Youtube hearted comments of Kevin Kennelly (@Kevin_Kennelly).

  1. 30:24 "Aboard HMS New Zealand, Captain John Greene, also known as 'Jimmie', solemnly orders the Maori warrior skirt and green pendant, be brought to the bridge, where he puts them on. Thus enabling the supernatural protection that these items bestow upon his ship." THIS. This is why I am here.
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  2. How do you identify "quality content" on Youtube? You endure 30 brutal minutes of watching this painful episode of your countries' history. And you can't wait for part 2. Well done Drach. Thanks.
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  3. Mavis Batey was born in 1921. Which means, the leading female codebreaker at Bletchley Park, was 19 years old when she helped break the Italian Navy Enigma. 19.
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  4. Drachisms Of The Day: "And her crew's gunnery was downright terrible. Even by Beatty's standards." 6:30 "Up ahead, Queen Mary was somewhat more performance-impaired, as it exploded." 8:14
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  5. "And they responded particularly badly to having holes poked in them by high velocity metal projectiles, like, say, cannon-fire." By the way. This type of video, tracing the evolution of a particular technology, is my favorite. Well done and thank you Drach. And Merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) to you and all of your listeners.
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  6. "scare horses and, somewhat decisively, bypass armor" "discover new and interesting ways to disassemble their enemy" "surrounded....by smarter crews in swifter ships" "vaguely legitimate, but mostly piratical" 19:50 "Let's just say, shipboard guns, of the period, included, but were not limited to, the following: (he names 26....i'm not doing that...the exhausting thoroughness of the list is it's own humor) (i've said this before. this type of video, tracing the evolution of a particular technology, is my favorite. thanks and well done, Drach.)
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  7. "three-legged, drunken elephant tIhat had started running downhill and suddenly discovered gravity was not, in fact, it's friend." This is a very well written episode. I enjoyed your sentence gymnastics.
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  8. Drachism of the Day: 14:24 "Instead, the two sides decided to start trolling each other in a manner that wouldn't be entirely out of place in a 21st-century internet forum. Only they were using somewhat more polite language, better spelling and, of course, the use of flags."
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  9. 5:25 "As the Japanese had been told by the Army that they had, in fact, captured the airfield. This little omission didn't really do that much for Japanese Navy and Japanese Army relations, although, to be perfectly honest, there weren't that many bridges to burn at this point."
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  10. Naval logistics. Put another way: Water, water everywhere. And not a drop to drink.
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  11. Drachism Of The Day: "(in the US) Do you really want the Bureau Of Ordnance touching your weapons? Probably not. But sometimes you might be forced to." 26:45
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  12. Drachisms of the Day: 12:07 "Charles Martel takes the cake, the biscuit and quite probably the container as well." 16:29 "And now we move on from the least-pronounceable to the most visually-offensive." 37:38 "Fully capable of having electrically-powered turret, training and elevation mechanisms without putting on something of a lightning-show for everybody in the vicinity." 40:42 "Which rather put them in the status of 'obsolete on launch', unfortunately." 46:51 "And, to be honest, in some cases, horrific to look at."
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  13. Drachisms of the Day: 2:16 "Armor, given that these were small wooden boats, consisted largely of going very fast, thoughts and prayers and good old fashioned harsh-language." 8:31 "along with, presumably, a distinct list to port"
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  14. "Vickers did manage to slide their ever persistent fourteen inch gun salesman into at least one meeting." "a close range knife-fight"
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  15. 22:14 "But, the water damage control station, which would have primarily controlled this effort, had been redistributed, at high speed, to a number of other parts of the ship courtesy of a Helldiver's bomb."
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  16. 11:28 "I've got a scale model trebuchet that's about 3, 4 foot long. About 4 foot high." WHO ELSE WANTS TO SEE THIS? IN ACTION!!!
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  17. 35:11 "And set to work on the business of rebuilding the US Navy into a juggernaut that would crush all of King's enemies before him." (and hear the lamentations of their women)
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  18. When you turn a U-Boat on it's side to transport it overland, does it become a C-Boat? Asking for a friend.
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  19. "irretrievably dead"
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  20. "perhaps asking landing-pilots to fly thru a steel-tunnel was a bad idea" "The partially finished Eagle was patched into a vaguely working state." "god's own torpedo battery"
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  21. "A 32 pound, short barreled carronade." >Because sometimes you want to see 'the whites of their eyes' before you send them to their god. "If you imagine a bar-fight." >Good to see Drach immersed in Boston culture. Drachinifel....international tour guide impersonator. Firing ship's guns. Makes me look forward to the USS New Jersey tour.
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  22. This is my favorite type of video. Tracking one significant technology from start to finish.
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  23. 6:18 "The experience of being hit by the shock wave of a nearby nuclear weapon was probably 'just another Tuesday' as far as the ship was concerned."
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  24. 37:19 "But, with Jellicoe promoted to First Sea Lord and, in at least this matter, with the support of Beatty..." The shade never stops.
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  25. 2:43 "Just in case a random Hilfskreuzer decided to hilf itself to a US ship."
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  26. Drachism of the Day: 6:49 "These abortions are the result of a psychological maladjustment." (this is a quote, not a Drachism). 8:11 "By this point it was clear that battleships, along with common sense and an appreciation of reality, had long since left the realms of sensibility and established a FIRM hold in fantasy-land." I now understand why these videos should be done with the human-voice. No CG-voiced video is capable of conveying the snark (both subtle and overt) in Drach's voice.
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  27. "aside from sea-spray and the odd fish fragment, she hadn't taken any hits."
