center second-story window and the bell free/steeple

Click to embiggen. The ‘cannonball’ (most likely a fragment from a 24-pdr shell if its the real deal) is seen embedded in the wall of the church between the center second-story window and the bell free/steeple

The Confederates in fact did not give their prisoners back and shipped many of them to POW camps around the south. At least three (Thomas Brown, Frederick Plump, and Oloff Nelson,) died at Danville, Virginia of disease before the end of the war. A petition signed by Rodney residents and presented to the Navy after the incident plead that they had no involvement in the action .

This was not to be the end of the Rattlers troubles.

From Sept 7-10, 1864, the captain of the Rattler quietly left to boat and proceeded to occupied Vicksburg without orders on his own on personal business. He instructed his crew to “fire a shell every 15 minutes” and avoid any contact with rebels in the area. Upon arriving back, his absence had been noted and led to something of a controversy, that included speculation that the rebels were going to capture the ship.

Captian Pennock, of the Mississippi Blockading Squadron sent the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Gideon Wells, a letter that said in part that Acting Master D. W. Glenney, late commanding U. S. S. Rattler, “In direct violation of General Orders Nos. 4 and 24, issued by Admiral Porter, he directed his boats to land and the crew to proceed beyond the distance wherein he could protect or afford them assistance, thereby losing his men by deaths, capture, and showing his want of judgment and capacity.”

Glenney was dismissed.

Just three months later, Rattler met her end in a storm at Grand Gulf. From the ill-fated skipper:

Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report of the loss of the USS Rattler while nt anchor off the bar opposite Grand Gulf, Miss., on the evening of Dec 30. A heavy storm of wind and rain arose about 0 o’clock from the southward and eastward. In a few minutes the wind shifted suddenly to the northward and blew very strong, so that we commenced dragging one anchor, although we were working ahead on the engines with all the steam we had. We dragged down afoul of the supply steamer Magnet, which was lving a short distance astern of us, she having cast off when the storm first struck us. Our starboard quarter striking her on the port bow. we swung around to starboard, head across the stream and broadside to the wind. At this time the Magnet parted her chains and went ashore on the Mississippi side. The wind was now blowing very hard, and it was so dark that an object could not be distinguished at 10 feet. Before we could get the vessel’s head to the wind we parted our chain, and swinging around stern to the wind, went ashore (on the Mississippi side), striking a snag, which stove in the port side amidships. In about five minutes she filled with water and sunk, so that the starboard side was under about 2 feet, with the exception of some 15 feet forward. The steamer Magnet lay within a short distance of us. We commenced saving everything we could get at. transferring them to the May net. I succeeded in saving all the howitzers, but had to leave two 30-pounder Parrotts, which I had spiked. I then took all the officers and men on board the Magnet and proceeded down the river to report to you for further orders. On my way down communicated with the U. S. S. Forest Roue, informing her commanding officer of the condition of the Rattler. The Forest Roue Proceeded immediately up the river to save whatever they could that ad been left. We arrived at Natchez at about 3.30 p. m. The Magnet and her officers rendered me every possible assistance. Please find enclosed a list of stores and equipments saved.

I am. sir. verv respectfully, vour obedient servant,

N. B. Wiluets. Acting Master, Late Commander U. S. S. Rattler.

Four captains in two years, three cashiered or blighted due to incidents. It seems that the Rattler could bite both the enemy and ally alike.

The Confederates in the area found the wreck of the Rattler, and burned what was left. Her spiked 30-pounder Parrotts, boiler and engine are likely buried under twenty or more feet of thick Mississippi River sediment now. With her 24-pounders salvaged towards the end of the war it is doubtful they were used elsewhere and most likely ended their life as so much iron in the scrap heap.

It would seem the only relic left from this ship not buried under the river is the cannonball at the church in Rodney.

Although there has been at least some speculation that his shell was lost to time and replaced, it’s still a good story and there is still a church in a forgotten river ghost town in Mississippi that has a cannonball stuck in it, as well as lead musket balls buried in its walls.

As for the church, in 1870 the river shifted two miles to the west, leaving Rodney in the middle of the woods. It dwindled and died, having its status as a city canceled by the Governor in 1930. Today, other than a few resolute residents, the city is a ghost town of abandoned buildings. The Presbyterian church was deeded to the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1960 and largely restored but has fallen into disrepair since then.

But it still has the cannonball and the bell-tower which houses the “buckey Bell,” which was purportedly cast with the inclusion of 1000 Silver dollars that had been donated by church members.

Another story of silver, steel and lead you are unlikely to find in another building.

Specs:
Displacement:     165 tons
Length:     ~170 feet[1]
Beam:     not known
Draught:     4-feet
Propulsion:     steam engine
side-wheel propelled
Speed:     not known
Complement: typically 40-50
Armament:     two 30-pounder Parrott rifles
4 24-pounder Napoleon guns
Armour: tinclad

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

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

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!

Warship Wednesday March 19, The Tales of Harnett County

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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 March 19, The Tales of Harnett County

harnet_county

Here we see the utilitarian beauty that is the LST-542-class tank landing ship USS Harnett County (LST-821). Most LST’s, first conceived during WWII to drop troops and supplies right on a beachline from their scissor doors on the bow, are named for counties, and Harnett County (named after a North Carolina county which is a part of the greater Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill area) is the only US Navy ship ever on the Navy List to hold this name.

(Not LST821, but shown to give you an idea of the LST doors)

(Not LST821, but shown to give you an idea of the LST doors)

But she didn’t always have this moniker. When she was laid down 19 Sept 1944 at the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Company, Evansville, Indiana, she just had her hull number as a reference (LST-821). You see the Navy built so many of these 4000-ton, 328-ft long ships that they were just given numbers. She did not pick up the USS Harnett County dub until 1955.

The LST-542 class provided yeoman’s service across both the European and Pacific TOs during WWII. These ships were improvements from the older 491-class and added a navigation bridge, the installation of a water distillation plant with a capacity of 4,000 gallons per day, the removal of the tank deck ventilator tubes from the center section of the main deck, the strengthening of the main deck to carry a smaller Landing Craft Tank (LCT), and an upgrade in armor and armament, with the addition of a 3″/50 caliber gun. She could float in as little as 2-feet of water when unloaded and carry a landing team of 16 officers, 147 enlisted men.

When commissioned 14 November 1944, she was rushed to the Pacific and landed men and cargo on Okinawa during the pivotal battles there in 1945. The, when peace broke out, she was decommissioned and placed into reserve. She won a battlestar for that campaign.

In Vietnam, note the shallow water mud stir, the tiny 26-foot PBRs alongside, and the choppers on deck

In Vietnam, note the shallow water mud stir, the tiny 26-foot PBRs alongside, and the choppers on deck

When Vietnam came she was dusted out of her decade in mothballs in 1966 to provide logistical and troop support during that conflict, taking part in more than a dozen operations over the course of four years, winning 3 Navy Unit Commendations, 2 Presidential Unit Citations, and 9 battlestars. For a long time she served as a Patrol Craft Tender, gassing up Navy PBR’s, Navy SEAL teams and Seawolf helicopters, and USCG units and as such was re-designated USS Harnett County (AGP-821). As such she was a proud member and mothership of the Mekong Delta Yacht Club

In October 1970 she was decommissioned as part of the US draw-down in Indochina and transferred the same day to the South Vietnamese Navy.

In the distance as part of the exiled RVN fleet in 1975 sailing into Subic

In the distance as part of the exiled RVN fleet in 1975 sailing into Subic

There, her name was changed to the RVNS My Tho (pennant number HQ-800) and continued to serve extensively in that conflict for another five years under a new flag. When South Vietnam fell in 1975, the My Tho, along with a flotilla of more than 30 other RVN ships, sailed, packed with refugees to the Philippines. There, they were an exiled fleet in being for a country that no longer existed for nearly a year.

