Comments by "William Cox" (@WildBillCox13) on "The Drydock - Episode 083" video.

  1. Disclaimer: it's been quite a while, so I might misremember Standing watch at sea (in the USN in the 1970s): You'd work an 8 hour day and then be free OR assigned one 4 hour watch during the remaining 16 hours. We called it P/S or Port/Starboard, one Watch Section being the "duty" watch every day. Regular meals were served to the crew at the usual times (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner), but anyone could stop in the galley in between for coffee, milk, or tea. If at GQ (General Quarters), no one went anywhere, other than Damage Control and the officers. The galley sent around sandwiches and beverages to the various spaces and DC stations. As a DC investigator (the most expendable man on the ship) I enjoyed a considerable amount of freedom, no matter the occasion.
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  2. About the alternate history question: The Japanese had samples of the Vickers 40mm Pompom in various mountings through capture of foreign equipment and occupation of foreign owned bases and shipyards. As with the Bofors 40mm gun, availability of suitable mountings was a hurdle to climb (something the Soviets discovered with 37mm and 45mm mounts after the war). The best I can think of were the quad PomPom and the dual Bofors mountings mounted on various captures and the odd onbase AA Post. French and Dutch captured/destroyed in harbor ships might've also offered their 37mm cannon. A good point of departure is the obvious nod to Bofors, once upon a time a clandestine center for German weapons research between the wars. Indeed, the German Kriegsmarine ran a small production line for the 40mm Bofors gun, albeit in the older twin mounts, rather than the USN's prodigal, iconic, "quads".
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  3. Stretching a ship with an additional segment? Meet the Gearing Class; a Sumner with space for more fuel.
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  4. That was a worthy point made about the size of aircraft. I was at Wright Patterson and, outside the main doors, were several warplanes lined up on either side of the walk. An F-15 and a B25 were on display when I went there last (decades back) and I was immediately struck by their similarity in size and general dimensions. Another point might be that effective "twins", like Sea Hornet, and F7F Tigercat, were developed, but they were deployed as stopgaps in expectation that the Age of the Jet had arrived.
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  5. I remember when Hair was new. ;-)
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