Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "The Drydock - Episode 198" video.

  1. Regarding Drac's Canada trip, and crossing the US border to visit "The Sullivans", the ship sank at it's moorings a few weeks ago. Some temporary repairs were made and the ship pumped out, but I don't know as it would be open to the public next month.
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  2.  @mancubwwa  thanks, I was not aware of that.
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  3. wrt the USN building battlecruisers in the 1920s, some of the material I have read about the WNT says the UK was open to an individual ship upper limit of 42-43,000 tons, ie Hood size ships, it was the US that demanded the hard 35,000t limit. The US' position at the conference was that it didn't want to spend anything on anything. To get battlecruisers built would require getting them laid down earlier. The Lexingtons were authorized in the 1916 appropriation, but construction was suspended before they were laid down, due to the change in priorities after the US entered the war. Meanwhile, the head of BuOrd, Strauss, was a fan of the 14" gun, and actively opposed the 16". When the 14" guns for the Tennessees were ordered, 14" were also ordered for the battlecruisers, as that is what the preliminary designs called for. It was not until mid summer 1916, when the SecNav and General Board analyzed Jutland, overruled Strauss, and decreed that future capital ships would have 16" guns. Keep in mind, in 1914, the USN had no modern cruisers, only an accumulation of obsolete armored and protected cruisers. The scenario to get battlecruisers built would need to go down along the lines of Congress being suitably impressed by the Battle of the Falklands, and stampede into adding battlecruisers to the 1915 appropriation that included the Tennessees, using the extra 14"/50s that had been ordered. The designs that used the 14"/50s were generally under 35,000 tons. Then get the long slipways built at the yards and get them laid down, before the US enters the war. With the earlier start, laid down in late 16-early 17, they would be complete before the Washington Conference.
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