Today we look at the development of warships from 1815 to 1860 Want to support the channel? - / drachinifel Want to talk about ships? / discord Music - / ncmepicmusic
Here's a topic more than a question: A destroyer or submarine with a torpedo can sink a battleship. The torpedo is expensive and complicated compared to a round from a battleship. It costs a lot to build a battleship to deliver cheap rounds, but not a lot to build a destroyer to deliver expensive torpedoes. Post WWII, see also cruise missiles. I feel like there may be a pretty good thesis here, related to the Innovator's Dilemma.
I have a scenario I would like your opinion on: How would the US standard battleships have fared against the Japanese battleships in December 1941? Ignoring CVs, DDs, CAs, CLs... just a pure battle line vs battle line.
There's a story of a veteran RN captain taking his screw 1st rate into Malta. He ordered all sails furled and the anchor dropped, but was surprised when the ship kept moving. He was reminded they had screw propulsion. "I forgot we had that".
@@AndrewTheRadarMan depending on the size i doubt the sound of the steam engine would reach the top deck on top of the deafening affect of 10+ knot winds
@@JonatasAdoM pfft hearing protection. Guess nobody could hear pistons chugging away when you have a loud ring in your ears from all of the cannon blasts
"The wooden ships, they turned to iron, and the iron ships to steel. And shed their sails like autumn leaves with the turning of the wheel." --Al Stewart, "Old Admirals"
I wasn't aware that the transition from wooden warships to early ironclads was so complex. None of the documentaries i seen up to this point gave a hint of how much development and in some cases back steps were made to reach that point. Great video.
Most 'documentaries' are researched by knowledgeable historians, written by less knowledgeable screenwriters, made by historically-illiterate film majors, and advertised to the 18-35 year old who prefers (American) football and beer to a college lecture. CZcams history vids don't generally have this problem.
the one thing is that he missed that one event in 1862 which lead to the launch of the first French Ironclad: Merrimack vs Monitor, where two US navy vessels fired on eachother till they ran out of ammunition, with Merrimack subsequently sinking at harbor and the Monitor due to its incredibly low draft, sinking several months later due to high tide. the French, having better foreign relations with the US then England did, actually learning about this and finding out literally only the USN was technologically up to date. while it would take another 7 years for London to actually internalize what happened, it would still be able to leverage its economic advantage to catch up for lost time up until HMS dreadnought was launched, at which point everyone relevant would keep up until 1922 when the first full fledged Aircraft Carrier was Launched, and everyone again completely shit the bed on miltech ships until 1941
Sounds like it came straight from a Black Adder episode on the high seas. Except Baldrick misunderstands and puts up a screen to block view of the enemy crew, instead of ordering the carronades to fire at them.
I've just been reading that the French knew that an iron hulled ship was superior to a wooden hull ship with iron plates, like the Gloire. In fact, France was the first nation to lay down an all iron hulled warship; the Couronne, but the Warrior was finished and put into commision first. The problem the French Navy, and France in general had, was that while they had scientific and engineering personal every bit the equal to their counterparts on the other side of the English Channel, the industrial revolution was so much more advanced in Great Britain than it was in France, most French dockyards couldn't handle building all iron ships. It was much easier for them to build wooden hulled ships and bolt on iron plating afterwards. So they continued to build wooden hulled ironclads after the Gloire, into the 1870's.
That's kind of the story of France from like 1820- today. They're out competed by their neighbors in terms of industry. In from 1820ish-1871 it was the UK and from 1871 until today they were beaten soundly(industrially speaking) by their Prussian/German neighbors. Heck, it would take the Germans occupying France for them to get French industry up to somewhat useful standards.
@@2adamast even in the 1860s Britain was far more industrialised than France and could build larger ships at a quicker rate. Palmerston even taunted the French ambassador about this very fact in 1864
I can’t help but feel that HMS Blenheim was somehow HMS Warspite’s...I don’t know, ‘Great Aunt’ for lack of a better term. From your description of her exploits, Blenheim seems to share quite a few things with her grand-niece, especially in having been through several major overhauls during her lifetime and remaining in service long enough for her final crew to be the children or grandchildren of her original crew. But I’d say that Blenheim seems to have been a bit more mild-mannered than Warspite. What with all that heavy, all-metal construction, steam turbines, and vastly more firepower, I think Warspite turned out quite a bit more headstrong and hot-blooded than her stately ancestor.
