Lord Nelson was in Japan a few months ago, and took the chance to visit Mikasa. She came back with a plethora of photos, and we decided to collaborate in publishing them. Her comments will be in italics, while mine will be in regular text.

Mikasa in December 2018¹

I agree with DismalPseudoscience's review, with an additional comment that Mikasa is very accessible to English-speaking foreigners, especially when compared to other Japanese museums. After spending 1.5 weeks visiting various Japanese museums (most of them with only Japanese text on the signs) I was surprised by how much of Mikasa's signage was in English. Most signs included a full translation of the text, not just of the title. Read more...

In the closing years of the 19th century, Spanish attempts to suppress rebellion in Cuba led to increasing tension with the US, tensions that led to war after the battleship Maine was destroyed in Havana Harbor. The Americans declared war a few weeks later and immediately blockaded Cuba, while the Spanish dispatched a fleet to the Caribbean in hopes of breaking the blockade. The fleets first clashed in the Far East, as Admiral Dewey destroyed the Spanish Fleet at Manila Bay. But the main action would be in the Caribbean, where the fate of Spain's empire in the New World hung in the balance.

Oregon about to depart San Francisco for the Caribbean

On paper, the two fleets looked reasonably closely matched, so the Americans called in what reinforcements they could find. In mid-March, orders were given for the battleship Oregon, on the West Coast, to round South America and join the forces in the Caribbean. She departed San Francisco on March 19th, reaching the Straits of Magellan a month later with only a single coaling stop in Peru. On April 30th, she reached Rio de Janeiro, where she learned that Spain and the US were now at war. There were serious fears that the Spanish would intercept the ship, whose progress was followed by the media, potentially dealing a major blow to the USN. Captain Clark of the Oregon took measures to thwart any such interception, including faking a breakdown at the Brazilian port of Bahia, then taking to sea again, but Admiral Cervera, commander of the Spanish fleet, did not even make the attempt. After a final stop in Barbados, she arrived at Jupiter Inlet, Florida, on May 24th, having covered 14,700 nautical miles in only 66 days and an average speed of 11.6 kts while at sea, a remarkable achievement for the time.² Read more...

It's time for our regular Open Thread. Talk about whatever you like.

Reader quanticle found a good article on the development of the Chinese navy. It's well-balanced, and the only real objection is that they lumped diesel and nuclear submarines together.

Overhauled posts include the last three parts on main guns, Life Aboard Iowa, So You Want to Build a Modern Navy - Strategy Part 1, and my review of Midway and Russian Battleships Part 3.

While the basic shape of naval armor-piercing projectiles was largely set in the years 1905-1920, and most nations entered WWII with projectiles that were improved only in detail over the shells they had used then, two nations made radical departures. The Japanese optimized their shells for underwater hits, a process discussed last time, while the USN developed the most effective armor-piercing (AP) shells the world has ever seen.

A pair of 2,240 lb Mk 5 16" AP target shells at Science Museum Oklahoma³

The original shells for the 16"/45 guns of the Colorado class were fairly conventional projectiles of 2,100 lbs. In the 1930s, the Bureau of Ordnance developed a slightly heavier, stronger shell of 2,240 lbs, with a consequent increase in penetration. It also had an improved AP cap, hardened so that it would not be torn off in oblique impacts and would instead crack the face-hardened layer of the armor, digging a hole that kept the projectile's nose in like a center punch. This was the shell that was used to develop the immune zones for the South Dakota and Iowa classes, but before any of those ships were completed, BuOrd had come up with something even better, the amazing 2,700 lb Mk 8, known as the "superheavy" shell.⁴ The 20% increase in shell weight reduced muzzle velocity, to the point that belt penetration stayed largely the same, but deck penetration, more likely to matter at the long ranges the USN planned to fight at, rose by up to 25%, and immune zones collapsed. The zone for the Iowas went from 13,600 yrds to 5,300 yrds against the 16"/45 gun. In late 1944, the improved AP Mk 8 Mod 6 entered service, with improved hardening and an altered shape to increase penetration at long range by another 25%. It was considered so effective that the battleships in the Pacific were ordered to turn in their existing shells and rearm as quickly as possible. In fact, this shell, fired from a 16"/50 gun, was considered broadly equivalent to a conventional 18" weapon.⁵ Read more...

