Unluckiest Warship

General naval discussions that don't fit within any specific time period or cover several issues.
lwd
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by lwd »

Karl Heidenreich wrote:Gary:
HMS Vanguard (WW1)
IJNS Mutsu
RM Leonardo Da Vinci
HMS Natal

All suffered internal explosions and blew up.
An Iowa Class BB also suffered an internal explosion but it didn't blew up.
I seem to remember it being more than one. The one the Iowa had on her last tour of duty was a turret "event" and was contained within it. Mutsu apparently had her magazine go up for no known reason. I seem to recall reading somewhere that "event" such as happened on Iowa were more common than most realize but don't have a list of them.
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Karl Heidenreich
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by Karl Heidenreich »

47 service men got killed during the explosion I heard about. It ocurred in April 19, 1987 in No. 2 turret.
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lwd
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by lwd »

That was the one on her last tour of duty.
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paulcadogan
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by paulcadogan »

Here's a candidate for this title:

What are the odds of a ship being struck by a torpedo that it fired?? Almost infinitely small...?

Tell that to HMS Trinidad - escorting PQ 13 in May 1942, fighting off German destroyers and fired a torpedo that circled with such precision that it plowed back into her causing serious damage which sent her limping into Murmansk.

Then, after temporary repairs, on the way home from Murmansk, carrying survivors from HMS Edinburgh which was sunk two weeks earlier, she was set upon by swarms of Luftwaffe bombers and torpedo planes, which eventually coordinated their attacks to trap her with a stick of 500 lb bombs. The Edinburgh survivors were killed and Trinidad was set ablaze and never recovered. She joined Edinburgh at the bottom. But what a fight she put up!

For an excellent survivor account of this battle, see this website below. Unfortunately I cannot link directly to the specific page so once you click the link below, put your cursor on Stories, then Stories 2, then click on Trinidad. Not sure if I've posted this link in another thread here, but the site is chock full of great pictures, ship profiles & camo schemes ( mainly RN cruisers) and battle stories. Enjoy!

http://www.world-war.co.uk/index.php3

Paul
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Karl Heidenreich
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by Karl Heidenreich »

WELL,

With that name (Trinidad) I could have expected worse things than that! It could have been sunk by one of it's own lifeboats...
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paulcadogan
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by paulcadogan »

Karl, Karl, Karl...

What have the Trinis done to you? :shock: :wink: Too much "liming" and soca music??? :lol:

But you have to admit that despite incredibly bad luck, Trinidad (the cruiser) put up a valiant fight to the end.
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Karl Heidenreich
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by Karl Heidenreich »

Paul,

Liming and soca music is the ONLY things these bozos are able to do. Put them to work and that's it! Saying more could be... political incorrect... :!: :!:

Anyway, yes the cruiser put up a valiant fight.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
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Mostlyharmless
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by Mostlyharmless »

USS O'Brien (DD-415) was a little unlucky in being hit by a torpedo fired at another ship, getting to first Espirito Santo, then New Caledonia and finally Fiji and receiving temporary repairs each time before finally sinking. However, at least the crew survived.
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by Bgile »

Mostlyharmless wrote:USS O'Brien (DD-415) was a little unlucky in being hit by a torpedo fired at another ship, getting to first Espirito Santo, then New Caledonia and finally Fiji and receiving temporary repairs each time before finally sinking. However, at least the crew survived.
Interesting. I'd always thought she sank immediately after the torpedo hit. I looked at the Wiki page and the photo shows her with five 5" guns and the description says four. Ah well.
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by Bgile »

Bgile wrote:
Mostlyharmless wrote:USS O'Brien (DD-415) was a little unlucky in being hit by a torpedo fired at another ship, getting to first Espirito Santo, then New Caledonia and finally Fiji and receiving temporary repairs each time before finally sinking. However, at least the crew survived.
Interesting. I'd always thought she sank immediately after the torpedo hit. I looked at the Wiki page and the photo shows her with five 5" guns and the description says four. Ah well.
And then I find another photo of her with four ...
flying-dutchman
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by flying-dutchman »

about wasa-it seems that the ship was not yet ready-it should just make a short trip to waxholm and there complete the ballast-it had to much sails for a gust-the resposible man-took a ship one night back to holland-also the crew found was only 16 people-anyway, 1000s of similar accidents are common in naval history-it is just that that the wreck is unique and very charming, I would say....
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RF
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by RF »

Agreed.
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Keith Enge
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by Keith Enge »

I don't know if anyone has proposed this ship but how about the British CL Trinidad? Torpedoing yourself when your own torpedo goes rogue and circles is unlucky by anyone's definition. This sort of thing was by no means unknown; IIRC, one of the most successful US subs, Tang, did the same thing. Friendly fire losses are bad enough but doing it to yourself has to be worse.
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wadinga
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by wadinga »

All,

I'd like to nominate the previous USS Porter to the one already nominated. This one was DD-355 named for David D Porter and was sunk during the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands.

http://navalmerchantshiparticles.blogsp ... d-378.html
The USS Porter (DD-356) had just rescued the crew of a ditched TBF Avenger when a sailor on the destroyer spotted an incoming torpedo just before it slammed into the vessel amidships and exploded. The task force immediately assumed a Japanese submarine had launched the fish, but the destroyer was actually the victim of the downed Avenger. The TBF had been unable to jettison its torpedo, which came loose and began running when the plane hit the water. The Porter's surviving crewmen, as well as the rescued airmen, were taken aboard the Shaw (DD-373), which later sank the crippled Porter with gunfire.

http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhist ... 12/contact

A Mr. Sawruk responds: "From U.S. Navy official reports, an enemy submarine torpedo is suspected but so is a torpedo from a ditched Avenger. The enemy weapon was accepted at the time, and that brought an end to the matter.
I reviewed the deck logs for all of the vessels present at the time and the Porter's log (which has survived) shows that the torpedo struck about two minutes after the TBF ditched. In addition, the destroyer logs report no loss of a torpedo from any of them and no U.S. subs were in the area.
A VF-10 pilot made a great report about this incident, as he had a birds-eye view of the situation. After the Porter stopped to pickup the ditched crew, he saw an erratic torpedo circling, which then straightened out and hit the Porter. He tried to strafe it to get it to explode but U.S. antiaircraft fire drove him off. There was only one torpedo. Some on board ship thought there were two torpedoes but the circling probably accounts for this.
I had contact with the ditched VT-10 pilot. When I told him what I believed had happened, he was upset but had suspected all along that this is what really happened. In his defense (not that he needs any), his plane had been badly damaged by a Zuiho A6M enroute to the target and on fire. He had to abort his mission. He considered bailing out with his crew but was able to get the fire out. He tried to get rid of the torpedo, both electrically and manually, without success. Because of this, it almost certainly was lying against the bomb bay doors. The ditching was successful, and the crew had sufficient time to get themselves and the raft out of the aircraft before it sank. The torpedo struck while they were climbing on board the Porter."

A very unlucky Good Samaritan!

All the best

wadinga
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celticmarine10
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Re: Unluckiest Warship

Post by celticmarine10 »

I agree with what someone said below, Bismarck and Tirpitz. Come on! How unlucky was it for Bismarck-Last ditch attempt by swordfish and its ends up hitting the weakest (and smallest) area of the ship-rudder? If thats not unlucky I don't know what is!
For Tirpitz, well everytime she was ready for action, she was hit by the RAF and had to be repaired!
Lots of contenders throughout History though!
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