"By the way would the 1936 World,🗺 War,💥 Two,2⃣✌ German,🇩🇪 U-boat type VIIC submarine and the 1938 World,🗺 War,💥 Two,2⃣ ✌Nazi German,🇩🇪 U-boat IXC submarine take out the World,🗺 War,💥 One,1⃣ interwar period, and World,🗺 War,💥 Two 2⃣ ✌ British, 🇬🇧 Canadian,🇨🇦 🍁 🇨🇦 🍁 🇨🇦 🍁 Australian,🌏 🇦🇺 Bangladeshi, 🇧🇩 New Zealander,🇳🇿 South African,🌍 🇿🇦 Malaysian,🇲🇾 Jamaican,🇯🇲 Barbadian,🇧🇧 Indian,🇮🇳 Singaporean, 🇸🇬 Bermuda, 🇧🇲 and the Commonwealth of Nations built,🏢 HMS Warspite Battleship with its torpedoes while underwater in the Mediterranean sea, 🌊 off the coast of North Africa, 🌍 Morocco,🇲🇦 Libya,🇱🇾 Algeria, 🇩🇿 and Egypt,🇪🇬 in the year of nineteen forty-two to the year of nineteen forty-three in the Mediterranean theater, 🎭 of the year of nineteen forty-three, to the year of nineteen forty-four, during World,🗺 War,💥 Two,2⃣✌?"
“You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I have no time for such nonsense.” ― Napoleon Bonaparte
Hi. Yes. You know all the things we tell you about not having fires onboard your tar-coated wood and canvas ships, especially with all that gun powder. Well we've been thinking and we now think it could be a good idea. I can go do what with the rudder.
This was an excellent episode, was holding my interest none stop. Could not believe that 35 minutes could past that quickly. It's without a doubt the most interesting era of naval warships. Changes occurred very quickly.
Really enjoyed this episode and learned a lot. When you summarized the fate of some the ships mentioned, all I could think of was Turner's Fighting Temeraire, a fitting image to summarize the sad fate of these once magnificent machines.
Although picking one is nearly impossible due to overall excellence, I think this is one of Drach’s best! Just listening to it for about the .4th time!
Please do a Video on the last surviving pre dreadnought armored cruiser USS Olympia, she needs the support, they are talking about making her an artificial reef again!
n3zyd Yes the poor Olympia has been falling apart for a long time. She deserves far better - I remember when I was a teenager wandering through the machine spaces, forward torpedo room - now all closed off. She needs major help and any promotion of her plight might help! Last if the Great White Fleet - Dewey’s Flagship at Manila Bay - should be given a helping hand by USG - they waste so much money in far less worthy causes.
I think the USN should take Olympia back into service, just like the Constitution, put her at someplace like Norfolk, and reopen her as a museum and ceremonial flagship. Do the same with USS Texas (BB-35), on which my dad served during a USNR training cruise in 1937 or '38. Olympia, as the last pre-dreadnought, and Dewy's flagship, and Texas as the last USN dreadnought and gunfire support at Normandy and in the Pacific. A full repair of both might be less than the cost of a modern helicopter and far less than the cost of a fighter-bomber. Annual maintenance of Texas, I've read, is about $2 million a year (cost of paper-clips??).
I love the fact that you're still branding these as the "Five Minute Guide to Warships" xD Not that I'm complaining of course, I'd love these videos if they were just hours of waffling on about the technical details of a specific class of battleship's main battery guns.
That was excellent. It filled in a number of gaps in my knowledge of the Royal Navy in the 19th century. I knew the first steam ship predated the Battle of Trafalgar. It was built in Scotland and was used on a canal I seem to remember. It's effect was such that there was talk of Richard Trevithick building number of steam ships to tow fireships which would be used to attack the Franco-Spanish fleet. The plan was stopped because Trevithick did not think it was viable at that time. I remember reading about an incident which happened in 1821 when a ship approaching the Isle of Mann was spotted with smoke billowing skyward. Realising there was a fire onboard a number of ships set sail to go to the rescue only to have it sail straight passed them. The smoke was from a steam engine.
The Scottish steam ship would probably have been the "Charlotte Dundas" used on the Forth and Clyde canal from 1802. However, that wasn't the first steam boat; it was predated at least by the French "Pyroscaph" (1783), the the boats of John Fitch (1786) and James Rumsey (1787), and Patrick Miller's trimaran steam boat (1788), which was the "Charlotte Dundas' " predecessor on the Forth and Clyde.
Got to say, this os one of my favorite channels lately. He makes clean and interesting videos that are full of all the technical and historical stuff I love to hear about. Keep up the good work!
Interesting look at a period of naval development that doesn't usually get much attention, and I'm definitely looking forward to a future video tracing development through the second half of the 19th century. Funny how almost everyone knows about HMS Victory, HMS Warrior, and HMS Dreadnought, but there's so little discussion of everything in between them. Out of curiosity, how certain are we that the ship in the picture first shown at 6:05 actually is HMS Blenheim? You describe Blenheim as (originally) a 74-gun third rate, and yet the ship in the picture is very clearly a three-decker.
Thank you! You made me crack up a couple of times. This was fun, way back in prehistoric times I used to teach this development from wooden ships over steam, iron hulls, past battleships and the modern navies and how to construct ships and to understand modern warship development to eager midshipmen and other categories. Talking about the need for trolling your rivals; the Russian navy has been building and naming ships after either battles won over Sweden or captured Swedish warships; you mentioned Viborg at the Crimean war, which is where Sweden lost Finland through a ruse in 1809 and another example is the ship Retvizan taken as HMS Rättvisan, also at Viborg,, and then newer ships named after the same ship at least five times.