On 5 Apr 1976, after a year in limbo, the old LST was turned over to the Philippine Navy in a deal where she was added to that country’s navy list as the BRP Sierra Madre (LT-57), to be used to carry PN marines around the huge archipelago, which she did for the next 23 years.

BRP-Sierra-Madre2

As a show of territorial stakes claiming, the Philippine Navy grounded BRP Sierra Madre on the semi-submerged Ayungin Reef (Second Thomas Reef) 9.795°N 115.856°E, part of the Spratly Island chain in 1999 to serve as something of a semi-fixed outpost in the South China Sea some 105nm from the Philippines itself. This reef is disputed between China and the Philippines, so with the Sierra Madre outpost there, Manila has a much more tacit claim to the reef and its adjacent waters (and sea bed). Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam also claim the Spratlys for themselves.

She still has a 40mm forward mount and the PI Navy has several of these old guns that work, but whether the 40mm shown still fires is anyone's guess.

She still has a 40mm forward mount and the PI Navy has several of these old guns that work, but whether the 40mm shown still fires is anyone’s guess.

For the past 15 years, a rotating detachment of 8 marines led by a senior Sergent, a Navy corpsman, and a Navy radio operator (with a pair of satphones) have called the grounded, rusting, 70-year old ship home.

From a 2013 NYT article about the life of these lonely detachments :

Yanto lived alone at the stern of the boat, in a room with a bed, a mosquito net, an M-16 propped against the wall and nothing but a tarp wrapped around a steel bar to separate him from the sea. He also took care of the three fighting cocks on the boat. They were lashed to various perches at the stern and took great pleasure in crowing at anybody who tried to use the “toilet,” a seatless ceramic bowl suspended over the water by iron pipes and plywood.

Yanto has a wife and a 6-year-old son back in Zamboanga City. Like the others, he is able to talk to his family once a week or so, when they call in to one of the two satellite phones that the men take care to keep dry and charged. “It’s enough for me,” he said, of the 5 or 10 minutes he gets on the phone with his family. “What’s important is that I heard their voice.”

Like Yanto, Loresto was wearing a sleeveless jersey with “MARINES” printed across the front and a section of mesh between the chest and waistline, uniforms for the world’s most exotic basketball team. “It’s a lonely place,” Loresto said. “But we make ourselves busy, always busy.”

The remote crew spends their time aboard the Sierra Madre as best they can. (NYT photo)

The remote crew spends their time aboard the Sierra Madre as best they can. (NYT photo)

The Chinese of course are not very happy with the BRP Sierra Madre and recently have prevented exchanging personnel on and delivering supplies to the grounded ship hoping the Philippines would quit their claim. This had led to the PI switching to aerial resupply from the main islands.

And so goes the ongoing saga of the Harnett County.

If ships could talk.

BRP-Sierra-Madre

Specs

Displacement:     1,625 long tons (1,651 t) light
4,080 long tons (4,145 t) full
Length:     328 ft (100 m)
Beam:     50 ft (15 m)
Draft:     Unloaded :
2 ft 4 in (0.71 m) forward
7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) aft
Loaded  with upto payloads between 1600 and 1900 tons as well as troops
8 ft 2 in (2.49 m) forward
14 ft 1 in (4.29 m) aft
Propulsion:     2 × General Motors 12-567 diesel engines, two shafts, twin rudders
Speed:     12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) (grounded since 1999, inoperable)
Boats & landing
craft carried:     Two LCVPs
Troops:     16 officers, 147 enlisted men
Complement: 7 officers, 104 enlisted men (current, 10-man detachment of Philippine Navy and marines)
Armament:     • 1 × single 3″/50 caliber gun
• 8 × 40 mm guns (most removed 1966)
• 12 × 20 mm guns (removed 1966)

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

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

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!

Warship Wednesday March 12, 100 years of Texas

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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 March 12, 100 years of Texas

BB-35 Texas, 24 March 1914, 100 years ago this month, just two weeks after commissioning (click bigger)

BB-35 Texas, 24 March 1914, 100 years ago this month, just two weeks after commissioning (click bigger)

Here we see the classic US naval dreadnought, USS Texas (BB-35), today is her 100th birthday and she is the oldest US battleship afloat.

Awarded 17 December 1910 to the Newport News Shipbuilding Company, she was commissioned on 12 March 1914 for a cost of $5.83 million. Decommissioned 21 April 1948, she served through both World Wars and over the course of her 34-years of service she received five battle stars.

texas 1919

A New York class battleship, Texas was some 27,000 tons. Her 14 Babcock and Wilcox coal-fired boilers with oil spray could push that leviathan at over 21-knots and her 10×14-inch (356mm) guns gave her an impressive arsenal.

After service in Mexico in 1914, World War One saw  her conduct naval gunnery training before she sailed to join the British Fleet. She departed New York on 30 January 1918, arrived at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland on 11 February, and rejoined BatDiv 9, by then known as the 6th Battle Squadron of Britain’s Grand Fleet. Texas’s service with the Grand Fleet consisted entirely of convoy missions and occasional forays to reinforce the British squadron on blockade duty in the North Sea whenever German heavy units threatened. She was present at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet, returning home at Christmas 1918.

Idaho (BB-42) (foreground) and Texas (BB-35), circa 1930.

Idaho (BB-42) (foreground) and Texas (BB-35), circa 1930.

After an extensive overhaul in the 1920s, Texas was shuttled back and forth from Atlantic to Pacific, serving as a flagship more often than not.

On December 7, 1941, she luckily was on Neutrality Patrol on the East Coast and escaped the nightmare that was Battleship Row. She spent 1942 in convoy duty, dodging German U-boats, and stood off of Casablanca for the Torch Landings, with a young war correspondent named Walter Cronkite on board while she provided naval gunfire support ashore.

On D-Day, Texas was the star of the Naval show off Omaha Beach. Her firing area of Omaha was the western half, supporting the US 29th Infantry Division and the US 2nd Ranger Battalion at Pointe du Hoc, and the US 5th Ranger Battalion, which had been diverted to Western Omaha to support the troops at Pointe du Hoc. Closing to within 3000-yards of the beach, she fired all along Dog One, the route made famous in the first ten minutes of Saving Private Ryan. She continued her bombardment as the troops moved inland over the next two weeks, even having her starboard torpedo blister flooded with water to provide a list of two degrees to increase her guns elevation.

USS Texas BB-35 by Ruutiukko

USS Texas BB-35 by Ruutiukko

She later silenced the Germans at Cherbourg, supported the Dragoon landings in the South of France from the Mediterranean.

Dodging German coastal artillery off Cherbourg

Dodging German coastal artillery off Cherbourg

With the war in Europe winding down, she sailed for the Pacific in 1945, moving in close to bombard Okinawa. When the war ended she was in the Ryukyus, preparing to bombard coastal Japan itself in the upcoming big invasions of the main islands.

Her wars finished, the old battle-wagon was obsolete. While the Navy kept the newer 1940s era SoDak and Iowa class ships as well as the Alaska type battle-cruisers, the old WWI era dreadnoughts like Texas were soon to be discarded. Most tragically went to the scrappers. Some, like the Mississippi lived on a few more years as test ships, others, like her sister ship USS New York, Employed as a target ship in the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll, were sunk as targets.

Texas, as she avoided Uboats and kamikazes, dodged this fate as well.

