Me, Office and my Yamato

[nachtjaeger]

Interesting that the Yamato has that high-efficiency bulb on the bow. Must have given her increased speed, range and seakeeping. When was that invented, Kham?

AFAIKT neither the Bismarck class nor the Iowa class BBs had it- pretty much identical to HMS Hood's bow from 1918. Even the Forrestal and Kitty Hawk class Supercarriers didn't have it. But the "Big E" (USS Enterprise, CVN-65), launched in '60, had it.

The grim delight of the actual condition of both wrecks , precluding any salvage outside of insane fantasy cannot be stated more. And enjoyed

[kham]

THEY invented it, actually. The bulbous bow, originated here. Oh, I'm sure there plenty of hand-wavium from other architects, but this was the first incarnation of it, in the Yamato-class. And it was the standard on all postwar supertankers. The original reasoning behind it , was to save fuel, as much as 10% at high speed if I remember. So when someone says the Japanese never came up with anything ...

[nachtjaeger]

And if you're reducing drag so as to burn 10% less fuel at cruising speed, then you should gain some speed with the same horsepower.

THEY invented it, actually. The bulbous bow, originated here. Oh, I'm sure there plenty of hand-wavium from other architects, but this was the first incarnation of it, in the Yamato-class. And it was the standard on all postwar supertankers. The original reasoning behind it , was to save fuel, as much as 10% at high speed if I remember. So when someone says the Japanese never came up with anything ...

[kham]

Yes, but unfortunately Yamato was so big, it was not physically possible to exploit that. Also, her class was the first time the IJN had created a battleship where speed was not all. Her top speed was only 28 knots. Now, that sounds good for a 72,000 ton ship, but remember, the other fast battleships could do north of 30. Which was important in the carrier escort role. And at Guadalcanal, her lack of a couple knots speed, kept her from participation in the battles there. So the other , thinner-skinned BB's were sent. And murdered. That Hotel Yamato thing must have stung , and it wasn't completely without merit

[Mynock]

Nice job. I like the super tiny little people on the deck, it really gives you a sense of scale.
I do remember reading somewhere that the lack of speed was their Achilles heel. All the guns and armor in the world don't matter if you can't stick and move.

[nachtjaeger]

I would prefer this one in my office:

Space Battleship Yamato.jpg

All too true, but this was before it was sunk - aka 1944 so it is not yet ready for Space Battleship Yamato. Ain't sunk yet so they have not found it yet.

[nachtjaeger]

Bismarck could pull 30 knots with only three screws. Hood was only good for 32, which made her a fast ship of her day (1918.) Yamato was as fast as contemporary Battleships with half her displacement. I wonder how fast she would have been if instead of carrying eight 18.2" guns and a dozen 6.1" guns, she'd have just carried four triple turrets of either the guns from the Nagato class? That, and ditch the seaplanes and their catapults. The gun layout on ships like the Yamato class, and other Japanese, German, Italian and French battleships ignored the design principles of the first modern battleship- HMS Dreadnought. Uniform main battery, all big guns.

Yes, but unfortunately Yamato was so big, it was not physically possible to exploit that. Also, her class was the first time the IJN had created a battleship where speed was not all. Her top speed was only 28 knots. Now, that sounds good for a 72,000 ton ship, but remember, the other fast battleships could do north of 30. Which was important in the carrier escort role. And at Guadalcanal, her lack of a couple knots speed, kept her from participation in the battles there. So the other , thinner-skinned BB's were sent. And murdered. That Hotel Yamato thing must have stung , and it wasn't completely without merit

[kham]

You should be aware, that for all the Bismarck -love there is, she had a lot of flaws. That comes from not building battleships for 20 years. And Hood, for all her size, was still a Battlecruiser. Yamato's mains were all 46 cm - so not sure what you mean by not a uniform main battery. As far as scout aircraft, that is part and parcel of IJN fleet doctrine. You can't just ditch them. Besides, they are included in the original design. So doing that would mean a complete redesign, with the associated stability concerns. As for smaller guns, you have to understand that wasn't possible. They WANTED big guns. Bigger , if possible. The whole point was to build the largest, most indestructible battleship ever. The 40.6 cm guns were good, but 20 years old, and have a slow ROF. Compared to the modern 406mm guns on an Iowa, or a Washington, they are no match. The sad truth is that since she never really engaged anything meaningful, everything about her is reduced to "what if" and hand-wavium. The guys over at Nihon Kaigun have entire pages devoted to who's the baddest of them all. Its a good read, but brew some coffee. There's a lot of math and number crunching for ballistics fans.

[Mynock]

Is this like a serious movie or something along the lines of Spaceballs? Cause that's probably the most ridiculous spaceship I've seen since Lone Star's flying Winnebago lol.......

[reisen55]

Since I started this interesting chain, I wrote, over the years, a 157 page paper on YAMATO and her sisters, submitted it to the US NAVAL INSTITUTE for publication - still waiting - so I have answers to many points here. First, the bulbous bow was tested to increase speed and about 27 knots was her standard max speed. Engines were a problem due to a design switch at the last moment. The width of the ship grew to accomodate her bulk size in the rather shallow Japanese harbors (she became fat). The 18.1 inch guns were powerful indeed by the IOWA class 16/50 calibre guns were almost as destructive. YAMATO had a fatal flaw in the armor belt where two belts joined together and failed almost precisely where torpedo(s) would hit.