Viborg is actually a city roughly two thirds of way from Helsinki to St. Petersburg that was founded by the Swedes in Medieval times, captured by Russia in 1710 during the Great Northen War, returned to Finland in 1812 when Finland was already a Grand Duchy under the Czar, and ceded again to Russia after WW2. You may be thinking of Sveaborg (originally called "Viapori" in Finnish), which is a fortress in Helsinki harbour. The surrender of Sveaborg in 1808 was the result of shrewd negotiations on the part of the Russians and a pessimistic commander on the side of the Swedes; it was not a battle worth commemorating by naming a ship. A more memorable battle was fought in 1855 when the fortress was shelled by the combined British-French fleet during the Crimean war but withstood the attack, unlike the more modern Bomarsund fortress in the Åland Islands which was reduced to rubble. As for Russian ships, there was also the "Gangut", named after the naval battle of Hanko (1714) which the Russians won largely due to vastly outnumbering (c. 80 vs. 5) the small Swedish squadron trying to block the Russian fleet. The last Gangut (1911) was a 4 x 3 12" Dreadnought that was named "Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya" after the October Revolution.
Trolling with battle names isn't limited to the Russians. Considering how many WW2 American carriers were named after victories over the British during the Revolutionary War (Lexington, Concord, Yorktown, Saratoga, Ticonderoga, Cowpens, Princeton ...), you wouldn't think they were on the same side!
Yes, early steam engines worked with "a massive furnace," and they also had a tendency to explode if they weren't carefully tended to. Sounds like a great plan to me. The frigate Gloire, where the French took the decisive lead in building the ugliest warships of the 19th century. "And then it got worse. So common in Russian history." LOL - That's brilliant.
This history of early British locomotives gives a good history of the development of steam engines up to about 1830 czcams.com/video/wOGYZC-IJPQ/video.html
Fantastic documentary! The focus always goes on either ships like the Victory or ships like Dreadnought, we never get to see the transitional phase on ships! Thank you
Outstanding presentation sir! After many years, I am finally reading Massey's "Dreadnought" to be followed by "Castles of Steel"; and this helps present a bit more naval development history that was not covered in the book, Thank you! Look forward to the next presentation.
The Dreadnought book has only one chapter on the Dreadnought, the rest is the story of British and German political rivalry. Castles of Steele is Great , but so is Richard Houghs book.
I thought the US Constitution was the first wooden ship to use triangulated wooden framing to stiffen the hull. Excellent CZcams channel. My sincerest compliments regarding your depth and breadth of knowledge. Can you discuss how the Royal Navy managed to supply itself with the necessary timber during the era of wooden ship building? I'm sure many an old growth oak forest was cut down!
Norman Mattson I live in England near where the wooden ship ie the Agamemnon was built, it’s called bucklers hard. The new forest nearby was created in part to satisfy the demand.
The first six US frigates (inculding Old Ironsides) did have innovative diagonal frames. I think the triangle frames Seppings introduced might be the next logical step. I'd be interested to know if Seppings got a look at the frames in USS/HMS President. Either way, diagonal and triangular frames are brilliantly simple solutions.
Thanks for a great video, I've allways searched for a good presentation of this chaotic period, looking foreward to watching the continued development from 1860 to 1905!
More of a topic request: Can you go over how the various navies scrapped or utilised old hulls over time and possibly go into how some ships were saved or sold to other navies? I come from the world of steam locomotives so I see a lot of parallels between the two when it comes to preservation for future generations.
Its so nice to see how much your annunciation and timing has improved. nothing wrong with the data here, but youve come a huge way as a communicator. congrats mate.
Great video. An ancestor of mine served on HMS Blenheim in the 1850s after the ship had the steam engine conversion. It was his first posting, based at Portsmouth. I think the period is one of the most interesting. They were trying to work out how to navigate through massive changes in technology. A good book that takes the subject to the next period/step is 'The Ironclads' by Peter Hore.
This is a great video, I'm only halfway through it and loving it! You never hear much about ship naval development between the War of 1812/Napoleonic the American Civil War. It's almost as if you went from full on sailing warships to (poof) ironclad's overnight.
Interesting video. It was nice being shown the various changes in ship design as time went on. if possible please do more videos like this one... in addition to the usual videos on various warship classes.
This was one of your best videos yet. I've never seen the development of naval technology explored in such a thorough yet accessible way. Your ability to break down long and complex topics so they can be easily understood by laypeople is very impressive and it's what makes your content so valuable. If I was a naval instructor, I'd recommend your channel to my cadets.
This transitional period of naval history is perhaps my favorite era of warship development.Thank you for covering it.Could listen to you describe it for hours.Hint hint lol. Could you perhaps suggest a book or 2 that cover the subject?I've got a couple but their rather short....love to sink my teeth into something more in depth.Another great video....a comment that need not be said.......because they all are.
