Q&A Hey Drach I'm not sure if it's on a list but I've asked this question many times and I was wondering how a battle with Kirishima and South Dakota go if their wasn't Washington to assist her, would Kirishima eventually damage South so badly she would sink and if she did how do you think it would have affected US ship building since I'm sure something nay have been affected due to losing a new Battleship to a pre world WW1 Battlecruiser turned Fast Battleship. I would also like to see how Japan could have used her had she survived maybe even given her a refit to make her more effective. And again nice video, I enjoyed it very much.
Sounds like HMS Captain was still worse than the USS Galena. Q&A submission. Was the pre-dreadnought theory of progressively smaller guns with high volumes of fire at short range a valid idea? Sub-question. How do we refer to them in terminology? Pre-dreadnoughts, Squadron Battleships, Second-Class Battleships, or other?
Could you consider adding the Imperial Japanese Armoured Cruiser Izumo to your list? I think it has an interesting life, with Peter Harmsen commenting in his book how it lead a "charmed life" as the flagship of the Third Fleet during the battle of Shanghai in 1937. If not, thank you regardless.
In a referense to last weeks Drachisms I going to say that the (holy) trinity for a war ship is that can float dispite being armored, and not get performance impaired, by exploding.
Drachism Of The Day: The opening line of dialog is "Ah! The USS Galena. A ship I've previously described as, possibly the worst US ironclad ever to put to sea". I'm thinking "Oh boy. Here is comes." What follows is a typical Drach Guide To Warships....fact filled, well written and produced. But it was snark-free!!!! I think Drach saves his best jokes for DryDock.
So the ship in question was the USRC Naugatuck, technically it was part of what we now call the United States Coast Guard but before that it was called the United States Revenue Cutter Service. Naugatuck was converted from a civilian vessel and as part of the conversion it had ballast tanks added at the bow and stern, that's the semi-submersible part. And in short, yes it was their job to hunt pirates and to enforce customs policies along the coasts.
I remember reading about the Keokuk. It's armor was awful and she sank as a result of Confederate cannon fire. At least the Galena survived the battle of Drewry's Bluff.
Interesting that they tried rubber backing behind the armour. The RN did some trials at Woolwich in 1845-6 where they fired a 32pdr against iron targets backed with a rubber/cork mixture called kamptulicon.
The gun was fired with different charges at a range of 30-40yds. The targets represented the side of an iron ship or, in some cases, the two sides and deck of such a ship. In some tests the iron was lined with timber or kamptulicon. No1 target was built up of 3 thicknesses of 1/2in plate, double chain riveted together. It was 6ft square and only one shot was fired. This made a clean hole the same size as the shot and none of the rivets was started. No2 target was made of a single thickness of 1/2in plate, flush jointed and single riveted, with frames 9in deep connected to the plate by double 6in x 3in reversed angle bars. One half of the target was lined at the back with kamptulicon, which was intended to catch splinters. Two shots fired with a full 10lb charge went clean through both plate and lining, carrying the splinters along with them. The kamptulicon almost completely closed the hole after the shot had passed, making it nearly watertight. The plates and bolts which held the backing were much broken and seriously damaged. Other rounds were fired with 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1lb charges to simulate the effect of increasing range. the slowest shots still made a hole no bigger than the ball but the edges were bent back with ragged radiating points. Targets 3, 4 and 5 were formed of double and single 5/8in and 1/2in plate and were fired at in the same way with much the same results. There seems to have been general agreement that the holes made by high velocity shot were clean and easily plugged. To deal with the jagged hole made by a nearly spent shot, the parasol plug was developed. This plug was made of sailcloth, or rubberized fabric, in the form of an umbrella with a long handle and was intended to be pushed out through the shot hole, opened and drawn back into the hole so as to cover it. Sea pressure would then force the fabric against the ship's side and seal the hole. The experiments also proved that shot, in striking plates of this thickness was frequently though not invariably broken, and that the portion of the plate taken out by the shot was broken into a number of small and most dangerous splinters. Targets made of the best Low Moor iron were tried in comparison with targets made of common boiler plate; but the difference of the quality of these two kinds of iron made no difference whatever in the splintering or in the general effect. Layers of timber varying in thickness from 3in to 18in, placed behind the iron, were then tried with a view of collecting and stopping the splinters. It was found that this was not effected with less than about 14in of thickness. Wadding and packing of various kinds held in by a backing plate were also tried without success. Kamptulicon of a thickness equal to the wood (14in) answered well. The effect of a glancing blow was studied by firing a 32pdr at 200yds with a 10lb charge. Under these conditions the shot, hitting between the frames, was not deviated and penetrated, making an elongated, clean hole. The reverse side of the target was also fired at to simulate a shot passing right through a ship and exiting through the disengaged side. The effect was much the same as in the previous tests except that the rivets within a 2-3ft radius were loosened and the heads broken off some of them. When the reverse side of a target lined with kamptulicon was attacked, it appeared that, with the larger charges, a somewhat bigger hole was made in the iron, though this was partially offset by the closing of the lining. Apparently a shot fired with a 1/4lb charge merely bounced back off the kamptulicon without any penetration. With a 1/2lb charge the shot lodged in the lining. The trials can be summarised as follows: 1. A shot fired at normal velocity would make a clean hole in 5/8 or 1/2in iron which could easily be plugged. 2. A nearly spent shot would still make a small hole but the edges would be jagged making it more difficult to plug. It would seem that the parasol plug was a very good solution to this problem. 3. The quality of iron used did not affect 1 or 2. 4. Glancing shot caused no additional problems. 5. Shots hitting the reverse side made holes similar to those described in 1 and 2 but in addition rivets might be started over a 2-3ft radius. 6. A large number of splinters came from both the plate and, even more, the broken shot. Again, the result was not affected by the quality of the iron. 7. 14in of wood or kamptulicon stopped almost all the splinters. 8. Kamptulicon was partially successful in sealing shot holes in the engaged side. Some increases in damage might occur when shot hit kamptulicon before piercing the iron of the disengaged side. (Separate tests showed that kamptulicon had very good strength and adhesion to iron. It's fire resistance, if any, was not studied.) This information comes from an article "Attack and Defence" by D.K Brown RCNC in Warship magazine (No .18), about 1981.
