Here's one of the main examples of how ship designs changed. Newer battleships have walkways along the edge of the ship, with the superstructure taking up the rest of the space. Here the center is more like a sailing ship, with wide open deckspace between various above-deck rooms.
When not in battle, there were far better views from up here. The copper tubes connected the bridge to other important parts of the ship, like the engine room. Just shout and your voice would bounce its way down. This is still common on many more modern ships, since it's simple and works without power.
Virtual Engine Room 45 32
Because there are no more engines (and no more engine room), this room was set up with images and a video about the massive reciprocal steam engine. The Mikasa had about 15,000 horsepower, which could push it through the water at 18 knots.
4. Results of this explosion were disastrous. The ship's structure aft of the forward bulkhead of the after engine room was generally demolished and there were no survivors aft of this point. The hangar deck was destroyed aft of frame 110 and the flight deck was missing aft of frame 101. An intense fire was started almost immediately in the forward part of the hangar and a few planes remaining on the forward portion of the flight deck were ignited. In the forward machinery space the shock carried away steam lines and compressed air piping. As a result the main and auxiliary machinery in this space ceased operating. All services, including firemain pressure, to the remaining portion of the vessel were lost. Survivors attempted to extinguish the fires in the hangar but no water pressure was available, and it was immediately apparent that the situation was not only hopeless insofar as saving the ship was concerned, but that the abandonment would be extremely difficult. When the ship was abandoned it was noted that practically no structure aft of frame 118 remained. Survivors reported that the forward portion of LISCOME BAY finally went down with a heavy starboard list approximately 23 minutes after the explosion.
10. At about 0510 an officer on LISCOME BAY stationed at the 40mm director on the gallery walkway at frame 160, starboard, reported over the telephone that he saw a torpedo headed for the ship. A violent explosion occurred almost immediately. An officer survivor stationed in Fly Control at the time described the explosion as a huge column of bright orange-colored flame, with some white spots in it like white hot metal, extending upward perhaps 1000 feet. Some ships in the formation witnessed this large column of flame and saw only a single explosion, while one vessel reported two explosions very close together. Considerable debris fell on NEW MEXICO, about 1500 yards distant from LISCOME BAY. Some survivors from the auxiliary and forward engine rooms reported one violent explosion followed by one or two less violent shocks.
16. In the auxiliary machinery spaces below the second deck, between frames 100 and 118, personnel were at their General Quarters stations. There were a total of ten men in the various rooms in this area, all of whom escaped. These were the aftermost survivors. On the upper, or first platform level, 2 men were in the generator room (frames 111 to 118 port), one man was in the gyro room (frames 100 to 104), one man was in the starboard passageway (frames 104 to 111) and one man was in the electrical workshop (frames 100-106 starboard) and the other five men were in the machine shop on the lower level. Most of these men felt a single violent shock followed after an appreciable but brief interval by a second jolt. Most of the men were knocked to their knees but 2 were not. All lights went out. The men in the machine shop left by going up the port ladder and across through the athwartship passage between the fuel oil tanks and the fresh water tanks to the starboard ladder. At the starboard ladder they were joined by the men from the upper level. Going through the athwartship passageway they noted that the passage was only about 12 inches wide (initially it had been 30 inches) and that the deck of the passage had been pushed sharply upward. When the men were assembled by the Chief Petty Officer in charge, they went up the starboard ladder to the second deck. They had considerable difficulty in passing through the second deck hatch because of debris piled on and around the hatch, and effort was required to push a small hole in this debris so that they could escape. This hatch was in the passageway between the wardroom and the CPO mess room. They walked into the wardroom and made their way aft near the centerline. The bulkhead at frame 118 above the second deck was apparently demolished inasmuch as they reported that prior to reaching the location of this bulkhead they stepped down a few feet to a level which was apparently the tank tops of the fresh water tanks located between frames 110 and 118. The tank tops were initially some 30 inches below the second deck. While standing on the tank tops they did not remember seeing either the hangar or flight deck overhead. From the tank tops some of the men climbed over to the starboard side and out of the wreckage at a point slightly abaft frame 118 and swam away from the ship. Three men of this party, however, climbed up some hanging cables, apparently at about frame 101 and continued all the way up to the gallery level, the last portion of their journey being to starboard along the deep girder under the flight deck at frame 101 where they left the vessel by jumping overboard from the platform of 20mm gun No. 7. At the time they left the vessel she was still making headway. The aftermost structure which they definitely remembered was a portion of a frame at about frame 122. This web seemed to be sheared off about 5 to 6 feet above the second deck. Their impression was that the starboard side of the shell in this vicinity had been blown inboard and horizontal and that they had walked over a portion of this shell in leaving the vessel. Some of these men had a definite recollection that oil and water, possibly a foot in depth, had collected on the deck of the upper auxiliary machinery spaces before these were evacuated. When
