Comments by "Gregory Wright" (@gregorywright4918) on "The Drydock - Episode 240" video.

@tomdolan9761 The build decisions were all made in the 1938-40 timeframes, well before war experiences, and you really don't have WW2 experience against moving battleships until 1941. The point was to have a well-balanced fleet, able to handle both air and surface threats by day or night and in all kinds of weather. American fleet problems of the 1930s pointed to the utility of the aircraft carrier as an independent striking unit. but also it's fragility and need to be able to fall back on (or behind) a heavier surface element at night or in bad weather. Early Mediterranean experience of 40-41 was a mixed bag, even seeing the heavily armored Illustrious getting pounded and knocked out. Build decisions were revised in 1942 as more experience piled up, but you still see the faster battleships escorting the carriers throughout the war and being tasked with dealing with potential surface threats (that never materialized or were bungled like off Samar) into 1945. And immediately after the war there were no peer opponents to worry about.
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@hughgordon6435 There were so few of the big ones left, and Japan was so short on fuel, plus there was no "escape to Argentina" option for the Emperor or his minions.
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At least she has torpedoes.
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Re the question at 39:00, on a warship just about everything in engineering is duplicated, triplicated, or quadruplicated, so first of all a particular problem is powered down and bypassed, with alternates taking up the slack or the ship just having less power. The ship, depending on it's size, carries some spares for frequent problems (such as turbine blades, bearings or shaft seals) which can be swapped in by the engineering crew if they have time to strip down the item once it is cold. Often it has to wait until the ship is not underway, but I've heard of some repairs being done during long cruises. Bigger ships have machine shops where parts can be adjusted, repaired or fabricated. At a port there may be more parts or a machine shop, or the ship might tie up next to a repair tender. If it is serious the ship may be routed to a shipyard where specialized workers and machines can be found. Some things like boilers and gears can be operated without fully repairing the part, they are just less efficient. Other things, like high-speed turbines, are carefully balanced and cannot be run with broken blades, but individual blades can be swapped out as they are identical. If the enclosure or the main shaft is damaged, that is much more serious and would have to wait for shipyard attention.
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You mean just at Jutland, or in general? For more general, numbers are out there, but I don't know if anyone has compiled overall stats beyond what Vince O'Hara did in "US Navy Versus the Axis". They should probably be separated by nationality, launcher (air, ship, sub), and war (WW1 very different than WW2).
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@tomdolan9761 And the prewar understanding was that large ships take much longer to build, so you essentially have what you built before the war, while smaller ships are quick builds and are best built just before or at the start of the war so you have the most recent designs.
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@kemarisite So training outboard was a necessary dependent step to firing. I'm just saying I've never heard of another report of a ship's torpedoes firing during ship destruction. If they had been trained out and were about to fire, maybe I could believe that the firing key was tripped by the explosion.
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@kemarisite Another example of a dependent action, like training the launcher outward or opening tube doors, that would prevent an actual unintended launch. But if Hood's launchers were already trained and primed, I guess that could happen.
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Although if it's coming from a deck penetration it would probably hit the top of the head...
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The most of any nationality, or the most of their different classes of ships? They did use them a lot more than the US, but their destroyers seem to have used them more than the cruisers.
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Weren't those 5"/54s originally in the Midways?
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The next question then would be how much the book author would allow to be put in someone else's video. Of course, if there's a link to the book it might help out his sales...
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There are several interdependent steps involved in firing torpedoes, such as opening the outer doors, I have never heard of them accidentally firing when the ship (or sub) was struck.
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@ShadowDragon1848 Go to the Videos section on his Youtube site and search on "Bismarck". A half-dozen will pop up (several Drydocks) where he is asked about issues and comparisons. OK, maybe a dozen or two...
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