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Warship Weds July 11

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  July 11

USS Oklahoma, at her youngest as a brand new battleship at the beginning of World War One

Here we have the old battleship USS Oklahoma in 1917, note the experimental splinter type camoflauge pattern. The Okie was brand new at the time and just narrowly avoided going overseas for service in European Waters during World War One. Instead she served as a member of BatDiv 6, protecting Allied convoys on their way across the Atlantic. After years of spending time in the Pacific and the Scouting Fleets, Oklahoma was modernized from 1927 to 1929. She rescued American citizens and refugees from the Spanish Civil War in 1936; after returning to the West coast in August of that year, she spent the rest of her life in the Pacific. She was sunk by Japanese bombs and torpedoes on 7 December 1941, in the attack on Pearl Harbor, taking 429 of her crew with her as she capsized.

One of those killed—Father Aloysius Schmitt—was the first American chaplain of any faith to die in World War II. Thirty-two others were wounded, and many were trapped within the capsized hull. Julio DeCastro, a Hawaiian civilian yard worker organized a team that saved 32 Oklahoma sailors. Some of those who died later had ships named after them such as Ensign John England for whom USS England (DE-635) and USS England (DLG-22) are named.

USS Oklahoma as a relatively obsolete battleship at age 24 during the first day of the US’s war in the Pacific in World War Two. It would be her only and final battle.

Three Medals of Honor, three Navy and Marine Corps Medals and one Navy Cross were awarded to sailors who served onboard the Oklahoma during the attack.

She was uprighted in 1943, but unlike most of the other battleships damaged in the Pearl Harbor attack, she was never repaired and returned to duty. Instead, Oklahoma was stripped of her guns and superstructure, and sold for scrap. She sank while under tow to the mainland in 1947.

Her sistership, the USS Nevada, had slightly more luck.
Specs:
Displacement:     27,500 long tons (27,900 metric tons)
Length:     583 ft (178 m)
Beam:     95.3 ft (29.0 m)
Draft:     28.5 ft (8.7 m)
Speed:     20.5 kn (23.6 mph; 38.0 km/h)
Capacity:     2,042 short tons (1,852 metric tons) of fuel oil
Complement:     as built:

864 officers and men

from 1929:

1,398

from 1945:

2,220

Armament:     as built:

10 × 14 in (360 mm)/45 cal guns (2×3, 2×2)
21 × 5 in (130 mm)/51 cal guns (soon reduced to 12)

in the late 1920s:

8 × 5 in (130 mm)/25 cal guns
2 × 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes were added.

Armor:

Belt: 13.5 to 8 in (340 to 200 mm)
Bulkheads: 13 to 8 in (330 to 200 mm)
Barbettes: 13 in (330 mm)
Turrets: 18 in (460 mm)
Decks: 5 in (130 mm)
Conning tower: 16 in (406 mm), 8 in (203 mm) top

Aircraft carried:     as built:

3 floatplanes, 2 catapults

1941:

2 floatplanes, 1 catapult[

Warship Weds July 4

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  July 4

Here we have the Patoka. This funny looking (the one in the water) ship was laid down about six weeks after the end of WWI as an oiler  at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock, Co., Newport News, VA. Commissioned as Fleet Oiler No. 9, 13 October 1919, she soon became a balloon tender and was the service’s only one for tw decades.  Patoka was modified as a tender for the Navy’s rigid airships, receiving a distinctive mooring mast on her stern and facilities for handling seaplanes. She was subsequently used as an operational and experimental base by three of the Navy’s great dirigibles, USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) in 1924-1925, USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) in 1925-1932, and USS Akron (ZRS-4) in 1932.

Decommissioned, 31 August 1933 after the loss of her airships, she spent six years without a mission. Redesignated Seaplane Tender (AV-6), and commanded by CDR. Clifton Sprague (later Rear Admiral of Taffy-3 Fame) in 1939. She spend most of the war as a oiler, mine craft tender and was reclassified Miscellaneous Auxiliary (AG-125), 15 August 1944. Decommissioned, 1 July 1946 she was sold for scrapping, 15 March 1948 by the Maritime Commission to Dulien Steel Products, Co.

