The Curiosities Of Our Warships

[Sir_Sinksalot]

Once I start playing a game and find myself enjoying it, I also find I start becoming very interested in what I once wasn't. All things military always held a certain level of interest with me but I would say battleships never really held my attention much... and yet now that I'm playing this game suddenly I find myself looking up ships on Wiki, naval battle docs and exploring the subject. I certainly know very little about them.

 

So that being true I thought maybe we could start a thread for players like myself that from playing this game have also now become maritime military enthusiast too! Perhaps this thread needs to be moved somewhere else though, and pinned would be great so I/all of us can pop those maritime questions that our curiosity had us wondering about.

 

If it's just my questions and no-one else fine lol! Anyway, a few questions I've been meaning to ask are these, about my Bellerofon.

 

What are all these pipe like thingy's attached to the hull of this ship and what are they used for, they might not even be pipes at all and why so many of them?

 

 

Look near the stern of this ship(yes that's not the front of this ship even though it kinda looks like it lol).What are these two caged cross shaped thingy's with red ball like thingy's on the ends for?

 

[genosse]

Those beams can be extended outwards to mount a torpedo net, mostly when the ship is anchored, like so:

 

 

As torpedo speed, mass and the size of the warheads increased during and after WW1, those nets became more and more redundant, because the torpedos would just push into the net and detonate too close to the hull, and that's why you don't find those beams on newer ships.

[Sir_Sinksalot]

7 minutes ago, genosse said:

Those beams can be extended outwards to mount a torpedo net, mostly when the ship is anchored, like so:

 

 

As torpedo speed, mass and the size of the warheads increased during and after WW1, those nets became more and more redundant, because the torpedos would just push into the net and detonate too close to the hull, and that's why you don't find those beams on newer ships.

 

Pretty clever. Thanks 

[genosse]

I actually have a question aswell: Why were the decks of so many WW2 ships made from, or at least paneled with wood, when the rest of the ship was made entirely from metal or steel?

 

What are the benefits of wooden panels compared to serrated steel, for example?

 

Going by the mass produced American destroyers like the Benson and Fletcher classes, which appear to have an all-metal deck, wood seems to be more expensive aswell, so why use it?

 

Or was wood actually cheaper, and the US just had the money and resources to do away with it?

[BlackYeti]

14 minutes ago, genosse said:

I actually have a question aswell: Why were the decks of so many WW2 ships made from, or at least paneled with wood, when the rest of the ship was made entirely from metal or steel?

 

What are the benefits of wooden panels compared to serrated steel, for example?

 

Going by the mass produced American destroyers like the Benson and Fletcher classes, which appear to have an all-metal deck, wood seems to be more expensive aswell, so why use it?

 

Or was wood actually cheaper, and the US just had the money and resources to do away with it?

My guess is that wood is less slippery, so a safety measure.

[Uglesett]

38 minutes ago, genosse said:

What are the benefits of wooden panels compared to serrated steel, for example?

Better grip.

 

Also, lower heat capacity means that the chances of freezing stuck to a wooden deck is far lower than for a metal deck. Probably harder to get rid of ice, though.

 

And I guess it also helps you avoid blisters on your feet in tropical conditions. Metal decks can probably get stupidly hot in a Hawaiian summer.

[Fat_Maniac]

1 hour ago, Sir_Sinksalot said:

Once I start playing a game and find myself enjoying it, I also find I start becoming very interested in what I once wasn't. All things military always held a certain level of interest with me but I would say battleships never really held my attention much... and yet now that I'm playing this game suddenly I find myself looking up ships on Wiki, naval battle docs and exploring the subject. I certainly know very little about them.

 

So that being true I thought maybe we could start a thread for players like myself that from playing this game have also now become maritime military enthusiast too! Perhaps this thread needs to be moved somewhere else though, and pinned would be great so I/all of us can pop those maritime questions that our curiosity had us wondering about.

 

If it's just my questions and no-one else fine lol! Anyway, a few questions I've been meaning to ask are these, about my Bellerofon.

 

What are all these pipe like thingy's attached to the hull of this ship and what are they used for, they might not even be pipes at all and why so many of them?

