Only one little thing to add, perhaps: German propellant charges were encased in metal, while the British kept theirs in silken bags - makes a much quicker fire.
Actually, for German guns of 28cm and above, the charge was too big to handle in 1 piece, so these guns had part of the charge (the amount varied by gun but averaged about 1/3 of the total) in silk bags just like the Brits. This was called the fore charge because it was ahead of the main charge in the cartridge case. These fore charges were obviously more likely to ignite than the main charges in the cartridge cases. However, even the main charges just had cardboard or something similarly flammable and flimsy over the front end, so they were also somewhat vulnerable to flash.
Campbell says how many of each type were involved in the various German propellant fires. Usually, it was more fore charges than main charges. IOW, when the Germans had big fires involving way more propellant than
Lion's Q turret, at least 1/2 and often a bit more of it had been in silk bags, just like Brit propellant. Thus, the use of cartridges really didn't make the German big gun ammo system any less prone to burn. Where the cartridges made a difference was for the 2ndary guns. Most Brit capital ship 2ndary batteries were BL, but all the Germans were QF.
I watched a Discovery Channel documentary on Jutland where among other things, they measured crudely the rate of propogation of cordite flash. Now I do not remember if they had WWI cordite. As I remember they came up with a burn rate of 600ft/sec in a tube. That seems awfully fast to me in comparison to black powder which burns at 560-2000 ft/sec when confined.
I saw that show. They didn't have WW1 cordite, they had modern arty propellant, which is way better behaved. It's very similar to WW1/2 German naval propellant. It burns like crazy, but not as fast as cordite.
I saw another show where they went down to
Majestic's wreck off Gallipoli and brought up some genuine WW1 Brit cordite. The wreck is covered with it from the ship capsizing and spilling charges all over, and the silk bags rotting away. Anyway, this stuff had been immersed in shallow sea water for about 90 years. It still ignited very easily and burned with a bright white flame that threw huge sparks all over, but it didn't burn very fast. It was like the guy was holding a giant holiday sparkler. He had to toss it over the side in self defense, and it continued to burn underwater as it sank. I've often wondered how it would have gone if he'd still been directly over the wreck
Or what would have happened if he'd let it dry out for a couple of days before lighting it.
Question - will a ship like HMS Agincourt with 7 twin turrets be more likely to suffer a turret hit (and hence the following KABOOM if it penetrates) than a ship with fewer turrets? Assume armor is the same. I've often thought Agincourt was a multiple magazine explosion just waiting to happen.
Yeah, I'd say
Agincourt's more likely than anything else to get hit in a turret. OTOH, she's got 12" turret armor instead of the usual Brit standard of 11", so it's something of a trade-off. Of course, her value is somewhat limited due to lacking a director and the fact that the rest of her is armored no better than
Lion.