After she was stricken in 1948, she was presented to the state of Texas who made her flagship of the Texas Navy and put her on display at San Jacinto military park. Texas was the first battleship memorial museum in the US.

bangstead-uss-texas-(measure-12-modified)

However, she is threatened by age and decay, on her 100th birthday, will you please visit the Battleship Texas Foundation and do your part for the ship that steamed over 700,000 miles for her nation?

Specs:

(1914)

(1914)

(As built)
Displacement:     27,000 long tons (27,000 t) (design)
Length:     573 ft (175 m)
Beam:     95 ft 3 in (29.03 m)
Draft:     27 ft 10.5 in (8.496 m) (normal)
29 ft 3.25 in (8.9218 m)(full)
Propulsion:    14 Babcock and Wilcox coal-fired boilers with oil spray (replaced by 6 Bureau Express oil-fired boilers in 1925-26); vertical triple-expansion steam engines; 2 shafts; 28,100 ihp
Speed:     21 kn (24 mph; 39 km/h)
Range:     As built: 7,060 nautical miles (13,080 km) at 10 knots
Coal: 1,900 tons
Oil: 267 tons
Complement:     1,042
Armament:

    As built:
10 × 14 inch/45 caliber guns (356 mm) (5×2)
21 × 5 inch/51 caliber guns (127 mm)
(reduced to 16 guns in 1918)
2 x 3 inch/50 caliber AA guns (76 mm) added 1916
4 × 3-pounder (1.4 kg) guns[2]
4 × 21 inch torpedo tubes (533 mm) (submerged)

  After 1925-6 refit:
10 × 14 inch/45 caliber guns (356 mm) (5×2)
16 × 5 inch/51 caliber guns (127 mm)
8 x 3 inch/50 caliber AA guns (76 mm)
torpedo tubes removed
8 x 1.1 inch (28 mm) AA guns (2 x 4) added 1937

After 1942 refit:
10 × 14 inch/45 caliber guns (356 mm) (5×2)
6 × 5 inch/51 caliber guns (127 mm)
10 x 3 inch/50 caliber AA guns (76 mm)
24 × 40 mm Bofors AA guns (6 × 4)
(later increased to 40 guns (10 x 4))
44 × 20 mm Oerlikon cannons
Armor:
Belt: 10 to 12 in (250 to 300 mm) (midships)
6 in (150 mm) (aft)
Bulkheads:
10 in (250 mm) and 11 in (280 mm)
9 in (230 mm) (lower belt aft)
Barbettes:
5 to 12 in (130 to 300 mm)
Turrets:
14 in (360 mm) (face)
4 in (100 mm) (top)
8 in (200 mm) – 9 in (230 mm) (sides)
8 in (200 mm) (rear)
Decks:
1.5 to 3 in (38 to 76 mm)

texas cross section

General characteristics (by 1945)
Displacement:     32,000 long tons (33,000 t) (full load)
Length:     573 ft (175
Beam:     106 ft 0 in (32.31 m)
Draft:     31 ft 6 in (9.60 m)
Propulsion:     2 × dual-acting triple expansion reciprocating steam engines
Speed:     19.72 kn (22.69 mph; 36.52 km/h)
Endurance:     15,400 nmi (17,722 mi; 28,521 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Complement:     1810 officers and men
Sensors and processing systems:
2 × SG surface search radars
1 × SK air search radar
2 × Mk 3 fire control radar
2 × Mk 10 fire control radar

Armament:
10 × 14 in (360 mm)/45 cal guns (5 × 2)
6 × 5 in (130 mm)/51 cal guns
10 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 cal guns
10 × quad 40 mm (1.6 in) mounts
44 × 20 mm (0.79 in) guns

Armor:     Same as 1914 characteristics except:
Turrets:        1.75 in (44 mm) added to turret tops
Aircraft carried:     2 × OS2U Kingfisher

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

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

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!

Warship Wednesday Feb 26, Mr. Hunley’s invention after 150 years

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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 Feb 26, Mr. Hunley’s invention after 150 years.

(click to embiggen)

(click to embiggen)

Here we see in a beautiful work by Mort Kuntsler, the Confederate submarine HL Hunley as she sits preparing to sail out to sea and strike at the US Navy blockade. The Hunley was the first operational submarine of any navy to sink an enemy warship in combat and she did so 150-years ago this month.

With the Confederacy surrounded by US Navy blockade at sea and the US Army on land, she desperately needed a way to poke holes to breathe. One of these plans involved early, and very primitive submarines.

DSCN6111

The Hunley and two earlier prototype submarines were privately developed and paid for by one Horace Lawson Hunley and his associates. Hunley was a Tennessee-born engineer by training who was practicing law in New Orleans when the war broke out in 1861. There he funded his early subs before having to relocate to Mobile once the Crescent City fell to the US fleet in 1862.

The craft was born in Mobile, Alabama, one of the last Confederate ports to fall.

h53543
Park and Lyons machine shop building, Mobile, Alabama, Where the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley was constructed in 1863. Located at the corner of Water and State Streets, in Mobile, this old building housed the Gill Welding and Boiler Works when photographed in about 1960.

Hunley’s craft was simple. Manned by a captain who would steer and command the vessel, it was powered by a hand cranked turned by 4-7 men. This made the 40-foot long submersible capable of about 4-knots for as long as the crew could hold out. It was submerged and raised by hand pumped ballast tanks. Armed with a copper cylinder containing 90 pounds of black powder on a 22-foot spar ,she would attach the charge to the enemy ship, back away, and then detonate the bomb against the hull of the Yankee blockader.

While testing in Mobile Bay, the boat was able to simulate an attack on a moored coal boat in the summer of 1863. This led the craft to be transferred by rail to besieged Charleston, SC.

There she sank twice in testing, the first time taking five of her crew with her, the second time, on October 15, 1863, taking Mr. Hunley himself to the bottom of Charleston harbor.

DSCN6112
Finally on the cold night of February 17, 1864, she sailed with her third unfortunate volunteer crew under the command of Lieutenant George E. Dixon, himself a well-known Mobile area steamboat engineer before the war and late of the 21st Alabama Infantry Regiment. The Hunley cranked to the location of the 1240-ton screw sloop USS Housatonic, swaying 3.5 nautical miles from Sullivan’s Island outside of the entrance to Charleston Harbor.

civil-war-submarine-revealed-hunley-weapon_48009_600x450

Housatonic‘s officer of the deck sighted an object in the water 100 yards off, approaching the ship. “It had the appearance of a plank moving in the water,” he later reported. Although the chain was slipped, the engine backed, and all hands were called to quarters, it was too late. Within two minutes of the first sighting, the Hunley rammed her spar torpedo into Housatonic‘s starboard side, forward of the mizzenmast. The resulting explosion sank both the sloop, with a loss of five men.

It was the first occasion in history that a submarine sank another warship in action and would be far from the last.

hunley

Hunley, however, was mortally stricken and her hulk, still with Dixon and the crew inside, was raised by author Clive Cussler and his NUMA crew in 2000, found in 1970 just twenty feet from where the Housatnonic sank in 1864. Remember, Hunley‘s spar was but 22-feet long.

hunleygrave

Dixon and the bodies of the crew, namely Frank Collins, Joseph F. Ridgaway, James A. Wicks, Arnold Becker, Corporal C. F. Carlsen, C. Lumpkin, and Augustus Miller, were recovered and buried with military honors.

The crew was postumously awarded the Confederate Medal of Honor by the Sons of the Confederate Veterans in 1991.

The crew was posthumously awarded the Confederate Medal of Honor by the Sons of the Confederate Veterans in 1991.

