Development of Naval Steam

Very interesting video on the development of the use of steam in naval warships. The poster Drachinifel's channel has many substantial postings on Youtube on naval warfare covering many aspects of world military naval history particularly the last two hundred years or so including how various technologies developed.

 

I started down the rabbit hole of Drach's videos early last year. He outputs a lot of content (I think the last Patreon Drydock Q&A was 6hrs long) and his style is very enjoyable.

 

Middle Son (13) has watched several.

I was particularly interested in the section on tube size in Water Tube Boilers (I should get out more often)

 

The Royal Navy stuck to large diameter tubes for a long time, at least in the capital ships, distrusting the more efficient small tubes, possibly because of perceived cleaning problems. They got there in the end (HMS Hood?) with a big weight saving for the power produced.

And yes, he tackles the subject with accuracy and - and this is unusual - a sense of humour. Good stuff!

 

I was watching one yesterday until Domestic Facilities Management could not stand the way he spoke any longer (Common problem with You Tubers, the constant monotone)

 

Had a quick look but could see nothing on WW1 K Boats. The Steam Submarines.
Have I missed them or has he not done them yet?

I would have thought that they were the worst design.

 

Indeed yes Ploughman there were such things as steam powered submarines. When on the surface the boilers were fired in the same manner as a railway engine etc. In turn when submerged, the fire was doused and the boiler worked as per a fireless steam engine. As we all know water at sea level boils at 100 C, but when under pressure say 180 psi it boils at around 200 C. So as the pressure drops it keeps boiling until the pressure drops. Mind you crash diving could be difficult what with funnel to fold away and throwing the fire out.

Moving up to today, modern nuclear powered subs are I believe also steam powered. As they use the nuclear pile to boil the water in a sealed circuit driving Parson turbines.......

 

I am familiar with the K Boats as I have a history of them in a book.
Just wondered if he had found out more.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_K-class_submarine

 

He has a nuanced view on them (mentioned in passing).

He says the thing wrong with them wasn't the steam bit, but the poor construction (and the fact that their crush depth was less than their length).

They were part of the dead end of "fleet submarines" - ie boats that can keep up with the surface fleet of warships and then submerge as part of a Jutland-sized action. No diesel-powered boat could keep up with the fleets when they were built, so steam was the only option.

The slow dive time wasn't an issue at that time for that role as there would have been a large number of battleship-shaped distractions about for anyone thinking of seeking to sink them as they submerged.

He's promised a vid on them at some point.

 

Anybody fancy building a replica of one of these??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Gun_Boat

Shows what you can do with steam even if its a bit Baroque

That would make a fascinating film