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  28. "and the Medway was unfortunately much better guarded these days, which ruled out the other tried and true method of expanding the Dutch capital ship fleet" (it would have been interesting to hear how the computer-generated-voice mutated the pronunciation of 'De Zeven Provincien')
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  29. The Royal Navy's use of biblical quotes. "Brother Maynard. Consult the book of Armaments." "And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade that, with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits in Thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats..."
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  30. Whoa!!! Those are YOUR ships. Setup on THE ship? That is something to be proud of. Congrats.
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  31. 4:17 "However, on their way back to port, Littorio was hit by, you guessed it, ANOTHER torpedo. This time from a Wellington bomber, of all things."
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  32. Phrase of the day: "3-inch aircraft irritating units" 5:54
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  33. Drachisms of the Day 10:01 "The Royal Navy could trade beer and the Americans could trade ice-cream. Which was a massively equitable arrangement for both." 28:34 "trying to catalog all of those, we'd be here till the sun dies" (I felt the same way when I saw Drydock was 4+ hours long) 33:22 "What do you mean, 'Our ships fell completely apart in a typhoon.' That's dishonorable. Tell them to stop immediately." 59:03 "Don't you just love the weird confluence of technologies that was around in the 1910s?" 1:06:33 "She can theoretically make her top speed. If you fancy the experience of being a brick in a tumble-dryer." 1:19:05 "British battle-cruisers get a lot of stick, ummm and, for understandable reasons given that they seem to have a distressing habit of, um, scattering themselves actively to the four winds." 1:33:24 "It meant you EITHER angered the Atlantians, in which case Jason Momoa was about to come and rip you ship in half OR, perhaps more prosaically, you were approaching a rock, which might also rip your ship in half, only without the whole 'sucking you down into the Mystical Underwater Kingdom' part." 1:49:46 "Everyone's like 'Ah! Let us follow this man. He speaks in clear sentences'." 2:46:08 "The Russians and Ottomans fighting together. I suspect the next thing will be dogs and cats living toghter and somebody cracking open the Book of Revelations and noticing four horsemen riding across the skies. But never mind." 2:48:45 "I mean, after all, touching things with considerably longer than a ten-foot-pole didn't work out for the CSS Hunley, did it?" 2:52:58 "this kind of slightly eccentric hysteria kind of just ran away with them" 2:57:00 So that's a grand total of sixteen fleet carriers and, uh, another twenty eight smaller carriers, three french-hens and a partridge in a pear tree." 3:40:17 "a radar equipped Yamato wandering around, wondering what all the ice is about" 3:42:28 "Although, if you did name a carrier USS Congress, it might mean you could legitimately say that Congress was actually doing something for a change." 3:44:33 "His ears must be ringing a little bit." 4:06:16 "That was down to it's captain's seemingly pathological desire to ram everything in sight." 4:12:52 "the US keeps..sort of starts 'turret farming' the twelve inch gun" 4:18:21 "I was gonna put it at the end of this video, but, to be perfectly honest, the chances of the majority of you reaching this point are fairly slim."
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  34. 260 episodes. Five years of Drydock. Congrats on a good job Drach. Thanks for all the work.
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  35. "And, so the ship's XO was housed in the former pigeon coop. Presumably after something of a cleanup."
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  36. Drachism of the Day: The entire episode. All 9-minutes, 12-seconds of it. It's everywhere. 7:40 "Nobody had told them about the Mark XIV torpedo so they still thought that they actually had to try and evade."
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  37. 0:57 "And, by the end of WW2, the happy fun-times refined spicy rock, transported by big metal bird."
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  38. 21:51 "Difficult though the situation is, Scheer didn't get to be commander of The High Seas Fleet by writing in for a competition or winning it in a cereal packet".
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  39. Drachism of the Day: 5:20 "With her peacetime role including stints as the world's largest and most heavily armed yacht. Taking various members of the Royal Family on tours of the British empire."
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  40. Drachisms of the Day: OVERLOAD! OVERLOAD! OVERLOAD! Just watch the damned thing.
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  41. Drachism of the Day 4:37 "Surviving a triple torpedo strike from a US submarine in WW2, by the grace of the Bureau of Ordnance."
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  42. Drachisms of the Day: 5:25 "Basically, roaming 'death squads' of British and American ships looking for things that haven't yet been exploded." 6:39 "And moving at such speed that U-Boats were just like, "Hmmm! I hear a ship coming. Up periscope." Zzmmmmmmmm. "AH! Oh well, back to looking for merchantmen. Never mind." 12:48 "I'd say, to a certain degree, they probably hated each other more than they hated some of the people they were fighting." 14:10 "There was almost a 'Klingon-level' of rivalry between officers within the same naval service." 30:07 "It's like saying "Well, yes. This person has the advantage in killing you if he runs you down with a 32-ton HGV, as compared to this person who is ONLY hitting you with a 7.5-ton moving van." I DOUBT you're really gonna appreciate the difference that much." 33:58 "And then N3 unleashed the torpedo salvo of 'complete unexpectedness'." 37:11 "You don't want a Spearfish or an ADCAP coming towards you, much less six. Umm...or worse if you have the misfortune to meet an angry Seawolf-class. But never mind." 39:15 "The British would probably have gone, "Hmmm. You declare for our enemies, do you? It's real pity you're using those Vickers 14-inch guns, isn't it? Ah well, I guess we have some spare 14-inch guns. Anyone buying?" 42:31 "Submarines submarines everywhere. And, oh dear, carrier-aircraft." 45:41 "On a battleship, it would be considered a medium weight AA weapon at best and 'Why the hell have you put this thing on our ship? Why can't we have something better?" 46:48 "You also have to consider things like 'inertia' and 'momentum'. Which are fairly related." (Newtonian snark) 50:55 "The answer tends to sound a bit 'waffley'". 54:10 "If you just did a straight swap...ahhh...the British would rip your hand off, in their efforts to shake it. And thank you from the highest-of-heavens for the absolute easy ride you've just given them." 54:53 "But that was because it was handed a weapon that was probably better at beating the enemy over the heads with physically in a boarding action, than actually firing at them." 55:13 "The phrase 'a little bit faster than the Bureau Of Ordnance' can be applied to many things including Competitive Snail Racing."