 

 

Look near the stern of this ship(yes that's not the front of this ship even though it kinda looks like it lol).What are these two caged cross shaped thingy's with red ball like thingy's on the ends for?

 

Believe it or not we have a little known litle used History section on the forum ...https://forum.worldofwarships.eu/forum/158-historical-discussion/

[Camperdown]

1 hour ago, Sir_Sinksalot said:

Once I start playing a game and find myself enjoying it, I also find I start becoming very interested in what I once wasn't. All things military always held a certain level of interest with me but I would say battleships never really held my attention much... and yet now that I'm playing this game suddenly I find myself looking up ships on Wiki, naval battle docs and exploring the subject. I certainly know very little about them.

 

So that being true I thought maybe we could start a thread for players like myself that from playing this game have also now become maritime military enthusiast too! Perhaps this thread needs to be moved somewhere else though, and pinned would be great so I/all of us can pop those maritime questions that our curiosity had us wondering about.

 

If it's just my questions and no-one else fine lol! Anyway, a few questions I've been meaning to ask are these, about my Bellerofon.

 

What are all these pipe like thingy's attached to the hull of this ship and what are they used for, they might not even be pipes at all and why so many of them?

 

 

Look near the stern of this ship(yes that's not the front of this ship even though it kinda looks like it lol).What are these two caged cross shaped thingy's with red ball like thingy's on the ends for?

 

The 'pipes' are the beams for the torpedo nets. They were used in exposed harbours to avoid surprise attacks like Port Arthur 1904. 

The crossed thing at the back I don't know. Could it be life buoys?

[WashedandDeceased]

I also highly recommend watching Drachinifel's videos in YouTube where such questions are answered in great detail :) 

[Sargento_YO]

I allways wondered what are these small funnels for (in this case, the Albany, but ST Louis and several ships of that time also has them)

[MadBadDave]

3 hours ago, genosse said:

Those beams can be extended outwards to mount a torpedo net, mostly when the ship is anchored, like so:

 

 

As torpedo speed, mass and the size of the warheads increased during and after WW1, those nets became more and more redundant, because the torpedos would just push into the net and detonate too close to the hull, and that's why you don't find those beams on newer ships.

And there was me thinking they were oars, to give the bote a speed boost         "RAMMING SPEED" 

 

I was half expecting the Cruel Sea Skipper to shout "ahoy Charlton row faster !!".

 

 

It's interesting that 2 of the best Naval war films, are so depressing; Das Boot and The cruel sea.  

[MrFingers]

double

[MrFingers]

3 minutes ago, Sargento_YO said:

I allways wondered what are these small funnels for (in this case, the Albany, but ST Louis and several ships of that time also has them)

Those funnels are air-inlets for the lower decks & engine room. Since the ship moves forward, it creates a positive pressure in those pipes, and thus creates a "forced ventilation"

[lafeel]

8 minutes ago, Sargento_YO said:

I allways wondered what are these small funnels for (in this case, the Albany, but ST Louis and several ships of that time also has them)

Engine room ventilation. For the crews, not the boilers.

[Gvozdika]

2 hours ago, genosse said:

I actually have a question aswell: Why were the decks of so many WW2 ships made from, or at least paneled with wood, when the rest of the ship was made entirely from metal or steel?

 

What are the benefits of wooden panels compared to serrated steel, for example?

 

Going by the mass produced American destroyers like the Benson and Fletcher classes, which appear to have an all-metal deck, wood seems to be more expensive aswell, so why use it?

 

Or was wood actually cheaper, and the US just had the money and resources to do away with it?

 

Wood is by it's nature a decent (and cheap) thermal insulator - otherwise your big metal deck would effectively be a giant cooking plate. It was one of those things they discovered when converting from all-wooden ships to ironclads. Panelling the deck with wood is cheap, attainable and does a decent job of insulating the hull underneath while also being less 'skiddy' than a smooth armour plate would be. 

 

Some ships also had armour plates sandwiching teak or similar wood to the side - to provide a kind of 'spaced' armour protection. Smaller ships have less exposed deck, so it wasn't such a critical issue or worth the hassle to plank in wood (look at the amount of 'free space' on any smaller metal-decked WW2 ship and you'll notice the distinct lack of it). 

