Nice bit of research.

Fun fact: The 'Gustavus Vasa' in Fox's name is a famous Swedish King who led Protestant armies in the Thirty Years' War. The Lion of the North.

Oops, got my Gustavuses mixed up. There've been a lot of them.

you wouldn't think so with a name like that, eh?

Vix

Good story!

thank you Werty...

Vix

Nifty piece of history. Thanks, V.

thanks much Ursus... oh - and a bit of coincidence. Today I was looking at X and one of the things I follow posts a movie taken around the same time of ironclads, and there is a shot of two crews firing the one pounder. I was tickled to death.

Vix

1 pounders firing: https://x.com/i/status/1975559485969068249

Vix

I didn't know the origin of the destroyer class, but it makes sense now. Thanks for that!

Steam is a superb working fluid, and can carry extraordinary amounts of energy. One of the reasons you still see steam turbines in cutting edge power plants. (Granted the materials and geometry of the blades/buckets, depending on which industry you're in, has evolved. But an engineer from the 1900s would still recognize one for what it is.)

when you look at a nuclear aircraft carrier, that's what is running it...

*smiles...

Vix

I always figured "Destroyers" had a particular purpose resident in their title, but had no idea that it was a response to torpedo boats. Rather fascinating tidbit, that.

I discovered that back when Dragon and I were writing 'The Chief Stoker'. Those were amazing times.

Vix

As a wuff fascinated by all things "techy", Vrghr really enjoyed this exploration of these delightful craft!

Those double and triple-expansion engines provided significant gains in efficiency and power, and became relatively common on the larger plants. Some even featured negative-pressure, vacuum systems on the exhaust of the final cylinder by condensing the steam exhaust back to water to reduce its volume. The difference between inlet and outlet pressures added even more efficiency and power.

But there was a cost to that. As you said, there's a "red line", and those 3rd stage cylinders are huge when compared to the primary ones. Some of the big stationary engines measure them in feet. The moving mass of those giant pistons doesn't want to stop and reverse at the end of its stroke. So the double and triple expansion engines gained power and efficiency at the expense of "top end" and weight. If you want fast and light, you have to go with lower efficiency, single stage, high pressure engines.

Gosh, wuff got wound up! hehe See what you started? *grins*

Thanks again for this.

*laughs... I can understand... the Brits did a test of low pressure steam compared too high, and (I believe) one of the safety valves didn't work on the low pressure ship and the engine blew up, killing a lot of people. They then made their decision and went with high pressure steam, figuring it couldn't kill that many more if it too blew up.

and - they actually built a steam powered submarine. It sunk during trials - too many holes to close up.

1 pounders firing: https://x.com/i/status/1975559485969068249

Vix

Nice footage! Thanks!
Some of those look a bit larger than a 1 pound shell. *smiles* Nice assortment of artillery!

*laughs... There is an entire science behind artillery. In fact, there were all sorts of stupid treaties over shells, and bullets, and such. In the case of the pom-pom, the one pounder was the smallest shell allowed to contain an explosive (at that time - and I'm quoting Wiki. Though I'm a bit older than you, I wasn't there.)

Vix

The progression felt like stream of consciousness.

it sort of was - but all factual.

Vix

As someone who regularly cruises Wikipedia for fun, I love the way you present these history pieces. While Wiki will give you the overall gist, it seldom goes down to the gritty details. And it's the grit that makes history relatable to me.

Thank you for this. *hugs*

you're more than welcome Wire... When I say you get connected, you really do. I left a link for Vrghr just above, and it for a really old movie/news real, and of all things, it shows the one pounder being operated. That was posted totally out of the blue on X.

I love history too, but you know that.

Vix

Interesting bit of history here, thank you for sharing.

*smiles… you are most welcome.

Vix

It's an interesting little ship, probably not so little for its time lol. I imagine loading those three torpedoes was a pain in the rear end, only to fire them and go welp, guess we're done.

*laughs… too true…

Vix

Glad to see you getting all 'nautical'. (pun intended?) Being a salty seadog (well... sassy coyote with ocean blood) I knew about 95% of this. Here's a bit or two for you as well;

Steam is still the best way for non wind powered sailing. (I will always prefer wind.) How you get that is by whatever means necessary. Firewood in the earliest of days. Coal later... until big badda booms became an issue. Oi! Eventually various petrol types from Diesel, gas, kerosene, and what many Navy ships use, JP-5.
The boilers are very OLD SCHOOL still though. For a technology that has been in use for over a century, the methodology remains vastly unchanged. Our ability to improve the results are evident, of course, but the basic system is mostly unchanged. Railroad... ship... tractors... steam power still remains a solid option.

One last lil' bit that I found out from a friend (beware... this might not be 100% accurate). The 'English' word Fox is actually from the German word for the same... Fuchs. A VERY common name in Germany and constantly badly butchered in America... but if you hear an actual German person speaking it, you'd understand how we got 'Fox'.. and it does mean the same thing.

On the Duane, we burned 'Bunker C' which pretty much is straight crude oil. My first berthing was right in front of the boiler room, and they had an aux pump that made one heck of a racket - sounding sort of like someone beating their dog. I agree, steam is the future.

Did you know in the 1930s they had a steam powered bi-plane? Look for the newsreels on youtube. It's quite fascinating.

Vix