This video is awesome at explaining this rather rapid change of design. I've always loved the look of huge age of sail ships of the line and had always wondered what happened to them and ho exactly they were replaced and became the battleships we know from 1st and 2nd world war. No i know it and I thank you for that
I read a really good book on the American Civil War Ironclads long ago. While the usual story told only includes the Monitor and Merrimac battle there were many many more used by both sides , a fact most people are unaware off. Good book , wish I'd bought it back in the day.
Please do. My grandfather told me that his grandfather, William Clarke, an Irishman from Dublin, was a sailor in the Kearsage during the battle. Searching the crew lists however, I find a William Clarke on the Alabama and not on the Kearsage. Since it is not an unusual name, perhaps there were two William Clarkes, one on each ship or perhaps William was ashamed of his service and tried to conceal it. I would love to find out. William had at least one child, my great- grandmother, Frances Clarke, who married Louis McGrath. William left the sea and became a bookseller in Liverpool.
Fantastic video as always. If you're planning on more videos on general development history perhaps one on the Jeune École of the late 1800s and how it influenced naval development.
Q&A questions here :)
do you plan on doing videos on more modern ships like the type 45, Nimitz etc
Q&A great vid btw
Here's a topic more than a question: A destroyer or submarine with a torpedo can sink a battleship. The torpedo is expensive and complicated compared to a round from a battleship. It costs a lot to build a battleship to deliver cheap rounds, but not a lot to build a destroyer to deliver expensive torpedoes. Post WWII, see also cruise missiles. I feel like there may be a pretty good thesis here, related to the Innovator's Dilemma.
I have a scenario I would like your opinion on: How would the US standard battleships have fared against the Japanese battleships in December 1941? Ignoring CVs, DDs, CAs, CLs... just a pure battle line vs battle line.
Q&A naval guns larger than 18 inches, were any planned/developed/tested? How useful would a 20 inch gun actually be?
Hey Drachnifel, are you ex-navy? Your hat says HMS Splendid, which is a submarine. Have you served onboard? Any stories or anecdotes?
There's a story of a veteran RN captain taking his screw 1st rate into Malta. He ordered all sails furled and the anchor dropped, but was surprised when the ship kept moving. He was reminded they had screw propulsion. "I forgot we had that".
"I forgot we had that" lol makes me wonder how someone did not hearing the pistons chugging away but I digress
@@AndrewTheRadarMan depending on the size i doubt the sound of the steam engine would reach the top deck on top of the deafening affect of 10+ knot winds
yup
@@AndrewTheRadarMan Good question.
How gold was hearing in a ship after a battle?
@@JonatasAdoM pfft hearing protection. Guess nobody could hear pistons chugging away when you have a loud ring in your ears from all of the cannon blasts
"The wooden ships, they turned to iron, and the iron ships to steel.
And shed their sails like autumn leaves with the turning of the wheel."
--Al Stewart, "Old Admirals"
Al Stewart has written some damn fine historic songs
Michael Morley Fantastic album :thumbs up:.
Other Paradox fans: Sabaton with HOI4
ME: Al Stewart with Vicky 2
That's a good Mention right here
Whoever is riding the script, should have a couple of extra shillings in his pay. He is quite hilarious.
I wasn't aware that the transition from wooden warships to early ironclads was so complex. None of the documentaries i seen up to this point gave a hint of how much development and in some cases back steps were made to reach that point. Great video.
Most 'documentaries' are researched by knowledgeable historians, written by less knowledgeable screenwriters, made by historically-illiterate film majors, and advertised to the 18-35 year old who prefers (American) football and beer to a college lecture.
CZcams history vids don't generally have this problem.
the one thing is that he missed that one event in 1862 which lead to the launch of the first French Ironclad: Merrimack vs Monitor, where two US navy vessels fired on eachother till they ran out of ammunition, with Merrimack subsequently sinking at harbor and the Monitor due to its incredibly low draft, sinking several months later due to high tide.
the French, having better foreign relations with the US then England did, actually learning about this and finding out literally only the USN was technologically up to date.
while it would take another 7 years for London to actually internalize what happened, it would still be able to leverage its economic advantage to catch up for lost time up until HMS dreadnought was launched, at which point everyone relevant would keep up until 1922 when the first full fledged Aircraft Carrier was Launched, and everyone again completely shit the bed on miltech ships until 1941
Yes, the bit about Sepping alone made this awesome.
''Tell me, do you see that crew over there?''
''Yes sir?''
''I don't want to.''
''Understood, sir.''
Sounds like it came straight from a Black Adder episode on the high seas. Except Baldrick misunderstands and puts up a screen to block view of the enemy crew, instead of ordering the carronades to fire at them.
Really wished black adder had another season. That'd be a perfect joke.
Giant shotguns-improving views since 1843!
"They're gone now sir"
Alternatively:
"Captain, do you see that enemy crew there"
"Yes, what of it?"
BOOM
"Howabout now sir?"