@@ant4812 You don't typically think 'oh yeah, late 1800's, they'll have very thorough scientific studies of this sort of thing' aaaaaaand then they do. Which makes sense, but it's not something that immediately comes to mind. That's a really interesting read!
Googling "kamptu" returns _kamptulicon_ as a search suggestion. It's like a cork version of linoleum! For the young-uns: *Linoleum* is the predecessor of our now ubiquitous *vinyl.* I think the world's navies need to keep up with the times and start scheduling ballistics tests on vinyl-clad warships!
It's worse than that, since it was built from the ground-up as an ironclad. If it was a wooden ship retrofitted with armor that didn't work out, that would have been less embarrassing. Having said that, it was a first-generation ironclad, there's always an element of 'learn by doing'.
I just can't understand why you have so few subscribers. You deserve at least a million subs. Your videos are excellent. You are one of the hidden treasures of UA-cam...
@@HemlockRidge history is a bit of a niche subject, with naval history being an even smaller niche. I'm glad Drach makes these videos though I personally love them
@@themadhammer3305 I am an amateur military historian. I specialize in WWII, the American Civil War, The Franco-Prussian War, and 19th Century British Colonial Wars. I also never pass up an opportunity to learn about anything naval.
Drach, I could kiss you! As someone from Mobile AL, hearing a British UA-camr correctly pronounce my hometown is awesome! Most people pronounce it the same way you do in 'mobile home'.
The Ironclad Board was appointed by Secretary of Navy Welles in response to the Confederacy's construction of the CSS Virginia. Since contemporary European ironclads drew too much water to be effective on the Southern Coast and were slow to construct, they couldn't serve as models. So, the Board had to select new, untested design(s) that could be built quickly. In the end they decided to select three quite different designs. The USS New Ironsides was revealed to have various design flaws, but eventually prove useful. The USS Galena was a failure. And the USS Monitor, which was the most radical design, had its rendezvous with history at Hampton Roads.
The Coast guard cutters served valiently in all our wars... Considered mostly Corvets or gunboats... Notably the "Alert" in the Spanish American war and most all CG Cutters as convoy escorts in both world Wars... One sank a submarine twice her size off the Virginia Capes.. The 1st Escanaba was lost in convoy duty in WW2 and I served on the 2nd Escanaba W64, in the 1960's... The 3rd Escanaba serves today, carrying forward a great name...
My dad was on the Northwind, when he told me what it was like to ride out a typhoon on a ship designed to break Ice when I was a kid, it made me go in the Army instead.
@@mikebrase5161 But you missed SO much FUN!! Well, almost!! Thing is you always take your house with you... you have a warm ""comfortable"" bed every night, warm food, ---on the other hand, there are no foxholes at sea!!! USCG veteran 1966-70
I've been recently fascinated by US civil war fleet. It is surprisingly massive with many modern coastal/riverine monitors. A shame they were all quickly scrapped following the war.
Thanks for all the great work. At least the she didn’t sink unlike the Keokuk. Have you ever considered doing a series on naval fire control based on Friedman’s ‘Naval Anti-Aircraft Guns and Gunnery”, “Naval Firepower” & “Naval Radar”? “Naval Weapons of World War One” and “Two” also have some good information. It’s one of the factors leading to the battle cruiser concept. At the time fast targets could not be hit, though that changed.
Very interesting. Thank you. And on the subject of the Civil War navy may I request that you add the USS Kearsarge, famed for it's one on one battle with the CSS Alabama, to your list of future videos.
So, she spent 4 hours trading blows with a shore battery, received "nearly 4 dozen hits", and still managed to sail away under her own power and cover the withdrawal of the rest of the fleet. And then she stuck around for the rest of the year defending Union shipping only patchwork repairs. You know, that doesn't really sound like the worst ironclad ever built. Especially when you consider that HMS Captain is in the competition.
I can confirm this, as my mom grew up there. Does Drach need a "how to pronounce American warship names" vid to go along with the German and French ones?
When I was Explorer scout in 1960 I got to go an a reserve cruise for a weekend out of San Diego on the USS Marsh (DE-699) was a Buckley-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy, named after Ensign Benjamin R. Marsh, Jr., USNR, who was killed on board the battleship Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Copied this from Wikipedia. During that weekend they fired the 3" guns, dropped depth charges and launched hedgehogs. The fire in the engine room wasn't scheduled. I think it was commissioned in 1943 and scrapped in 1962. Anyway, could you do a story on the Buckleys? Thanks, really enjoy you video.
It's like a Dreadnought design that's so bad, the shipyards decide replacing half her main guns with a secondary and tertiary batteries will make the ship more useful.
Trivia: Galena Illinois is the location chosen for General U.S. Grant (pre President) for his retirement. The city is located on US highway 20 west of Chicago on the Illinois / Iowa stateline. US 30 (lincoln highway) is about 45 miles south in Iowa.
I grew up in Galena, I still live 15 miles from there. Grant didn't pick Galena to retire to he moved to Galena with his family in 1860. He worked in his fathers leather goods store that was in town. When war broke out the next year he volunteered and as a west point graduate was made colonel of the 21st Illinois volunteers.