17. The forward engine and boiler room was completely manned. The total number of personnel on watch could not be determined but there were eleven survivors from this space. Immediately after the initial shock all lights were extinguished. Many steam and air lines were ruptured and the spaces filled immediately with steam and escaping air. The failure of pipe lines by shock appears to have been general and unquestionably was extensive enough to cause almost all of the main and auxiliary machinery to stop. In addition, it seems probable that some of the auxiliary machinery, at least, was also directly damaged by shock. Inasmuch as the after machinery space was obliterated and the auxiliary machinery spaces were flooded, as noted in paragraph 16, this explains the general failure of all service throughout the remaining portion of the vessel including the lack of pressure on the fire main noted by topside survivors. The initial shock knocked everyone from their feet, but the second jolt seems to have been quite light. Nine survivors collected on the lower level and, finding the normal access blocked by fallen piping and other debris, went up the escape trunk between frames 99 and 100, starboard, and, after considerable difficulty in undogging the door at the top of the trunk, emerged onto the second deck in the starboard passageway inboard of the chaplain's office. All light partition bulkheads in this area were wrecked and there were piles of debris. They clambered over the debris and crossed to the starboard ladder leading to the hangar at frame 95. Looking up they saw a fire in the hangar and the ladder was also damaged, so they returned to the escape trunk. Back at the escape trunk one man returned to the engine room but could see nothing and heard only the noise of escaping steam. He returned to the second deck and rejoined the other survivors. They then heard three men inside the trunk (the normal access to the engine room) forward of bulkhead 95 on the starboard side and went over to the door in the bulkhead. Here they managed to extricate two of these men through the flame-tight door (dogged shut) although it could only be opened about 12 inches because of debris and distortion of the bulkhead and door. The group then passed aft through the remains of bulkhead 100 into the wardroom. Continuing aft they clambered down to the tank tops, about on the centerline, went over to starboard, meeting the party from the auxiliary engine room, and left the vessel. Prior to abandoning the engine room they noted no flooding. None of the relay hand-operated lanterns in the machinery spaces operated and their only light was from hand flashlights. When they left the vessel they also noted that the waterline seemed to be nearly at the second deck level. They noted that apparently nothing of the ship remained aft of frame 118 except a small strip of port quarter shell plating projecting a few feet above the water.
doctor, collected in the sick bay area where they were joined by other personnel, including some from the first platform below. The party then numbered between ten and fifteen people. Light bulkheads were extensively ripped and torn and sick bay equipment was a jumble in the various spaces. Bulkhead 82 seemed intact although oil was reported on the second deck transverse passageway just forward of this bulkhead. This was diesel oil from a line which apparently was leaking through the fittings. The men checked both the port and starboard ladders up to the hangar at frame 79 and found them blocked by fire in the hangar. Most of the party went forward along the starboard passageway, passing outboard of the elevator pit until they reached berthing space A-205-L. Here, several men from Repair II, who had led out and connected fire hoses but found no pressure on the plugs, joined the party. During this part of the trip little difficulty was encountered as the structure, although distorted, was intact. The automatic hand lanterns in the sick bay areas had functioned and some of them were used by this party. They then went up the ladder, frames 43 to 45 starboard, and continued up the trunk from the hangar deck to the gallery deck. In passing up this trunk they noted that the bulkheads were badly distorted and wrinkled but substantially intact. The ladder was shaky but in a useable condition. On the gallery deck they went forward and around the Captain's bath and passed through the starboard archway in bulkhead 38 and through the door into the catapult machinery room. To this point the trip had been complicated chiefly by dense smoke. The catapult machinery room, at this time, was free of smoke. The party crossed to the port side and passed through the light lock onto the port gallery walkway. There, the party left the vessel via lines from No. 4 40mm and No. 2 20mm gun platforms. There were some other officers and men on the port gallery walkway who abandoned ship by the same method. The port gallery walkway was wrinkled and distorted and was generally pushed upward as though distorted by a blast from below. 2ff7e9595c
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