I've just been reading that the French knew that an iron hulled ship was superior to a wooden hull ship with iron plates, like the Gloire. In fact, France was the first nation to lay down an all iron hulled warship; the Couronne, but the Warrior was finished and put into commision first. The problem the French Navy, and France in general had, was that while they had scientific and engineering personal every bit the equal to their counterparts on the other side of the English Channel, the industrial revolution was so much more advanced in Great Britain than it was in France, most French dockyards couldn't handle building all iron ships. It was much easier for them to build wooden hulled ships and bolt on iron plating afterwards. So they continued to build wooden hulled ironclads after the Gloire, into the 1870's.
By 1860 the industrial revolution was finished/accomplished. The Victory is more a child of the industrial revolution than the Warrior.
I recall seeing Warrior in Milford Haven before her restoration.
@@2adamast ishhh tho i get you
That's kind of the story of France from like 1820- today. They're out competed by their neighbors in terms of industry. In from 1820ish-1871 it was the UK and from 1871 until today they were beaten soundly(industrially speaking) by their Prussian/German neighbors. Heck, it would take the Germans occupying France for them to get French industry up to somewhat useful standards.
@@2adamast even in the 1860s Britain was far more industrialised than France and could build larger ships at a quicker rate. Palmerston even taunted the French ambassador about this very fact in 1864
“HMS Excellent”
Never change Britain.
I prefer "HMS Arrogant"
I HMS Invisible
@@Maritimesgestein Where, I don’t see it?
@@quuaaarrrk8056 lol autocorrect again i meant HMS Invincible
@@Maritimesgestein I thought so but I would definitely believe it if there was a HMS Invisible. Royal Navy naming at its best.
I can’t help but feel that HMS Blenheim was somehow HMS Warspite’s...I don’t know, ‘Great Aunt’ for lack of a better term. From your description of her exploits, Blenheim seems to share quite a few things with her grand-niece, especially in having been through several major overhauls during her lifetime and remaining in service long enough for her final crew to be the children or grandchildren of her original crew.
But I’d say that Blenheim seems to have been a bit more mild-mannered than Warspite. What with all that heavy, all-metal construction, steam turbines, and vastly more firepower, I think Warspite turned out quite a bit more headstrong and hot-blooded than her stately ancestor.
"By the way would the 1936 World,🗺 War,💥 Two,2⃣✌ German,🇩🇪 U-boat type VIIC submarine and the 1938 World,🗺 War,💥 Two,2⃣ ✌Nazi German,🇩🇪 U-boat IXC submarine take out the World,🗺 War,💥 One,1⃣ interwar period, and World,🗺 War,💥 Two 2⃣ ✌ British, 🇬🇧 Canadian,🇨🇦 🍁 🇨🇦 🍁 🇨🇦 🍁 Australian,🌏 🇦🇺 Bangladeshi, 🇧🇩 New Zealander,🇳🇿 South African,🌍 🇿🇦 Malaysian,🇲🇾 Jamaican,🇯🇲 Barbadian,🇧🇧 Indian,🇮🇳 Singaporean, 🇸🇬 Bermuda, 🇧🇲 and the Commonwealth of Nations built,🏢 HMS Warspite Battleship with its torpedoes while underwater in the Mediterranean sea, 🌊 off the coast of North Africa, 🌍 Morocco,🇲🇦 Libya,🇱🇾 Algeria, 🇩🇿 and Egypt,🇪🇬 in the year of nineteen forty-two to the year of nineteen forty-three in the Mediterranean theater, 🎭 of the year of nineteen forty-three, to the year of nineteen forty-four, during World,🗺 War,💥 Two,2⃣✌?"
"Telling navy officers to install a massive fire aboard their wooden tar-coated gunpowder-filled ships was understandably a hard sell"
Fkn lmao
jobjed if he said hard sail it would have been epic
“You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I have no time for such nonsense.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte
@@elGrandeBastardo Thank you for that quote. Very interesting.
Hi. Yes. You know all the things we tell you about not having fires onboard your tar-coated wood and canvas ships, especially with all that gun powder. Well we've been thinking and we now think it could be a good idea. I can go do what with the rudder.
@@elGrandeBastardo Ah, the things Civilization 4 has taught me. :D
Documentary quality content from a channel with 20,000 subs, that's criminally underrated. Cheers man, love your stuff.
I've been promoting him on the WoWs subreddit, but if you have other sites, upload his content there. Let's help however we can.
242k, 2 years later
@@Spectre-wd9dl 251k now
An order of magnitude greater. Let's hope for 2 mil by 2023
@@antonhengst8667 At that rate, by 2030 every human being on Earth will be subbed!
Wow, what a complete and excellent rundown of the period. Puts proper documentaries to shame.
I agree with your comment.... But this is indistinguishable from a proper documentary.
This was an excellent episode, was holding my interest none stop. Could not believe that 35 minutes could past that quickly. It's without a doubt the most interesting era of naval warships. Changes occurred very quickly.
Really enjoyed this episode and learned a lot. When you summarized the fate of some the ships mentioned, all I could think of was Turner's Fighting Temeraire, a fitting image to summarize the sad fate of these once magnificent machines.