Interesting bit of history, US Navy was learning how to build iron ships, in that regard the USS Galena was a useful, even though it was not a good iron war ship.
The ship was built by Maxon and Fish in Mystic, now Mystic Shipyard. There were some pictures of the ship on the office wall when I was a kid. My grandmother, a member of the Fish family, used to say in her genteel way that the ship as not a success. Thanks for the interesting story about the ship.
The name "Galena" comes the city of Galena in Illinois in the heart of Upper Mississippi River lead mining district 9f Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa --- galena being lead sulfide ore. The area was a major source of lead for the Northern war effort.
Excellent video. At least you said 'put to sea', so that excludes the awful USS Casco and her equally awful sisters. But which would win in a fight between the Casco and the CSS Tuscaloosa?
well, i mean, to be fair, you sorta learn what works and what dont by making a ironclad out of shingles on a grid, another with a merry go round on top, and just seeing what happens.
Dear Drach your videos are always very informative & interesting. If you have the time, could you do videos on the A-H battleship Viribus Unitis and the German battlecruiser Von der Tann. Both ships from WW1. Thank you!
Thank you. Most of us British readers have a devil of a time working out how in hell you guys and gals actually pronounce some of the more 'native' of your ships' names. We never hear them so we have to imagine. It's a bugger, it really is.
I LOVE FLAG OFFICER SEYMOUR! Hopefully thats gets Papa Drachs attention for this. For those who animate and love naval related things, I have an idea. Found a song called Funeral March played on a norse harp. Listen to it and tell me it wouldn't fit this scene. A camera pans out over a busy and scuttling Scapa flow. Launches and tugs are justling about the various capital ships. Horns and shouting slowly fade and Funeral March picks up. The camera focuses on the 1st and 3rd Battle cruiser Squadrons, particularly the sterns of three ships. The paint denotes HMS Invincible, Indefatigable, and Queen Mary and are clearly seen as the camera rolls past them. The doomed ships make preparations to leave port. They silently slip from their berths along with the grand fleet on a foggy/overcast morning towards Jutland with the song playing in the background.
I’d love to see a video on the RMS Queen Mary, even though she’s a party ship, not a battleship. It seems she took advantage of wartime to invite more young men to her parties. Never mind heat exhaustion, rogue waves, U boats or stray light cruisers, just keep calm and party on. Like her namesake, she has continued the party rather longer than reasonable expectations would indicate. If you like doing that, you could go on to cover the vicissitudes of the Deutschland/Leviathan. The Normandie and the United States seem to have gone to sad endings, not justifying their expense, but that seems very battleshippy, maybe you can cover them too. Certainly the first two ships made a larger military contribution than the vast majority of military ships.
Glad to have found your channel. I would like to see an episode on the CSN in the pacific. I know there was one ship disrupting whaling. Were there any more? Thanks.
Given that "Galena" is also another name for the mineral lead, this was an unfortunate choice of names for the ironclad. How well did naval engineers on 1860 understand problems like negative stability and buoyancy? I'm sure they understood the concepts, but how well were they able to calculate the effects of heavy iron armor? Given that all the calculations would be by hand with only the assistance of a slide rule, how much time could they devote to detailed calculations before the ship would never get launched? It must have been a pretty difficult task for naval engineers of the time, and ships like Galena show that there was either an inadequate understanding of things like tumblehome affecting stability, or there just weren't enough hours in the day to make all the calculations.
Not that this makes ANY difference whatsoever, but in Illinois, where Galena is located, we emphasize the middle vowel "e" as an "ee" type sound: (Ga-LEE-na)
You would think that if some people were going to build a warship & place "armor" on the outside, you would think that they would at least TRY to test the type of "armor" they were going to use BEFORE they applied the armor to the entire hull of a ship. The crew was lucky that everyone wasn't killed. One of the things that did surprise me was that it "dropped anchor". I'm not sure if that was standard practice for an "ironclad", however, considering it was the ships first engagement what so ever, I don't think I would have done that until I was a little more confident in the armor actually working...
The ship is named after Galena, IL, of which I just live a couple hours east of. It's Gu[ as in gull] lee nuh, not Geh la na. Drach is essentially pronouncing the A and the E opposite of how we do...British accent aside
Excellent video! Review idea: The Imperial Russian Navy had circular shaped ships that I believe they used as costal monitors. It would be interesting to know the logic behind this unorthodox hull design as well as its usage history and success, or lack there of.
I find your videos fascinating. Will you ever write some books? I particularly enjoyed your video on the history of the British ironclads: I'd definitely buy that in book form.
Just wondering if you have ever done or considered doing a video about the battle of the Yalu River. And as a young boy when I first saw the film The Yangtze River Icidence and a couple of years back finding out the facts were different from the film would you consider doing a video about it?
The Galena was not the worst of the ironclads. She was a fair sea boat. The worst Union Ironclad is the ill fated *USS Keokuk.* She looked like a monitor but was actually a battery of large 11" guns mounted in two casemates that resembled turrets. In 1863 the *Keokuk* was used on an assault on a fort outside of Charlestown, SC, was hit by 90 cannon rounds, and sand. Her guns were salvaged from the sunken wreck and used in defense against the Union forces.
Good day sir. I was wondering if you could identify and tell me a bit about the film footage at the end of your opening montage where a broadside appears to cause a scattering of paper to appear. Basically, I would like to know what is going on in the footage, or at least know enough about the footage to look it up myself. Thank you.
It looks to me more like an internal turret explosion on that one. Either that, or someone left a lot of light debris sitting on the roof and the first firing sent it flying from muzzle blast. If it was an explosion, I would have expected more damage to the (rubberized canvas?) seal between the barrel and turret -- it doesn't seem to be badly damaged. Hey, Drach, what's the story here?