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  43. Drach Drinking Game. Take a shot every time he says 'shot'.
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  44. Drachisms of the Day 5:56 "I suppose if they want to name a support ship "HMS Beatty" I can allow that. It might do something useful for a change." 20:08 "Yeah when splinters are scutting around the ship that is gonna be a very bad time to be a shin." 28:46 "I mean, if your gonna spend this kind of stupid-money, you might as well throw a couple of extra billion in there. Um, for fun. If nothing else." 37:12 (on wargaming) "You're one side. You're the other side. These are your objectives. Um, basically, go out and do what you would actually do, with the exception of the whole actual 'blowing up' part." 41:43 "Admiral Tiberius asks a question that is so glorious that it really must be read in it's entirety." (the answer includes 'congressional-grizzly-bears' and a 'very big sofa') 56:27 "Oh! OK. I see what you're doing there. Good luck. Ahhm, this should be fun to watch."
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  45. Drachisms of the Day: 55:36 "Wins the Vlad Tepes award for cruel and unusual punishment of an enemy who was already horribly beaten into the ground anyway." 1:09:12 "When you build a ship where your secondary battery out-ranges your main battery and it's supposed to be a Dreadnought, you really really have learned the meaning of failure." 8:10 "Then you have 'Mongo The Elephant'. Yes, I said that correctly, 'The Elephant'. He lived on HMS Courageous for a while." This is NOT a 'Drachism'. This is a plea for an entire episode dedicated to Mongo. WTAF!!! 1:28:41 "Sooo, the Battle of the Barents Sea is more seen as a failure due to the sheer comedic ineptitude of the whole engagement." 1:52:17 "I need a drink."
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  46. Drachisms of the Day: 3:50 "Eww, well. This one's a little bit of a doozie. Innit?" 15:26 "And before this entire episode turns into 'The Adventures of Admiral Drach, Royal Navy'." 19:02 "Once it gets going, it's gonna get going at a pretty sharp clip. And good luck stopping it." 26:58 "At the battle of..um..I have no idea how to pronounce this. The battle of Me Yong Gim Yang. Question mark?" 30:17 "And, as well the name suggests, this was a dispute in the early 1960s over...who should have the right to fish for lobsters. Well I suppose the UK got involved in the Cod War, so this is really not THAT much more absurd. Although there is the rather interesting premise of whether a lobster is a fish or not." 35:24 "The war started earlier than they expected, um, thanks to Germany's antics." 44:58 "Who do you believe are the seven most awful admirals, captains, commanders etc, thru naval history." (The second I heard this question I knew that I'd end up transcribing the entire answer. I'm not doing that. Enjoy listening for yourself. It's a hoot. Here are some samples.) 45.19 "Lest I start getting very angry and ranty again." 46.17 "How the heck do you end up in command of the second largest formation in the British Navy? Just 'How?'. And 'Why?'. 48.22 "You can kinda see how Napoleon wanted to replace him." 1:36:13 "I can't remember from my german-class how you pronounce that weird 'sb' shape in German. Anyway, sorry." 1:38:11 (exasperated resignation) "OK. Fine." 2:01:23 "More important codes that were broken, were broken by the Japanese Army. Who, of course, refused to tell the Navy about it."
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  47. 00:38:48 - What ships actually looked like at early 20th century naval warfare ranges? Filming this piece outside, on a clear English day, was an inspired bit of production. Thank you.
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  48. Drachism of the Day 6:54: "poorly armored firecrackers"
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  49. Drachisms of the Day: 11:03 "I think you could probably best describe Halsey as an effective admiral in the same way as a man charging into a knife-fight, wielding a sledge-hammer is effective." 11:44 (on Yamamoto) "He was also the one who ran and organized the battle of Midway from the Japanese side and, well, that didn't go particularly well for them. Did it?" 16:07 "It became a 'Sail closer, I literally want to hit them with my sword.' Drop the corvus. Pin the enemy in place so it can't use it's superior seafaring skills against you. And then pour legionaries across. And then cut everyone to pieces. And that worked fairly well for them." 16:45 "The Roman Navy went from 'We're really an army, only we float.' stage." 21:50 "And I'm sorry to say, but, sitting around Scapa Flow, and looking out at various views of the North Sea, in it's multiple stages of gray...is not ESPECIALLY attractive." 1:29:54 "The greater Chilean economic prosperity sphere."
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  50. Drachisms of the Day 13:34 "a one-sided curb-stomp" 18:27 "Ah yes, the Albacore. One of life's great failures." 35:29 "It was a serious, serious tactical error on the British part that they didn't flatten the invasion of Norway in pretty miuch the same manner that a steam roller would go after a small bag of crisps that had been pinned onto the road." 38:13 "They would have beaten it, crushed it to a fine powder, collected the powder, and put it in a box to sooth the itching later on." 58:48 "And then you have the more prosaic enforced forms of retirement, that usually come in the shape of 32-pound cannon balls traveling at high-velocity. Ahm, which were not very popular with the person who was forcibly retired by said cannon-ball."
