The officer bent over the mortally wounded Nelson, and at that moment from the lips of the dying admiral flew a faint groan of "Kiss me" (kiss me). Vice Admiral Hardy was surprised and kissed Nelson twice. Historians are still arguing about the meaning of this episode, according to one version, the dying Nelson most likely uttered "Kismet" (providence, rock).
The combat survivability of ships is a rather complex and controversial topic. Maritime history is full of stunning examples of the imminent death of ships that had previously seemed unsinkable, and, at the same time, equally incredible cases of rescue in hopeless situations. At first glance, the absence of any clear laws that determine the survivability of ships suggests that the outcome of each exit to the sea depends solely on a coincidence.
Icebergs and Bengal tigers
The unsinkable ship hit an iceberg during its maiden voyage and became a legend. Perhaps this is due to the fact that when the Titanic was launched, they forgot to break the bottle - and, as you know, a ship that has not tasted wine will definitely want blood.
Sistership "Titanic" - "Olympic" was launched according to all the rules: a bottle broke on its side and the liner honestly worked on the transatlantic lines for 25 years, having received the nickname "Old Reliable". On April 24, 1918, the Olympic noticed the German submarine U-103 and, without hesitation, went to the ram. The liner with a total displacement of 50,000 tons tore in half an 800-ton sumparine. Just like an iceberg …
A completely fierce, paranormal story took place on November 11, 1942, near the Cocos Islands. A small convoy of the Dutch tanker Ondina and the British minesweeper Bengal was intercepted by two Japanese auxiliary cruisers. The displacement of the opponents differed by 50 times. Sixteen 140 mm guns and 8 torpedo tubes "Hokoku-Maru" and "Aikoku-Maru" against a single 76 mm minesweeper gun and one 102 mm tanker gun with 32 rounds of ammunition. The speed of the tanker Ondina is 12 knots, the parade speed of the minesweeper Bengal is 15 knots. The speed of the Japanese raiders is 21 knots.
One of the Japanese auxiliary cruisers was destroyed, the second was damaged, while not a single member of the Bengal crew received a scratch. The convoy arrived at its destination without delay. Both ships successfully survived the Second World War: the Ondina tanker was decommissioned in 1959, the Bengal minesweeper served until 1960.
No one can accuse Japanese sailors of incompetence or cowardice. Such is fate, providence, irresistible fate. By the way, I got the feeling of deja vu … Exactly! Brig "Mercury" and two Turkish ships of the line.
No fate
If the reader has a feeling of hopelessness and doubts about his ability to change something, then this is completely in vain. The result of each naval battle is a combination of numerous factors and indicators. The invisible hand of providence only determines the order in which the ship's vulnerabilities and the flight path of enemy shells are combined (and here the unbroken bottle of champagne and the number "13" are probably decisive … although maybe it's all about training enemy gunners?). And nevertheless, considering each indicator separately (booking, type of power plant, stability), we come to the conclusion that the better the value of each of them, the higher the probability that the ship will emerge from the battle as a winner.
Indeed, despite the enormous influence of chance, there are quite definite rules. For example, if a ship is well tailored, then it is likely to be reliable and tenacious. There are whole series of successful designs, for example, the Novik-class destroyers.
In 1942, in the Barents Sea, eight-meter waves tore off the stern of the destroyer "Crushing" (Project 7 destroyers, like their progenitor, the Italian destroyer "Maestrale", were notable for their poor hull strength). The destroyers "Kuibyshev" and "Uritsky" (former destroyers of the "Novik" type - "Bully" and "Captain Kern") urgently came to the aid of the damaged ship. Despite their considerable age, "Noviks" perfectly kept on the wave and they did not fall off anything in an 11-point storm.
No less reliable was the hull of American destroyers of the "Fletcher" type, assembled from 18 mm steel plates - kamikaze planes often pierced destroyers through, but the hull of "Fletcher", despite the extensive destruction of the power set, retained its longitudinal strength.
Another excellent example is the Soviet destroyers of Project 56. For 30 years of active operation, these ships have not had a single major accident with human casualties - given the realities of our Fatherland, this is simply a phenomenal result.
It has long been known that any weapon is just a pile of metal without trained personnel. The human factor is key in any situation. For example, in 1944, the USS Archer-Fish submarine sank the Shinano, the largest aircraft carrier of the Second World War, with a total displacement of 70,000 tons, with four torpedoes. Only 17 hours have passed since he set out on his first military campaign! Surprisingly, after the torpedo attack, "Shinano" kept its course, the damage was insignificant, but … after 7 hours the supercarrier capsized and sank. Well, what did you want from the crew, who were not familiar with the plan of the interior of the huge ship? The Shinano team was formed two days before going to sea - the sailors simply had no idea how and what compartments needed to be flooded in order to even out the list. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the water-permeable bulkheads were not pressurized, because The Shinano was unfinished!