5:40 Yeah, I know that ironclads were a new concept and designers were feeling their way into figuring out what worked, but, egad, that's almost "Ironclads by Dr. Seuss".
Well I just got the notification and I can't wait to see how this video goes, judging by the begging it seems like it shall be an interesting video. Just out of curiosity what would you do once you run out of ships, will you begin to make video on modern ships?
'Condemed' I've never heard this fate for a functional ship, 'Stricken' yes - Condemed :). At least this was a learning exercise == Don't Do This Again.
Is that a fair assessment considering the time? I expect that the majority of those in charge would have had a better understanding of "standard" ships and may have even been a little confused by "these newfangled contraptions". When car airbags where first brought in, some people argued that they were dangerous and counter productive. It took a while for the progress to pass into the collective consciousness, and I expect it was, to some extent, the same with the early ironclads.
I think HMS Captain was worse than USS Gelena, since Gelena did at least manage to float in the waters she was designed to function in. Managing to float is I think an even more basic requirement than having useful (or in Galena's case, worse than useless) armor.
I have a book written by William M. Fowler, Jr titled Under Two Flags. The American Navy in the Civil War. All information about her is covered very good. I've read it eight time's. Available through Bluejacket Books, Naval Institute Press.
“Then the great Galena came, with her portholes all aflame, And the Monitor that famous naval wonder, But the guns at Drewry’s Bluff gave them speedily enough, The loudest sort of reg’lar Rebel thunder. The Galena was astonished and the Monitor admonished, Our patent shot and shell were mocked at, While the dreadful Naugatuck, by the hardest kind of luck, Was knocked into an ugly cocked hat.”
They had so much potential for naval combat in that game and they fucked it up, all they had to do at the very least was make a way to mod in different ships. FOR FUCKS SAKE YOU CAN BUILD A BATTLECRUISER WITH SUPER FIRING GUNS BEFORE A FUCKING MONITOR! Makes no sense...
![Polikarpov I-16 "Ishak" | The Revolutionary Russian Fighter [Aircraft Overview #12]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KD0SYy-stt4/mqdefault.jpg)
Pinned post for Q&A :)
Q & A what guns were better the Parrots or the Dalgrens?
Q&A Hey Drach I'm not sure if it's on a list but I've asked this question many times and I was wondering how a battle with Kirishima and South Dakota go if their wasn't Washington to assist her, would Kirishima eventually damage South so badly she would sink and if she did how do you think it would have affected US ship building since I'm sure something nay have been affected due to losing a new Battleship to a pre world WW1 Battlecruiser turned Fast Battleship. I would also like to see how Japan could have used her had she survived maybe even given her a refit to make her more effective.
And again nice video, I enjoyed it very much.
Who would win in a 3 way fight? A fully modernised hms nelson, a fully modernised nagato, or a fully modernised West virginia?
Sounds like HMS Captain was still worse than the USS Galena.
Q&A submission. Was the pre-dreadnought theory of progressively smaller guns with high volumes of fire at short range a valid idea?
Sub-question. How do we refer to them in terminology? Pre-dreadnoughts, Squadron Battleships, Second-Class Battleships, or other?
Could you consider adding the Imperial Japanese Armoured Cruiser Izumo to your list? I think it has an interesting life, with Peter Harmsen commenting in his book how it lead a "charmed life" as the flagship of the Third Fleet during the battle of Shanghai in 1937.
If not, thank you regardless.
“And it had to float, despite being armored, which is a useful feature on warships in most cases.”
Drachism of the day right off the bat!
And this is why I subscribed
In a referense to last weeks Drachisms I going to say that the (holy) trinity for a war ship is that can float dispite being armored, and not get performance impaired, by exploding.
>laughs in HMS Diamond Rock
A condition not fully met by USS Monitor.
I think that the Russian fleet would have been perfectly happy had Kamchatka *not* been able to float.
Well, now I'm interested in *a somewhat armored, semi-submersible, US Treasury cutter on loan to the Navy.* 7:29
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USRC_Naugatuck
In fairness... who wouldn't?
SEMI-SUBMERSIBLE LIKE THE U.S. TREASURY.... HMMM
@@dibblydooda7604 I fucking died laughing 😂😂😂
I wonder if something like a semi-submersible would be useful for the modern US Coast Guard when interdicting smugglers.
Galana had one thing she excelled at, because of the iron, she could sink twice as fast as a wooden ship!
Well... seeing how she survived long enough to be scrapped I'd say she failed at even this lofty honor.
Drachism Of The Day: The opening line of dialog is "Ah! The USS Galena. A ship I've previously described as, possibly the worst US ironclad ever to put to sea". I'm thinking "Oh boy. Here is comes." What follows is a typical Drach Guide To Warships....fact filled, well written and produced. But it was snark-free!!!! I think Drach saves his best jokes for DryDock.
Well, 1:13 it did have to float, "which is a useful feature on warships, in most cases." :D
He didn't restrict it to US ironclads.
semi-submersible treasury cutter? what?
Were they hunting pirates or Captain Nemo?
So the ship in question was the USRC Naugatuck, technically it was part of what we now call the United States Coast Guard but before that it was called the United States Revenue Cutter Service. Naugatuck was converted from a civilian vessel and as part of the conversion it had ballast tanks added at the bow and stern, that's the semi-submersible part. And in short, yes it was their job to hunt pirates and to enforce customs policies along the coasts.
That Nemo, he was a devil for contraband.
@@Loweko1170 And getting lost in Sydney
@@Loweko1170 See thats where they were going wrong, if your trying to find Nemo you don't need a cutter you need a Dory!
If you can't decide whether you're supposed to be a ship or a submarine...there's something seriously wrong there.
"The worst US ironclad put to sea."
