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WARSHIP 1994 .

WARSHIP 1994

Edited by John Roberts

CONTENTS

Frontispiece caption:

Kite going aloftfrom the quarterdeck ofthe Revenge on 2 September 1908 in a test which substituted a breeches buoy for

the basket. The destroyer Recruit is in the background. (RAE Museum)

Editorial

FEATURE ARTICLES

French Sail-of-the-Line in the Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815)

by Steve M arthinsen

The Swedish Monitors by Daniel G Harris

Naval Kite Trials by R D Layman

The Baltic Dreadnoughts: The Sevastopol Class by Steve McLaughlin

'The Hatbox': HMS Argus by Keith McBride

The 2400-tonnes Series: The four-funnelled contre-torpilleurs of the prewar

Marine

ationale by John Jordan

Abdiel Class Fast Minelayers at War by Richard N J Wright

104

The Sinking of the Bismarck: An analysi of the damage

by William H Garzke Jr, Robert 0 Dulin Jr and David K Brown, RCNC

113

War Operations of the German Types 35 and 37 Torpedo Boats

by Pierre Hervieux

120

The Origins of Canadian Carrier Aviation: Canadian-manned escort carriers of

the Royal Navy 1943-45 by Thomas G Lynch

132

First published in Great Britain by

Conway Maritime Press

An imprint of Brassey's (

K) Ltd

The Soviet Cruisers of the Chapayev and Sverdlov Classes

by V V Jarovoj and Rene Greger

33 John Street

London WCIN 2AT

147

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or

otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

The Cold War, Korea and US Minesweepers by Norman Friedman

159

Swedish Postwar Submarines by David Miller

176

British Library C atalogtting in Publication Data

Warship.

1994 -

I. Warships

623.825

REVIEW SECTION

Warship Notes

188

200

Naval Books of the Year

ISBN 0-85177--630-2

214

The Naval Year in Review by Ian Sturton

Design, typesetting and page make-up by

The Word hop, Bury, Lancashire

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

Butler & Tanner Ltd, Frome

251

Index

EDITORIAL

I t is now twelve years since I was last the editor

A similarly controversial subject, although less

debated, is covered by Stephen McLaughlin in his

description of the design rationale of the first Russian

dreadnoughts. He argues that their evolution was much

more logical than is generally supposed and in so doing

provides a clearer understanding of the qualities and

potential of these much criticised ships whose design was,

in fact, matched precisely to their intended role. Correc-

tion of misinterpretations of the origins of a design are also

to be found in Norman Friedman's description of the

postwar development of US minesweepers while, stepping

much further back in time, S Marthinsen, in detailing the

development of the French ship-of-the-line, shows that,

despite indications to the contrary, the French Navy

continued to represent a potentially formidable force after

Trafalgar.

In the area of factual corrections, Richard Wright

demonstrates, in his article on the Royal Navy's fast

minelayers, that the reported/rumoured speeds of these

ships have been greatly exaggerated. This in itself is not

too surprising; what is, is that it takes so long to get the

true facts generally accepted. Like much else of this

nature, I have no doubt that the speed of the Abdiel class

will continue to be given in new publications as 'over

40kts' for some considerable time to come. Unfortunately,

the effect of establishing the truth tends to degrade such

ships in peoples minds and misses the point that they were

very high speed vessels for their size.

Less obvious in the area of improving the quality of

available information is Daniel Harris' article on the

Swedish monitors designed by John Ericsson in the

mid-nineteenth century. Very little detail has previously

been available on this group of vessels, at least in English

language publications. Much of what has previously been

published was both limited and incorrect, particularly

with regard to the vessels' dimensions (partly due to the

Swedish employing their own 'foot' measurement at this

time - slightly shorter than an English foot - which was

subdivided by ten rather than twelve). I also noticed that

the small monitor Carmer is often listed together with

other ships to form a single class when she was in fact of a

totally individual design. Although, I have never taken

any great personal interest in minor navies and their

ships, I must admit that I found the Swedish monitors

quite fascinating. One must suppose that, like many

subjects, if they do not have that indefinable 'glamour'

which places them in the popular class, they tend to be

ignored whether their stories are interesting or not.

Warship exists to help to fuel the interest that these many

and varied subjects deserve.

of Warship, and during that period much has

changed both with the publication itself and with naval

publishing in general. With regard to Warship the style

and content have altered substantially and, I think, for

the better, the credit for which must go to Robert

Gardiner who, after editing five volumes of the annual,

has turned his talents full time to Conway's book

production. There has also, of course, been the major

move from quarterly to annual which still causes some

controversy, as there are many who express a preference

for the older style but, like much else in the modern world,

Warship is subject to the changing economic environment

and as an annual it is a much more viable proposition -

better the minor disadvantages of less frequent publica-

tion than no publication at all! The annual also makes it

much easier to provide a reasonable balance of articles

covering a variation of time, ship types and nationality,

and subjects from out-of-the-way items, which might not

otherwise be published, to the more popular mainstream

items that are the mainstay of naval technical history.

On a broader front the changed circumstances of

easUwest relations have opened up the possibility of a vast

new source of information on the Russian Navy. This is

reflected in the article from Rene Greger and his Russian

co-author, V V Jarovoj, covering the design history of the

last conventional Soviet cruiser classes. More information

of this type should become available in future years.

It is noticeable that during the many years that I have

been interested in the development of the warship the

quality of information that has been published on the

subject has steadily improved. What was once largely

restricted to fleet lists and the general particulars of ships

has expanded into in-depth studies of warship designs

and their raison d'etre, covering not only technical de-

velopments but national and international political

background. In this process many errors and misinter-

pretations have and are being corrected and several myths

overturned. There are several examples of this in the

present publication, the most obvious being the multi-

authored article detailing the damage to the battleship

Bismarck using the exploratory work of Dr Ballard.

Although there are limitations - a great deal of the wreck,

particularly the main belt, cannot be examined - the

authors show that the ship's armour was penetrated and

that she was severely damaged by British shell fire,

demonstrating that she was not the 'super' ship that

wartime propoganda (both British and German) made her

out to

be.

At the same time the authors have avoided

going to

the opposite extreme

and

give

much

believable

picture

of a

first

class

ship

defeated

combination

technical

problems,

bad

luck

and

enemy superior in numbers.

John Roberts

Conway Maritime Press - Warship 1994.pdf

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