Hadn't read that, thanks for the info.

So, in the end, we're back to the old axiom that there's no precaution that a dedicated human being can't bypass!

--------------------------------------------
On Thu, 6/19/14, Kurt Feltenberger <kurt@thepaw.org> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] Ship Design & the 'Plankwells'
 To: tml@simplelists.com
 Date: Thursday, June 19, 2014, 12:14 PM

 On 6/19/2014 3:04 PM, Phil Pugliese
 (via tml list) wrote:
 >     Except that it wasn't as design
 flaw that caused
 >   Indefatigable, Queen Mary, and
 Invincible to
 >   catastrophically explode and sink, it
 was extremely bad
 >   ammunition handling that should have
 seen everyone involved
 >   cashiered and beached.
 >   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 >
 > Well, I do recall that something similar happened to at
 least one german BC at the Dogger Bank & it survived
 'cuz it had decent armor. After which the german navy
 changed their designs/procedures to prevent it from
 happening again.
 > Also, as I recall, the 'fix' involved hardware
 installation (flash suppressors) as well as procedural
 modifications, so I think it could be classified as a design
 flaw.
 > Everything I've read labels it as such & I don't
 think I've read anyone that thinks those ships were good
 designs.
 > Heck, I even read somewhere that the first RN BC's were
 assigned as flagships to CL squadrons!
 > Even then it seems that they were never meant to be
 placed in the 'line-of-battle'.
 > But, as more than one author has written, those big 12"
 guns were just too tempting.

 Recent visits to the wrecks (within the last 8-10 years) by
 wreck investigators have pretty much proven conclusively
 that it was the gun crews' practice of storing cordite in
 the turrets and keeping all the anti-flash doors and hatches
 open to facilitate faster followup shots that was the root
 cause of the three ships catastrophically exploding. Had the
 doors and hatches been closed and no cordite stored in the
 gunnery spaces then it's highly likely that the ships would
 not have been put out of action.

 A good example of this is HMS Lion, Beatty's own flagship.
 She, too, received a turret hit but because of the fast
 thinking of the turret commander, Royal Marine Major Francis
 Harvey, who flooded the magazines she didn't explode. Lion
 followed the same practices as the other three
 battlecruisers that sank that day, but Major Harvey's
 actions saved the ship.

 -- Kurt Feltenberger
 kurt@thepaw.org/kfeltenberger@yahoo.com
 “Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm
 scared I'm not living enough." - Me
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