Although picking one is nearly impossible due to overall excellence, I think this is one of Drach’s best! Just listening to it for about the .4th time!
Please do a Video on the last surviving pre dreadnought armored cruiser USS Olympia, she needs the support, they are talking about making her an artificial reef again!
n3zyd Yes the poor Olympia has been falling apart for a long time. She deserves far better - I remember when I was a teenager wandering through the machine spaces, forward torpedo room - now all closed off. She needs major help and any promotion of her plight might help! Last if the Great White Fleet - Dewey’s Flagship at Manila Bay - should be given a helping hand by USG - they waste so much money in far less worthy causes.
Technically she is a protected cruiser and not the only one of the era, the Russian Cruiser Aurora is still around.
@@ErichZornerzfun Protected not armored, thanks for the correction.
I think the USN should take Olympia back into service, just like the Constitution, put her at someplace like Norfolk, and reopen her as a museum and ceremonial flagship. Do the same with USS Texas (BB-35), on which my dad served during a USNR training cruise in 1937 or '38. Olympia, as the last pre-dreadnought, and Dewy's flagship, and Texas as the last USN dreadnought and gunfire support at Normandy and in the Pacific. A full repair of both might be less than the cost of a modern helicopter and far less than the cost of a fighter-bomber. Annual maintenance of Texas, I've read, is about $2 million a year (cost of paper-clips??).
@@redskindan78 i mean, compared to the $780 Billion budget for the military, yeah it seems fine to do that
I love the fact that you're still branding these as the "Five Minute Guide to Warships" xD Not that I'm complaining of course, I'd love these videos if they were just hours of waffling on about the technical details of a specific class of battleship's main battery guns.
That was excellent. It filled in a number of gaps in my knowledge of the Royal Navy in the 19th century.
I knew the first steam ship predated the Battle of Trafalgar. It was built in Scotland and was used on a canal I seem to remember. It's effect was such that there was talk of Richard Trevithick building number of steam ships to tow fireships which would be used to attack the Franco-Spanish fleet. The plan was stopped because Trevithick did not think it was viable at that time.
I remember reading about an incident which happened in 1821 when a ship approaching the Isle of Mann was spotted with smoke billowing skyward. Realising there was a fire onboard a number of ships set sail to go to the rescue only to have it sail straight passed them. The smoke was from a steam engine.
The Scottish steam ship would probably have been the "Charlotte Dundas" used on the Forth and Clyde canal from 1802. However, that wasn't the first steam boat; it was predated at least by the French "Pyroscaph" (1783), the the boats of John Fitch (1786) and James Rumsey (1787), and Patrick Miller's trimaran steam boat (1788), which was the "Charlotte Dundas' " predecessor on the Forth and Clyde.
The first steam warship was the USS Demologos in the War of 1812 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_floating_battery_Demologos
Got to say, this os one of my favorite channels lately. He makes clean and interesting videos that are full of all the technical and historical stuff I love to hear about. Keep up the good work!
You should do a video on the SMS Emden. She and her crew had quite an adventure.
And don't miss out on how the landing party at Cocos made it back to Germany!
Exacty. What a feisty crew!
YEs!
Excellent! Really enjoyed that. Can't wait for the next installment!
Interesting look at a period of naval development that doesn't usually get much attention, and I'm definitely looking forward to a future video tracing development through the second half of the 19th century. Funny how almost everyone knows about HMS Victory, HMS Warrior, and HMS Dreadnought, but there's so little discussion of everything in between them.
Out of curiosity, how certain are we that the ship in the picture first shown at 6:05 actually is HMS Blenheim? You describe Blenheim as (originally) a 74-gun third rate, and yet the ship in the picture is very clearly a three-decker.
It's labelled as such, and pictures of it and it's class are so rare, I had to use something. At some point I might find a better picture :)
Thank you! You made me crack up a couple of times. This was fun, way back in prehistoric times I used to teach this development from wooden ships over steam, iron hulls, past battleships and the modern navies and how to construct ships and to understand modern warship development to eager midshipmen and other categories.
Talking about the need for trolling your rivals; the Russian navy has been building and naming ships after either battles won over Sweden or captured Swedish warships; you mentioned Viborg at the Crimean war, which is where Sweden lost Finland through a ruse in 1809 and another example is the ship Retvizan taken as HMS Rättvisan, also at Viborg,, and then newer ships named after the same ship at least five times.