The USS Keokuk would like to have a word with you.
I remember reading about the Keokuk. It's armor was awful and she sank as a result of Confederate cannon fire. At least the Galena survived the battle of Drewry's Bluff.
Agreed,at least Galena was easy on the eyes.
@@model-man7802 Keokuk looked like a steampunk submarine that no one taught how to dive.
Joshua Sutherland , lol I was thinking the same thing
I think they forgot to teach it how to resurface?
Interesting that they tried rubber backing behind the armour. The RN did some trials at Woolwich in 1845-6 where they fired a 32pdr against iron targets backed with a rubber/cork mixture called kamptulicon.
What were the results?
The gun was fired with different charges at a range of 30-40yds. The targets represented the side of an iron ship or, in some cases, the two sides and deck of such a ship. In some tests the iron was lined with timber or kamptulicon. No1 target was built up of 3 thicknesses of 1/2in plate, double chain riveted together. It was 6ft square and only one shot was fired. This made a clean hole the same size as the shot and none of the rivets was started. No2 target was made of a single thickness of 1/2in plate, flush jointed and single riveted, with frames 9in deep connected to the plate by double 6in x 3in reversed angle bars. One half of the target was lined at the back with kamptulicon, which was intended to catch splinters. Two shots fired with a full 10lb charge went clean through both plate and lining, carrying the splinters along with them. The kamptulicon almost completely closed the hole after the shot had passed, making it nearly watertight. The plates and bolts which held the backing were much broken and seriously damaged.
Other rounds were fired with 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1lb charges to simulate the effect of increasing range. the slowest shots still made a hole no bigger than the ball but the edges were bent back with ragged radiating points. Targets 3, 4 and 5 were formed of double and single 5/8in and 1/2in plate and were fired at in the same way with much the same results.
There seems to have been general agreement that the holes made by high velocity shot were clean and easily plugged. To deal with the jagged hole made by a nearly spent shot, the parasol plug was developed. This plug was made of sailcloth, or rubberized fabric, in the form of an umbrella with a long handle and was intended to be pushed out through the shot hole, opened and drawn back into the hole so as to cover it. Sea pressure would then force the fabric against the ship's side and seal the hole.
The experiments also proved that shot, in striking plates of this thickness was frequently though not invariably broken, and that the portion of the plate taken out by the shot was broken into a number of small and most dangerous splinters. Targets made of the best Low Moor iron were tried in comparison with targets made of common boiler plate; but the difference of the quality of these two kinds of iron made no difference whatever in the splintering or in the general effect. Layers of timber varying in thickness from 3in to 18in, placed behind the iron, were then tried with a view of collecting and stopping the splinters. It was found that this was not effected with less than about 14in of thickness. Wadding and packing of various kinds held in by a backing plate were also tried without success. Kamptulicon of a thickness equal to the wood (14in) answered well.
The effect of a glancing blow was studied by firing a 32pdr at 200yds with a 10lb charge. Under these conditions the shot, hitting between the frames, was not deviated and penetrated, making an elongated, clean hole.
The reverse side of the target was also fired at to simulate a shot passing right through a ship and exiting through the disengaged side. The effect was much the same as in the previous tests except that the rivets within a 2-3ft radius were loosened and the heads broken off some of them. When the reverse side of a target lined with kamptulicon was attacked, it appeared that, with the larger charges, a somewhat bigger hole was made in the iron, though this was partially offset by the closing of the lining. Apparently a shot fired with a 1/4lb charge merely bounced back off the kamptulicon without any penetration. With a 1/2lb charge the shot lodged in the lining.
The trials can be summarised as follows:
1. A shot fired at normal velocity would make a clean hole in 5/8 or 1/2in iron which could easily be plugged.
2. A nearly spent shot would still make a small hole but the edges would be jagged making it more difficult to plug. It would seem that the parasol plug was a very good solution to this problem.
3. The quality of iron used did not affect 1 or 2.
4. Glancing shot caused no additional problems.
5. Shots hitting the reverse side made holes similar to those described in 1 and 2 but in addition rivets might be started over a 2-3ft radius.
6. A large number of splinters came from both the plate and, even more, the broken shot. Again, the result was not affected by the quality of the iron.
7. 14in of wood or kamptulicon stopped almost all the splinters.
8. Kamptulicon was partially successful in sealing shot holes in the engaged side. Some increases in damage might occur when shot hit kamptulicon before piercing the iron of the disengaged side. (Separate tests showed that kamptulicon had very good strength and adhesion to iron. It's fire resistance, if any, was not studied.)
This information comes from an article "Attack and Defence" by D.K Brown RCNC in Warship magazine (No .18), about 1981.
@@ant4812 You don't typically think 'oh yeah, late 1800's, they'll have very thorough scientific studies of this sort of thing' aaaaaaand then they do. Which makes sense, but it's not something that immediately comes to mind. That's a really interesting read!
@@ant4812 wow, that's really interesting, thanks for all the details!
Googling "kamptu" returns _kamptulicon_ as a search suggestion. It's like a cork version of linoleum!
For the young-uns: *Linoleum* is the predecessor of our now ubiquitous *vinyl.*
I think the world's navies need to keep up with the times and start scheduling ballistics tests on vinyl-clad warships!
A ship that failed at being an ironclad, and had to go back to being unarmored. How IRONic.
A true 'Fe'ling in the design
It's worse than that, since it was built from the ground-up as an ironclad. If it was a wooden ship retrofitted with armor that didn't work out, that would have been less embarrassing. Having said that, it was a first-generation ironclad, there's always an element of 'learn by doing'.
I think you mean _UN_ IRONic at that point.
@@johnassal5838 De-ironic
I just can't understand why you have so few subscribers. You deserve at least a million subs. Your videos are excellent. You are one of the hidden treasures of UA-cam...