Note how big the Zepplins were…..Patoka herself is over 400-feet long…

Specifications:
Displacement 5,400 t.(lt) 16,800 t.(fl), 17,820 t.(lim)
Length 447′ 10″
Beam 60′ 3″
Draft 27′ 8″(lim)
Speed 11.2 kts.
Complement
Officers 29
Enlisted 272
Largest boom capacity 40 t.
Cargo Capacity
Navy Standard Fuel Oil 62,300 bbls
Gasoline 309,000 gals
Armament
two single 5″/38 dual purpose gun mounts
four twin 40mm AA gun mounts
four twin 20mm AA gun mounts
Fuel oil capacity 4,780 bbls.
Ships’ service generators
four turbo-drive, 60kW 120V D.C., 1 75kW 120V D.C.,
two diesel-drive, 100kW 450V D.C.
Propulsion
one Newport News vertical quadruple expansion engine
two Yarrow boilers, 265psi Sat°
single screw, 2,800 shp.

Warship Wednesday, June 27

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  June 27

Here we have the Sardegna (Sardinia) was a Re Umberto-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Italian Navy in the 1880s. She came from the ways at La Spezia and was completed after more than 11 years under construction.

Sardegna was 411 feet 9 inches (125.5 m) between perpendiculars and 428 feet 10.5 inches (130.7 m) long overall. She had a beam of 76 feet 10.5 inches (23.4 m) and a draft of 29 feet (8.8 m). Normally she displaced 13,641 long tons (13,860 t) and displaced 15,426 long tons (15,674 t) at full load. She was built with a ram bow.

Sardegna was the first Italian warship fitted with two three-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines with a total designed output of 22,800 indicated horsepower (17,002 kW). Eighteen cylindrical boilers provided steam to the engines. On trials, the ship had a top speed of 20.3 knots (37.6 km/h; 23.4 mph). She carried enough coal to give her a range of 4,000–6,000 nautical miles (7,408–11,112 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She had three funnels, but, unusually, the two forward funnels were side-by-side.

Sardegna’s main armament consisted of two pairs of breech-loading British BL 13.5-inch (343 mm) Mk I–IV 30-caliber guns mounted in twin barbettes fore and aft. These guns had a maximum elevation of 13.5° and could depress to -3°. They fired a 1,250-pound (570 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of about 2,016 ft/s (614 m/s) to a range of about 11,950 yards (10,930 m) at maximum elevation. They had a rate of fire about 2–3 minutes per round.

The eight 6-inch (152 mm) 40-caliber guns were mounted on pivot mounts on the upper deck. They were protected by gun shields 2 inches (51 mm) thick. The anti-torpedo boat armament consisted of sixteen 4.7-inch (120 mm) 40-caliber guns. Twelve of these were in casemates on the main deck and four were mounted in the fore and aft superstructures, protected by gun shields. Twenty 57-millimeter (2.2 in) six-pounder and ten 37-millimeter (1.5 in) one-pounder guns were mounted in the superstructure. Sardegna carried five 17.7-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, all above water

Sardegna’s steel armor was made by the French company Schneider et Cie. The side of the hull between the barbettes was completely protected with a maximum thickness of 4 inches (102 mm) of armor. The barbettes were 13.75 inches (349 mm) thick and she was the only ship of her class to receive 4-inch gun shields for her main armament. The conning tower had 11.8 inches (300 mm) walls. The armor deck was 3 inches (76 mm) thick

She served in much colonial service in the Meditteranian and then in World War One before being stricken on 4 January 1923 after nearly thirty years service

Warship Wednesday, June 20

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  June 20

Here we have the Here we see  the Annapolis-class gunboat USS Vicksburg. The U. S. Navy gunboats Annapolis, Vicksburg, Newport, and Princeton were authorized in 1895. Their functions were to show the flag and keep order in foreign ports, in keeping with the “gunboat diplomacy” policy of the period. They were attractive ships, with fine lines, composite construction (wood planks on steel frames), vertical triple-expansion engines, and three-masted barkentine rigs for economical operation over great distances

Specs (1900)
Displacement:     1,010 long tons (1,030 t)
Length:     204 ft 5 in (62.31 m)
Beam:     36 ft (11 m)
Draft:     12 ft 9 in (3.89 m)
Installed power:     1,118 ihp (834 kW)
Propulsion:     1 × triple expansion steam engine
1 × screw
Speed:     Under Steam: 13 kn (15 mph; 24 km/h)
Under Sail: 6.5 kn (7.5 mph; 12.0 km/h)
Complement:     143
Armament:     6 × 4 in (100 mm) guns
4 × 6-pounder (57 mm (2.24 in)) rapid-fire guns
2 × 1-pounder (37 mm (1.46 in)) rapid fire guns
1 × Colt machine gun

In her time with the Navy, from the date of her acquisition on 27 June 1897 until she was transferred to the US Coast Guard 18 August 1922, a span of just slightly over 25 years, she was decommissioned and recommissioned a total of four times. She spent  a total of just 11 of those 25 years on active service. However the service she did see, was very active indeed.