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  51. Drachism Of The Day: The opening line of dialog is "Ah! The USS Galena. A ship I've previously described as, possibly the worst US ironclad ever to put to sea". I'm thinking "Oh boy. Here is comes." What follows is a typical Drach Guide To Warships....fact filled, well written and produced. But it was snark-free!!!! I think Drach saves his best jokes for DryDock.
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  52. Drachisms of the Day: 11:50 "The US engineers assumed some degree of sanity had gone into the manufacture of Prinz Eugen's propulsion system, were left in charge, the majority of Prinz Eugen's propulsion system took itself off to it's own personal fuhrer bunker and shot itself. Disassembling in a rather spectacular manner." 12:44 "None of the very early carriers came out of things looking particularly brilliant." 17:58 "I suppose if you do need to worry about 'ship worm' on an iron ship, you've probably got bigger things to worry about." 20:19 "Tracing genealogies and various people who basically spent their part of the last millennia stabbing, shooting or hitting people over the head in the military." 21:00 "And yes, I will write it in the manner that I tend speak, hopefully. So it will be a little bit sarcastic, a little bit flippant, a little bit off the hook. But, what else do you expect, to be perfectly honest?" 23:25 "As built they were so terribly weak that THE SEA could bend them out of shape." 24:06 "Putting a 6-inch cruiser gun on them would probably end up looking like a giant 20000-ton-bus-version of that." " 35:57 "Master Of Dickery asks..." 42:44 "Uncle Stir-fry asks..." 52:27 "Grand Emperor Kurtz asks..." 58:32 "Assuming there's a magical money printing machine that is immune to the effects of inflation thru temporal paradox ... or something." (all due respect to the names of people asking questions....it just sounded funny)
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  53. 15:38 "To send her over onto her side, taking all but 17 of the almost 500 man crew with her." . "Knowledge maketh a bloody entrance." The Bard.
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  54. Drachisms of the Day: 16:00 "That's the first I've seen a battleship on Ebay." 28:54 "Which is full of torpedos and guns and shells and other kinds of explosive things which make the pyromaniac in me very happy."". 35:45 "They're just a little bit 'glass cannony'". 42:47 "Unlike an active sonar, which is where you hear the 'PIINNGG'". 45:43 "Because this is a 3-inch steel cable. There aren't that many sharks out there that are gonna gnaw that off." 46:07 "So it had to be a slightly different type of cable-cutter. One that effectively went "Nom. Nom. Nom. Nom." If you imagine a gigantic, underwater mouse or hamster that eats steel, you've got pretty much the right idea." 49:55 "The Conqueror was able to snip thru the cable, clamp it to it's side and make off with it with a low laugh." 50:20 "So perhaps the kleptomaniac tendencies of the British Armed Services were needed in this case." 55:35 "You ended up with a shell pattern that was ... ahhh...it would impress the Italians. On a BAD day of their shooting." 01:30:58 "And had a rather interesting habit of either not listening to them or not listening to them and then killing them. Because they obviously knew best." 01:32:24 "REALLY? You want me to pronounce that?" 01:38:10 "So you're not going to get the decisive leadership except possibly for orders to withdraw." 01:38:50 "It also has, apparently, divine protection from being hit." 01:51:25 "Which is a bit weird. But then the phrase "Well, that was a bit weird" and "Imperial Japanese Navy" get conflated an awful lot more than is common for most other navies when it comes to the Second World War." 02:04:27 "Pick your particular flavor of poison when it comes to that particular, um, treacherous pit of discussion." 02:18:32 "Oh boy. I need a drink now."
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  55. Drachisms of the Day: 13:02 "Oh, look at me. I've got such a big battleship. Insert relevant 'compensation joke' here thing." 14:02 "Now, it has been pointed out to me that I have recently been answering multi-part-questions in the correct order. This is heresy and must not be stood for. So, in the reverse order...." 17:59 "And, as for just how lethal these things could be, there's a reason why an awful lot of people who flooded ships magazines and saved the ship by doing so, ended up being awarded those medals posthumously." 18:37 "The rigid airship, as lovingly modeled here, by USS Akron." 21:34 (in regards to rigid airships) "You could just divert over another country and ... what are they going to do about it?" 22:22 "Battleships are big. The Earth is CONSIDERABLY larger." 22:45 "Because, to be honest, if you were close enough to a hostile ship the detailed picture would help you figure out which ship it was, you were probably far too close." 24:56 "But from this altitude, are you really going to be able to pick out exactly which ship it is? Wether it's a North Carolina or a South Dakota? Um...I mean for those of us who are obsessive naval historians, we probably can do." 29:52 "At the beginning of WW1, the British based the grand fleet for a while over in Northern Ireland. Umm..so, yeah, good luck with that." 43:51 "But be a much more fightable ship without it's front turrets being turned into temporary aquariums."
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  56. Drachisms Of The Day: 7:28 "unobtainium propeller shafts and Tardiss-like engine spaces" 9:07 "bears the somewhat dubious privilege of being one of the most modernized pre-Dreadnoughts of all time" 33:40 "also, growing a brain-stem and realizing that possibly the Enigma codes had been cracked" 43:12 (singing) "Skippy! Oh Skippy the bush kangaroo." 43:50 "Which spells very bad things for Prince Eugen who would be the one to catch most of that in the face" 49:25 "ramp up the power plant to EVEN MORE hilarious levels"
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  57. "structural integrity of the crew"
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  58. Well done Michael Lowery. You certainly have the history down pat. But what struck me was that this was a very well "organized" presentation. As I was listening, questions began to occur to me. And, within a few minutes/sentences, you addressed them.