Lord Nelson and I took a trip down to Fort Sill, about an hour and a half southwest of Oklahoma City. Fort Sill is the home of the Army Artillery and Air Defense, as well as an old frontier fort from the Indian Wars. There are three museums on the base, one for each of these roles, and we managed to hit all three of them. I'm going to review them as a group, because it should be possible to hit all three within a day, and because the Field Artillery museum dominates to the point that it's easiest to think of the other two as detached wings.

Me with the Atomic Cannon at Fort Sill⁶

Read more...

By the outbreak of war in 1914, heavy naval shells had reached approximately the form they would take for the next three decades. Heavy armor-piercing (AP) shells, equipped with caps designed to prevent them from shattering on impact with face-hardened armor, could carry small quantities of explosives, 1-2% of shell weight, through armor plate and detonate on the other side. Other shells, often known as common, carried much more explosive, but were fuzed to detonate on impact, or possibly after piercing a much thinner armored plate. But there was plenty of room for variation on these themes, and some nations had done a much better job than others at anticipating the demands of war.

A British 15" AP shell of 1943

The British in particular had badly misjudged how their shells would be used in action. They had based much of their doctrine around long-range engagements with common shells, intended to destroy the enemy's unarmored upperworks, start fires and demoralize the crew, with AP shells to be held for finishing off enemy ships at closer range. This was used as a justification for not carrying out oblique impact tests on their AP projectiles, which turned out to be a serious mistake at Jutland, where few projectiles penetrated heavy German armor. Action was quickly taken to address this, and in 1918, a new shell, known as the Greenboy from its paint scheme, was issued to the fleet. It had a new, much harder, AP cap and a redesigned body for better penetration, particularly during oblique impacts, while an improved delay fuze and a new explosive, shellite, would allow it to penetrate armor and reach the ship's vitals in a fit state to burst. Read more...

Even after a battleship's hull had been successfully launched, there was still a great deal of work to do to turn it into a fighting machine. Particularly in the early days of battleship construction, the hull at launch was pretty much just that. All of the other equipment necessary to turn it from a bare mass of steel into a fighting machine still had to be installed, tested, and made ready for sea.⁷

Iowa fitting out under the 350-ton crane at New York Navy Yard

This work would be done at a fitting-out dock near the shipyard, which had as its most prominent feature an extremely heavy crane to lift aboard things like boilers and turbines. These were passed through openings left in the deck and covered with bolted plates for strength during launch, then attached to their foundations. Through about 1900, sheerlegs, which were strong and simple, were used to shift loads aboard; these could only move loads directly out from the dock, which meant the ship had to be positioned very precisely. Later, enormous cantilever cranes were installed, some capable of lifting loads up to 350 tons and placing them anywhere within a 100' circle. These cranes were very expensive, and by leaving fitting of the heaviest components until the end of the construction process, the shipbuilders could economize on their use. Astonishingly, a few of these cranes remain in existence today, most notably the Titan Clydebank, having outlasted the ships they originally helped assemble. Read more...

Megasilverfist, an Australia-based friend of mine, has graciously agreed to serve as the blog's correspondent in his corner of the world.⁸

Several months ago my work hosted a social function aboard Polly Woodside and I’ve finally gotten around to writing up a review.

Polly Woodside

Website

Polly Woodside is a museum ship in currently in Melbourne Australia on the Yarra river. Despite the name, Polly Woodside is actually an iron-hulled barque. The name Woodside is from the name of the original owner, not a reference to construction methods. Read more...

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Royal Navy's Continuous At Sea Deterrent. Since the fifth patrol of the ballistic missile submarine HMS Resolution, there has always been a British SSBN at sea, ready to respond should the unthinkable occur. The USN has been on the job even longer, with at least one US submarine continually at sea with nuclear weapons since October 1959.

HMS Vanguard returns from a patrol

For over half a century, the ultimate hole card of Western leaders has been men⁹ in submarines, providing a nigh-undetectable reserve of nuclear firepower. These men have spent three months at a time in cramped metal tubes, year in and year out, missing birthdays and holidays, rarely getting to see the sun and sacrificing time with their families to protect all of us. Read more...

It's time for our regular Open Thread. Talk about whatever you want.

I'm going to highlight a truly excellent Thin Pinstripped Line article on retention in a modern military. While the US isn't in quite the same place, it's still a very interesting look at a complex issue.

Posts revised since last time are the posts on sensors and weapons for WWII ASW, the first part of my series on main guns, British Battleships in WWII, my review of Iowa, and the second part of Pobog's sea stories.