I believe that most people don't like history.
@@HemlockRidge history is a bit of a niche subject, with naval history being an even smaller niche. I'm glad Drach makes these videos though I personally love them
@@themadhammer3305 I am an amateur military historian. I specialize in WWII, the American Civil War, The Franco-Prussian War, and 19th Century British Colonial Wars. I also never pass up an opportunity to learn about anything naval.
Million? You need more female viewers.
I'm here from the future. He has a lot more subscribers.
Good Morning, sir. Always good to see a Drach post on a Saturday morning, Entertaining and informative as usual.
Drach, I could kiss you! As someone from Mobile AL, hearing a British UA-camr correctly pronounce my hometown is awesome! Most people pronounce it the same way you do in 'mobile home'.
The Ironclad Board was appointed by Secretary of Navy Welles in response to the Confederacy's construction of the CSS Virginia. Since contemporary European ironclads drew too much water to be effective on the Southern Coast and were slow to construct, they couldn't serve as models. So, the Board had to select new, untested design(s) that could be built quickly. In the end they decided to select three quite different designs. The USS New Ironsides was revealed to have various design flaws, but eventually prove useful. The USS Galena was a failure. And the USS Monitor, which was the most radical design, had its rendezvous with history at Hampton Roads.
Thanks. Had heard of this ship, but never knew the story. Thorough job.
Love these videos. Great narration even for little known ships like this.
Congrats on 125 ship guides my man
The Coast guard cutters served valiently in all our wars... Considered mostly Corvets or gunboats... Notably the "Alert" in the Spanish American war and most all CG Cutters as convoy escorts in both world Wars... One sank a submarine twice her size off the Virginia Capes..
The 1st Escanaba was lost in convoy duty in WW2 and I served on the 2nd Escanaba W64, in the 1960's...
The 3rd Escanaba serves today, carrying forward a great name...
My dad was on the Northwind, when he told me what it was like to ride out a typhoon on a ship designed to break Ice when I was a kid, it made me go in the Army instead.
@@mikebrase5161 But you missed SO much FUN!! Well, almost!! Thing is you always take your house with you... you have a warm ""comfortable"" bed every night, warm food, ---on the other hand, there are no foxholes at sea!!!
USCG veteran 1966-70
@@lewis7315 My dad USCG 69-74 I was Army Infantry from 93-11.
I've been recently fascinated by US civil war fleet. It is surprisingly massive with many modern coastal/riverine monitors. A shame they were all quickly scrapped following the war.
You can go see and walk on/inside the USS Cairo in Vickburg, MS. The last of her kind.
Thanks for all the great work. At least the she didn’t sink unlike the Keokuk.
Have you ever considered doing a series on naval fire control based on Friedman’s ‘Naval Anti-Aircraft Guns and Gunnery”, “Naval Firepower” & “Naval Radar”? “Naval Weapons of World War One” and “Two” also have some good information. It’s one of the factors leading to the battle cruiser concept. At the time fast targets could not be hit, though that changed.
More US Civil War vessels, the mentioned USS New Ironsides, and the USS Keokuk
Again, great video, no god-awful background music and a bit of dry humor! Keep up the good work, eh wot.
An ironclad returned as a wooded ship as the armour was worse than useless
Not an 'honor' you want
CSS Stonewall and USS Dunderberg are the little-known ironclads that have always fascinated me.
Been looking forward to this one. Great little video to watch on my lunch break.
Thank you for all your work. It is so much fun to watch your videos!
Very interesting. Thank you. And on the subject of the Civil War navy may I request that you add the USS Kearsarge, famed for it's one on one battle with the CSS Alabama, to your list of future videos.
So, she spent 4 hours trading blows with a shore battery, received "nearly 4 dozen hits", and still managed to sail away under her own power and cover the withdrawal of the rest of the fleet. And then she stuck around for the rest of the year defending Union shipping only patchwork repairs. You know, that doesn't really sound like the worst ironclad ever built. Especially when you consider that HMS Captain is in the competition.
In typical Midwest fashion, Galena is pronounced "Guh-LEE-nuh" as a quick FYI. Interesting video!
I can confirm this, as my mom grew up there. Does Drach need a "how to pronounce American warship names" vid to go along with the German and French ones?
I love the smell of Drachinifel Guides in the morning.
When I was Explorer scout in 1960 I got to go an a reserve cruise for a weekend out of San Diego on the USS Marsh (DE-699) was a Buckley-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy, named after Ensign Benjamin R. Marsh, Jr., USNR, who was killed on board the battleship Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Copied this from Wikipedia. During that weekend they fired the 3" guns, dropped depth charges and launched hedgehogs. The fire in the engine room wasn't scheduled. I think it was commissioned in 1943 and scrapped in 1962. Anyway, could you do a story on the Buckleys? Thanks, really enjoy you video.
It's like a Dreadnought design that's so bad, the shipyards decide replacing half her main guns with a secondary and tertiary batteries will make the ship more useful.
Floating is a useful trait for ships in general.
You should do a review of the Revenue Cutter!
Trivia: Galena Illinois is the location chosen for General U.S. Grant (pre President) for his retirement. The city is located on US highway 20 west of Chicago on the Illinois / Iowa stateline. US 30 (lincoln highway) is about 45 miles south in Iowa.
I grew up in Galena, I still live 15 miles from there. Grant didn't pick Galena to retire to he moved to Galena with his family in 1860. He worked in his fathers leather goods store that was in town. When war broke out the next year he volunteered and as a west point graduate was made colonel of the 21st Illinois volunteers.
Interesting bit of history, US Navy was learning how to build iron ships, in that regard the USS Galena was a useful, even though it was not a good iron war ship.
