WW1 battleships

[paul.mercer]

Gentlemen,
looking at old films of WWI RN battleships they all seem to have diagonal 'strakes' down each side, what were these for?

[Byron Angel]

Gentlemen,
looking at old films of WWI RN battleships they all seem to have diagonal 'strakes' down each side, what were these for?

Hi Paul,
Re those "diagonal strakes", my guess is that you are referring to the numerous anti-torpedo net booms in their stowed positions along the sides of the ship. These nets were featured in both the British and German navies of the era. IIRC, the RN dispensed with them, but the IGN retained them at least through Jutland.

B

[Alberto Virtuani]

...and the anti-torpedo booms were present also in all other Navies of the late XIX century ships and in the ones that fought at Tsushima in 1905:
this is Imperator Nikolai I, built in 1889 and captured by Japanese, showing the booms at her side some time before the Japanese-Russian war (colors are from before the battle, when the Russian battleships were painted black).

RUS_Imperor_Nikolai_I.jpg (24.54 KiB) Viewed 2731 times

Bye, Alberto

[Alberto Virtuani]

Hello everybody,
I must amend my previous post, the ships of the Third Pacific Squadron (Nikolai I was the flagship) were apparently not all painted black at Tsushima (First and Second Squadron were), therefore the image posted above can have been taken just before her last "mission".

Here the evidence with a photo taken just after the ship surrender at Tsushima:

ImperatorNikolaiI1905.jpg (16.32 KiB) Viewed 2683 times

Bye, Alberto

[HMSVF]

Gentlemen,
looking at old films of WWI RN battleships they all seem to have diagonal 'strakes' down each side, what were these for?

Hi Paul,
Re those "diagonal strakes", my guess is that you are referring to the numerous anti-torpedo net booms in their stowed positions along the sides of the ship. These nets were featured in both the British and German navies of the era. IIRC, the RN dispensed with them, but the IGN retained them at least through Jutland.

B

I believe the reasons for the RN ditching the anti torpedo booms was two fold.

Firstly, torpedoes ended up with net cutters that allowed the torpedoes to go straight through the nets. HMS Majestic whilst off Gallipoli had her nets deployed.It didn't stop her from being sunk for the above reason. If you look at the famous picture of her sinking you see she her booms and the netting still in position has she rolled over to starboard.

Secondly, there was concern that if damaged they could foul either the screws or the rudder.


Best wishes


VF

[Byron Angel]

Agree with respect to both your cited cases.

Also, IIRC, for deployed anti-torpedo nets to be effective, the ship had to maintain a speed of not more than about 12 knots.

B