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  59. Drachisms of the Day: 14:46 "No one ever accused them of being competent. But schizophrenic may well be accurate." 16:02 "And then, when the war ended it's like 'Navy? What Navy? We don't have a navy. No, no, no! Those lovely Slovenes, Croats and Serbs over there. They have a navy. That they're very quickly repainting. But it's not ours. So you can't have it.' Buuut....well..........the allies didn't quite buy that." 17:40 "They just had the misfortune of when they eventually encountered pushy westerners in warships." 20:13 "They never really quite got their act back-together after Lepanto, way back when. But, they tried. You got to give them points for trying." 25:14 "Trying to command a battle from an open bridge was a cold and damp affair. Being British, I don't know quite why they were complaining about that. It's the natural way of things after all." 28:23 "Which could best be described as a steel ingot that they put a Lion class armament on." 1:02:13 "The hundreds of thousands, if not more, volts of energy, that you need to drive a ship, suddenly being dumped into them and their surrounding environment. Mmm, tends not to go to well." 1:03:09 "At least you're not turning the entire rear half of your ship into a giant fly-grid. Except for humans.
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  60. Drachisms of the Day (3/3): 5:56 "Firing, effectively, a full-broadside, let's say every ten seconds, because the Captains feeling kind." 16:39 "Oh, well look! The person with the massive heavy ships versus lightweight ships managed to win. Shock, horror!" 17:28 "So I'd be able to turn that around, at least, in theory. Assuming anyone listened to me." 19:27 "And...also the simple fact of the matter is generally, in land battles, that, ah, you are shooting at men and horses which are a lot squishyer and easier to kill than ships of the line." 23:02 "But they don't need to be available quite as soon as the machinery, cause, well generally speaking, as you can see here with the USS Florida, the guns go on the top." 27:20 "I managed to avoid a 'technical derail'. Huzzah!" 28:21 "The OTHER way of doing it was to basically bake it into something that was so hard and moisture-free that it was more 'building material' or 'melee weapon' than food-stuff." 30:56 "And discovered that they hadn't quite got the technology right. And they kind of put on a minor electrical storm every time they tried to turn the turrets. With massive arcs of blue fire. Which looks pretty but is not particularly effective." 38:34 "As an Englishman, I'm almost genetically duty-bound to rag on the French on occasion."
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  61. Drachism of the Day: "Obviously, with the 'Essex 3-D Print Production Line' going, the USN is not really at risk of ever running out of these ships." 34:30 Bonus Drachism of the Day #1: "There's not really that much wrong with the Japanese guns themselves. And they hit harder...when their shells actually explode." 42:05 Bonus Drachism of the Day #2: "The general craze everyone had for ramming things." 48:40
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  62. Drachisms of the Day: 16:50 (in regards to rubberized flight-decks) "And then you would have had the Kitty Hawk turned into the world's largest trampoline". 46:58 "You've just let a bunch of water into your ship voluntarily which is probably not a good idea to do in the face of an enemy battleship that's about to, possibly, let a lot of water into your ship involuntarily." 48:24 "You know what? STUFF THIS. I'm going after him."
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  63. I spent last Saturday, with many of you, on the Battleship New Jersey. We visited with Drach, toured the ship, shot the guns and spent hours in Q&A sessions. The questions covered all things nautical, and more. British humor and sarcasm were the topic more than once. And, years after seeing "The Holy Grail", my curiosity was finally satisfied. I now know the meaning of "mangy scots git". Thank you Drach, for crossing the Atlantic to bring me this knowledge. I encourage everyone to attend the Meet-n-Greet on Drach's next tour. You never know what you'll learn.
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  64. Emma Hamilton. Her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.
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  65. Drachisms of the Day (1/3): 18:51 "It was commanded by the rather wonderfully named "Manley Power". 19:38 "And they seemed to carry the tradition of the ALABAMA in more ways than one. Especially as they all ended in similar ways." 21:54 "Hmm. Nice merchant navy. Shame if something were to happen to it." 23:03 "By the traditional method, which was 'Pay us or we'll shoot you.' Because the British would have been; 'OK, you want to try it that way. Let's go then.'". 29:18 "But then again, I am British. So I guess eccentricity is somewhere down there in the DNA." 33:47 "Instead of...well, yeah...the 'melee-weapon' that is the Mark XIV." 34:07 "But it's certainly going to put a VERY big spanner in the works." (to my ear, this is a 'Yank-specific' Drachism). 46:44 "If I ever find who made that video, I'm coming for you with a blunt object." 47:00 "As I've said before, if I could BE on any one ship, it would be something like the USS Massachusetts, because, well, if you didn't loose anybody, so I get to live. Huzzah! I like life." 49:56 "Sit there and let the horribleness overtake you."
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  66. Drachisms of the Day 15:06 "yet it did practically nothing other than roll over and sink" 21:21 "All Galena really did was to provide an opportunity for some Confederate gunners to up their kill-count. So yeah, cancel that thing. Bit of an embarrassment, really." 29:24 "Much as I hate to say it, no one was going to be particularly terrified of the Philippine Navy." 34:14 "No one is going to be particularly distressed if your plate isn't perfectly circular. Unless you've got really crippling OCD." 35:42 "Now, I don't know about you, but two kilos of explosive is a fair bit of BOOM." 41:37 "You can't run. You can't hide. Big Daddy Lexington's coming to fiiinnd you."
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  67. Drachisms of the Day 23:38 "And the Germans, especially when it came to the Admiral Hipper class, went 'I know. We shall take our little, overly-complex hodge-podge and we will run it at a THOUSAND psi. That'll end well.' Yeah, I can hear the trans-Atlantic head-desking. Trust me, I can." 27:34 "Fuel goes in here. Water goes in here. Steam goes out here. Connect it up. Wheee! Happy Days!"
