Re:[GZG] John's Shipbuilding

On 1/14/06, gzg-l-request@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
<gzg-l-request@lists.csua.berkeley.edu> wrote:
> Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 15:14:26 -0500
> From: "Thomas Barclay" <kaladorn@magma.ca>
> Subject: [GZG] John's Shipbuilding

> Once destroyers became capable of taking out line-of-battle ships, why
did the LoB ships
> still exists? Two answers.

And a third: while a single shot could take out a line-of-battle ship
once they hit, they had a hard time attaining that single shot.

In the late 1890s there were naval theorists that believed the
battleship would soon be dead. Small torpedo boats could destroy the
largest battleship at a fraction of the cost, etc., etc. The truth of
the situation was brought home in 1904. At the outbreak of the
Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese slipped a division of torpedo boats
into Port Arthur just after or just before the declaration of war.
(Note: though this was the same "infamous" tactic the Japanese used in
World War II, they were praised by the Americans and British in 1904,
as Japan was seen as the David to Russia's goliath.) The boats
attacked at three ranges, roughly 500, 1000 and 1500 yards. The
conditions were about as perfect as they could get: a still, clear
night and an unprepared enemy. If I remember correctly, the only
negative was that there was a fairly full moon out.

The boats that fired at 500 yards did a lot of damage. At 1000 yards
there were far fewer hits, and virtually none of the torpedos launched
at 1500 yards hit anything.

In an attack with almost perfect conditions, the torpedo boat was
discovered to _not_ be the line-of-ship killer that it appeared on
paper. Anti-torpedo defences were already being incorporated, like
torpedo bulges and greater compartmentalization.

So that's another reason the line-of-battle ships were still used:
their day was not yet over. They were not quite as easy to kill as
theorists thought. To be sure, their days were numbered, but that
wasn't until the advent of torpedos and bombs carried by aircraft.

--
Allan Goodall		 http://www.hyperbear.com
agoodall@hyperbear.com
awgoodall@gmail.com

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