The Hunley remains in preservation process and you can visit the Friends of the Hunley  website for more information and how to help with its preservation.

hunley 2

 

 

Specs

hunley2
Displacement:     7.5 short tons (6.8 metric tons)
Length:     39.5 feet (12.0 meters) Unconfirmed.
Beam:     3.83 feet (1.17 meters)
Propulsion:     Hand-cranked propeller
Speed:     4 knots (7.4 kilometers/hour) (surface)
Complement: 1 officer, 7 enlisted
Armament:     1 spar torpedo

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

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

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!

Warship Wednesday Feb 19, The Wandering Island of Luzon

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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, Feb 19, The Wandering Island of Luzon

(click to embiggen)

(click to embiggen)

Here we see the spic and span US gunboat USS Isla de Luzon resting quietly at anchor with her 1900s issue white and buff paint scheme. Her life before this moment was a little different. Ordered by the Spanish government for the Armada Española, she was billed as a second-class “protected cruiser” by her government. In actuality, she was, even when new, considered smaller than most other cruisers, not to mention slow and ineffective.

In Spanish service the cruiser had a green and black paint scheme with buff to white superstructures

In Spanish service, the cruiser had a green and black paint scheme with buff-to-white superstructures

Laid down on 25 February 1886 in the UK, she was built by Elswick (Armstrong, Whitworth)  at  Newcastle upon Tyne. She was completed and commissioned in late 1887. Just over 1000-tons, she was 184-feet in length. Beamy at nearly 30 feet, she had a length-to-beam ratio of 1:6 and tended to wallow in heavy seas. She also didn’t have enough ass to push her through the waves, her 2-shaft horizontal triple-expansion engines fed by 2 cylindrical boilers could generate about 14 knots, 15 if she was light. Very lightly armored, she was also lightly armed with a half-dozen 4.7-inch guns as well as some smaller QFs and MGs but her deadliest weapon was a triple set of 14-inch torpedo tubes.

Delivered to the Armada in 1887, she served first in Europe and even dropped some shells on the Rif in Morocco from time to time, practicing true gunboat diplomacy.

Today her size and armament would make her a corvette or offshore patrol vessel. In her time, cruisers were meant to be the fast eyes of the fleet, able to reach out over the horizon, find targets, and alert the main fleet of other vessels. The Isla de Luzon was too slow for that, and she soon found herself in colonial service in the Philippines. There she could visit far-flung Pacific islands and enforce the crown’s law against the locals without too much problem. She was part of the Spanish Pacific Squadron under Admiral Patricio Montojo, which consisted of seven cruisers (of which Isla de Luzon was one of the best) and a few gunboats.

Then came the Spanish-American War.

Dewey in the USS Olympia dropping it like its hot on the moored Spanish fleet

Dewey in the USS Olympia drops it like it’s hot on the moored Spanish fleet. Isla de Luzon would be in the background closer to the shore

On 1 May 1898, Commodore Dewey steamed his Asiatic Squadron into Cañacao Bay under the lee of the Cavite Peninsula east of Sangley Point, Luzon– coincidentally the island she was named after. The resulting Battle of Manila Bay, the first major engagement of the Spanish-American War, left most Spanish ships sunk while Dewey suffered less than forty casualties by the worst estimate.

57447_isla_de_luzo_md wreck

isla de luzon
Isla de Luzon was hit three times by US shells, then was scuttled in shallow water by her crew when the battle was in its final stages. She only had a half-dozen casualties. Bluejackets from the gunboat Petrel swarmed over her stricken hull, looted what they could, and set her alight.

isladeluzonwreck

Raised after the war, she was rebuilt, rearmed with US-pattern guns, painted white, and commissioned USS Isla de Luzon on 11 April 1900.

Former Spanish cruiser Isla de Luzon soon after capture, seen in Pensacola, FL. Note she is wearing an American shield on her bow

USS Isla de Cuba 4

Note twin stacks in US service after 1911

She then served as a gunboat, sailing through the Indian and Atlantic oceans to reach her new homeland in 1903, serving as a station ship in Pensacola until 1907 when she was loaned to the Louisiana Naval Militia on 6 December 1907 and later to the Illinois Naval Militia on the Great Lakes as a training ship. She spent WWI as a torpedo tender in Narragansett Bay, instructing new gunners mates and TMs.

In 1911 she was given a new power plant and two skinny funnels. Here she is as a training ship after that date in haze grey scheme

In 1911 she was given a new power plant and two skinny funnels. Here she is as a training ship after that date in a hazed grey scheme

Decommed and truck 23 July 1919, she was sold the next year to the Bahama & West Indies Trading Co to work as a coastal trading ship in the shallow waters there under the name SS Reviver. Her 1911-installed Babcocks boilers couldn’t handle the strain and she was soon sold to Bahama Salvors, Ltd. of Nassau and scrapped in 1931 at age 44.

The only remnant of her that remains today dates back to 1902. “Following long custom, when she visited Muscat’s picturesque harbor, members of her crew painted “Isla de Luzon” on the steep entrance cliff; in later years this was periodically refurbished by visiting ships of the U.S. Navy Middle East Force Command.”

isla de luzon muscat

Her name can still be seen there today.

Her only sistership, the cruiser Isla de Cuba, was also sunk at the Battle of Manila Bay, also salvaged and commissioned into the US Navy with the unimaginative name of USS Isla de Cuba, paid off in 1912, then picked up by the Venezuelans who used her as the training ship  Mariscal Sucre until 1940.

Specs:

You can best see her Spanish scheme in this line drawing

You can best see her Spanish scheme in this line drawing

(As-built)

Displacement:     1,030 tons
Length:     184 ft 10 in (56.34 m)
Beam:     29 ft 11 in (9.12 m)
Draft:     12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) maximum
Installed power:     1,897 hp (natural draft)
2,627 hp (forced draft)
Propulsion:     2-shaft horizontal triple-expansion, 2 cylindrical boilers
Speed:     14.2 knots (natural draft)
15.9 knots (forced draft)
Complement:     164 officers and enlisted
Armament:     6 × 4.7 in (120 mm) guns
8 × 6 pdr quick-firing guns
4 × machine guns
3 × 14 in (356 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor:     Deck 2.5 in (64 mm)-1 in (25 mm); conning tower 2 in (51 mm)

(1900)
Displacement:     950 long tons (965 t)
Length:     195 ft (59 m)
Beam:     30 ft (9.1 m)
Draft:     11 ft 4.75 in (3.4735 m) (mean)
Propulsion:     2-shaft horizontal triple expansion engine, 535 hp (399 kW)
2-cylinder boilers
160 tons coal
Speed:     11.2 knots (20.7 km/h; 12.9 mph)
Complement: 137 officers and enlisted (1900-07), after 1907 just a small cadre of regular officers and CPOs backed by up to 200 naval militia and trainees.
Armament: Four 4″ mounts and three torpedo tubes
1905 – Four 4″ mounts, four 6-pounder,s and four .30 cal. machine guns
1911 – Four 4″/40 rapid fire mounts, four 6-pounder rapid fire mounts, two 1-pounder rapid fire mounts, and added two temporary 3-pounder rapid fire mounts
Armor:     Deck: 1–2.5 in (25–64 mm), scortched

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

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to encouraging 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!

Warship Wednesday Feb 12, the Big Mass

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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 Feb 12, the Big Mass

(click to embiggen)

(click to embiggen)

Here we see the war veteran USS Massachusetts fitting out at the New York Navy Yard, 1904, USS Indiana (BB-01), her sister, is in the background. The second official US battleship, the Massachusetts had an interesting life including service against the Spanish, Germans, and a few stops in between before finally taking a beating from the Army.

Note the LOW freeboard...