    52
  68. 13:17 "Second class submarines included the 'Type F' which appears to have just meant 'F' in a rather pleasing change of pace." 13:59 "The development of this sometimes bewildering variety of submarines..."
    51
  69. Drachism Of The Day: 1:05:36 "And hopefully not drowning in endless amounts of rain and mud because I'd much rather keep that for the WW1 re-enactors."
    48
  70. Drachisms of the Day: 1:36 "not particularly badger-like to my estimation" 28:57 "If, by any chance, there's a human behavioral psychologist or two listening to this maybe you can chime in as to whether this theory has, or ever had, any particular weight, um, and we'll see where I go from there." 31:55 "Carriers generally have a fairly enlightened bit of self-interest in staying away from enemy shipping as well." 32:55 "Was in line with the three British battleships, forming a somewhat incongrous battle-line." 34:12 (with pride) And, ironically enough, technically won." 34:44 "There was nothing in it's design...that was completely impossible to do." 43:39 "So this particular little interception scenario greatly depends on what the Japanese actually bring to the party." 47:07 "In regards as to what happened to Mutsu ... well, it went BOOM." 47:56 "The report that was issued at the time officially blamed a disgruntled crewman who had been accused of theft and may have decided to do the ultimate hara-kiri." 50:49 "A bit of note, note-paper that says 'Something bigger, better and faster than whatever the French have just built.'" 58:16 "There's also a little bit of ramming. And a few of the British ships are lost. Umm. But, by and large, that may come as little shock to people."
    48
  71. Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise. Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency. Our three weapons are fear, and surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope. Our four*...no... *Amongst our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.
    46
  72. Drachism of 2020 23:45 "Can you tell us about the Russian naval doctrine? Oh boy..." "Oh boy!" That pretty much sums up 2020. Here's to 2021.
    44
  73. Drachism of the Day: Name your golden retriever 'Doubloon'. So you can say you have a 'Golden Doubloon'. 35:45 Bonus Drachism of the Day: "Well, without going into too much horrific detail, if we're going to stick around with Churchill and 'strange fetishes' we could be here for a while. So we won't" 43:20
    43
  74. Drachisms of the Day: 19:57 "And, to his credit, Russel Crowe doesn't quite give us the linguistic tour of the UK that he does in some other films." 33:03 "Hilarious to watch. Not so hilarious to run away from." 59:27 "Unless you get a complete and utter suprise attack obviously, which ... Eh! It's possible. But I wouldn't put my money on it." 1:26:03 "Outside of a few computer aided ... stunts."
    40
  75. 1:06 "THANK YOU ALEX." Another mystery of the universe...sadly revealed. I suppose 'Alexander' is an appropriate name. But it wasn't on my list. I speculated that it was 'Nelson'. Or 'Horatio'. Or 'Spongebob' What names were on your list?
    39
  76. The new drydock formula is fine. You've become the victim of your own success. I particularly like the idea of doing Q-n-A on your recently published works. I'm happy to hear that I am not alone in discovering duplicate books in my library. Best wishes for a full recovery for the throat/voice. My advice on your move to a new home....you only need to unpack toilet paper and your toothbrush....everything else is secondary.
    37
  77. Not Pinned Post for Q&A. She encountered an old German mine in 1956. Which raises the questions. What sea-mines lurked the longest (after the conflict ended) and then inflicted damage? And... What sea-mines lurked the longest before they were discovered?
    35
  78. Phrase of the Day: "Beatty was basically more like a well-spoken Klingon when it came to battle. Very unsubtle and rather predictable." 50:26 K'plah!
    35
  79. DRACHISM OF THE YEAR 47:06 "But, after a long career wearing out anchor cables."
    34
  80. 30:57 "Admiral Kurita had already had enough, and left". Samar, in eight words. 40:41 "Plus, "filling in any remaining space with twin 20 mmm Oerlikons." And no, I'm not even joking, that's exactly what it says on the order papers."
    33
  81. Drydock - Episode 256 Coming up on the five year mark.
    27
  82. In regards to U-Boats shelling the refinery on Aruba. I suggest "The U-Boat War in the Caribbean" by Gaylord Kelshall. The oil is in Venezuela (which you can see from Aruba). The refinery is on Aruba (I stood at the gates). The Brits, being clever empire-builders, did not want the Venezuelan's having full control of 'production of oil'. So they put the refinery out of their grasp. This necessitated a fleet of tankers to schelpp the crude between the two points. Venezuela has a shallow coastline. So the tankers were 'shallow bottom', custom-made, tankers. There were 10 of them in the fleet. Now for the fun part. The U-Boats sank one of the 10. Had Doenitz appreciated the situation, he should have gone after the other 9. Their sinking would have crippled the operation and denied Britain a large percentage of their 'empire oil'. One other bit from Kelshall's book. A U-Boat attacked a freighter in the Carib. They watched as the freighter-crew abandoned ship faster than they'd ever seen happen before. So fast that they left one of their shipmates aboard the sinking freighter. So the U-Boat pulled up and took the sailor on board. The sailor was very nervous...natural for a POW, the U-Boat commander assumed. It wasn't until the freighter sank below the waves that the truth came out. The freighter was hauling ammo. And it went BOOM. It almost sank the U-Boat. No word on how the POW was treated on his trip back to Germany. These experts are from memory. I apologize for inaccuracies. The book is OK. It does shed light on a neglected theater of war. I'd give it a half-hearted recommendation.