In the Spanish American War she blockaded the Cuban coast and captured the blockade runners Oriente, Ampala, and Fernandito in addition to exchanging shots with Havana’s shore batteries. She assisted the US Army in the occupation and pacifcation of the Philippines including capturing the Philippine president, Emilio Aguinaldo, at Palanan, Isabela in March 1901. She watched the Russian cruiser Varyag (see Warship Weds June 13) destroyed at Inchon during the Russo-Japanese War. She patrolled the coast of central America and Mexico during the Mexican revolutions and intervened in Nicaragua where she landed marines. During World War One she captured the German schooner and alleged surface raider Alexander Agassiz in the Pacific in 1917.

Plan of the Hamilton 1922. Note the 4-inch and 6-pdrs still aboard. USCG Historians Office plan

She then found herself transferred to the USCG in 1922 for use as a sail training ship at the US Coast Guard Academy (a task that the USCGC Eagle performs to this day.) She carried the name USCGC Alexander Hamilton from 1922 until 1936. After that she was simply reassigned as a station ship with a number and no name. She finished her career as a unmanned and unarmed training platform in Curtis Bay where she trained World War Two coasties how to fix things until December 1944.

The Hamilton at sea, 1978 painting at USCG Museum

She was given back  to the US Navy 12 March 1945 at just over 47-years young who held on to her for a year. On 28 March 1946, the old gunboat was turned over to the War Shipping Administration and her ultimate fate is unknown.

Warship Weds June 13

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  June 13

Here we have the beautiful Russian cruiser Varyag (Viking.) She was built at William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her keel was laid in October 1898. She was commisoned January 2, 1901 and sailed immediately for the Russian Far East where she visited many foreign ports and waved her flag proudly for her Tsar.

Specs:
Type:     Protected cruiser
Displacement:     6,500 long tons (6,604 t)
Length:     129.6 m (425 ft 2 in) w/l
Beam:     15.8 m (51 ft 10 in)
Draught:     6.3 m (20 ft 8 in)
Propulsion:     2-shaft Vertical triple expansion steam engines
30 Niclausse water-tube boilers
20,000 ihp (15,000 kW)
Speed:     23 knots (26 mph; 43 km/h)
Complement:     570
Armament:     12 × 1 – 152 mm (6 in) guns
12 × 1 – 75 mm (3.0 in) guns
8 × 1 – 47 mm (1.9 in) guns
2 × 1 – 37 mm (1.5 in) guns
6 × 1 – 381 mm (15.0 in) submerged torpedo tubes

When the Russo-Japanese war erupted she was anchored as shown above in the harbor at Inchon in Chemulpo Bay, Korea (at that time part of the Japanese Empire) her only companion was the small sailing gunboat Korietz.

At the harbor mouth appeared an entire Japanese squadron led by Rear Admiral Uryu Sotokichi who commanded 6 cruisers and 8 torpedo boats, outnumbering and outgunning  the pair of Russian ships by a factor of about 700%.

Instead of surrendering, the Varyag‘s captain Vsevolod Rudnev, built steam and charged at the Japanese ships with all flags flying and the ship’s band playing.

A number of neutral vessels in the bay, including the British cruiser Talbot, the French cruiser Pascal, the Italian cruiser Elba, and the U.S. gunboat USS Vicksburg and collier USS Pompey, watched the action that unfolded.