Note the LOW freeboard…

Built by William Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Co. in Philadelphia at a cost of $3-million, she and her sisters Indiana and Oregon were the young nations first all-steel seagoing battleships. Of course this term was relative as the ships could hardly take to sea due an extremely low free-board that threatened to swap them in heavy sea states.

span am

Ordered in 1890, she was laid down on 25 June 1891 and commissioned 10 June 1896, her construction drawn out almost six years which is evident to the new type of ship that she was. Just 350-feet long, she would be considered a small frigate today except for the fact that she was a massive 11,500-tons when fully loaded. This was because the ship was crammed with 4 double ended Scotch boilers,  two vertical inverted triple expansion reciprocating steam engines, a dozen 13-inch and 8-inch guns, forty smaller cannon and five torpedo tubes.

This was all clad in a total of up-to 18-inches of  Harveyized steel and conventional nickel-steel armor, she was crewed by some 400+ officers and men.

The men in the late 1890s, were darlings of the media and some of their pictures remain in the Library of Congress, showing an interesting aspect of the ordinary lives of bluejackets more than a century ago.

bluejackets on BB-2 getting some officially sanctioned boxing in

bluejackets on BB-2 getting some officially sanctioned boxing in

According to the history of the ship, “To the men who served on her she was more than just a battleship. The men polished her brass fittings and cleaned her wooden deck because she was their home and their protector. They proudly sailed the seas knowing that they were aboard one of the most powerful and beautiful ships on Earth. But these men did not always have it easy, they had to constantly feed the coal burners to keep the ship powered, clean the guns and ammunition and then check and recheck them to maintain battle-readiness.

U.S.S. Massachusetts, fire room 1897 note the chalk on the boiler hatches

U.S.S. Massachusetts, fire room 1897 note the chalk on the boiler hatches

“They lived in small quarters, sailed through rough seas and were away from daily comforts. Yet throughout these difficult tasks and times, recreation was encouraged. The Navy learned long ago that it was important to keep up the men’s spirits in the face of such demanding times. Before retiring to their hammocks for the evening, the men were sometimes allowed to purchase small amounts of beer. They also formed a football team and held boxing matches to help relieve tensions aboard, and on holidays special dinners were cooked for those not lucky enough to be at home with family. Overall, those who lived, worked and died in her service know that Massachusetts was a fine ship”

Marine guards c1897

Marine guards c1897. White gloves and spiked Prussian style helmets were standard for the Army too in many units at this time. 

BB-2 sailors in summer whites

BB-2 sailors in summer whites

Inside one of her turrets

Inside one of her turrets. Note the old school Donald Ducks

Capable of steaming at up-to 16-knots, she was fast for her time.

off tow ar
When war broke out in 1898 with Spain, her beautiful white and buff paint scheme switched to haze grey and she went off to the beat of the drums, joining the Flying Squadron under Commodore Winfield Scott Schley for the blockade of Cuba. Missing the main fleet battles due to having to be coaled, she did cause the old Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes to scuttle and assisted with the occupation of both Puerto Rico and Cuba.

The 3000-ton largely disarmed Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes, sunk in Santiago, Cuba 1898 after scuttling following an engagement with the USS Massachusetts

The 3000-ton largely disarmed Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes, sunk in Santiago, Cuba 1898 after scuttling following an engagement with the USS Massachusetts. She cruiser suffered no less than three direct hits from her 13-inch shells.

Over the next several years she was something of a cursed ship, grounding herself on no less than three occasions as well as suffering explosions in her turret and boiler rooms.

By 1910 she was used only for gunnery training and annual summer midshipmen s cruises around the Eastern seaboard and Caribbean. In 1917 when WWI became very real for the US, she was pressed into service to train naval gun-crews which she did admirably. With the end of the war came the end of her usefulness and in 1919 she was simply renamed the very awe-inspiring and creative  ‘Coastal Battleship No.2′ before being struck on 22 November 1920. The next year she was turned over to the Army, who desperately wanted a battleship to poke holes in

Her guns and coal stores were removed as was anything that was useful. But thats ok, as the Army just wanted her armor intact anyway.

Her guns and coal stores were removed as was anything that was useful. But that’s OK, as the Army just wanted her armor intact anyway.

Scuttled in shallow water near Pensacola, she was within range of the US Army Coastal Artillery positions at Forts Pickens and Fort Barrancas as well as by mobile railway artillery and tons of ordnance were fired at the old ship through 1925 when the Army offered her back to the Navy. The Navy said thanks but no thanks and instead used her for occasional bombing runs by pilots flying out of NAS Pensacola  as late as the 1950s when she finally slipped under the waves for good.

She is now owned by the state of Florida who maintains her as an artificial reef.

As such she is a very popular dive.

Specs:

Displacement: 10,288 long tons (10,453 t; 11,523 short tons)
Length:     350 ft 11 in (106.96 m)
Beam:     69 ft 3 in (21.11 m)
Draft:     27 ft (8.2 m)
Propulsion:

Two vertical inverted triple expansion reciprocating steam engines
4 double ended Scotch boilers later replaced by 8 Babcock & Wilcox boilers
9,000 ihp (6.7 MW) (design)
10,400 ihp (7.8 MW) (trial)

Speed:

15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) (design)
16.2 kn (30.0 km/h; 18.6 mph) (trial)

Range:     4,900 nmi (9,100 km; 5,600 mi)
Complement:     473 officers and men
Armament:

4 × 13″/35 gun (2×2)
8 × 8″/35 gun (4×2)
4 × 6″/40 gun removed 1908
12 × 3″/50 gun added 1910
20 × 6-pounders
6 × 1 pounder guns
5 × Whitehead torpedo tubes

Armor:     Harveyized steel

Belt: 18–8.5 in (460–220 mm)
13″ turrets: 15 in (380 mm)
Hull: 5 in (130 mm)

Conventional nickel-steel

Tower: 10 in (250 mm)
8″ turrets: 6 in (150 mm)
Deck: 3 in (76 mm)

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

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

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!

Warship Wednesday Feb 5: Russian Thunder

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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, Feb 5:  Russian Thunder

click to embiggen

click to embiggen

Here we see the Tsar’s armored cruiser Gromoboi (Thunderbolt) as she looked when visiting Australia in 1901. Built as a large warship capable of independent operations in far-flung seas, her primary role was to be that of a commerce raider against the British merchant fleet. You see when she was laid down 14 June 1897, it was Edwardian England that was seen as the greatest threat to Holy Russia, and not the Kaiser’s Germany.

The Russian cruiser Gromoboi shortly before its launch note imperial footman leaning over to get a better view.

The Russian cruiser Gromoboi shortly before its launch note imperial footman leaning over to get a better view.

An improvement on the earlier Rossia and Rurik class armored cruisers that came just before her, she was 481-feet long and tipped the scales at some 12,500 tons with a full load. This made her roughly the same size (and even larger in some cases) than the Pre-Dreadnought battleships of her age.

Oddly, her steel hull was sheathed in arsenic treated wood, to prevent fouling in distant harbors where drydocks were not available

Oddly, her steel hull was sheathed in arsenic-treated wood, to prevent fouling in distant harbors where drydocks were not available

Her battery of 20 eight and six-inch guns made sure she could slaughter any merchant ship, gunboat, or cruiser while her 19-knot speed enabled her to outrun the lumbering turn of the century battleships of the 1890s. The only ships fast enough to catch her were small scout cruisers and torpedo boats which her fifty small-caliber rapid fire guns and six inches of Krupp cemented armor belt could shrug off.

A handsome sight with her four funnels venting her 32 boilers

A handsome sight with her four funnels venting her 32 boilers

Capable of cruising over 8000-miles on a single load of coal, she could cross the Atlantic or sail to the far-flung Pacific with ease.

And she did.

