martin worsey
Member
I have a few examples of the amount of space available on British warships and they were certainly not cruise liners. People in the early twentieth century were accustomed to hardship and overcrowding but life on board a British ship would have been tough. As the German warships were much worse in terms of space and sanitation was reportedly primitive, conditions would no doubt have been unbelievably difficult by modern terms; presumably, overcrowding and poor sanitation would be a recipe for the spread of diseases.
With respect to the performance of the German Battlecruisers, accounts of the Goeben in the Mediterranean in 1914 would suggest that she was unable to make much over 20 kts due to boiler problems and issues with poor coal. For balance however, accounts of Invincible at the Falklands would indicate that the amounts of smoke she was generating and the vibrations that occurred at 25kts largely precluded effective shooting.
In addition to the freeboard mentioned, the lighter hulls in German capital ships relate to the use of much thinner plates; in the Badens, the bottom skin was only 5/8” thick as opposed to the 1” plate in similar British ships. In addition to the issue of stressing, the thinner plates necessitated more elaborate riveting and scarphing which contributed to both cost and build times. I would suggest that the lightening of hulls was not especially successful when considering the additional cost and displacement associated with the large secondary battery. This was at best almost useless in combat and at worst a distraction to the aiming of the main guns and a potential source of danger that risked the destruction of the ships.
Overall, I think it is fair to say that ships of all nations were poorly designed with the benefit of hindsight but were phenomenal achievements by the standards of the day.
With respect to the performance of the German Battlecruisers, accounts of the Goeben in the Mediterranean in 1914 would suggest that she was unable to make much over 20 kts due to boiler problems and issues with poor coal. For balance however, accounts of Invincible at the Falklands would indicate that the amounts of smoke she was generating and the vibrations that occurred at 25kts largely precluded effective shooting.
In addition to the freeboard mentioned, the lighter hulls in German capital ships relate to the use of much thinner plates; in the Badens, the bottom skin was only 5/8” thick as opposed to the 1” plate in similar British ships. In addition to the issue of stressing, the thinner plates necessitated more elaborate riveting and scarphing which contributed to both cost and build times. I would suggest that the lightening of hulls was not especially successful when considering the additional cost and displacement associated with the large secondary battery. This was at best almost useless in combat and at worst a distraction to the aiming of the main guns and a potential source of danger that risked the destruction of the ships.
Overall, I think it is fair to say that ships of all nations were poorly designed with the benefit of hindsight but were phenomenal achievements by the standards of the day.