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Tizer
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20/01/2008
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17:15
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The bottom picture is from an Australian postcard which features in an article by Philip J. Chapman on page 32 of "Picture Postcard Monthly" magazine (January 2008 - lots of interesting poctcards shown in each issue!). I have kept the image small to avoid upsetting Mr Chapman. I have enlarged the two warships from the postcard image. Mr Chapman wonders whether the ships are Australian Navy or Royal Navy. The card is dated 17th November 1913 and was sent from "Wal" in Australia to "Pearl" in Wymondham, Norfolk, UK. The view is of Sydney harbour with the ships at anchor.
I have put these pictures on the OGFB site for general interest but also because someone might be able to provide more details of the ships. I started a new thread rather than disrupting the objectives of thomo's thread!
Tizer
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Tizer
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Posted - 13/01/2011 : 19:59
Click for larger image. HMS Amethyst which escaped from the Chinese in the Yangtze River in 1949. (There is another photo of Amethyst on OGFB posted by Thomo.) I don't know where the photo was taken but I guess it was overseas. I assume the ship in the background with three funnels is a County class cruiser. I know that HMS London (a County class) was involved in the Yangtze affair but I'm not sure whether it had the three funnels or not. That tug behind the Amethyst looks as if it's paddle driven.
Click for larger image. HMS Ark Royal making her last active appearance in 1978, not to be confused with the later Ark Royal which has just made her last appearance too. Shown in Plymouth Sound and taken away to the breaker's yard in 1980.
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pluggy
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Posted - 13/01/2011 : 21:22
During one of my spells on FMG (Fleet Maintainance Group) the "waiting to be towed away" Ark royal was a useful source of parts for other ships. The stores bods would often say, heres a chit, go and rob one off the Ark Royal......
Need computer work ?
"http://www.stsr.co.uk" 
Pluggy's Household Monitor |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 14/01/2011 : 06:55
Recycling has always been a far bigger concern in the armed forces than is generally realised. I read an article recently about the number of troops engeged in the middle of the Battle of the Somme in WW1 doing nothing but recycling materials. Everything from timber, sheet metal and vehicles to general scrap, shell cases, destroyed equipment etc.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 17/03/2011 : 17:02
Now here's something I didn't know before. The battleship HMS Ramillies was painted pink in May 1917 as an attempt at camouflage for sunrise and sunset. She stayed that way until 1918 when she was camouflaged in dazzle paint. It's a shame there was no colour photography in those days - or on second thoughts, perhaps it's not a shame!
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Tizer
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Posted - 18/03/2011 : 12:43
After posting the above comment I came up against something else that puzzled me. I read that when the scuttled WW1 German battleships were being scrapped at Scapa they were "raised hull upwards for scrapping". Why hull upwards? And how would you scrap a ship that way up? It doesn't make sense to me!
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Tizer
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Posted - 19/03/2011 : 10:42
I'm bouncing this back up because there must be folk on here who can give a view on my question - why would they refloat a battleship upside down to scrap it?
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frankwilk
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Posted - 19/03/2011 : 12:26
I think so it couldn't roll over when you took the top structure off, and you would also have a good working platform !!!
Also you would be able to have excellent floating crane access. Just guessing
Frank Wilkinson Once Navy Always Navy |
thomo
Barlick Born Old Salt
2021 Posts
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Posted - 19/03/2011 : 12:51
I understand that in the case of the ships at Scapa, they were scuttled by charges attached to the seacocks on the main circ inlets, if this was so it would be impossible to remove the water from the hull, this may have had something to do with it. A friend of mine worked for a firm called Oceaneering on some of the ships as a diver, this firm would possibly have the correct answers.
thomo |
thomo
Barlick Born Old Salt
2021 Posts
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Posted - 20/03/2011 : 10:35
A bit of digging around has revealed this: I was correct about the seacocks but there is more to it, many internal doors and hatches had been removed to impede any attempts at salvage. The pattern of seawater ingress was deliberate, this was to cause the ships to roll over to port and thus allow the weight of the superstructure to pull the ship over as it sank. Nearly all of the ships overturned and fetched up on the bottom with the upper works deeply embedded in the seabed, thus they were bottom up and righting them would have been impossible.
The remaining wrecks are as follows:
Battleships: Kronprinz Wilhelm, Markgraf and Konig.
Cruisers: Koln, Dresden,Brummer and Karlsruhe.
Edited by - thomo on 20/03/2011 10:45:10 AM
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Tizer
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Posted - 20/03/2011 : 10:46
Thanks, both of you. I'd forgotten that the seacocks would have been destroyed by the scuttling using explosive charges and I didn't know about the extra sabotage by opening doors and hatches. The German warships of that time were better `compartmentalised' against ingress of water (and spread of fire) than were the Royal Navy's ships, so the Germans probably had to go to greater lengths to ensure their scuttling worked than if it had been British ships.
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thomo
Barlick Born Old Salt
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Posted - 20/03/2011 : 16:14
Yes Tizer, thats why the Bismark took so much punishment. I have an interest in this last set of posts as my Father was at Scapa when these events took place, he had also been a part of the escort when the High Seas Fleet was taken there.
This Multibeam image is of the SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm, Battleship, I have similar images of the remaining wrecks.
Edited by - thomo on 20/03/2011 4:18:32 PM
thomo |
thomo
Barlick Born Old Salt
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Posted - 20/03/2011 : 23:01
Anything to oblige Frank, what a smart ship.
Hows that shipmate.
thomo |
frankwilk
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Posted - 21/03/2011 : 06:44
The above ship is HMS Leamington which saw service in WW 2. My Uncle received the DSM whilst serving on Leamington. He got presented with his medal by the King at Holyrood, but being a cockney born on Tottenham Court Road he did miss going to Buckingham Palace.
Supplement to the London Gazette 27th January 1942
For skill and enterprise in action against Enemy Submarines.
The Distinguished Service Medal
Chief Engine Room Artificer, Samuel Saddington, HMS Veteran
Leading Seaman, Jestyn Morgan, HMS Marigold
Able Seaman, Edward Albert Crossman, C/JX 141478 HMS Leamington
Able Seaman, Thomas Joseph Ambrose, HMS Merigold
Edited by - frankwilk on 21/03/2011 10:23:37 AM
Frank Wilkinson Once Navy Always Navy |
Tizer
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Posted - 21/03/2011 : 10:29
I've been looking at Leamington's Wikipedia page - what a fascinating history, and ending up as a film star too.
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thomo
Barlick Born Old Salt
2021 Posts
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Posted - 21/03/2011 : 15:38
HMS Kelly in big trouble!
thomo |
Warships
