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Anonymous
The Duel of the Liners - One of the greatest military sea stories 2017-05-09 07:53:55 Post No. 33906661
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The Duel of the Liners - One of the greatest military sea stories 2017-05-09 07:53:55 Post No. 33906661
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The Duel of the Liners - One of the greatest military sea stories
Anonymous
2017-05-09 07:53:55
Post No. 33906661
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>September, 1914
>WWI has kicked off
>The German Imperial Navy and British Royal Navy have pressed their ocean liners into service.
>The large liners, like RMS Olympic, are to become hospital and troop ships, but the mid-size liners have another task.
>They are to become hunters of their own kind.
>Under conditions of high secrecy, the RMS Carmania, a Cunarder of 19,500 register tons, is taken from her civilian service. In a secluded berth her luxurious fittings are stripped and put into storage. Her sparkling white superstructure is hastily painted gray-black to disappear against the night sky.
>Eight 4.7 inch naval guns are installed aboard and concealed by tarpaulins and trap doors.
>Her civilian crew and officer corps is augmented with a crack team of Royal Navy men.
>Every spare inch of space aboard is stocked with food, fresh water, ammunition, and coal. Where she is going, there will be no resupply.
>Finally, her orders are delivered:
>She is to sail to the coast of Brazil, where German gunboats and colliers have been supporting the operations of an as-yet unknown armed merchantmen. This enemy threatens to cut off trade with South America and perhaps even the United States, should she move north.
>She is to flush out this merchantman engage her, sink her, burn her, or take her a prize.
>MEANWHILE at the Brazilian Island of Trindade, SMS Cap Trafalgar, a servant of the Kaiser is also being transformed.
>Her third funnel is taken off, and the remaining painted in Cunard Crimson and Black.
>Her superstructure is touched up and cleaned of coal dust.
>She is made to look like an English ocean liner in the best of conditions so as to fool Allied vessels into approaching.
>Specifically, she is being made to look like the RMS Carmania, a ship almost exactly Trafalgar's size and well known by most English sailors.
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>14 SEPTEMBER
>After steaming at top speed across the Atlantic, the now HMS Carmania approaches the remote island of Trindade. Smoke curls up from the outcrop of land. Coal smoke.
>Carmania's Captain orders her to approach the island's sole harbor.
>The crew of the anchored Cap Trafalgar watches in horror, as an all black, soot streaked ghost of a liner emerges from the early morning fog and into their midst.
>For a moment, silence reigns all involved attempt to identify friend or foe.
>One of Carmania's lookouts spies the name of his own ship lettered on the stern of the liner at anchor.
>This can mean only one thing.
>In a flash, Carmania's crew rips the tarps and drops the concealing doors from her mounted guns.
>But, her Captain fears being trapped in the harbor - a location surely known to the other German gunboats -
and orders full astern while while the crew fire at the the impostor ship.
>Clearing the harbor, Carmania turns hard and goes full ahead, making for open water.
>Cap Trafalgar does the same minutes later as her crew, shaken from a period of R&R, prepare her weaponry.
>On both ships, watertight doors slam closed in preparation for what is certain to come.
>The ships sail away from each other as wireless operators tap out coded messages to their respective commands.
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>>33906661
Armed merchantmen are cool as fuck
>>
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>With several miles between them, both Captains decide they are done with running.
>Carmania fired first, but was out of range.
>Cap Trafalgar makes a more calculated shot, damaging Carmania's superstructure and starting fires that would burn out of control for the rest of the engagement.
>Both captains decide they must now close in for the kill.
>As they near each other, the fire grows far more accurate.
>Carmania takes 79 rounds from Cap Trafalgar's 4.1 inch guns.
>She returns nearly the same to Cap Trafalgar. Nevertheless, her bridge is now shot away.
>Both ships are burning and listing, but they continue to close, with Carmania being commanded from her docking bridge aft as most of her upper decks are consumed by flame.
>Cap Trafalgar looks to be in better shape, with fewer fires and an intact bridge, but unlike the Brit, she has been holed badly below the waterline. Carmania's gunners had prioritized the German's hull, at the expense of taking out the gun crews that threatened to kill them at any moment.
>Running short of ammunition and with their barrels glowing red hot, the main deck guns are retired.
>Small arms: pistols, revolvers, Lewis and Maxim guns, and swords are distributed to the crews.
>Finally, the ships come to a stop.
>There are less than 300 yards between them.
>For several hours, the crews exchange gunfire until even this ammunition is nearly depleted.
>By now the ships decks are strewn with corpses.
>Carmania has burned almost to the waterline in some places. Nevertheless, her turbines turn unabated, driving pumps that bring her list under control.
