It's time for our regular Open Thread, although it's a couple days earlier due to the recent ordering shuffle. Talk about anything you like, even if it's not naval/military related.

One of the main goals of my riverine warfare series is to form a framework for a more definitive history of the subject, because I have only seen one book that attempts a worldwide perspective on the matter, and it's a history of ships, not of operations. It also only goes back to the 1850s/1860s in most cases. The problem is that my knowledge before that is pretty limited, and this is a hard subject to look for. I'm sure that a lot of you are familiar with parts of history that I'm not, and can provide suggestions for where to go looking. I've already incorporated a few of these, such as Red Cliffs, but I could use more. Any suggestions for where to look?

Overhauled posts this time (list somewhat shortened by the change in dates) are the last three parts of the series on secondary armament and my review of Albacore, wrapping up my series on New England.

Air power has been an important part of naval operations for most of the last century, and today, it's where the USN has the bulk of its striking power. As such, it's worth taking a look at the weapons these aircraft use. We'll start with gravity weapons, which have no propulsion of their own. I'm going to focus this series on US weapons because that's what I have the most information on, and because I'd like to keep the scope reasonably contained.

Mk 83 bombs waiting to be loaded on a carrier

The most basic of gravity weapons is the unguided (“dumb” or “iron”) bomb. It’s an aerodynamic steel shell, stuffed with explosives and fitted with tail fins to make sure it falls predictably and a fuze to set it off when it hits the ground. The standard American bombs are the Mk 80 series, comprising the Mk 82 (500 lb), Mk 83 (1000 lb) and Mk 84 (2000 lb). These are what is known as low-drag general-purpose bombs. Low-drag means that the shape was specially chosen for external carriage by high-speed combat aircraft, and they’re significantly more streamlined than earlier bombs. The B-52 was the last user of these earlier bombs, such as the 750 lb M117, which left service in 2015. "General-purpose" is because their combination of blast from the explosive and fragments from the bomb casing is effective against a wide variety of targets. These bombs are often described in terms of weight, but what does this weight mean? Is it the weight of the explosive or the bomb as a whole? In fact, it’s neither. The actual weight can be 10% or more greater than the official weight, while the explosive filling is 40-50% of the official weight. Read more...

Gentlemen,

So far, the war with Italy has gone reasonably well, with even the recent battle off Isle du Levant netting us three battleships and half a dozen destroyers for the price of a single battlecruiser, despite extensive damage to our fleet. Other battles have universally resulted in our ships emerging victorious, with the only black spot being the Army's refusal to authorize the invasion of Sicily.¹ We see no end for this, and perhaps should consider spending the preparation money elsewhere.

With the loss of Marseille, it is perhaps time to reexamine battlecruiser construction. A number of sketch designs have been prepared for your consideration, all using the new 14" gun and improved torpedo protection.² Read more...

Over the last month and a half, I've found that keeping up with writing for Naval Gazing has been increasingly difficult. Some of this is simply down to recent life events which have given me other things to do with my time. Some is that I've been feeling burned out. I've been blogging here for almost two years, and at this point, Naval Gazing has basically taken over my time looking into naval matters.

So at this point, I've decided to cut back. Going forward, I'm going to publish two main posts a week, one on Sunday and one on Wednesday. The current Monday OT/RTW2 game is going to move to Friday (except for the next update, which will be tomorrow). I hope this rate will be more sustainable going forward.

Just to be clear, I'm in no danger of shutting Naval Gazing down completely. I really enjoy researching, writing, and interacting with the commenters here. But I'd like more time for other things, too.

I've talked about HMS Warrior a lot, as befits the world's first seagoing iron-hulled ironclad, a ship that set the pattern for the next 80 years of capital ships. But this is mostly looking at her systems, not at the ship herself. This revolutionary vessel, preserved today at Portsmouth, deserves a closer look.

Warrior today

The rivalry between Britain and France goes back centuries, and despite the British victory in the Napoleonic Wars, the rivalry quickly resumed. The French, realizing that British command of the sea was critical to their victory, spent the first half of the century attempting to use one technological edge or another to wrest it away from them. They introduced both shell guns and steam power for capital ships, and found themselves outbuilt in both areas. Tensions lapsed during the Crimean War, and Napoleon III, inspired by the terrible effects of shells on wooden ships, asked for 10 floating batteries armored with iron plate. French industry could only make five, so the other five were built by the British. The French batteries saw action briefly, destroying Russian fortifications at the Battle of Kinburn. Read more...