Ordered from the Baltic Works, Saint Petersburg, she was commissioned November 1899, firmly a 19th-century ship in a 20th-century world. To keep her hull from fouling in tropical waters, it was sheathed with wood. Her three shafts were turned by amazingly and over complex series of 32 Belleville water-tube boilers with thousands of tubes that needed constant attention.

Note the Romanov eagle on her bow and the Imperial Russian Naval ensign fluttering. This ship was made to show the flag around the world

Note the Romanov eagle on her bow and the Imperial Russian Naval ensign fluttering. This ship was made to show the flag around the world. You have to dig the 3-inch gun as a hood ornament too. 

Her crew numbered nearly a thousand men to feed and care for these boilers, shovel 2400-tons of coal, and man her incredibly varied suite of weaponry.

Besides her twenty 8 and 6 inch guns in casemates, the cruiser had more than fifty of these smaller canet style guns to ward off torpedo boats. They offered little protection for their crews from splinters.

Besides her twenty 8 and 6 inch guns in casemates, the cruiser had more than fifty of these smaller canet style guns to ward off torpedo boats. They offered little protection for their crews from splinters.

She left the Baltic the spring after her commissioning and the gleaming white cruiser made appearances in Germany, Britain, and Australia on her way to the Tsar’s new colony of Port Arthur, recently garnered from ailing Manchu-controlled China by a lease.

Vladivostok cruisers in 1903. From left to right you have the Rossia, Bogatyr, Gromboi and Rurik ("Russia", "Hercules", "Thunderbolt", "Rurik") by Valery Shilyaeva

Vladivostok cruisers in 1903. From left to right you have the Rossia, Bogatyr, Gromboi, and Rurik (“Russia”, “Hercules”, “Thunderbolt”, “Rurik”) by Valery Shilyaeva. Click to embiggen.

Stationed in Vladivostok by 1903 along with the cruisers Rossia, Rurik and Bogatyr and the auxiliary cruiser Lena, their enemy changed from the planned British merchant fleet to that of the Japanese merchant fleet by a twist of fate in 1904 when the Russo-Japanese war started. The enemy soon bottled up most of the Russian Pacific Squadron inside Port Arthur but neglected to do so for the cruiser squadron at Vlad.

The last thing you wanted to see if you were a Japanese merchant ship in the North Pacific in 1904...

The last thing you wanted to see if you were a Japanese merchant ship in the North Pacific in 1904…

Painted a thick grey coat and made ready for war, the four cruisers formed a raider group that haunted the Northern Pacific Ocean, sinking the occasional Japanese ship. Led by the Baltic German commander Vice Admiral Karl Petrovich Jessen, they were a force to be reckoned with and almost drove the Japanese to drink.

Rossiya and Gromoboi sinking the unarmed wallowing 1,000-ton freighter, the Nakanoura Maru, built in 1865, just days after the war started in Feb 1904.

Rossiya and Gromoboi sinking the unarmed wallowing 1,000-ton freighter, the Nakamura Maru, built in 1865, just days after the war started in Feb 1904.

Their most important victory was against the Hitachi Maru, a 6,172 gross ton combined passenger-cargo ship built by Mitsubishi Shipbuilding in Nagasaki, for NYK Lines.

While transporting 1238 people, including 727 men of the 1st Reserve Regiment of the Imperial Guard of Japan and 359 men from the IJA 10th Division and 18 Krupp 11-inch (280 mm) siege howitzers desperately wanted for the siege at Port Arthur, the Hitachi Maru was found by  the Gromoboi in the southern Korean Strait between the Japanese mainland and Tsushima on June 15, 1904. The Tsar’s cruiser shelled and sank same which led to the resulting “Hitachi Maru Incident,” which ignited both British (the ship had a British captain) and Japanese anger (due to the loss of the politically important Imperial Guard regiment which included several officers from the Japanese petit nobility).

In all the cruiser force made six sorties from Vladivostok and sank 15 Japanese ships and captured two (British) merchant vessels.

The Japanese sent a fleet to Vladivostok to blockade the port and shelled the cruisers at anchorage. When the Russians did manage to emerge again in August, the fleet of six cruisers of Japanese Admiral Kamimura Hikonojō’s fast fleet caught up with the Rossia, Rurik, and Gromoboi off of Ulsan, Korea.

Japanese postcard with their version of how the Battle of Ulsan played out

Japanese postcard with their version of how the Battle of Ulsan played out

The resulting battle was a tactical Japanese victory fought over the morning of 14 August 1904.  Improved Japanese fire-control as well as a 2:1 ratio in hulls and guns won the day.

The Rurik was hit by a shell in her unarmored stern and the steering mechanism was destroyed, immobilizing her rudder in an elevated position, resulting in her being the target of intense bombardment by the Japanese cruisers. The stricken Russian ship was scuttled while Gromoboi and Rossia were able to slip their attackers and make it back to Vladivostok.

Gromoboi riddled with shrapnel after the battle. Dont worry though, its just a flesh wound

Gromoboi riddled with shrapnel after the battle. Don’t worry though, it’s just a flesh wound

All six of the Japanese cruisers received damage as did the two remaining Russian ones. The Gromoboi was riddled with shell fragments from 22 direct hits, severely damaged and had 91 dead and 182 wounded during the battle. Most of these deaths came from gunners manning the unprotected light canet guns on her decks.

Whereas the Japanese ships were able to return to the shipyard for repair, the two Russian ones could only retire to the primitive port facilities at their Siberian port. Unable to be repaired, they sat out the rest of the war and did not sortie again.

Iced in 1904-1905

Iced in 1904-1905

After spending the winter of 1904-1905 iced in, she emerged in the spring and hit a mine on 24 May, the war ended without her sailing from port again.

Following the end of the war, she was sent to the Baltic again to reinforce the fleet there. Rode hard and put up wet, she spent six years in the shipyard and emerged in 1911 with a refurbished engineering suite and upgraded fire control. Her armament was modified after experiences in the war, receiving 18-inch torpedo tubes and reducing the number of unprotected guns, and several searchlights were added.

When WWI started in 1914, she was still in the Baltic. Modified as a fast minelayer (18-knots was fast in 1914), she sortied from Krondstadt to German-frequented waters several times, sewing 200 mines per trip. Her armament was changed once more during the war and her displacement went to almost 14,000-tons.

On August 10, 1915, she tangled with the much larger and stronger German battlecruiser SMS Von Der Tann (23,000-tons, 8×11-inch guns, 9.8-inches of armor), in the waters around the Gulf of Finland. Both ships sailed away afterward, with the Gromoboi weaving her way back home safely.

Becoming part of the Red Banner Fleet by default in 1918, she survived both British and White Russian efforts to sink her during the Russian Civil War as well as the Bolshevik siege of Krondstat in 1921 only to be scrapped by a German company in 1922. No monument or memorial exists to her and her three unusual wars.

Hard aground in the port of Libau, she was scrapped in place in 1922 by the breaker who lost her there while under tow.

Hard aground in the port of Libau, she was scrapped in place in 1922 by the breaker who lost her there while under tow.

There is though, a memorial to her most famous opponent, the Hitachi-Maru Memorial Stele. It is located at the Yasukuni Shrine, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan.