    27
  83. You are invited to 'Dinner With The Drachs'. Accept _ Decline _
    26
  84. Rather Wonderful Drachisms of the Day. 22:52 "A rather wonderfully labeled 'Explosives and Grenades' ". 32:02 "The rather wonderfully named 'Supply Department: Acid Locker'. I will leave it to others to describe what the acids, stored aboard, are used for. Spoiler Alert: It's not quite as exciting as you might think." Bonus Drachism (not as wonderful): 35:16 "The rather entertainingly named 'Chemical Warfare Materials Stowage'."
    23
  85. Episode 259. Next week is five years. That's an achievement.
    23
  86. Drachisms of the Day 15:58 "At which point it's the Battle Of The Falklands all over again. Just slightly different." 40:49 "Give anybody that's trying to visually spot you a minor seizure."
    22
  87. "Snakes on a Trireme". Starring Samuel L. Jackson. "I've had it with these motherfukin snakes on this motherfukin trireme." Coming soon to a theater near you.
    20
  88. Drachisms of the Day: 21:53 "They were deliberately going out and colonizing areas, but it was not for imperial acquisition purposes, it was more for, well, either offloading weird religious fanatics..." 38:01 "Or, in some of the German cases, you ended up with ships that sincerely wished to identify as U-boats and would do everything in their power to join the U-boat corp, eh, whenever the waves looked to be more than a few inches high." 47:51 (conspiratorially) "And, I may or may-not have quietly sneaked into a couple history-course lectures without telling anybody that I wasn't actually on the course while I was at university. Um, but we shall say no more about that." 49:07 "Which again, they got very familiar with me." (no judgement) 54:13 "The idea of your own ship basically committing suicide by running up to full speed is not something that you want to take lightly." 57:32 "At the end of the day, nothing quite beats taking a big slab of metal downrange and then blasting away with naval artillery."
    18
  89. You discussed this topic, 'book recommendation videos', aboard the battleship New Jersey just a few weeks ago. Speaking as someone who's been building a (Russo-German-WW2) library since 1975, I find this to be tremendously valuable. I told you that I have many hobbies. Books are an expensive hobby. So I say again, I find this to be tremendously valuable.
    17
  90. Applause to Baron Engel. Nicely done, Sir.
    16
  91. Everything I learned about 'statistics' came from Mark Twain. "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
    15
  92. Built by William Cramp & Sons (in Phila PA). I grew up directly across the street from a Phila 'public school' (K-thru-5). "William Cramp School". Not at all surprised to hear that this ship became a 'torpedo testing' platform that retired in 1921. Because BUORD didn't bother to test any of their torpedoes after that!!!
    13
  93. Last night was our weekly wargame. It was ACW Ironclads. There were a LOT of 'critical hits'. A few ships went 'BOOM' and glugged. Everyone was wondering why I was humming 'Battle Hymn Of The Republic'.
    12
  94. In regards to trireme speed, Wouldn't it be a lot easier to just add a second drummer to the oar deck? About the early USN monitors being compared to a 'heavily armed raft'. How long did it takes to inflate one of them? Did they use an air pump? Or just blow into the red valve?
    11
  95. 16:45 "The other exception was France, which was merrily in the process of guillotining everyone in sight, and thus, was not in a position to do much of anything." 34:12 "from a spate of 'near-Roman' level of assassinations" Europeans: We'll send them cannon and guns. Americans (eventually): We'll send them ammunition. Used.
    11
  96. On a completely unrelated note. It was just announced that Edward "Teddy" Sheean, of the HMAS Armindale, was just awarded the VC! I believe this man was discussed on a previous DryDock. Respect.
    9
  97. Philly Drachism 25:14 "the expoldy stuff goes in there"
    9
  98. Further reading (for beneath the waves): The U-Boat War in the Caribbean. By Gaylord Kelshall
    9
  99. Imagine a world where the SMS Nassau survived and was converted to a museum ship. For Drach, hell is that world. And he must tour the ship every day.
    8
  100. Time and again, I hear the same phrase: "thanks to technological progression'. That march of technology changes everything. Ships become 'best in class', and then fall into obsolescence, sometimes in a matter of a decade. So it struck me that this might be a good topic. The many technologies that drove this evolution. The progression of: refining, metallurgy, chemical-engineering, optics, communications, electronics. With a primary focus on the technologies themselves....how (and why) industry arrived at such things. A secondary focus on how they were eventually applied to fighting ships.