 

Note that modern ships will usually use a 'painted on' coating to function as both an insulator and anti-slip surface. On modern warships it's probably also designed to reduce a thermal/radar signature from overhead - since the deck of a ship also happens to be a perfect reflector to any radar wave coming down from a satellite for example.  

 

Now wooden decking on a modern naval vessel is purely cosmetic and/or the result of budget cuts....

[Camperdown]

15 minutes ago, Sargento_YO said:

I allways wondered what are these small funnels for (in this case, the Albany, but ST Louis and several ships of that time also has them)

They are called cowls and are to bring air into boiler and engine rooms.

[zeeschuimer]

19 minutes ago, lafeel said:

Engine room ventilation. For the crews, not the boilers.

No, indeed...it would be very unwanted to have your boilers cooled...

 

[lafeel]

7 minutes ago, zeeschuimer said:

No, indeed...it would be very unwanted to have your boilers cooled...

 

Indeed, and let's not forget, ventilation for the boilers is exactly what the funnels are for.

[MadBadDave]

23 minutes ago, Camperdown said:

They are called cowls and are to bring air into boiler and engine rooms.

Damn, and I thought they were a naval version of bash the Gopher, aka bash the XO.

[zeeschuimer]

5 minutes ago, lafeel said:

Indeed, and let's not forget, ventilation for the boilers is exactly what the funnels are for.

Vents to add oxygen to the fire, not to cool the boilers. Sorry for my incomplete answer.

 

[Sir_Sinksalot]

I almost forgot. 

 

I think the explanation that those "oars" were poles for mounting an anti-torp net may actually answer one my next questions. There are what look like dirty laundry baskets on these ships but I'm guessing that these laundry baskets are actually the torpedo net which gets attached to these poles? I mean they might be laundry baskets... or maybe some fishing nets if they get stuck at sea and run out of food? 

 

Also, I was wandering what those torpedo shaped thingys are? They seem to have wings or fins built into the design up near the front but they look too sort to be a torpedo at least the conventional sort of torpedo, would it be some sort of towed sonar device for listening for submarines or tracking subs?

 

 

 

 

[Cpt_Andre]

1 hour ago, zeeschuimer said:

[...] boilers [...]

 

Found recently on WarshipPorn the following picture:

 

 

Just leave it here... 

[lovelacebeer]

22 minutes ago, Sir_Sinksalot said:

I almost forgot. 

 

I think the explanation that those "oars" were poles for mounting an anti-torp net may actually answer one my next questions. There are what look like dirty laundry baskets on these ships but I'm guessing that these laundry baskets are actually the torpedo net which gets attached to these poles? I mean they might be laundry baskets... or maybe some fishing nets if they get stuck at sea and run out of food? 

 

Also, I was wandering what those torpedo shaped thingys are? They seem to have wings or fins built into the design up near the front but they look too sort to be a torpedo at least the conventional sort of torpedo, would it be some sort of towed sonar device for listening for submarines or tracking subs?

 

 

 

 

 

The "laundry baskets" are fenders you hang them over the side when you have the ship moored up at the quayside to act as a bumper so the ship doesn't get damaged rubbing up against the quay. 

 

The torpedo shaped thing is called a paravane, they are towed alongside the ship to cut the cables to anti ship mines so then the mines can be destroyed. 

[Sir_Sinksalot]

4 minutes ago, lovelacebeer said:

 

The "laundry baskets" are fenders you hang them over the side when you have the ship moored up at the quayside to act as a bumper so the ship doesn't get damaged rubbing up against the quay. 

 

The torpedo shaped thing is something they tow alongside the ship to cut the cables to anti ship mines so then the mines can be destroyed. 

 

Nice! I was WAY out lol! anti-submarine towed sonar indeed. 

[lovelacebeer]

2 minutes ago, Sir_Sinksalot said:

 

Nice! I was WAY out lol! anti-submarine towed sonar indeed. 

 

Modern ships you would be dead right but paravanes are an older tech.