Re: Battleships and Merchants was Re: Mercs, yet again

At 06:04  13/01/02 +0100, Karl wrote:
>Err.. I beg to differ. A late 18th century Ship of the Line like HMS
>"Victory" was quite a specialized vessel and differed considerably from
a
>merchant ship, in hull size, hull thickness, deck layout, rigging etc.
not
>to mention size of crew, artillery etc. The difference may have been
rather
>smaller than between a modern carrier and a container ship, but it was
>there.

HMS Victory is indeed a specialized warship, the end result a period of 
evolution of naval ships. But please note that I was saying that there
were 
common characteristics (besides the fact that they both float on water).

The reason for this commonality was to a large degree due to the weapon,

the ship's cannon, being used. Excluding the gun decks and the larger
crew 
there was little difference between warships and merchants. The wooden
hull 
proved quite resilient to cannon shot, ships of the period were more
often 
forced out of action via crew casualties rather than damage to the hull.

Crew members unlike the hull which was able to retain it's structure
after 
being holed were not so fortunate, suffering terrible wounds from the 
cannon shot and the wood splinters the shot's passage through the hull 
produced.

It's a case of function defining form, the ships that would one day
become 
HMS Victory and her sisters had needed strong hulls to survive the
waters 
they travelled (eg: the North Sea). These hulls in turn required little 
adaption to become men of war.

This is the reason why the 'Spurance class Destroyers of the US Navy
have 
such a large hull, they were designed for anti-submarine warfare in the 
heavy seas of the North Atlantic [more trivia :) ]

>"Endeavour" is not really a counterexample. It was not a real warship,
but
>an exploration vessel. And even nowadays navies have a lot of auxiliary
>vessels (tenders, tugs, tankers etc.) that differ from their civilian
>counterparts only in the colour of the paint job (OK, slight
exaggeration)

I think the Endeavor is a excellent example, Or perhaps the 'Alfred' 
formerly the 'Black Prince' or 'Andrew Doria' formerly a merchant named 
'Defiance' or many of the other American ships used in the American War
of 
Independence. These were merchant vessels refitted for naval service.

Cheers

Derek

Derek Fulton
12 Balaka st.
Rosny, Hobart.
Tasmania,  7018.
Australia

Phone; (03) 62459123
Mobile; 0438459123
Email; derekfulton@bigpond.com
URL; http://www.users.bigpond.com/derekfulton/