From the Varyag logbook:

11:10 All hands on deck on Varyag.
11:20 Cruiser goes to open sea, Korietz in 1 cable length (200 meters) behind. English and Italian crews cheer Russians; on the Italian cruiser Elba the Russian anthem is played.
11:25 Battle alarm on “Varyag“. Japanese cruisers Asama, Naniwa, Takachiho, Chiyoda, Akashi and Niitaka in bearing line from Richy island to Northern passage. Japanese torpedo-boats behind cruisers.
11:45 Varyag opens fire with port guns.
11:47 Asama opens fire with 8″ gun; all Japanese squadron then open fire.
One of the first Japanese shells that hit cruiser, destroyed the port wing of front bridge, set fire in chart house and broke the fore shrouds. Junior navigating officer midshipman Count Alexey Nirod was killed, all personnel on range finding station #1 were killed or wounded.
Damaged 10.2″ gun #3, all personnel killed or wounded, battery commander midshipman Gubonin was wounded, but refused to go away until he fall. Fire on bow and quarterdeck (was put out by midshipman Chernilovsky-Sokol). With the same shell, that caused fire was damaged guns: 10.2″ #8 and #9, 75mm #21 47mm #27 and #28. With other hits was nearly destroyed main battle top, destroyed range finding station #2, damaged guns #31 and #32, fire in lockers on accommodation deck (was put out lively).
12:05 After passing traverse of “Yo-dol-mi” island trunk with rudder drive was damaged. At the same time, Captain Rudnev was shell-shocked in head by fragments of another shell, hitting foremast. Staff-bugler and drummer, who stay astride him was deadly killed, helmsman petty officer Snegirev was badly wounded in back, and orderly of captain quartermaster Chibisov was lightly wounded too. Ship from now was steered from steering compartment, but orders were stiffed, so course permanently was corrected with engines. At strong current cruiser steered badly.
12:15 Willing to go out of fire range to repair as possible steering drive and put out fires in different places begin to turn with machines, as cruiser steered badly. Near Yo-dol-mi island engines on full back.
Cruiser was put in disadvantage position relatively to island when steering drive was broken with rudder at 15-20° on port side.
Distance to enemy shortens to 28-30 cable length, fire strengthens, hits increase.
Near the same time large caliber shell hit port side under water, water gushed into huge hole, stokehold #3 begins to full with water, which level raised up to furnaces. Chief Officer and chief boatswain placed patch under the hole, water was pumped all time, its level decreased continuously, but cruiser continue to listing at port side.
With shell passing through officer cabins, which were wrecked, deck was pierced and meal in provision berth was inflamed. Then cot netting at waist under the sick quarters was pierced, wherein fragments get into sick quarters, cots in netting catch fire, which was put out lively. Serious damage forced us to get out of fire range for a more long time, that is why we come to roadstead at full speed, firing with port and bow guns.
Throughout the battle with one shot of 10.2″ gun #XII bow bridge of Asama cruiser was destroyed and put afire, Asama stop fire for some time. bow turret on her was apparently damaged, as it not fired up to the end of battle.
12:40 With cruiser approached the berth and Japanese fire become dangerous for neutral ships on roadstead, two cruiser pursuing us stop the fire and return to the rest of squadron out of Yo-dol-mi island.
12:45 Distance to the Japanese so increased, that our fire become ineffective, so we stop it.

Unable to break past the Japanese squadron by mid-afternoon, Korietz and the badly battered Varyag returned to Chemulpo harbor at 13:15, where both took refuge near the neutral warships. At 16:00, Korietz was scuttled by her crew by blowing up two powder-rooms. Fragments of the blown-up ship landed dangerously close to neutral vessels. Fearing a greater explosion with potential casualties, the captains of the neutral warships present urged Rudnev not to blow up Varyag in a similar manner. At 18:10, scuttled by her crew, Varyag rolled over on her port side and sank. Crewmen from Varyag　were dispatched to the Russian transport Sungari, which had remained behind in the harbor during the battle, and set her on fire to prevent her from falling into Japanese hands.

Varyag as the IJN Soya 1907-1916…

These efforts were for naught and the Japanese raised the ship, renamed her Soya  and dubbed her a 3rd class cruiser. The Soya was used primarily for training duties. From 14 March 1909 to 7 August 1909, it made a long distance navigational and officer cadet training cruise to Hawaii and North America. It repeated this training cruise every year until 1913.

During World War I Russia and Japan became allies and the Soya (along with several other vessels) was transferred back to Russia at Vladivostok on 5 April 1916, and its original name of Varyag restored. While being refit in Great Britain the Russian revolution gripped Russia and the British seized her. In 1920, judging the vessel in poor repair, the British sold her to a German breaking yard. That same year, while under tow in the Firth of Clyde, she ran aground on rocks near the Scottish village of Lendalfoot, and was scrapped there. Her remaining hull finally sank in 1925 and was never recovered.

