Drachinifel
patreon
The Drydock - Episode 347 (Part 1)
🕑 Added 2025-04-26 09:30:02 +0000 UTC00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:33 - For the April fools question. Which Navy the channel covers would have the best chance of fighting dragons or incorporating them in their doctrine?
00:05:11 - Why are some RN ship classes named for the lead ship and others for the general name type?
00:11:35 - Did nations ever slightly sabotage ships building for foreign nations?
00:15:23 - Secondary batteries on post WW1 battleships?
00:19:08 - How were ship classes defined in various eras?
00:23:01 - How accurate in the turret sccene in 'Here Comes the Navy!'
00:27:39 - In order of importance (aside from the political ones, that is), what were the chief limitations to the U.S. Navy becoming larger and more powerful than it actually was in the early 19th century?
00:33:35 - Given the Germans' strategy of commerce warfare instead of trying to confront the Royal Navy directly, what would be the best raiding fleet they could have designed?
00:39:24 - Delay coils for the Kirov class?
00:40:48 - Stacked vs flat torpedo tubes?
00:44:18 - Why were flying-boats so common before WWII? Was building runways that expensive?
00:50:59 - USS Texas flooding her torpedo blister to get extra range?
00:53:37 - Why did torpedo bombers have three air crew while dive bombers only have two?
00:58:36 - Magazine explosions in the Age of Sail?
01:04:44 - Can you discuss the Regia Marina's destroyer transport operations during the Tunisian campaign?
01:10:12 - What drove the changes in RN bow types over the early 20th century?
01:15:22 - Origins of Sea Shanty's?
01:21:03 - Time to design and build a battleship?
01:23:44 - The USS Massachusetts fired almost everything it had at the invasion of North Africa, and at a wide variety of ranges and targets. What do you think of its overall accuracy/performance?
01:26:59 - Channel playlists?
01:29:10 - What was the perception in the late 1910s and through the 1920s and early 1930s on the effectiveness of seaplane carriers & tenders vs aircraft carriers?
01:33:18 - How were submarine crush depth values calculated in the period the channel covers?
01:40:25 - Historically significant ships still in commission?
01:42:45 - Does any data exist on the torpedo trials of Nordenfelt submarines of the Greek and Ottoman navies?
01:46:39 - What is 'condenseritis'?
01:52:28 - True dimensions of Rosyth drydocks?
01:54:55 - Realistically, how did the Dutch imagine a "successful" defense against the the Japanese Empire in the East Indies Campaign?
01:59:56 - In Master and Commander, when they head South, at one point Bonden said she's backing, what does he mean by that?
02:01:24 - Hhave there been any notable navalized land based aircraft apart from the Seafire and the BF-109T?
02:04:12 - French Pre-dreadnought funnels?
02:08:59 - How much of the Guppy and FRAM modifications to late WW2 ships could have been done during their original building, and do you think any of these design decisions could have been especially useful during the war?
02:13:38 - What do you think was more justified, the last generation of fast battleships or the last generation of pre-dreadnaughts?
02:20:30 - Navies that arose in the late 1800's?
02:24:38 - Why do some British battleships from the same era (like the Nelsons) have no blast bags on their guns, while others (like the Hood) do?
02:27:15 - This question is for Mini Drach. In the time period the channel covers, which naval adventure that your daddy likes to talk about makes for the best bedtime story?
02:28:15 - The collision between HMS Quilliam and Indomitable?
02:32:57 - 'Experimental' ships in the 1830/40's?
02:35:20 - Do other languages have nautical terms and references?
02:36:20 - Did other navies adopt beach-loaders before the British?
02:39:43 - Ideal RN 'budget' Treaty cruiser?
02:44:28 - Opinion on Captain Bode's actions at 1st Savo?
02:51:14 - Is 'Warschau' an actual warning call?
02:52:31 - After the failed attempts by the allies to reach Constantinople through the straights in March of 1915, if they had redoubled the naval attempts, rather than landing troops for the doomed campaign, could they have been successful?
02:56:13 - Sinking of the Athenia?
02:58:44 - What if cruisers are restricted like battleships by the WNT?
Comments
Doug Harvey
Did anyone else pick up all those colorful metaphors Lil Drach was hammering ou ?t
Glenn Ricafrente
Mini-Drach's answer was the best!
The Rogue Chief
Another possible factor in the U.S. decision not to build up its fleet in the 19th century is cultural… Before the Cold War when the military was seen as the defender of freedom, many Americans saw the military as the THREAT to freedom. This followed the classical republican tradition (that’s the philosophy “republican” NOT political party “Republican”) which feared another Ceasar or Charles I usurping liberties at the head of a massive army— hence the long emphasis on a militia of free citizens whom they saw as more committed to defending the liberties of a republic than professional soldiers taking orders from a power-hungry general. (And I include this as cultural rather than political because it wasn’t just a bunch of speeches being made on Capitol Hill, but a genuine part of the mass zeitgeist… a tradition which still characterizes American history & civics classes to this day in the idea of a free republic & the concern of it being usurped by force) Another cultural element is something which Kissinger & other scholars made a pretty convincing argument of, and that’s the idea of America seeing itself as “a City on a Hill.” The basic idea being that America is set apart in its system & has risen above the petty political squabbling of the Old World, therefore it doesn’t need a large military to defend itself but will set the example for others by its virtue. Essentially we would wow the world with our goodness & not need to resort to war, trusting instead in the benefits of trade & democracy to build a harmonious world. This is why ideologues like Jefferson & Wilson became so genuinely surprised that foreign powers weren’t wowed by our virtuous goodness or respectful of our genuine intentions, but used force against our interests particularly on the high seas (Wilson basically being: *how dare the Germans not allow American citizens to sail aboard belligerent British vessels unmolested in wartime!*… it all came back to that cultural mentality of *we’re so good an example of people we don’t need to turn to military force for protection, our democratic virtue will keep us safe*)