Military aircraft have to operate in a huge range of environments, from the deserts of the Middle East to the heat and humidity of the tropics to the cold of the high arctic. The obvious way to test these capabilities is to simply send airplanes out to these environments and see what breaks, but this is expensive and uncertain. Maybe there's a warm spell in Alaska this year, and the temperature doesn't get down to the point we're interested in testing at. To avoid this problem, the US Air Force sends its planes to Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida panhandle, where a hangar waits that can simulate almost any weather conditions on Earth.

A B-1B undergoing cold-weather testing

The centerpiece of the McKinley Climatic Laboratory is the Main Test Chamber, a 55,000 square foot hangar capable of swallowing any aircraft in the US inventory and simulating virtually any weather conditions on Earth. The temperature can be set anywhere between -65°F and 165°F, and combined with high winds, torrential rains, fog, snow, and solar radiation. This is enough to reveal a wide range of problems in future aircraft, everything from landing gear that won't retract when very cold to poorly-designed access panels that leak when pounded with wind-blown rain. Read more...

China³ has long fascinated the West. The source of tea, silk, porcelain, and other valuable commodities drew traders, but the Chinese were suspicious of the barbarians. By the time of large-scale European involvement in the Far East, they demanded payment in silver, and restricted trade to Canton. Due to the demand for tea, British silver reserves were dangerously low by the early 1800s, and the East India Company began to search for a new trade good. They quickly latched onto opium, extracted from poppies in Bengal, as an ideal choice. There was one slight hitch, though. Opium was illegal in China.

That didn't actually stop anyone, and by the 1830s, the opium trade was roaring, and addicts were becoming an increasing problem in China,⁴ as was silver being drained from the economy to pay for all of the opium. In 1838, a Commissioner by the name of Lin Zexu ordered 1,000 tons of opium destroyed, infuriating British merchants, who petitioned their government for compensation. Parliament refused to pay for the opium, but after a successfully lobbying campaign, declared war on China instead.⁵ Read more...

It's our usual open thread. Talk about whatever you want.

Interesting thing this time is related to this blog's occasional sideline in commercial aviation. The NYT Magazine has an interesting article on the piloting problems involved in the MAX crashes. Fully endorsed, except for the characterization of Boeing as a generally awful company. Weapons are important, and if you don't like who they're selling arms to, take it up with the State Department.

Overhauled posts include my reviews of Nautilus and the Submarine Force Museum and Mystic Seaport, the Nimrod Saga, Auxiliaries Part 3, the first part of my series on secondary armament, and the Wartime Battlecruisers.

It was my third weekend in LA. The new job was going OK, although it was pretty much what I'd expected, and I knew I'd never love it. LA itself was still confusing, even baffling. But I was starting to get a handle on things. My apartment and general business was in good enough shape that I could take some time to go do something fun. And there was one thing that had topped my list since well before I'd moved. Iowa.

My first look at Iowa

So it was after church and lunch with new friends that I set off, heading for San Pedro and silently screaming the whole time I was on the freeway. The directions were baffling. Apparently, there was some construction that forced an alternate route to the ship.⁶ But I made it, despite the huge trucks, and realized that the online ticket I'd bought needed to be printed out, so I'd have to buy a second one. Oh, well. I'd probably use it eventually. After all, this was a battleship! I'd become increasingly interested in naval architecture and old warships since discovering Norman Friedman in college. I hadn't been on a museum ship since Blueback four years earlier. Read more...

I've previously covered the origins and structure of naval officer ranks. Now, it's time to turn our attention to those who lack commissions, the warrant officers, petty officers, and enlisted men. But first, we need to understand the organization of a late sailing warship, as the influence of said structure is still visible today.

A Boatswain

In the very early days, sailing warships had two sets of officers: the commissioned officers, the captain and his lieutenants, who were usually entirely ignorant of the sea and primarily there to command the troops the ships used to board each other; and the warrant officers,⁷ who were nautical specialists responsible for sailing the ship. These were usually former enlisted men who had worked their way up to their positions of Boatswain,⁸ Gunner, and Carpenter. All were required to be literate, as they had to keep an account of the stores under their control. Read more...