Comments by "William Cox" (@WildBillCox13) on "Drachinifel"
channel.
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The idea of an American trade ship expedition to the Pacific is the central theme of my novel Conversations with a Dragon. My take on subject is that there was trade going between Japan and the Americas, leading to the tradition of setting the abbot of Fudarakusanji (it's a real tradition) adrift in a sealed boat at age 60. That boat was "loaded with treasures and crafts, including sword blades and other articles of Japanese manufacture". My feeling is that the temple was trading with the American trade "fleet" of "Ra" type ocean-going boats somewhere off the coast of the Home Islands.
In my novel, the outgoing abbot would travel to the Americas as an agent, and the older, returning, abbot would, therefore, be returned, anonymous, and alive. This idea explains a few anomalies of Japanese culture, such as the Tengu. "Bird Men . . . Men who look like birds . . ." The teachers of arcane "arts".
Sounds like contemporary Maya/Aztekki (or even Inca) to me. My spin was that the myth of Tengu came about because of an embassy. In this way, certain American traders brought in Japanese steel (which would be long gone today, considering the climate), trading for it in American Silver, Gold, and gems.
Those items are valuable enough to set up a smuggling ring around. The story is convoluted in a peculiarly Japanese manner to hide the facts.
It's a great novel with an intriguing premise (according to my one vote). ;-)
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6 April 1941. SS Clan Frazier.
<Civilian two miles away> "It's raining men!"
5 December 1918. Mont-Blanc.
From the wiki: "Approximately 20 minutes later at 9:04:35 am, the Mont-Blanc exploded. Nearly all structures within an 800-metre (half-mile) radius, including the community of Richmond, were obliterated.[3] A pressure wave snapped trees, bent iron rails, demolished buildings, grounded vessels (including Imo, which was washed ashore by the ensuing tsunami), and scattered fragments of Mont-Blanc for kilometres. Across the harbour, in Dartmouth, there was also widespread damage.[4] A tsunami created by the blast wiped out the community of the Mi'kmaq First Nation who had lived in the Tufts Cove area for generations."
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I spoke on the absurdity of significant ASW capability being appended to the Fleet Destroyer concept in your video on the Atlanta class. I will make the point again for this excellent class of Fleet Destroyer.
The last thing you want to do with a valuable warship, when in an enemy submarine operational zone, is leave it dead in the water (which cruisers and battleships had to do in order to recover floatplanes), or trawling along at very low speed and in straight lines. That latter is exactly the procedure for detecting and combating enemy submarines.
Zut alors! But the Destroyer, you might well object, is the "Greyhound of the Sea"! She is neither slow, nor likely to move in straight lines . . . unless she is detailed to be left behind, holding a suspected enemy submarine at bay, while the more valuable component units in its task force escape. So we take a very fast, light, ship and make it do slow trawling . . . ASW trawling is done at 3-8 nauts per hour. Any faster and your hydrophones can't hear anything over the susurrus of the sea*. As for active SoNAR Illumination ("Pinging" SoNAR), world war 2 SoNAR illuminators had a very short effective range, i.e.: 100-200m to either side of the ship, except in very calm seas.
When the carrier group suspects a submarine, it moves off at high speed, leaving behind a Fleet Destroyer or two to keep the enemy submarine at bay. While the tactic is effective enough as a deterrent to further interference from that particular enemy submarine, it also weakens the carrier group. Fleet Screening--especially carrier screening--requires your physical presence on site and, if your Fleet Destroyer is "back there somewhere", you aren't with the carrier(s).
In a war of attrition that can be crucial. Two destroyers stripped from the enemy carrier group by one of your submarines . . . is a tactical victory.
A cheaper, more expendable . . . no kidding . . . alternative was sought, and found, in the form of the ASW Frigate. Smaller, lighter in displacement, slower, optimised for the ASW Trawling Mission. An ASW Frigate doesn't need the same high speed performance as a Fleet Destroyer, and, in result, does not travel with the carrier group. Instead, the ASW Frigate sails with the Fleet Replenishment Train, which is composed of ships much slower than the Carrier group's Fleet Carriers, Fast Battleships, Cruisers . . . and Fleet Destroyers.
The Fleet Destroyer merely waits for the ASW Frigate(s) to show up, then hands over to it (them) and races back to its intended role of Fleet Screening. That seems reasonable, doesn't it--to let specialist ships, more expendable ones, to boot, take the load off the Greyhounds of the Sea?
Except . . . anyone remember that WW2 Carrier Air Wing Strike group that followed an enemy Destroyer back to its parent carrier group? Yep. I sure do.
But, to make the Fleet Destroyer carry all that extra armament . . . its fantail overloaded with 30-50 500lb bombs . . . I mean Depth Charges . . . as if deck mounted torpedo ordnance wasn't enough risk on an unarmored ship already . . . is both superfluous and dumb. At best, the Fleet Destroyer only needs a few DC or a single Hedgehog to render it capable of its effort diverting ASW role. The ASW Frigate will soon be on the scene. What the Fleet Destroyer needs isn't more ASW ordnance--it needs more AA Dakka!
*It's still like that today, btw.
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