Your Favourite Warship...

[Nerva]

Salvete Omnes!

Continuing the theme...

The German navy of WWII was somewhat unsuccessful. In spite of the fierce reputation of vessels like the Bismarck, they had very poor sea handling properties. In spite of all this, from purely and aesthetic point of view, I think the Scharnhorst must be the most elegant warship ever built...

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_KZKtgQBJEn0/R7fs2 ... ORST.+.jpg

[Na Fianna Éireann]

God Martin don't be starting James on warships as I have yet to come across another person in re-enacting that knows as much about German warships , he is an oracle on them , he should write a book as he has reseached these for years , although I don't think he collects individual KM autographs as thats considered to be a stalker occupation and on speaking to veterans they take a dim view of people stalking them . My favourite warship surprisingly is not German ,it is the warship Hms Belfast built in my own home City of Belfast and named after the city in the Harland and Wolfe shipyard , this ship served with distinction during the war and now is moored on the river Thames in England in her glory , recently a few thugs killed the ships cat by throwing it into the river , silly cruel eejits . At present I am away to an event and just popped on but when I return from the event I will post up references to the ship if others do not post up before I return .

[Cpl Flood]

I think you're right about the Scharnhost. It had clean lines & was quite fast too.
HMS Belfast is probably one of the most well known ships....lots of visitors all year round.

I think battleships of WW1 didn't look as pleasing what with four chimney stacks, riveted hulls & hangover mast structures from the previous century.

My favourite ship I suppose is the USS Missori('Mighty Mo') given its place in history. It has nine 16 inch guns along with secondary armament and really is one of the ultimate battleships at about 45,000 tons. It was built in 1944 and was where the Japanese surrender ceremony took place in Tokyo Bay in 1945. It also saw action in Korea and in the Gulf War too (the first one).

Its currently on display as a floating museum in Pearl Harbour in Hawaii....nice place for a ship to get to retire to!

[Nerva]

USS Missori('Mighty Mo')

Sex Afloat

[Tychsen]

I would agree with you Nerva - Scharnhorst and her sister ship Gneisenau were amongest the most beautiful and elegant ships to have been built but the design was flawed and the sea keeping ability of the ships was not all that we might believe them to be.
The "sisters" were at a distinct disadvantage in terms of guns and armour when it came to tackling their own kind - the triple 11inch guns might have been suitable for merchant raiding but it left them undergunned if they came up against a battleship. Admiral Lutjens always took them away from any action which might have exposed them to a battleship confrontation . ( Operation Berlin - January - March 1941 - one of the most successful ocean raiding operations conducted by the kgm.)
Plans to up gun the ships came to nothing as the opportunity for deploying the surface fleet became limited , and further restricted even more by an order from Hitler that their use should not expose them to risk - this effectively tied any commanders hands and restricted his operational maneuverability. ( The failure of "Rheinubung" effectively ended any Atlantic raiding by the Kriegsmarine - although you have to consider that had the Brest squadron been operational and been a part of this operation ( as had been planned) considerable problems might have resulted for both the British and the German navies).

The elegant Atlantik bow never quite solved the problem of a wet forecastle and even in the most moderate seas the decks were awash.
Her main advantage was that of speed - both ships were fast having 5 knots or more in hand over any British battleship - simply by turning away and going to speed they could quickly get out of range and evade battle.
Her lines I agree were quite something else.

The high pressure boilers - not a successful design and certainly in terms of the Hipper Class |Cruiser produced a ship which was unsuited for prolonged operations at sea.







The wet side of the Scharnhorst Class.



The Atlantic Bow the product of a refit for both ships , the Hipper Class cruisers also had this new bow fitted.
( A major rebuild and an acknowledgement of a design shortcoming).







A memento from the great ship.

There are a number of features which can only be "German" the long bow , the twin rudders / three long screw, the domed range finders , the turret design , the sleak funnel , the tall "Admiral's Bridge" and the Arado float plane.
The float plane although a good aircraft was difficult to recover in a moderate sea state and the engine cyclinders when hot often cracked on landing when cold sea water splashed around them.

[Nerva]

But I spent 7 years of my life working on...SSN-773 USS Cheyenne



God I miss those days at EB.

[Tychsen]

In terms of a suuccessful German warship the "S" boot was one of the outstanding designs of the war.
Heavily armed , fast and able to take punishment.