Viborg is actually a city roughly two thirds of way from Helsinki to St. Petersburg that was founded by the Swedes in Medieval times, captured by Russia in 1710 during the Great Northen War, returned to Finland in 1812 when Finland was already a Grand Duchy under the Czar, and ceded again to Russia after WW2. You may be thinking of Sveaborg (originally called "Viapori" in Finnish), which is a fortress in Helsinki harbour. The surrender of Sveaborg in 1808 was the result of shrewd negotiations on the part of the Russians and a pessimistic commander on the side of the Swedes; it was not a battle worth commemorating by naming a ship. A more memorable battle was fought in 1855 when the fortress was shelled by the combined British-French fleet during the Crimean war but withstood the attack, unlike the more modern Bomarsund fortress in the Åland Islands which was reduced to rubble. As for Russian ships, there was also the "Gangut", named after the naval battle of Hanko (1714) which the Russians won largely due to vastly outnumbering (c. 80 vs. 5) the small Swedish squadron trying to block the Russian fleet. The last Gangut (1911) was a 4 x 3 12" Dreadnought that was named "Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya" after the October Revolution.
Trolling with battle names isn't limited to the Russians. Considering how many WW2 American carriers were named after victories over the British during the Revolutionary War (Lexington, Concord, Yorktown, Saratoga, Ticonderoga, Cowpens, Princeton ...), you wouldn't think they were on the same side!
Yes, early steam engines worked with "a massive furnace," and they also had a tendency to explode if they weren't carefully tended to. Sounds like a great plan to me.
The frigate Gloire, where the French took the decisive lead in building the ugliest warships of the 19th century.
"And then it got worse. So common in Russian history." LOL - That's brilliant.
Concerning the Gloire: Take a look at the British Victoria class (1890) and say that again!
@@jarmokankaanpaa6528 The HMS Dreadnought (The 1870s one) is also a bit ugly, yet understandable as it was similar to others from the time
You think THAT got worse, have you seen Drach's video on the French pre-dreadnoughts yet? Next to them, Gloire is a supermodel!
This history of early British locomotives gives a good history of the development of steam engines up to about 1830 czcams.com/video/wOGYZC-IJPQ/video.html
Fantastic documentary! The focus always goes on either ships like the Victory or ships like Dreadnought, we never get to see the transitional phase on ships! Thank you
Outstanding presentation sir! After many years, I am finally reading Massey's "Dreadnought" to be followed by "Castles of Steel"; and this helps present a bit more naval development history that was not covered in the book, Thank you! Look forward to the next presentation.
The Dreadnought book has only one chapter on the Dreadnought, the rest is the story of British and German political rivalry.
Castles of Steele is Great , but so is Richard Houghs book.
Your sense of humour is truly a delight. Makes the experience even more worthy of listening. 😄
Kept the 68's in case the captain didn't want to see the enemy crew anymore....LOL
I thought the US Constitution was the first wooden ship to use triangulated wooden framing to stiffen the hull. Excellent CZcams channel. My sincerest compliments regarding your depth and breadth of knowledge.
Can you discuss how the Royal Navy managed to supply itself with the necessary timber during the era of wooden ship building? I'm sure many an old growth oak forest was cut down!
Norman Mattson I live in England near where the wooden ship ie the Agamemnon was built, it’s called bucklers hard. The new forest nearby was created in part to satisfy the demand.
The first six US frigates (inculding Old Ironsides) did have innovative diagonal frames. I think the triangle frames Seppings introduced might be the next logical step. I'd be interested to know if Seppings got a look at the frames in USS/HMS President. Either way, diagonal and triangular frames are brilliantly simple solutions.
"Where a 50 year old ship, kept in good condition, was perfectly good as a flagship of a major naval fleet"
*Laughs in Iowa and congress*
And uss nimitz
Thanks Drach! That's an amazing episode.
Probably my favorite video until now! Thank you very much!
Great series of videos. Your knowledge sharing and time is appreciated .
Thank you for again for such a complete and entertaining look at this important period. Outstanding!
One of your very best work, in my opinion. Rewatching it again. Thank you!
Well done. Really enjoying your videos
Fascinating and excellent episode Drach.
You have a great turn of phrase some great lines in there coupled with fascinating and informative videos!
Thank you for doing this! It's great to hear about such an underrepresented period of naval design.
Thankyou drachinifel what an amazing vid , loved the paintings of the ships and drawings .Wonderfull documentry ..
Impressive work. Watchable again and again.
Good morning from Detroit everyone. Outstanding episode as always!!!
Oh hello from your Flint neighbor.
There are good mornings in Detroit?
Thanks for a great video, I've allways searched for a good presentation of this chaotic period, looking foreward to watching the continued development from 1860 to 1905!
Very well done, this documentary!
Thank you for a great episode.
This was incredibly interesting, thank you very much!
nice work as ever Drach
Nice video. I found it very interesting. Thanks Drach.
Most interesting. This is a period of warship developement about which I had not expected to learn so much...
... so quickly.
Thank you!
Very well done. I always enjoy your video.
Just an outstanding episode. Hope the follow up one comes soon.
Brilliant as always, many thanks.
More of a topic request: Can you go over how the various navies scrapped or utilised old hulls over time and possibly go into how some ships were saved or sold to other navies? I come from the world of steam locomotives so I see a lot of parallels between the two when it comes to preservation for future generations.
a truly excellent presentation
Its so nice to see how much your annunciation and timing has improved. nothing wrong with the data here, but youve come a huge way as a communicator. congrats mate.