You should do a show on Lt. William Cushing. The craziest officer in the American Navy during the Civil War.
The ship was built by Maxon and Fish in Mystic, now Mystic Shipyard. There were some pictures of the ship on the office wall when I was a kid. My grandmother, a member of the Fish family, used to say in her genteel way that the ship as not a success. Thanks for the interesting story about the ship.
Looks like my plans for going to sleep are about as sound as the plans for Galena!
cool...............i really like the ACW naval ships
The name "Galena" comes the city of Galena in Illinois in the heart of Upper Mississippi River lead mining district 9f Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa --- galena being lead sulfide ore. The area was a major source of lead for the Northern war effort.
Really like these iron clad videos
Hi Drach. Galena is about an hour from where I live. Ga-LEENA-uh
Somehow, naming a ship after lead ore just doesn't seem right.
@@christosvoskresye Well, it's also a silver ore.
Given that they basically named the ship lead, did anyone really have high hopes for Galena?
In their defense, it was named after the city in Illinois, which was named after Lead.
My first thought, name a ship after lead ore!
The USS Keokuk had the same fate at Charleston only worse to the point it sank.The guns were salvaged I believe.
"US Treasury Cutter" which was a Revenue Cutter Service vessel was one of the future USCG cutter.
Thanks for the comment about just why it is that tumblehome is a bad design choice.
This was very entertaining and informative. Thanks
Excellent video. At least you said 'put to sea', so that excludes the awful USS Casco and her equally awful sisters.
But which would win in a fight between the Casco and the CSS Tuscaloosa?
Aboukir, Cressy,and Hogue, the live bait squadron
well, i mean, to be fair, you sorta learn what works and what dont by making a ironclad out of shingles on a grid, another with a merry go round on top, and just seeing what happens.
Dear Drach your videos are always very informative & interesting. If you have the time, could you do videos on the A-H battleship Viribus Unitis and the German battlecruiser Von der Tann. Both ships from WW1. Thank you!
“A somewhat armoured, semi-submersible, US treasury cutter”
Oneida is pronounced “oh-nigh-da” not “oh-knee-da”
How you can tell someone is from Upstate New York
@Charles Yuditsky Wow, you must be really popular at parties. See you next Tuesday.
@Charles Yuditsky Huh you must be in pain from all the strain on your back and handcuff marks.
In the UK we had an historical soap opera on TV called the Oneidin Line pronounced O Knee Din
Thank you. Most of us British readers have a devil of a time working out how in hell you guys and gals actually pronounce some of the more 'native' of your ships' names. We never hear them so we have to imagine. It's a bugger, it really is.
I LOVE FLAG OFFICER SEYMOUR! Hopefully thats gets Papa Drachs attention for this.
For those who animate and love naval related things, I have an idea. Found a song called Funeral March played on a norse harp. Listen to it and tell me it wouldn't fit this scene. A camera pans out over a busy and scuttling Scapa flow. Launches and tugs are justling about the various capital ships. Horns and shouting slowly fade and Funeral March picks up. The camera focuses on the 1st and 3rd Battle cruiser Squadrons, particularly the sterns of three ships. The paint denotes HMS Invincible, Indefatigable, and Queen Mary and are clearly seen as the camera rolls past them. The doomed ships make preparations to leave port. They silently slip from their berths along with the grand fleet on a foggy/overcast morning towards Jutland with the song playing in the background.
USS wolverine, an iron clad used on the great lakes if you find it interesting.
Please sir can we have a 5 minute video on the USS Dunderburg?
I second that!
That was great love the videos you do please do more of the u.s. civil war ships Union and Confederacy if you would please
You mean it didn't come with a "ironclad" guarantee?
I’d love to see a video on the RMS Queen Mary, even though she’s a party ship, not a battleship. It seems she took advantage of wartime to invite more young men to her parties. Never mind heat exhaustion, rogue waves, U boats or stray light cruisers, just keep calm and party on. Like her namesake, she has continued the party rather longer than reasonable expectations would indicate. If you like doing that, you could go on to cover the vicissitudes of the Deutschland/Leviathan. The Normandie and the United States seem to have gone to sad endings, not justifying their expense, but that seems very battleshippy, maybe you can cover them too. Certainly the first two ships made a larger military contribution than the vast majority of military ships.
Glad to have found your channel. I would like to see an episode on the CSN in the pacific. I know there was one ship disrupting whaling. Were there any more? Thanks.
Huh, spall lined armour in 1862. Neat!
Given that "Galena" is also another name for the mineral lead, this was an unfortunate choice of names for the ironclad. How well did naval engineers on 1860 understand problems like negative stability and buoyancy? I'm sure they understood the concepts, but how well were they able to calculate the effects of heavy iron armor? Given that all the calculations would be by hand with only the assistance of a slide rule, how much time could they devote to detailed calculations before the ship would never get launched? It must have been a pretty difficult task for naval engineers of the time, and ships like Galena show that there was either an inadequate understanding of things like tumblehome affecting stability, or there just weren't enough hours in the day to make all the calculations.
Not that this makes ANY difference whatsoever, but in Illinois, where Galena is located, we emphasize the middle vowel "e" as an "ee" type sound: (Ga-LEE-na)
scrapped after the the war ended is probably not the worst possible fate for a failed experimental ship used on the front line all things considered.
Right? It could have sunk itself like Captain.
You would think that if some people were going to build a warship & place "armor" on the outside, you would think that they would at least TRY to test the type of "armor" they were going to use BEFORE they applied the armor to the entire hull of a ship. The crew was lucky that everyone wasn't killed.
One of the things that did surprise me was that it "dropped anchor". I'm not sure if that was standard practice for an "ironclad", however, considering it was the ships first engagement what so ever, I don't think I would have done that until I was a little more confident in the armor actually working...
