BB trivia

[RAL's_pal?]

Originally Posted by RustyBattleship

And you would still be in Leavenworth.

I sure don't know what you'd be doing in there, but I could have pulled plans and photographed them if I had any desire to. Linda M. is a good friend of mine and we still keep in touch. I wouldn't be surprised if Gordon Douglas had his own key because of the odd times I'd seen him around. One of the GM's there liberated a number of books from the Tech Library, among them the 8 Volumes of DANFS after the yard got notice it was closing.

[RustyBattleship]

Originally Posted by RAL's_pal?

One of the GM's there liberated a number of books from the Tech Library, among them the 8 Volumes of DANFS after the yard got notice it was closing.

Actually the librarian put them out by the aisle in a large box with other books to be disposed of. I got one, of course. Instead of throwing them away, they decided to allow employees to legally take them away.

That included most of the Proceedings magazines also. Somebody already beat me to the issue showing the reactivation of the Jean Bart. Now, SHE was a beautiful ship.

[RAL's_pal?]

Originally Posted by RustyBattleship

Actually the librarian put them out by the aisle in a large box with other books to be disposed of. I got one, of course. Instead of throwing them away, they decided to allow employees to legally take them away.

That included most of the Proceedings magazines also. Somebody already beat me to the issue showing the reactivation of the Jean Bart. Now, SHE was a beautiful ship.

The DANFS were gone when everything was still in the Tech library. I pointed out the open shelf to Linda.

I talked with Linda the day after they cleaned out the library at building 1 in the Naval Station. She had all the books boxed up and brought over to the security vault and didn't have any idea what to do with them. She told me that if she knew I wanted them I could have picked them up in my car and taken them home. No doubt they probably ended up in a dumpster somewhere. There was like 2 sets of DANFS, Janes Ships, Aircraft and everything else Jane's puts out from the 1940's to current plus others.

[smilingassassin]

Originally Posted by RustyBattleship

Actually the librarian put them out by the aisle in a large box with other books to be disposed of. I got one, of course. Instead of throwing them away, they decided to allow employees to legally take them away.

That included most of the Proceedings magazines also. Somebody already beat me to the issue showing the reactivation of the Jean Bart. Now, SHE was a beautiful ship.

Agreed, Jean Bart and Richelieu were very nice looking warships. Probably had the best torpedo defence of all the treaty battleships too.

Heres another question, how many ship designs from Fisher acctually made it into the Royal Navy?

[Dreadnought]

The French battleships were good looking indeed maybe a bit odd but France wanted to follow the treaty to the t and they did produce them to treaty standards. I myself would not favor quad main battery mounts. It allows too much chance in damage or machinery failure. King George V was also noted for these malfunctions with the quad battery turret. Also the time consumed developing these batteries from scratch when you had reliable assemblies already tried and true.

[smilingassassin]

The problem with the KGV's was the Brits...

1) went for a new caliber of gun (14"/45) instead of the tried and tested 15"/42

2) they were overly concerned with safty issues reguarding the guns which made them extremely complex.

IMO the British should have gone with three triple 15"/42 or 16"/45 turrets. By the time the KGV's were laid down most of the bugs were worked out of the 16"45's and the 15"42's were already sound designs, the 15"42 would have been the better choice logistically but either would have been better that the 14"/45's.

The French quads were a decent design with an armoured bulkhead between each pair of guns to minimize the chance of a hit taking all the guns out. That said a well placed hit on the turret ring could disable the turret anyway but that was much less likely than a dirrect hit on the turret.

[Dreadnought]

I have to agree with some of the common criticisms...Too many eggs in one basket for my taste.

[RustyBattleship]

Cleaning out some drawers and found these bumper stickers.

[Dreadnought]

Ive often considered designing my own shirts for the guys. I have done it several other times for outage work etc for former employers. Dont know how the higher ups would except that though.