Naval History Forums

At Koop and Schmolke book about Bismarck Class the speed information for both, Bismarck and Tirpitz, is the following: 1. Bismarck´s results of dockyard test at a displacement of 43,000 tons: Output: 3 x 46,000 shp (138,000 shp) with 12 boilers in use and 265 rpm: 29 knots Later with 150,170 shp we...

Iowa . . . . 212K shp 32.5 kts . 56K tons Vanguard . 133K shp 31.6 kts . 51K tons PoW . . . . 133K shp 29.5 kts . 42K tons Bismarck . 150K shp 30.1 kts . 48K tons I don't have a problem with these numbers. They seem logical to me. If anything, it looks like Vanguard is unrealistically fast. It's ha...

Actually not so inconsistant. 29 knots @ 138K is the design specs for the 43,000 metric ton typverdraengung design issued by Raeder's office on May, 9th, 1935. "Typverdraengung" indicates the projected standard displacement of the design, not the actual displacement for the design speed. ...

....There is just no way to extrapolate the claimed 30.1 knot performance of Bismarck, from these results except through unrealistically high powers at unrealistically low displacements. Extrapolate from what? We still have these data: 28.4 knots-117.4K HP, or 78% of the available power-and at leas...

Right here Dave: http://www.kbismarck.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3008 To Vic, Jose posted this because it contains the data from the only known primary source. This is what we have to go on. It lists specific points of data, such as the power and rpm per each shaft, the speed attained, the w...

The ship was moored to the pier at the Blohm & Voss shipyard at that time. But does it matter? The ship may have less draft in seawater but is going to displace less water as well. For a given draft of let's say 9.3 meters, the Bismarck will always displace the same volume of water, whether tha...

Draft on 13 January 1941 Port ----------------------------Starboard-------Average Draft 8550 -------Forward-----------8550-------------8.550 meters 8885 -------Admiships--------9185-------------9.035 meters 9600 -------Aft-----------------9750-------------9.675 meters Mean draft: 9.11 meters Displa...

Dave Saxton wrote:What distance are you assuming from the oberdeck to the top ledge of the main belt?

I measured 2.39 meters from the image,(27/217 pixels, where 217 pixels = 19.195 meters and in Axis BB's it gives a distance of 2.4 meters.

José M. Rico wrote:
I don't know what the /4 is.

I suspect that it is the draught averaged from 4 positions or 4 readings.

However, IIRC, that test was done in freshwater, in the Elbe river, so Bismarck would have a deeper draught than if done in seawater, and the average draught in seawater would be about 21cm less, if I've done the math right.

...... The very top edge of the black line is a draught of 10.5 meters. The black line appears to be 1 meter tall. The point were the bottom of the black line meets the red indicates a draught of 9.5 meters... Upon further examination I'm not completely sure. The top of the black line may have mark...

Thanks, I was looking through the data on the inclination tests but couldn't find any specifics on draught and displacement, yet it was obvious that this data was recorded during the tests, so this is quite useful.

If you can make such measurements from that photo then your much better than I! My drawings indicate that freeboard at midships varied from about 6 meters to about 5.5 meters. I used the GIMP and then scaled the image 4x to make it easier to work with. The GIMP also has a measuring tool, for extrem...

I just found out that if the draught was 9.57 meters at 51,395 tons in sea water, then it would be approximately 10.5 meters in fresh water. I wonder if there are any suitable photos, from which we could estimate the draught in seawater? This one is from May 18 1941: http://www.bismarck-class.dk/bi...

. If the Bismarck could not attain speed requirements at operational displacements, he would have known about it, yet he recorded in his book that the Bismarck did 30 knots during the trial period. If they emptied ship just to make speed runs, then a lot of people would have known about it, and I c...