Every year or so, I run across proposals for Congress to issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal, something it has the power to do under Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution, most recently in the context of the war in Ukraine. All of these proposals are stupid on many levels, although explaining why will require an explanation of the history of such letters, both why they existed and why they're obsolete and shouldn't be used again.

A letter of marque is at its core a document that grants its holder the power to seek out and capture enemy vessels as prizes, a power normally reserved for commissioned warships. Without a letter of marque, a private vessel doing this would be a pirate, and even with said letter, it's not just "finders keepers". The prize has to be sent into a port to be condemned by an Admiralty Court as a legitimate prize. If it wasn't judged to be a proper capture, the ship would be released back to its owners, although the details of how this was done are outside the scope of this post. Read more...

It's time for our regular open thread. Talk about whatever you want, so long as it isn't culture war.

Book update: 56,000 words and counting. Mostly working on the dreadnoughts in the ~1910 period.

Also, it's about time for another virtual meetup. Next one will be Saturday, March 12th, at 1 PM Central (GMT-6).

A lot of you probably know about the HNSA booklets of general plans (quite detailed construction drawings of warships), but I have just found another source. The US National Archives have a bunch, too, including a lot of ships which aren't in the HNSA collection. Unfortunately, their indexing is rather messy, and not everything which shows up in their system is digitized. Best bet is to just search "booklet of general plans" plus an identifier for the type of ship you're looking for. Note also that if you do go through an index link, it applies whatever you have in the search bar on the previous page. Sadly, Iowa appears to be among the ships which hasn't been digitized yet, but I live in hope.

2018 overhauls are Propulsion Parts one, two, three and four, Strike Warfare and Late Night Forward Pumproom Test. 2019 overhauls are my reviews of museums in Singapore, Commercial Aviation Part 8, A Brief History of the Cruiser, Pictures - Iowa Engine Room and Spanish-American War Part 2. 2020 overhauls are Proximity Fuze Part 2, The Range of a Carrier Wing - An Experiment, Pictures - Iowa Enlisted Mess and Merchant Ships Introduction and Passenger Vessels. 2021 overhauls are The Designation Follies, Naval Airships Part 3, NWAS Soviet SLBMs Part 1 and NWAS Polaris Part 1.

Unlike most of the other movies that have gotten a full-post review, I have seen Battleship before. It was while I was in LA, volunteering on the Iowa, and to avoid burying the lede, I rather liked it. I'm not saying it was a good movie (because it's pretty much what you would expect from a movie based on a board game that's trying to capture the audience from the Transformers series) but it's silly enough that it's fun. Plus, there's a strong element of wish fulfillment in the climax for me.

Which isn't to say I don't have gripes. WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU USE LANDSAT 7 AS A TRANSMITTER FOR TALKING TO ALIENS? Landsat 7 is a remote sensing platform, very useful if you're trying to map out flood damage to crops, but almost literally the least suitable satellite for the mission in question. (Why yes, I have used Landsat 7 data in college. Why do you ask?) And the satellite they use on-screen looks nothing like it. Also, as per my usual policy, I will ignore the romantic subplot. Read more...

Once, the Royal Navy was uncontested master of the seas, the most powerful fleet on Earth. Although the last century has been largely a story of decline from that position, it remains a capable force, in the first rank of the world's navies and one well-suited to protecting Britain's interests abroad. And the future looks quite bright, with new ships projected in the latest review backed up by actual funding.

SSBN Victorious

British strategy documents list five missions for the RN: maintenance of the Continuous At Sea Deterrent, provision of the Carrier Strike Group, protection of the seas immediately around Britain, power projection through amphibious operations and forward deployment of a small number of warships worldwide. The first of these missions is entrusted to the RN's four Vanguard class SSBNs, replacement for the original Polaris Boats, and scheduled to be replaced in turn by the new Dreadnought class. At least one of these boats has been at sea continually since 1969, ready to strike Britain's enemies if the worst should happen. Read more...

It is time for our regular open thread. Talk about whatever you want, so long as it isn't Culture War.

Book continues to come along. Draft is currently at 48,000 words revised, and I'm finishing up the chapter on Dreadnought.

On a related note, muddywaters, I'd appreciate it if you'd drop me an email at battleshipbean at gmail.

2018 overhauls are Amphibious Warfare Parts two, three and four, Why Military Acquisition is So Hard, Classes and Dreadnought. 2019 overhauls are Rangekeeping Part 1, Commercial Aviation Part 7, Falklands Part 11, STWTBABB Construction Part 1, Pictures - Iowa Boiler Room and German Guided Bombs Part 2. 2020 overhauls are Battleship Torpedoes Part 3, Aerial Cruise Missiles, Southern Commerce Raiding Part 1 and The Proximity Fuze Part 1. 2021 overhauls are the entirety of the Modern Propulsion Series.