800px-Yasukuni_Hitachi-Maru_Memorial_Stele

Specs:

click to embiggen

click to embiggen

Displacement:     12,455 long tons (12,655 t)
Length:     481 ft (146.6 m)
Beam:     68.6 ft (20.9 m)
Draught:     26 ft (7.9 m)
Installed power:     14,500 ihp (10,800 kW)
Propulsion:     3 shafts, 3 vertical triple expansion steam engines, 32 Belleville water-tube boilers
Speed:     19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Range:     8,100 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,320 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement: 874 officers and crewmen
Armament:

(as built)
4 × 1 – 8-inch (203 mm)/45 guns
16 × 1 – 6-inch (152 mm)/45 guns
24 × 1 – 75-millimetre (3.0 in)/50 guns
12 × 1 – 47-millimetre (1.9 in)/43 guns
18 × 1 – 37-millimetre (1.5 in)/23 Hotchkiss Gatling guns
4 × 15-inch (381 mm) torpedo tubes

(after 1911)
4 × 1 – 8-inch (203 mm)/45 guns
22 × 1 – 6-inch (152 mm)/45 guns
4 × 1 – 75-millimetre (3.0 in)/50 guns
4 × 1 – 47-millimetre (1.9 in)/43 guns
2 × 18-inch torpedo tubes

(after 1915)
6 × 1 – 8-inch (203 mm)/45 guns
22 × 1 – 6-inch (152 mm)/45 guns
2x57mm guns
2 × 1 – 47mm high angle AAA guns
2 × 18-inch torpedo tubes
200 mines

Armor:     Krupp cemented armor
Belt: 6 in (152 mm)
Deck: 1.5–3 in (38–76 mm)
Conning tower: 12 in (305 mm)

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

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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.

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Warship Wednesday Jan 29. U427 : Survived 678 depth charges but never sank a ship

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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 Jan 29, 2014 U427 : survived 678 depth charges but never sank a ship

U427 decorated for commissioning

U427 decorated for commissioning

Here we see a Type VII submarine of the WWII Kreigsmarine. Her name was the U-427 and she was both the luckiest and the most unlucky ship in Hitler’s navy. Ordered  two weeks before the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 from Danziger Werft, Danzig, she was commissioned 2 June 1943.

u427lekiosque
This class was the largest single class of submarines ever built, with some 703 units completed. Designed in 1933-34 as the first series of a new generation of attack U-boats, these hardy 220-foot craft could sail nearly 10,000 miles, making them capable of crossing the Atlantic and coming back unescorted.

Famous picture of U-427 crashing the surface. Emergency ascent, the so-called "killer whales jump" ("whale jump"), of German submarine U-427. The picture was taken through the periscope of a submarine

Famous picture of U-427 crashing the surface. “Emergency ascent, the so-called “killer whales jump” (“whale jump”), of German submarine U-427. The picture was taken through the periscope of a submarine” (Click larger)

U-427 entered service as the Battle of the Atlantic was being lost by the German navy. Throughout 1939-42 the tide was high for Admiral Donitz’s unterseebottes. U-boat skippers looked back at those years as ‘the happy time’. By 1943, with increasing numbers of US escort carriers armed with Avenger torpedo planes, British intelligence reading Donitz’s letters to the fleet, and hundreds of Allied escort ships coming out of the builder’s yards, life for the U-boat arm sucked.

u427armesaa

Used for a year as a training craft, U-427 only ventured out to the North Atlantic for the first time on 20 June 1944, two weeks after D-Day. She survived an amazing 678 depth charges dropped on her from Allied ships and craft over the course of the next eleven months. Her war patrol record reads like monotony and included Convoy escort operations along the Norwegian coast December 4, 1944 to February 23, 1945 followed by Arctic operations against Russian convoys April 21, 1945 to 2 May, 1945. She conducted five patrols with five different Flottes and as part of Wolfpack Faust.

u427

She never managed to sink or damage an Allied ship, be it merchant or naval. Just days before the end of the war, U-427 saw a chance to pop its cherry when it found a pair of 2800-ton Tribal class destroyers of the Royal Canadian Navy loafing about waiting for the war to end. These two ships,  HMCS Haida and HMCS Iroquois, were on the receiving end of two live torpedoes fired from the U-427 that both missed.

The submarine retired to her base at Kilbotn, Norway, where it remained until Germany’s surrender on 8 May, in a heavily damaged state. In December of that year, along with 116 other surrendered German U-boats, she was sunk in deep water by the Royal Navy 100 miles northwest of Ireland  as part of Operation Deadlight.

HMCS Haida today

HMCS Haida today

HMCS Haida, near-victim of U-427, survived the war as well and after retiring from the fleet in 1963 is now a museum ship and National Historic Site of Canada displayed at Hamilton, Ontario.

Specs:

type viic

Displacement:     769 tonnes (757 long tons) surfaced
871 t (857 long tons) submerged
Length:     67.1 m (220 ft 2 in) o/a
50.5 m (165 ft 8 in) pressure hull
Beam:     6.2 m (20 ft 4 in) (o/a)
4.7 m (15 ft 5 in) (pressure hull)
Height:     9.60 m (31 ft 6 in)
Draft:     4.74 m (15 ft 7 in)
Propulsion:     2 × supercharged 6-cylinder 4-stroke diesel engines totalling 2,800–3,200 hp (2,100–2,400 kW). Max rpm: 470-490
Speed:     17.7 knots (32.8 km/h; 20.4 mph) surfaced
7.6 knots (14.1 km/h; 8.7 mph) submerged
Range:     8,500 nautical miles (15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h) surfaced
80 nautical miles (150 km; 92 mi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) submerged
Test depth:     230 m (750 ft)
Calculated crush depth: 250–295 m (820–968 ft)
Complement:     44-52 officers & ratings
Armament:     5 × 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes (4 bow, 1 stern)
14 × torpedoes or 26 TMA or 39 TMB mines
1 × 8.8 cm SK C/35 naval gun with 220 rounds
Various antiaircraft weaponry

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

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Warship Wednesday Jan 22, 2014 The Most Famous Dutch Pantserschip

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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 Jan 22, 2014 The Most Famous Dutch Pantserschip

Via Postales Navales, colorised by Diego Mar

Here we see the very interesting Hr. Ms. De Zeven Provinciën of the Royal Dutch Navy. Designed before World War One as a ship to protect far-flung colonies from trespassers and show the flag in native ports, she was a product of the steam age.

The new gleaming 333-foot, 6300-ton battleship at her commisoning

The new gleaming 333-foot, 6300-ton battleship at her commissioning. Note the size of the large 11-inch single turret on her stern.

The De Zeven Provinciën was designed specifically to protect the country’s largest overseas colony, the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). This vital possession was a source of oil, rubber, and other treasures for the Netherlands for decades.

Envisioned in the early 1900s, she was to be a poor-mans battleship. She was more than capable of sinking smaller ships than her (cruisers and destroyers) with her pair of large 11-inch guns while up to 8-inches of armor kept her safe. Carrying some 200 600-pound shells for her main battery, her guns could fire to over 8km and still punch through 15-inches of good steel armor at ranges half that. These guns were very similar to those used by the German Navy on the Nassau and Von der Tann battlewagons of the same time period, just in single mounts.

Note guns of her secondary battery amidships. These include two 150mm (5.9 in) guns in protected by very low-angle turrets and 10x75mm (3.0 in) (10 × 1)

Note guns of her secondary battery amidships. These include two visible 150mm (5.9 in) guns in protected by very low-angle turrets and two visible 75mm (3.0 in) guns in open mounts.

She could hide in littoral spaces from larger true battleships due to her ability to float in 21-feet of seawater. The ship type was known as the pantserschip (or “coastal defense ship”) and was popular with countries like Sweden, Denmark, and others who had a legitimate coastal defense need but could not afford large battlewagons.