>>
>The Carmania's captain is faced with a choice: stop fighting - possibly surrender - and save his ship from fire by directing all the crewmen to damage control, or keep fighting and allow much of the crew below decks to burn or suffocate.
>A store of powder ignites, sending a fireball raking Carmania's topside.
>Now, it seems he has but on option.
>Without warning, something inside the Cap Trafalgar finally gives way. She heels hard to port, her list out of control as shellholes all along her body become openings for the sea.
>She sinks in minutes.
>Carmania, suddenly the victor, sets about saving herself while the colliers that had attended Cap Trafalgar in port pluck German sailors from the sea.
>In the final tally, 51 Germans, including Cap Trafalgar's captain, and nine British sailors were dead. Carmania limped to safety, was rebuilt, served at Gallipoli, and returned to civil service, being scrapped in 1932 at the age of 27.
THE END
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>>33906677
>tfw you will never Captain an Auxiliary Cruiser and help steer the course of the war.
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>>33906696
If you like German AC's read this: https://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Mystery-Raider-Terrorized-During/dp/1416576118
It's about WWI but's it a 10/10 book and all true.
Basically a German cruiser Captain is very good at sinking Allied ships but refusing to kill their crews so he keeps taking on prisoners, including women and children from pleasure craft he sinks, and ultimately has to deal with running a small city full of British imperials below deck while fending off Communist mutineers in his own crew.
As a bonus, the Captain's also a notorious loner/autist who trusts only the ship's cat.
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>>33906677
They're the best. Look up the SMS Adler.
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>>33906866
Shit I meant Seeadler
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>Be an armed merchant cruiser
>Engage a German battleship to buy your convoy time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Jervis_Bay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Fegen
>>
>>33906740
one of the best books ive ever read.
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>>33907237
Scheer wasnt a BB but a BC
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>>33906740
suprised bbc hasnt done a mystery or something in this setting.
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good read, thanks op
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>>33906661
I enjoyed that very much. I am not being sarcastic in the slightest when I say to you, "cool story bro".
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>>33907498
That would be a damn good miniseries.
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Hollywood would never make this film, shame.
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>>33910172
Why not?
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>>33910179
Not him but it's from the 1st World War.
The demographic needed to pay for the movie simply does not know enough about the war to be interested, possibly don't know it had happened at all.
Historical movies about wars not involving USA are (were) done in Europe with heavy invetment on the part of government and barely got out even.
Hollywood is a business, not a dream factory.
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>>33910308
Hollywood made Master & Commander* which features no Americans and takes place during the Napoleonic Wars. It did alright.
*Whose plot is eerily similar to this real life incident at times. I bet Patrick O'Brian knew about it
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>>33910628
>Director Weir, asked in 2005 if he would make a sequel, stated he thought it "most unlikely", and after disclaiming internet rumors to the contrary, stated "I think that while it did well...ish at the box office, it didn't generate that monstrous, rapid income that provokes a sequel."[22] In 2007 the film was included on a list of "13 Failed Attempts To Start Film Franchises" by The A.V. Club
The kind of money that movie made gets a ton of people fired nowadays, anon.
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>>33910831
fuck
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>>33906661
capped
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>>33911259
bost cap pls
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>>33911289
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>>33911312
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>>33906740
>Communist mutineers
Fucking bought. Commie stomping is my fetish
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>>33910628
loved the Aubrey/Maturin series when I was in HS
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>>33906740
>only 3 left in stock
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>>33911597
The /k/ bump
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It was a better time...
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>>33913666
early iron ship design got really stupid for a while
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>>33911597
>Sold Out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EG6apxGWqw
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>>33913666
Satan please. That's a ship based on a then-30 year old design, just with more guns and superstructure.
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>>33916850
all I can see is the prow forming pepe
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>>33907237
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Samuel_B._Roberts_(DE-413)
She closed to knifefight range with a Jap heavy cruiser and it took multiple hits from the freaking KONGO to finally sink her. Her and the rest of Taffy 3 took on Yamato, 3 other Jap BBs, 8 cruisers and 11 destroyers. Probably saved the Philippines invasion
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>>33916981
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Stand-Tin-Sailors-Extraordinary/dp/0553381482/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494399965&sr=8-1&keywords=last+stand+of+the+tin+can+sailors
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>>33916963
Neat.
Time for CSS Pepe to ram USS Wojak
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>>33916988
Another good book about that battle is Sea of Thunder.
https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_14?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=sea+of+thunder&sprefix=sea+of+thunder%2Caps%2C2109&crid=15DZORUR0OT53
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>>33907459
Scheer wasn't a BC but an armored cruiser
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