Could you do the ironclad HMS Inflexible ?
Another excellent video. Might I request a video on U.S.S. Abbot DD 629. Thank You!
rubber between the wood and iron,,think of it as a condom for a ship,,,offering maximum protection.
ah... the mighty uss derp
The ship is named after Galena, IL, of which I just live a couple hours east of. It's Gu[ as in gull] lee nuh, not Geh la na. Drach is essentially pronouncing the A and the E opposite of how we do...British accent aside
Google shows the pronunciation to be the same in both American and British English.
Excellent video! Review idea: The Imperial Russian Navy had circular shaped ships that I believe they used as costal monitors. It would be interesting to know the logic behind this unorthodox hull design as well as its usage history and success, or lack there of.
scott
They’ve been covered on this channel.
The Ford Pinto of Iron Clads !
I find your videos fascinating. Will you ever write some books? I particularly enjoyed your video on the history of the British ironclads: I'd definitely buy that in book form.
Do you have one on USS "New Ironsides"? Now there was an intersting ship
Just wondering if you have ever done or considered doing a video about the battle of the Yalu River. And as a young boy when I first saw the film The Yangtze River Icidence and a couple of years back finding out the facts were different from the film would you consider doing a video about it?
great, my birthday is cursed by the commissioning of this monster
The Galena was not the worst of the ironclads. She was a fair sea boat. The worst Union Ironclad is the ill fated *USS Keokuk.* She looked like a monitor but was actually a battery of large 11" guns mounted in two casemates that resembled turrets. In 1863 the *Keokuk* was used on an assault on a fort outside of Charlestown, SC, was hit by 90 cannon rounds, and sand. Her guns were salvaged from the sunken wreck and used in defense against the Union forces.
Good day sir. I was wondering if you could identify and tell me a bit about the film footage at the end of your opening montage where a broadside appears to cause a scattering of paper to appear. Basically, I would like to know what is going on in the footage, or at least know enough about the footage to look it up myself. Thank you.
It looks like one of the blast bags gets shredded.
It looks to me more like an internal turret explosion on that one. Either that, or someone left a lot of light debris sitting on the roof and the first firing sent it flying from muzzle blast. If it was an explosion, I would have expected more damage to the (rubberized canvas?) seal between the barrel and turret -- it doesn't seem to be badly damaged. Hey, Drach, what's the story here?
The music link doesn't work
Awesome video as usual
5:10 lol I see why the ship was prone to rolling!
Howdy from Montana,Drach! Question: what are those white canvas coverings on the gun turrets for?
Keep out the rain and sun. Top is open for ventilation.
Vessel suggestion: Spanish seaplane carrier Dédalo
5:40 Yeah, I know that ironclads were a new concept and designers were feeling their way into figuring out what worked, but, egad, that's almost "Ironclads by Dr. Seuss".
Well I just got the notification and I can't wait to see how this video goes, judging by the begging it seems like it shall be an interesting video. Just out of curiosity what would you do once you run out of ships, will you begin to make video on modern ships?
Well, it'll take a while, but likely :)
@@Drachinifel Thanks for the info Drach.
You'll likely run out of warships in about a few decades. Likely because our forefathers did build warship like it was going out of fashion?
@@gustavbonow5416 by the time I run out of vintage warships the ones I consider a bit too modern will be old enough to qualify as vintage :p
The USS Lead ore, AKA Sink fast.
And yet sinking is one failing it didn't have.
@@nathanbrown8680 Yeah, they got lucky with that one.
What formation/Navy is the outro picture depicting?
'Condemed' I've never heard this fate for a functional ship, 'Stricken' yes - Condemed :). At least this was a learning exercise == Don't Do This Again.
She had a sheath of iron plates which sandwiched. I forget its thickness, but not enough.
U.S.S. Hartford (Civil War sloop) Admiral D. G. Farragut's Flagship.
Is that a fair assessment considering the time? I expect that the majority of those in charge would have had a better understanding of "standard" ships and may have even been a little confused by "these newfangled contraptions". When car airbags where first brought in, some people argued that they were dangerous and counter productive. It took a while for the progress to pass into the collective consciousness, and I expect it was, to some extent, the same with the early ironclads.
I think HMS Captain was worse than USS Gelena, since Gelena did at least manage to float in the waters she was designed to function in. Managing to float is I think an even more basic requirement than having useful (or in Galena's case, worse than useless) armor.
Thankyou for your work Sir
Dropped anchor and shot at the bluff hahaha
I have a book written by William M. Fowler, Jr titled Under Two Flags. The American Navy in the Civil War. All information about her is covered very good. I've read it eight time's. Available through Bluejacket Books, Naval Institute Press.
“Then the great Galena came, with her portholes all aflame,
And the Monitor that famous naval wonder,
But the guns at Drewry’s Bluff gave them speedily enough,
The loudest sort of reg’lar Rebel thunder.
The Galena was astonished and the Monitor admonished,
Our patent shot and shell were mocked at,
While the dreadful Naugatuck, by the hardest kind of luck,
Was knocked into an ugly cocked hat.”
Speaking of the 'New Ironsides', have you considered an episode on it?
maybe I'm wrong, but isn't Galena an ore of lead?Yup, lead.....heavy, non-floaty stuff.....
Correct. Galena is one of the lead ores.
It's a silver ore too.
and to think blue byte gave us this ship as our command ship in anno 1800
They had so much potential for naval combat in that game and they fucked it up, all they had to do at the very least was make a way to mod in different ships.
FOR FUCKS SAKE YOU CAN BUILD A BATTLECRUISER WITH SUPER FIRING GUNS BEFORE A FUCKING MONITOR! Makes no sense...
Thank you