In November 2010 the government of South Korea turned over a number of captured relics in their possession to the Russian government. The Japanese Navy had in 1904 recovered 14 artifacts from the Varyag, including its flag, artillery rounds, shells, gun and mast, and stored them at a location in Inchon. Now the Inchon Metropolitan Museum, which acquired them after Japan’s defeat at the end of World War II, returned them to Russia under an honor guard of ROK Marines.

Warship Wednesday June 6

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  June 6

Montauk taking the CSS Nashville/blockade runner Rattlesnake, a 1221-ton side-wheel steamer, was originally a passenger steamer built at Greenpoint, New York, in 1853. She was seized by the Confederacy at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1861 and converted to a lightly-armed cruiser. Nashville made one combat cruise under the Confederate Navy flag, starting in October 1861. She captured and burned the sailing merchantman Harvey Birch in the English Channel on 19 November, and spent some time at Southampton, England. Returning to American waters early in 1862, she captured and burned the schooner Robert Gilfillan on 26 February. Two days later, she ran the blockade into Beaufort, North Carolina, remaining there until mid-March, when she went to Georgetown, South Carolina.
Sold to private interests and renamed Thomas L. Wragg, she operated as a blockade runner, but was hindered in this employment by her deep draft. After arrival near Savannah, Georgia, she was sold again in November 1862, to become a privateer under the name Rattlesnake. On 28 February 1863, while still in the Savannah area, she was destroyed by the monitor USS Montauk.

Here we have the ironclad monitor USS Montauk pasting a rebel blockade runner.

Before 1861, an armored warship was a curiosity. After 1862, they were the only legitimate warship afloat. One of these was the USS Montauk. Built in Brooklyn and commissioned at New York on 14 December 1862, she went right into battle. Within a month she was battling it out with rebel seacoast defense positions at Fort McAllister, Georgia. Although hit 14 times, Montauk was undamaged. The ironclad made a second attack the next day, badly battering the fort; and Montauk was hit 48 times but still capable of fighting. She later sank the blockade runner Rattlesnake, bombarded Fort Sumter, and helped attack Fort Wagner.

Most famously she was at the Washington Naval Yard at the close of the war and Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Boothe was brought for autopsy aboard along with several of the  other captured conspirators.

One of the most surreal pictures ever, of caught Lincoln conspirator Louis Payne aboard USS Montauk, leaning against her turrent.

Her war finished, the ironclad was retained in ordinary commission for more than four decades. She was brought out of retirement at age 36 during the Spanish American War to serve as a coast defense ship when it was thought the Spanish fleet would attack the US east coast. Finally in 1904 she was scrapped.

USS Montauk at age 38 on far left of picture at League Island Navy Yard in Philadelphia, better known at the time as red-lead row, in 1900. The new gleaming white pre-dreadnought battleship USS Iowa is at the far right. Note the shacks and storage sheds on the monitors. In just a few years they would go to the scrappers.

Specifications:
Type:     Ironclad monitor
Displacement:     750 long tons (760 t)
Length:     200 ft (61 m) o/a
Beam:     46 ft (14 m)
Draft:     10 ft 6 in (3.20 m)
Installed power:     320 ihp (240 kW)
Propulsion:     1 × Ericsson vibrating lever engine
2 × Martin boilers
1 × shaft
Speed:     7 kn (8.1 mph; 13 km/h)
Complement:     75 officers and enlisted
Armament:     1 × 15 in (380 mm) smoothbore, 1 × 11 in (280 mm) smoothbore
Armor (all iron plate):

Side: 3–5 in (7.6–13 cm)
Turret: 11 in (28 cm)
Pilothouse: 8 in (20 cm)
Deck: 1 in (2.5 cm)

Warship Weds May 30

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

 

– Christopher Eger

 

Warship Wednesday,  May 30

Here we have the Chiliean battleship Almirante Latorre (Formerly the HMS Canada)

Chile, part of a three-way South American Naval Race just before world war one ordered a pair of Battleships from Britain that went on to lead a life on their own.

