Queensferry Crossing & HMS Queen Elizabeth

[Titch]

I can’t see the picture that you’re talking about. My husband flew Gannets,, although not in 1960, he was later than that, he even occasionally flew the COD when they were at sea.
Dartman surely that was the point of an aircraft carrier, being a mobile airfield and getting aircraft airborne? Why did that offend you so much ?

 

[Dartman]

It may have been the reason Titch , but one felt like a hotel employee for the sqaudrons beck and call, apart from that appearing in only large city ports with 2000 crew plus the crews fom supporting escorts meant the choice of girls was more restricted due to competition, whereas on a submarine you were actually doing something worthwhile, when visiting ports there was only 100 or so of you and the locals treated you with some awe.

 

[FB]

A new boat, HMS Defender, leaving Portsmouth harbour.

 

[cider_and_toast]

wow, a type 45 not welded to the dockyard wall in Portsmouth. There's a rare sight.

These ships have faced all sorts of troubles from their design through to their operations. They've got most of the problems fixed now but they still don't work properly.

 

[Dartman]

I don't think anyone's warships are problem free they are modified, updated and improved throughout their lives even modifications fail to achieve the previous edition. The Daringclas may have problems but they are not all welded to the dockside, some have deployed to the Eastern Med and the Gulf within the last year.
Many problems exist these days because the designers no longer have experience in operating the ships or actually anything, everthing now is based on efficiency and longer periods between servicing with no actual testing of the equipments capability of achieving that service life just a computer model based on a program written by a progammer with no practical knowledge of the equipement. Despite long intensive testing i.e running 24 hrs a day 7 days a week for 6 months doesn't show up stop start cooling heating in real life, in the case of ships this can't be done, you just hope the equipment works when in situ, it sometimes doesn't, how many cruise liners report problems on maiden voyages and carry builders representatives for months sorting them out, but these are cruise liners, yes they cost the same as a smaller warship but are not government owned and are not newsworthy. Remember George Brown ordered both the carriers and the Darings they were designed to an impossible to operate build budget as cheap as possible to give the impression they were affordable and crewable when manpower was being reduced.
There done it that's my rant today

 

[Titch]

Oh dear, a nice cup of tea and a sit down Dartman

 

[gethinceri]

And a biscuit.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Sorry Dartman, I only did 22 years in the RN and during that time spent 2 years working in the Reliability Centred Maintenance team at Mod Foxhill tasked in part with sorting out the mess that BAE had made of the T45 maintenance schedules. I also spent 2 years in Barrow bringing HMS Bulwark into service and also developed the maintenance and engineering routines for the navigation and communication systems on the new to service Mark 10 LCU and Mark 5 LCVP landing craft so my knowledge of the problems around commissioning modern warships and equipment may not be as up to date as yours.

 

[Dartman]

But cider_and_toast you were bought in too late the problem is in the design stage and the procurement of equipment, commissioning is just trying to sort out a pile of crap someone got an OBE for services to the MOD

 

[FB]

Whilst you "old salty sea dogs" bicker, here's a picture of HMS Barham. Dem am some big guns! Love the bi-plane at the back, or whatever the back of a boat is called (blunt end?)

Can I assume some of the stuff above the bridge was an after thought because if anyone designed it like that they should be keel hauled. Do they still do that or is it now considered a breach of a sailors human rights?

 

[Dartman]

FB that stuff above the bridge is not an afterthought it is the gun fire control and direction platform, it was placed up there as the range where the enemy was detected would be on a angle measured against a known horizon, the height of the platform is known the rest is basic trigonometry thereby producing a guestimated range which was corrected by observing the fall of the shells, each barrel could be elevated individually to straddle the target, the straddle would then be narrowed for a hit

 

[gethinceri]

The aircraft is probably a Fairey, as that's a fairly late photo of her, she fought at Jutland and sailed on into WW2.
A good ship.

 

[Titch]

My Dad was a gunnery officer on Battleships, K class I think. I know one of the ships he was on was torpedoed and sank, but he survived, he told us that he came to the surface next to a jellyfish, a Portuguese man of war ?, anyway not a good day, all in all.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Barham met a tragic end in the Med in 1941. There is a piece of Pathe news footage of her demise on YouTube but I won't post it here.

My great uncle served on HMS Warspite, a sister ship of the Barham. The Queen Elizabeth class were tough ships who served with distinction in both WW1 and WW2.

Warspite's final months were spent in the English Channel using her guns to support troop landings and shelling key targets on the French, Belgian and Dutch coasts. By the end of the war she was exhausted and paid off to be scrapped. In a final show of defiance she broke free from her tow on the way to the breakers yard and ran aground in Cornwall. Unable to refloat her she was dismantled in situ and some of her Hull remains at the location to this day.

 

[FB]

The US Navy turn up in Portsmouth occasionally and park something not much smaller than the Isle of Wight in the Solent

 

[FB]

Big Betty has got some birds flying around her.

On board the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier

For the first time, both British and American jets launch off HMS Queen Elizabeth.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[FB]

The infamous HMS Hood leaving Portsmouth harbour. Do they retire a ships name if it is sunk?

 

[Dartman]

No, Repulse which was sunk with the Prince of Wales off Malaysia bu the Japanese both names were resurrected, Repulse as a Polaris SSBN in 1968 and the Prince of Wales sister ship to the Queen Elizabeth.

 

[cider_and_toast]

In recent years the RN ships naming Committee have recycled Town names for frigates and destroyers. They used the more war fighting type names for submarines.

Just before the type 45 class was named there was a bit of a fuss in the papers particularly after one of the last Type 23s was named St Albans. To that end, the 45s got names beginning with D (following on from the Type 21s which were A names and the Type 22s which were B and C names).

They love town names because they are good for PR therefore it was only a brief respite for the Frigate and Destroyer fleet with the next batch of ships reverting to town names.

 

[Dartman]

I think using town names is purely for monetary reasons, with the hope the town will adopt the ship and run charity events to improve the ships company's lot to save govenment cash.