By late 1942, it was obvious that the Liberty Ships would soon be entering service in huge numbers, decisively winning the tonnage war with the U-boats and providing the cargo lift needed to support the Allies' global war effort. But the Maritime Commission had never been particularly happy with the design. The biggest drawback was that it was simply too slow, and as the supply of steel began to throttle the shipyards, the Commission asked if it wouldn't be possible to design a ship that balanced the speed of production of the Liberty with the greater value of the faster C2 cargo ship, both during the war and afterwards.

Lane Victory in San Pedro

This logic proved compelling, and work began on the design, with a target speed of 15 kts. In most other ways, it would be similar to the Liberty, with extensive use of welding and careful design for ease of production. Cargo capacity would remain around 10,000 tons, and the layout was quite similar, with five holds. Each hold would get an extra deck inside it to make it easier to load cargo, and the deck was strengthened to increase capacity there, even though that meant getting new steel shapes out of the recalcitrant steel companies. As the design progressed, some other quality of life features that had been deleted from the Libertys were restored, such as the gyrocompass and searchlights, so long as they wouldn't delay the planned program. Steam auxiliary equipment gave way to electric, and detail design was improved to deal with the threat of cracking. Read more...

On April 9th, 1940, Hitler unleashed his military machine on Norway, breaking that country's neutrality and overwhelming the unprepared defenders at cities including Oslo, Kristiansand, Stavangar and Bergen using troops carried aboard warships. Offshore, the British fleet was in the North Sea, but they had missed even the task forces headed for the northernmost cities, such as Trondheim and Narvik.

Narvik in the 1940s

Narvik, 200 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, was one of Norway's busiest ports, the terminus for a railroad bringing iron ore from Sweden. When the Baltic froze in the winter, it was the only link from the mines to the outside world, and the city had grown rapidly to support the shipping in the area. Because it had been a tiny village of a few hundred people in the 1890s, when Norway's coastal defenses were built, it had not made the list, and while work on fortifications had started in 1914, it had been shelved postwar and never restarted. In the early months of 1940, Narvik had been the center of a great deal of diplomatic maneuvering, as the Allies tried to cut iron ore exports to Germany and use the railroad to reinforce Finland, under assault from the Soviets. That plan had been abandoned, and the British didn't actually take action until April 8th, when they laid mines on the Norwegian coast in an attempt to interdict traffic to Narvik. Read more...

It's time once again for the regular open thread. Talk about whatever you want, even if it's not military/naval related.

First, book update. I'm currently up to about 38,000 words revised, still mostly working through pre-dreadnought stuff.

Second, I'm going to designate this as the semi-regular suggestion OT. What sort of posts do you want to see more of? Obviously, no guarantees, but I'll definitely take it into account.

2018 overhauls are Russian Battleships Part 2, Carrier Doom Part 4, SYWTBABB-Strategic Background, Early US Battleships, Aegis and Amphibious Warfare Part 1. 2019 overhauls are The Mk 23 Katie, Commercial Aviation Part 6, The King George V Class, German Guided Bombs Part 1, The PHS Corps and my history of Wisconsin. 2020 overhauls are Cool Facilities - Bayview, Operation Crossroads and Battleship Torpedoes Parts one and two. 2021 overhauls are Merchant Ships - Fishing, Squalus, SYWTBABB Leftovers Part 3 and Naval Airshps Part 2.

On April 9th, 1940, Hitler unleashed his military machine on Norway, breaking that country's neutrality and overwhelming the unprepared defenders at cities including Oslo, Kristiansand, Stavangar and Bergen using troops carried aboard warships. Offshore, the British fleet was in the North Sea, but they had missed even the task forces headed for the northernmost cities, such as Trondheim.

The view from Hysnes Fort, guarding Trondheim

Trondheim was one of Norway's most strategic cities, where a number of roads from the south converged and the single road that led into the narrow coastal strip of northern Norway began. Three forts guarded the entrance to Trondheimsfjord, equipped with a total of 4 21 cm and 7 15 cm guns, although they were lightly manned, with only one of the 15 cm weapons crewed around the clock. The command at Trondheim was no more alert than their counterparts to the south, and the warnings passed to the commands further south on April 8th and into the early hours of the 9th were taken as confirmation that Trondheim was under no threat. Read more...

The battlecruiser did not spring fully-formed from the mind of Jackie Fisher. In fact, Invincible was very much in the mold of armored cruisers that had gone before her, although the incorporation of the logic of Dreadnought into her design has often obscured this.

Italia

It's worth taking a closer look at the predecessors to the battlecruiser, which we can broadly define as fast ships of battleship size, designed to be capable of standing in the line of battle and of raiding or protecting commerce. It could even be argued that Warrior herself meets this definition, designed for 13.5 kts at a time when 10 or 11 was standard, although the trends become more obvious after the demise of sails in the mid-1870s. The first vessels that are clearly in the battlecruiser mold are the Italian Italia and Lepanto, by far the largest (13,700 tons) and fastest (17.5 kts) ironclads of the day and armed with massive 17" guns, but protected only by an armored deck, as used on contemporary protected cruisers. This proved a major liability when the QF gun entered service a few years later, as their sides would easily be riddled by such weapons. Read more...