    7
  101. Cogito ergo cognito. I think, therefore I am. Cogito ergo spud. I think, therefore I yam.
    6
  102. Drachisms of the Year Vol 2 1/25/20 Drachisms of the Day 15:06 "yet it did practically nothing other than roll over and sink" 21:21 "All Galena really did was to provide an oppourtunity for some Confederate gunners to up their kill-count. So yeah, cancel that thing. Bit of an embarrassment, really." 29:24 "Much as I hate to say it, noone was going to be particularly terrified of the Phillipine Navy." 34:14 "Nobody is going to be particularly distressed if your plate isn't perfectly circular. Unless you've got really crippling OCD." 35:42 "Now, I don't know about you, but two kilos of explosive is a fair bit of BOOM." 41:37 "You can't run. You can't hide. Big Daddy Lexington's coming to fiiinnd you." * * * 1-22/20 "Previously, the text-to-speach was damning the Swedish language for tying it up in pretzels trying to pronounce the word "Sverige" correctly. Now I'm speaking in English, I have a microphone, I can mess it up in all sorts of new and interesting ways. Anyway." * * * 1-11/20 Drachisms of the Day: 1:36 "not particularly badger-like to my estimation" 28:57 "If, by any chance, there's a human behavioral psychologist or two listening to this maybe you can chime in as to whether this theory has, or ever had, any particular weight, um, and we'll see where I go from there." 31:55 "Carriers generally have a fairly enlightened bit of self-interest in staying away from shipping as well." 32:55 "Was in line with the three British battleships, forming a somewhat incongrous battle-line." 34:11 (with pride) And, ironically enough, technically won." 34:44 "There was nothing in it's design...that was completely impossible to do." 43:39 "So this particular little interception scenario greatly depends on what the Japanese actually bring to the party." 47:07 "In regards as to what happened to Mutsu ... well, it went BOOM." 47:56 "The report that was issued at the time officially blamed a disgruntled crewman who had been accused of theft and may have decided to do the ultimate hara-kiri." 50:48 "A bit of note-paper that says 'Build something bigger, better and faster than whatever the French have just built.'" 58:16 "There's also a little bit of ramming. And a few of the British ships are lost. Umm. But, by and large, that may come as little shock to people." * * * 1/4/20 Drachisms of the Day: 0:53 "Greetings people of the future. Tell me of your strange and mysterious ways." 8:59 "And of course you've got the fact that this would almost certainly being done by the Soviet Union, in an era where their maintenance budget for the Red Fleet was two bits of black bread and a bowl of stroganoff." * * * 12/21/19 Drachisms of the Day: 21:53 "They were deliberately going out and colonizing areas, but it was not for imperial acquisition purposes, it was more for, well, either offloading weird religious fanatics..." 38:01 "Or, in some of the German cases, you ended up with ships that sincerely wished to identify as U-boats and would do everything in their power to join the U-boat corp, eh, whenever the waves looked to be more than a few inches high." 47:51 (conspiratorialy) "And, I may or may-not have quietly sneaked into a couple history-course lectures without telling anybody that I wasn't actually on the course while I was at university. Um, but we shall say no more about that." 49:07 "Which again, they got very familiar with me." (no judgement) 54:13 "The idea of your own ship basically committing suicide by running up to full speed is not something that you want to take lightly." 57:32 "At the end of the day, nothing quite beats taking a big slab of metal downrange and then blasting away with naval artillery." * * * 12/14/19 8:48 "Short of a Death Star laser, or something, Germany wasn't going to be winning WW2." 9:26 "Luke Dogwalker asks..." * * * 12/11/19 Encrypted Drachism of the Day: 53:14 "JNER SDIF GHWE BORS DDFL XKIQ ISKE DPEJ BDRT KWQI GJCM NWTY VYIS SZPE DEFL KWTE TOWS, ZIFE AEIW DEIB HUXC ICNR WRMD IWDF WPIN MPET DAIC CUNJ NARF" (decrypted) 53:14 "And, if you've particularly enjoyed the nice warm feeling of your brain melting out of your ears, in a desperate attempt to flee from what you are trying to do to it" * * * 12/7/19 Drachisms of the Day: 3:50 "Eww, well. This one's a little bit of a doozie. Innit?" 15:26 "And before this entire episode turns into 'The Adventures of Admiral Drach, Royal Navy'." 19:02 "Once it gets going, it's gonna get going at a pretty sharp clip. And good luck stopping it." 26:58 "At the battle of..um..I have no idea how to pronounce this. The battle of Me Yong Gim Yang. Question mark?" 30:17 "And, as well the name suggests, this was a dispute in the early 1960s over...who should have the right to fish for lobsters. Well I suppose the UK got involved in the Cod War, so this is really not THAT much more absurd. Although there is the rather insteresting premise of wether a lobster is a fish or not." 35:24 "The war started earlier than they expected, um, thanks to Germany's antics." 44:58 "Who do you believe are the seven most awful adminrals, captains, commanders etc, thru naval history." (The second I heard this question I knew that I'd end up transcribing the entire anwser. I'm not doing that. Enjoy listening. It's a hoot.) 45.19 "Lest I start getting very angry and ranty again." 46.17 "How the heck do you end up in command of the second largest formation in the British Navy? Just 'How?'. And 'Why?'. 48.22 "You can kinda see how Napoleon wanted to replace him." 1:36:13 "I can't remember from my german-class how you pronounce that weird 'sb' shape in German. Anyway, sorry." 1:38:11 (exhasperated resignation) "OK. Fine." 2:01:13 "More important codes that were broken, were broken by the Japanese Army. Who, of course, refused to tell the Navy about it."
    5
  103. Whiskey distilling, in Kentucky, results in bourbon. So long as it waits for 2 years, in a charred oak barrel.
    4
  104.  @AdamMGTF  (with humility) Sir, your comment made my day. Thank you.
    3
  105. Drachisms of the Day commenced with #39. I'd been listening since before that date. He was still doing CG voice when I got here.
    3
  106. About the 'Gibraltar kill zone'. They've improved it. They've added an aircraft runway. I had to stand in Spain and wait....as the Airbus landed in front of me. Then I was able to continue my assault on The Rock.
    3
  107. The audio quality was good.
    2
  108. Encrypted Drachism of the Day: 53:14 "JNER SDIF GHWE BORS DDFL XKIQ ISKE DPEJ BDRT KWQI GJCM NWTY VYIS SZPE DEFL KWTE TOWS, ZIFE AEIW DEIB HUXC ICNR WRMD IWDF WPIN MPET DAIC CUNJ NARF" (decrypted) 53:14 "And, if you've particularly enjoyed the nice warm feeling of your brain melting out of your ears, in a desperate attempt to flee from what you are trying to do to it"
    2
  109. I just read thru the comments. Everyone says CONGRATS. Everyone says how much you DESERVE it. But most of all, there are SO MANY who mention the QUALITY of your CONTENT and PRODUCTION VALUES. Today, to honor you, I am wearing my shirt that says 'HEY BEAR'.
    1