A more bow-on view, again, the size of her single 11-inch mount forward would seem impressive to both subjects in far off lands and potential enemy cruisers and raiders

A more bow-on view, again, the size of her single 11-inch mount forward would seem impressive to both subjects in far off lands and potential enemy cruisers and raiders

Completed 6 October 1910, she sailed immediately for the Dutch East Indies, where she was arguably the most capable ship there at any time (except when passing the US, Japanese or British battleships sailed through the area) for the next quarter-century. For over two decades she quietly patrolled the thousands of islands in the Netherlands crown colony, showing the flag to locals and foreign interests alike. During WWI she helped ensure Dutch neutrality was strictly adhered to.

Within a few years, she had a mixed Dutch and Indonesian crew, which may have been the cause of problems later in her life.

In 1933, De Zeven Provinciën was involved in a naval mutiny.  Her crew ceased to listen to the Dutch high command after news of a 7% pay cut was made public (this was the Depression folks). The pocket battleship went rogue on February 5th while the ship’s captain was ashore. Her complement at the time consisted of  16 European officers, 34 European NCOs and ratings, and some 140 Indonesian crew-members. This is notably less than her designed complement of 450 men, barely half as much in fact. This is a testament of 1930s naval manning in colonial waters.

Wearing a more modern battleship grey scheme in the 1930s, the DZP is seen here with a Dutch Navy Fokker floatplane overhead

Wearing a more modern battleship grey scheme in the 1930s, the DZP is seen here with a Dutch Navy Fokker C.VII-W float-plane overhead. The little 30-foot/3000-lb two-place recon plane had a range of 600 miles and the Dutch Navy had a dozen of them in the Pacific. The DZP often carried one (as seen in the opening article image) on her cruises in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

For a week they sailed off the Sumatran coast headed towards the port of Soerabaja, to release other sailors that had been thrown in the brig for protesting the pay cuts. On February 10th, the combined fleet including the cruiser Java (8000-tons, 10 x Bofors 150 mm guns), two destroyers, and two submarines intercepted the mutinous vessel.

The Dutch defense minister ordered the ship stopped and when she refused to heave to and surrender, a shore-based Fokker T.IV bomber dropped a bomb on her deck that caused more than 30 casualties.

Pantserschip Hr.Ms. De Zeven Provinciën on fire after a direct hit near her bridge which killed 19 people outright and 11 wounded of which four later died. On the bottom is Hr.Ms. Java the flagship of Admiral Van Dulm with on the top the Destroyer Hr.Ms. Piet Hein or Hr.Ms. Evertsen. The mutiny would soon after end and the culprits arrested. 10 February 1933.

damage to her amidships from the bomb dropped by her own navy

Damage to her amidships from the bomb dropped by her own navy

After the loss of life, the crew of the De Zeven Provinciën surrendered was disciplined, and the ship was renamed HNLMS Soerabaja (Surabaya) to erase the stain on her.

(Some 30 Fokker T.IV floatplanes were used by the Marine-Luchtvaartdienst; the naval aviation branch of the Royal Netherlands Navy to defend the Dutch East Indies. These lumbering beasts with thier two open-air cockpits could carry a single torpedo or upto 1,700lbs of bombs. Built in the late 1920s, they were all based at Soerabaja. The only succesful use of these planes in combat was ironically in bombing the De Zeven Provinciën) Painting by Segie Stone

(Some 20 Fokker T.IV float-planes were used by the Marine-Luchtvaartdienst; the naval aviation branch of the Royal Netherlands Navy to defend the Dutch East Indies. These lumbering twin-engined beasts, with their two open-air cockpits, could carry a single torpedo or up-to 1,700lbs of bombs. Built-in the late 1920s, they were all based at Soerabaja. The only successful use of these planes in combat was ironically in bombing the De Zeven Provinciën) Painting by Sergie Stone

The new 6,500-ton light cruiser HNLMS De Ruyter, armed with 7x150mm guns and capable of making 32-knots, replaced the aging De Zeven Provinciën/Soerabaja in 1936 as a combat ship. Coupled with the light cruiser Java, she was much more capable than the WWI-era Pantserschip.

As the Soerabaia after 1936. Note her secondary armarment is gone, her second funnel is gone (as 5 out of 8 boilers were removed) and her main battery is covered by tarpaulins. Its questionable if by this stage of her life her 11-inch Krupp guns were even still supportable.

As the Soerabaia after 1936. Note her secondary armament is gone, as is her aft mast. Her No.1 funnel is gone (as 5 out of 8 boilers were removed) and her main battery both fore and aft is covered by extensive tarpaulins. Its questionable if by this stage of her life her 11-inch Krupp guns were even still supportable as the company wasn’t doing much with pre-WWI ordnance. In the heat of pre-airconditioned Indonesia, the awnings were probably more welcome anyway.

This left the 26-year-old coastal defense ship with her unmentionable past largely relegated to training for the rest of her career. She was extensively reworked for this new role. Her boilers were reduced from 8 to 3, her armament reduced, and she was largely used as a static harbor defense ship, capable of just 8-knots with everything lit.

When World War Two broke out in the Pacific, she was assigned to the ABDA fleet of Dutch Rear-Admiral Karel Doorman, but her usefulness in fleet combat was limited.  Her only action during the war was to land mobilized troops on various islands during December 1941.

On February 18, 1942, just over two months into the war, she was attacked by Japanese planes in Surabaya harbor and sunk at her moorings with a loss of 13 of her crew. She sank upright, leaving the machine guns operable, and she continued to serve as an anti-aircraft battery in being for several more days until finally abandoned.

Admiral Doorman, along with his flagship De Ruyter and the old cruiser HNLMS Java were lost at the battle of the Java Sea 28 February 1942, ending the era of a strong Dutch fleet in Indonesian waters. All of the Marine-Luchtvaartdienst‘s Fokker floatplanes were all destroyed by the Japanese or burned on the ground by their crews before the Islands fell, not taking any effective part in the war.

When the Japanese captured Surabaya later that year, they raised the old De Zeven Provinciën/Soerabaja and used her as a floating anti-aircraft battery for the rest of the war. In late 1943, Allied airstrikes sank her for a second time five miles North of Djamoengan Reef where her hulked remains are today.

Her name was recycled as that of a 12,000-ton light cruiser in 1950 that was sold to Peru in 1976.

HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën in 1967 operating with HS-5 SH-3 Sea Kings and USS Essex

She is further remembered today in the modern HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën (F802), a frigate, in commission with the Royal Netherlands navy since 2002.

Part of the old DZP is ashore and remembered in Indonesia:

De Zeven Provinsein warship cannon at museum in indonesia

One of De Zeven Provinsein’s massive 11-inchers at the Museum TNI AL Loka Jala Crana in Surabaya It was salvaged and placed there in 1969.

Specs:

HNLMS de zeven provincien 1
Displacement:     6,530 tons
Length:     101.5 m (333 ft 0 in)
Beam:     17.1 m (56 ft 1 in)
Draught:     6.15 m (20 ft 2 in)
Propulsion:     8,000 hp (6,000 kW), two shafts powered by 8 Werkspoor -Yarrow boilers
Speed:     16 knots (30 km/h), 5000nm range @8kts with 800 tons of coal bunkered. Less than 8kts after 1936.
Complement: 452 as-built

Armament:     2×11.1 in Krupp L/42,5 guns (28 cm) (2 × 1), 100 rounds per gun carried.
4x150mm (5.9 in) (4 × 1)
10x75mm (3.0 in) (10 × 1)
4x1pdr (4 × 1)

After 1936:
2×11.1 in (28 cm) (2 × 1), possibly inoperable.
6x40mm AAA (deck)
2x.50 caliber HMG (focsle)

After 1942: Various Japanese MGs and AAA cannon

Armour:     2 in (5.1 cm) deck
5.9 in (15 cm) belt
7.75 in (19.7 cm) barbette
8 in (20 cm) conning Tower
9.8 in (25 cm) turret

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

International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

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!

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