I enjoy a lot of history channels, your is by far my favorite. The attention to detail is amazing
Great video.
An ancestor of mine served on HMS Blenheim in the 1850s after the ship had the steam engine conversion. It was his first posting, based at Portsmouth.
I think the period is one of the most interesting. They were trying to work out how to navigate through massive changes in technology. A good book that takes the subject to the next period/step is 'The Ironclads' by Peter Hore.
Always love your videos...keep it up sir
A lovely exposition with continuity and snarky throughout. Your commentary is pleasant and well balanced like a fine wine.
This is a great video, I'm only halfway through it and loving it!
You never hear much about ship naval development between the War of 1812/Napoleonic the American Civil War. It's almost as if you went from full on sailing warships to (poof) ironclad's overnight.
A great video documentary, thanks
Interesting video. It was nice being shown the various changes in ship design as time went on. if possible please do more videos like this one... in addition to the usual videos on various warship classes.
Great job as always!
Great! Some broader views on phases of technological development make for a nice mix with the more specialized videos.
Thank you.
Excellent video as always, love the period of the steam 2 & 3 deckers.
*Thanks for informative video, liked & Shared!!*
Excellent stuff bro
excellent video, thank you!
That was very well done. BZ.👍😀
A Good step ahead of me.... Thank You!
Stringing the Blenheim through the narrative was a nice touch. Well done.
This was one of your best videos yet. I've never seen the development of naval technology explored in such a thorough yet accessible way. Your ability to break down long and complex topics so they can be easily understood by laypeople is very impressive and it's what makes your content so valuable. If I was a naval instructor, I'd recommend your channel to my cadets.
Fascinating! I've not given this revolutionary era much attention. Thank you for the enlightenment. :)
Very Interesting and well done.
great info, i think it would also be interesting to learn about the engines used and their improvements during this time.
Very informative. Keep up the good work. You have one new subscriber here.
Well researched and well produced.
This transitional period of naval history is perhaps my favorite era of warship development.Thank you for covering it.Could listen to you describe it for hours.Hint hint lol. Could you perhaps suggest a book or 2 that cover the subject?I've got a couple but their rather short....love to sink my teeth into something more in depth.Another great video....a comment that need not be said.......because they all are.
If you do a dry dock on weird weapons tried on ships, include the USS Vesuvius.
Very interesting- thank you.
Think this is one of my favourite Drachs. Big fan of these contextual videos
What a great video! Something on the USS Olympia would be fab too. As would the First Sino - Japanese War ( 1894-5) naval battles. Thanks
This video is awesome at explaining this rather rapid change of design. I've always loved the look of huge age of sail ships of the line and had always wondered what happened to them and ho exactly they were replaced and became the battleships we know from 1st and 2nd world war. No i know it and I thank you for that
HMS President? Learned something new today. Thank you!
Fascinating stuff!
Fantastic excellent analaysis of the development of these ships really really enjoyed this video more of the same please thank you David in the uk
Patrick O'Brien's Jack Aubrey loved Sepping's yard. He was the best repair dude.
I'm loving that you included Franklin Crozier in your video.
Badass arctic explorer.
A fascinating lecture. I will have to see if you went forward with another on warship development for the next 30+ years.
Excellent video
I do hope that you intend to make a video on the US Navy Civil War ironclads.
This video here is almost entirely about the US civil war ironclads: czcams.com/video/MI0IOERrnKY/video.html
Second the Motion!
Thirded. Especially the monitor who introduced the fully rotating turret that lead to the dreadnoughts and battleships.
I read a really good book on the American Civil War Ironclads long ago. While the usual story told only includes the Monitor and Merrimac battle there were many many more used by both sides , a fact most people are unaware off. Good book , wish I'd bought it back in the day.
The Monitor and what, now? That ship was sent into the mud. That's the CSS Virginia to you, ya damn Yankee!
Now that was great. Thanks
Not often get do we get a decent voice to listen to on youtube channels. But you have a very listenable style. EXCELLENT !!!
I hope you will do a video on the on the CSS ALABAMA and the USS KEARSARGE. Both ships were from the "steam replaces sail" era.
Please do. My grandfather told me that his grandfather, William Clarke, an Irishman from Dublin, was a sailor in the Kearsage during the battle. Searching the crew lists however, I find a William Clarke on the Alabama and not on the Kearsage. Since it is not an unusual name, perhaps there were two William Clarkes, one on each ship or perhaps William was ashamed of his service and tried to conceal it. I would love to find out. William had at least one child, my great- grandmother, Frances Clarke, who married Louis McGrath. William left the sea and became a bookseller in Liverpool.
Great video
Fascinating.🙏
Looking forward to the next installment. Ship designs from 1860 to 1905 don't get a lot of attention.
Fantastic video as always. If you're planning on more videos on general development history perhaps one on the Jeune École of the late 1800s and how it influenced naval development.
7:00 “The HMS VICTORY “ Shame on you! 😱🤣😘
Can't wait for the next one...