Comments by "William Cox" (@WildBillCox13) on "The Drydock - Episode 096" video.

  1. I was "restricted to the ship", rather than further confined. My offense? smoking Marijuana . . . in the early 1970s. Fun fact: my fall from grace was sparked by spending time with members of the Navy Band. I was a newb and they wanted to teach me how to party. Now, it's almost 50 years later (48 to be exact) and I salute my captain's relaxed penalties. They got a lot of useful work* out of me by leaving me remain aboard. I also spent a few hours in the Brig at Gitmo . . .for grabassing with other idiots "in a suspicious manner". That was a regular jail, run by Marines. I got awful bored waiting for them to straighten it out. *Filing a hodgepodge of ShipAlt forms detailing every modification and repair the ship had as yet endured into a numerical certainty from SA 000,001 to subjective infinity. A half million of them. An absolutely necessary job nobody wanted. That moved me from the Engine Room to a nice office on O deck for my 8 hour shift. Love ya, Skipper.
    7
  2. My understanding was that early war Active (i.e.: "Pinging") SoNAR/ASDIC was very short range. 100-500m on either side of the owning ship. Hydrophones, on the other hand, were able to hear quite some distance, depending on sea state. A submarine near the surface was effectively invisible to wartime SoNARs, or so I thought. Additionally, SoNAR listening was useless above 9 or 10nts speed, due to the sound of the owning ship's passage through its fluid medium. The Hippers were installed with SoNAR, but fat lot of good it did them.
    4
  3. My question is: would Japan have been better served by socialist legislation and programs in the form of "Public Works" for the common good . . . redirecting the national coffers and effort thus, rather than wasting it on its aggression in China and elsewhere? Value for value, which course do you think would've worked out best for her?
    2
  4. Interesting take on the Bismarck versus Prince of Wales idea.
    1
  5. "Bismarck's fire was accurate from the first, straddling--"
    1
  6. I understand the problem with protecting the rudder now and thanks for it. What about the screws, however? They don't need to pivot port or starboard. Could a full length chine outboard protect the screws better? From Iowa's arrangement it looks like any torpedo hit to a screw would also endanger the twin, close together, rudders. In fact it rather reminds me of Bismarck's arrangement, allowing for the difference in the number of screws.
    1