A reverse example is the death of the attack aircraft carrier Yorktown, which lost its combat effectiveness after being hit by two torpedoes and a 250 kg bomb. But the aircraft carrier was not going to die - the emergency parties extinguished the fires, prevented the flow of seawater and tried to reduce the roll. The next day, the Yorktown in tow was once again hit by two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine. The aircraft carrier stayed afloat for another day.
The Yorktown, like the Shinano, was destroyed by four torpedoes. What is the difference you ask. Yorktown was 3 times smaller than the Japanese supercarrier!
Of course, the technical condition of the ship is of great importance - there is no doubt that on a ship that went out to sea, which stood for 20 years on conservation or propping up the quay wall with limited funding, various surprises are possible, in the form of a sudden flooding of part of the compartments or loss of speed in the middle of the ocean. To send such a ship into battle is to betray the crew (which was once again proved by the unprepared Shinano).
There is one more specific factor - if the enemy has carrier-based aircraft, he is guaranteed to win any sea battle. The super-battleship "Yamato" turned into a laughingstock: despite the 180 barrels of anti-aircraft artillery and the battleship's half-meter armor, the fragile and clumsy torpedo bombers "Avenger" drowned him in 2 hours, along with all his escort from a cruiser and six destroyers. 3,600 Japanese sailors were killed. The losses of the Americans amounted to 10 aircraft and 12 pilots.
Sistership "Yamato" - the superlinkor "Musashi" turned out to be much luckier. he resisted for 4 hours and managed to shoot down as many as 18 American carrier-based aircraft. The losses of the Japanese this time amounted to 1,023 sailors.
Floating airfields
The reader will probably be interested to know how difficult it is to sink a modern aircraft carrier. For comparison, let us choose the Nimitz-class nuclear attack aircraft carrier. We will not discuss the likelihood of a breakthrough by the air defense and anti-aircraft defense of an aircraft carrier strike group, in the absence of any reliable figures and facts on this topic. Therefore, let's immediately imagine that torpedoes and anti-ship missiles stuck into the side of an aircraft carrier. What will be next?
Of course, the survivability of the aircraft carrier is very high, which is ensured, first of all, by the colossal size of the ship. The length of the Nimitz is 332 meters; it will not fit on Red Square.
"Nimitz" is assembled from 161 finished sections weighing from 100 to 865 tons. The hull of the floating airfield is divided by 7 decks and watertight bulkheads into more than 200 compartments. The flight, hangar and third decks are made of armor steel 150-200 mm thick.
There is a misconception that a floating airfield is an extremely fire hazardous facility, filled to capacity with aviation kerosene and ammunition. The misconception is based on the fact that fuel reserves are considered without regard to the size of the ship. Indeed, the stock of jet fuel on board is huge - 8500 tons. But … this is only 8% of the total displacement of the aircraft carrier! For comparison, you can give data on other types of ships:
1. Large anti-submarine ship pr. 1134-A ("Kronstadt"). Full displacement - 7500 tons, ship stocks: 1952 tons of F-5 fuel oil; 45 tons of diesel fuel DS; 13000 liters of aviation kerosene for the helicopter. The fuel reserve was 27% of the total displacement of the ship.
Perhaps someone will note the difference between kerosene and fuel oil, but the well-known trick with extinguishing a torch in a bucket with heavy oil fractions is not entirely correct. In battle, the tank is not set on fire with a torch, it is beaten with a red-hot blank at supersonic speed, with all the ensuing consequences.
2. Large anti-submarine ship pr. 1155 ("Udaloy"). The total displacement is 7,500 tons, the normal stock of kerosene for gas turbines is 1,500 tons, i.e. 20% of the total displacement of the ship.
Moreover, the aircraft carrier is taking unprecedented measures for storing aviation kerosene - the tanks on the lower decks are covered with armor and surrounded by sealed cofferdams (narrow uninhabited compartments), in which inert gas is injected. Fuel, as it is consumed, is replaced by seawater.
As for the amount of ammunition on board an aircraft carrier of the "Nimitz" type, many sources call the figure 1954 tons, i.e. less than 2% of the displacement of a giant ship is not at all impressive. For safety reasons, the ammunition storage facilities are located below the waterline of the aircraft carrier - if there is a danger of an explosion, they can be urgently flooded. Most modern ships are deprived of this opportunity - the ships of the NATO countries are equipped with the Mark-41 UVP, in which the ammunition is located above / at the waterline level. On most Russian ships, the situation is similar - most of the weapons are generally taken out to the upper deck.
The main power plant of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier is echeloned and housed in four watertight compartments. The bow compartments of each echelon are reserved for a nuclear steam generating installation, and the aft compartments are for the main turbo-gear units. From the bottom side, the aircraft carrier is protected by an armored unsinkable deck, and the onboard torpedo protection covers the areas of reactor compartments, ammunition storage, aviation fuel storage and reaches the third deck in height.
Considering all of the above, it follows that the guaranteed destruction of an aircraft carrier is possible only in the case of the use of high-yield nuclear weapons. Which, in turn, is practically unrealistic in the course of local conflicts.