The Chilean Battleship Order

Entering late into the South American battleship race was Chile. She ordered two Almirante Latorre-class battleships in 1910 from England. They were the best armed and equipped of any of the “ABC” country’s warships. Weighing in at 32,000 tons with ten 14inch (355mm) guns they could make 22.5 knots. They were more than a match for the Brazilian and Argentine vessels that they were build to compete with. Global events however prevented the pair of ships from being delivered. When World War One broke out in 1914 British shipbuilders halted work on the Chilean ships in order to fill dire domestic needs. The ships were later purchased by British authorities while still in construction to complete for the Royal Navy as the war went on.

This was not the first time this had happened to Chile. In 1903 a pair of 12,000 ton ‘pre-dreadnought’ battleships -the Constitucion and Libertad– ordered by Chile from English shipbuilders were confiscated by Britian while still on the builders slips to keep them from being bought by Russia.

The Almirante Latorre aka HMS Canada

The Almirante Latorre was completed to a slightly modified design in 1915 as the HMS Canada. She served in the Grand Fleet with a British crew and fought in the epic Battle of Jutland (along with the former Brazilian battleship Rio de Janeiro). She Fired 42 14in rounds and received no damage. In 1920 after refit she was resold to Chile for a nominal fee (half her original purchase cost) and finally took her original name to the seas. She was involved in a mutiny in 1931. When World War Two arrived the Chilean government offered her to purchase to the US but was declined. Chile did not declare war on Germany in World War Two until the final months of the conflict and the Almirante Latorre did not see combat against her old foe. Kept in perfect condition until she suffered an engine room fire in 1951 she was placed in reserve. She finished her service in 1959 as the last battleship afloat that had fought at Jutland. Her name is still carried by a frigate in the Chilean navy today

Warship Wednesday May 16

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  May 16

Here we have the SMS Seydlitz

She was a 25,000-metric ton battlecruiser of the Kaiserliche Marine, built in Hamburg. She was ordered in 1910 and commissioned in May 1913, the fourth battlecruiser built for the High Seas Fleet of Kaiser Willy II.

(Deviant Art)

Commissioned just 16 months before the start of WWI, Seydlitz was a slugger during the War but got as good as she gave. Seydlitz participated in many of the large fleet actions during the First World War, including the battles of Dogger Bank and Jutland in the North Sea. The ship suffered severe damage during both of these engagements; during the Battle of Dogger Bank, a 13.5 in (34.3 cm) shell from the British battlecruiser Lion struck Seydlitz’s rearmost turret and nearly caused a magazine explosion that could have destroyed the ship.

SMS Seydiltz after Jutland….

At the Battle of Jutland she was hit 21 times by heavy caliber shells, one of which penetrated the working chamber of the aft superfiring turret. Although the resulting fire destroyed the turret, the safety measures put in place after the battle of Dogger Bank prevented a worse catastrophe. The ship was also hit by a torpedo during the battle, causing her to take in over 5,300 metric tons of water, and her freeboard was reduced to 2.5 m. She had to be lightened significantly to permit her crossing of the Jade Bar. The ship inflicted severe damage on her British opponents as well; early in the battle, salvos from both Seydlitz and Derfflinger destroyed the battlecruiser Queen Mary in a matter of seconds.

Repaired she returned to service only to be interned with the rest of the Kaiser’s fleet after the war then scuttlled to prevent her seizure. She was raised on 2 November 1928, and scrapped by 1930 in Rosyth.

Displacement:     24,988 metric tons normal
28,550 metric tons loaded
Length:     200.6 m (658 ft)
Beam:     28.5 m (94 ft)
Draft:     9.29 m (30.5 ft)
Propulsion:     4 screws, Parsons turbines, 63,000 shp (47 MW)
Speed:     26.5 knots (49.1 km/h)
Endurance:     4,700 nautical miles @ 14 knots (8,700 km @ 26 km/h)
Complement:     1,068
Armament:

10 × 28 cm (11 in) / 50 guns (5 × 2)
12 × 150 mm (5.9 in) guns
12 × 88 mm (3.45 in) guns
Motto:     Always forward

Warship Wednesday, May 9 2012

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  May 9, 2012

Here we have the Russian Battleship Tsar Nicholas I, about 1900.

Known in Russia as the Imperator Nikolai I (Russian: Император Николай I) was a Russian Imperator Aleksandr II-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Baltic Fleet in the late 1880s. Ordered in 1886, she was commissioned in 1891. Over the next 25 years, she sailed in every sea and ocean, fought in at least one war, was captured and finally sunk as a target by her new navy.

