Unluckiest Warship

General naval discussions that don't fit within any specific time period or cover several issues.
surfsup
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Unluckiest Warship

Post by surfsup »

I would like to open this one up and see what comes out of it. I am searching for the most unluckiest Warship. You will understand it from the following incident. During the battle of Jutland HMS Sparrowhawk was sunk during this engagement. She was rammed by a fellow Destroyer in line ahead of her after receiving shell hits. Sparrowhawk then received her own inflicted damage and was sunk. Poseiden wasn't smiling on her that day. Which other warship wasn't Poseiden smiling on?
lwd
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by lwd »

What criteria are you looking for?
Hood would come to my mind, as would Leipzig, Mutsu is a definite candidate or are you looking for ships with a history of bad luck?
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Terje Langoy
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Post by Terje Langoy »

My undisputable candidates would be:

* The Norwegian destroyer HnoMS Svenner (a former British S-class)- She had the pleasure of being commissioned and then sunk, all within a matter of months. She took part in the great armada of allied ships to set sail towards Normandy in June 1944 (D-Day) and as she arrived here she was fortunate to appear before a torpedo launched by a German torpedo boat. (The latter had probably dispatched all the fishes in the mere hope of just hitting something ...

* The German Luchs (a German Type 24/Raubtier torpedo-boat) - She had the pleasure of doing more or less the same as the Svenner, sailing right into the path of a torpedo. (Ironically this one was not intended for her) This occured when the battleship Gneisenau (escorted by Luchs and others) were returning to Germany from Trondheim in July 1940. The torpedo was launched from the British submarine HMS Thames, which of course had the Gneisenau as target. However, Luchs was about to perform a switch of station on Gneisenau's port side when the torpedo was launched. She sailed right into the torpedo path. Bad place, bad timing...

* This one is mandatory - The great "Capsizer" the Swedish sailing ship Wasa.

An honourable mention must be more or less all of Admiral Roshvezenky's (I never could pronounce that name properly) ships. His fleet sailed from the Baltic, all the way around the globe (even got denied using the Suez after engaging a few apparently suspicious fishermen in the North Sea) in 1904-05. And as the Russians were just about to arrive at Vladivodstok, what happen...?

- Sir, that's the Japanese fleet!
- Oh, Shit! Ouch!

Complete annihilation of the entire fleet! That's a loong way to sail just to get yourself sunk. I mention the Blücher in the same run but on the flipside she was not exactly unlucky, she was under command of Admiral Disaster.
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by Bgile »

How about Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, and Bismarck, which ALL had their main fire control equipment disabled or severely degraded at the start of a major engagement?
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tommy303
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by tommy303 »

How about the turreted Iron clad HMS Captain, which capsized and sank in 1870 when caught in a squall. The ship was apparently unstable, particularly when sailing as opposed to steaming. She went down quickly with nearly 500 men including Captain Cowper Coles, her designer. Perhaps Neptune himself had something to do with that?

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Legend
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by Legend »

Soveriegn of the Seas! Anyone know of her tale? he he. Most beautiful ship ever created in her time, and most expensive... Capsized early on. Also the same with... was it the beautiful Vasa?
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RF
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by RF »

I think this has been covered before in an earlier thread, My nomination was the Wasa, sunk I believe by a gust of wind....
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lwd
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by lwd »

Didn't the Mary Rose suffer a similar fate?
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by JtD »

Stability problems aren't a matter of luck, are they?

Mogami managed to sink five ships with a spread of six torpedoes, you'd call that luck if it hadn't been friendly ones. Unlucky for each of the five sunk.
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paulcadogan
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by paulcadogan »

I wouldn't say she was an unlucky ship, and she certainly had a stellar career of over 30 years but it almost never happened due to an extremely unlucky incident:

WARSPITE: Battle of Jultand - her helm jams in a turn forcing her to go round in circles under the full attention of the German High Seas Fleet while the rest of her squadron steamed away!

Her survival was a testimony to the QE's toughness. :clap:

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RF
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by RF »

lwd wrote:Didn't the Mary Rose suffer a similar fate?

Yes.
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Gary
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by Gary »

SMS Elbing.

She was accidently rammed by SMS Posen during the night action at Jutland (and yes, she sunk)
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Pr_Eugen
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by Pr_Eugen »

If in WW-II
British - Hood
German - Bismarck
American - CL-52 Juneau
Franch - all Is thin... (It is necessary to have such command)
Italian - 1-st division of heavy cruisers
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Karl Heidenreich
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by Karl Heidenreich »

I vote for the french ship Medusa and her sad history.
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RF
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by RF »

Pr_Eugen wrote:
German - Bismarck
If you mean specifically the hit on the rudder, yes that is a very strong candidate, but it does on fate.

An unluckier KM ship was the Gneisenau - always seemingly in the shadow of its twin sister, even though most of the time being flagship, and its ignomious fate, due as much to neglect as to bad luck.
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