Model Boat Mayhem
The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Navy - Military - Battleships: => Topic started by: Plastic - RIP on September 14, 2019, 08:31:25 am
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I'm building a 1/96 SMS Emden and I'm finding all sorts of conflicting details when looking at all the information on the web. One thing I'm looking at are the poles fitted on the stern to protect the propellers in port. They appear to be a solid pole with hefty chains forming the sides of the supporting triangles. Are these normally stowed when under way? Do they fold flat?
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It looks as if they would be stowed flat against the hull as their seems to be a bracket for them? :-))
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I agree - there's a lump on the hull for something - but stowing forward would seem to be the wrong way - and that mechanism on the left seems that it could be slackened stowing them aft - or are they winched up vertically? I've looked at lots of photos and it's not clear in any - and as most pics are taken in harbour, they are always extended. I wonder if they are deployed in a similar way to torpedo nets?
Is there a standard for this type of thing from that era?
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There are quite a few photos on Google that show her underway, albeit slowly, with the boom out. https://www.flickr.com/photos/drakegoodman/31698614440 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/drakegoodman/31698614440)
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Yes - coming into harbour - where there's a risk of prop damage. This is a puzzle.
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This might give the answer, it seemed to be a standard fitting on the earlier light cruisers. Shown here on SMS Konigsberg. Norton flagged the link up as dodgy so I just copied the image
Colin
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Thanks - that's useful - so it probably does stow away when underway. :-)) Not sure how the mechanism works. All the models I've seen are in a strange configuration - all the guns uncovered in action stations but with all the booms extended, the gangways lowered and everything looking like it's in a harbour.
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Looks to me that they just stow it by paying out one length of chain and pulling in the aftmost one. The heel of the boom will be on a swivel and the chains pass through blocks mounted level with the boom and vertically up the sides where they probably pass through fairleads and are secured to the deck. You can see where the chains change direction against the side of the ship.
Just another bit of detail almost lost to history.
It's similar in principle to the way that RN ships would rig horizontal booms at deck level when in harbor for their boats to make fast to.
Colin
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Yes - I've got details of that..
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Had you seen the photos of the model at the German Navy museum at Laboe?
http://www.modellmarine.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4533%3Amodelle-im-marine-ehrenmal-in-laboe-kaiserliche-marine&catid=178&Itemid=1
Some of the contributors there are often on the Steelnavy forum so could always ask if they can offer advice.
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This mooring boom [for ships boats or visiting craft] appears as FWD of midships, so is not associated with the original chain supported structure over the propellers
Considering [the latter] is generally used as a permanent ship mounted fender to guard the vertical alignment of the propellers, any reason for a chain element, and the fact it would not be beneficial to be elevated at sea is a mystery [to me]
Derek
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Derek, if it was left rigged while at sea it would be in danger of being washed away so stowing it up against the hull makes perfect sense. The chains are there to deploy the rig when in port.
Colin
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Here is our HMAS Success with fixed propeller fenders [a little before my time in 1921]
It is not an optical illusion :o , there is a variation in fender height and placement between Port & Stdb......
This is due to No 1 boiler & engine being on axis, but fwd of No 2 boiler & engine which is also on axis
So this dictates that the propeller shaft from No 1 engine is longer and at a shallower angle than No 2 engine which has a shorter shaft and steeper angle
Derek
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Drawings on http://virtualdockyard.co.uk/0-PLANS-PAGES/SMS%20EMDEN.html (http://virtualdockyard.co.uk/0-PLANS-PAGES/SMS%20EMDEN.html)
Show that the forward chain is extended along the deck so presumably when the boom is stowed alongside the hull, the rear chain would be the one laid on the deck. The large winch might have been used to pull the chains to the stowed position but a ships boat would have been needed to pull the boom away from the hull as the front chain would be pulling perpendicular to the boom. There appears to be a horizontal pivot at the hull end of the boom.
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Seems risky to have all these heavy chains flopping around near moving propellers......
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Not really, they wouldn't have been flopping about. They would have been securely triced up and secured against the hull.
Colin