She participated in the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America in New York City in 1892. She assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron and visited Toulon in October 1893. She sailed for the Pacific Ocean during the First Sino-Japanese War and remained in the Pacific until late 1896 when she returned to the Mediterranean Squadron and supported Russian interests during the Cretan Revolt. She returned to the Baltic in April 1898 and had a lengthy refit, which replaced all of her machinery, before returning to the Mediterranean in 1901.

Returning to the Baltic during the Russo-Japanese War Imperator Nikolai I was refitted in late 1904 to serve as the flagship of the Third Pacific Squadron under Rear Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov. She was slightly damaged during the Battle of Tsushima, receiving one hit from a twelve-inch gun, two from eight-inch guns and two from six-inch guns, and suffered only 5 killed and 35 men wounded.

She was surrendered, along with most of the Third Pacific Squadron, by Admiral Nebogatov the following day. She was taken into the Imperial Japanese Navy under the new name of Iki (壱岐?) and she served as a gunnery training ship until 1910 and then became a first-class coast defense ship and training vessel. She was sunk as a target ship in October 1915.

Displacement:     9,594 long tons (9,748 t)
Length:     346 ft 6 in (105.61 m)
Beam:     66 ft 11 in (20.40 m)
Draft:     24 ft 3 in (7.39 m)
Installed power:     7,842 ihp (5,848 kW)
Propulsion:     2 shaft vertical compound steam engines, 12 cylindrical boilers
Speed:     14 knots (16 mph; 26 km/h)
Range:     2,630 nautical miles (4,870 km) at 10 knots (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Complement:     616
Armament:     1 × 2 – 12-inch (305 mm) guns
4 × 1 – 9-inch (229 mm) guns
8 × 1 – 6-inch (152 mm) guns
10 × 1 – 47-millimeter (1.9 in) Hotchkiss revolving cannon
8 × 1 – 37-millimeter (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolving cannon
6 × 1 – 15-inch (381 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor:     Compound armor
Belt: 6–14 in (152–356 mm)
Deck: 2.5 in (64 mm)
Turret: 10 in (254 mm)
Conning tower: 6 in (152 mm)
Bulkheads: 6 in (152 mm)

Warship Wednesday May 2

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  May 2

Mohawk as new, 1935, USCG photo

Here we have the USCG Cutter Mohawk

Built as the USCG Cutter Mohawk by Pusey & Jones Shipbuilders, Wilmington, Delaware for $499,800 in 1933, she was commissioned into US service 19 January 1935. For several yeas she operated from Cape May, New Jersey, and later Boston Mass.

Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk. Pier B Naval Station. Key West. 1940. Monroe County Library.

During WWII she served with the Greenland Patrol during the so-called Weather War. She sent the final weather update from the Arctic that Eisenhower used to launch D-Day in 1944. A sub-buster, the tiny 165-foot gunboat launched a total of 14 attacks against submarine contacts between 27 August 1942 and 8 April 1945.

Model of Mohawk, note the tubbyness of the design. Must have been fun rolling around the North Atlantic in her with 125 hardlegs on a 165-foot boat.

One of her crewman, Chief Gunner’s Mate Sieg, invented a breakthrough bullpupped 30.06 rifle that, while revolutionary, came too late for the war.

Mohawk was decommissioned 8 January 1946, and sold 1 November 1948 to the Delaware Bay and River Pilots’ Association, who operated the craft until the 1970s. Abandoned, she sat rusting at the dock until 2001 where she was saved through an effort that brought her to Key West Florida where she was operated as a memorial museum until the Spring of 2012.

The old Mohawk is gonna be sunk as a reef.

You can say the Country got their $499,800 out of her…

General characteristics
Type:     Patrol Gunboat
Displacement:     1,005 tons
Length:     165 feet
Beam:     36 feet
Draft:     12 foot 3 inches
Ice class:     ice breaking capabilities up to 2 feet
Installed power:     1,500 shp
Propulsion:     1× Westinghouse double-reduction geared turbine, 2× foster-wheeler 310 psi 200 deg superheat boilers
Speed:     13.5 kt
Range:     (max speed=1,350 miles)(economic speed=5,079 miles)
Crew:     124 enlisted 10 officers
Sensors and
processing systems:     Radar SF (1945) Sonar QCJ-3 (1945)
Armament:     3× 3″ 50 cal deck guns. 2× “mouse trap” mortars. 2× depth charge racks. 10× “k” gun depth charge projectors

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