chuck wrote:
Is part of the reason railings are lowered and removed prior to action is to keep loose cables from snagging a gun or otherwise interfere with fighting if they are thrown about by blast and enemy shell hits?
Chuck, concerning this practice I had always understood there to be several reasons at play - namely that anything left on deck lacking blast plating or sufficient support might be carried away and propelled into a missile or flying splinter.. which is the same reason why wooden ships in the age of sail would tow their boats behind/over the side when clearing for action (watch the opening scenes of Master & Commander).. such practices are still prescribed to this day whereby if it can burn, fly or splinter, or even float in a flooded compartment, then it probably should be struck and/or stowed when clearing ship for action. There is obviously also much to be said about the pressure and concussion resulting from a ship's own guns.. Further, it was probably best not to leave anything laying around that the crew might become tangled in if the worst were to happen.
Perhaps there is more to this that I am overlooking..
But, evidently, this is a detail which successive generations of maritime artists (this one included) and modelmakers have gotten wrong about representing ships when cleared for action. It is also not straightforward in that some navies, say the WW2 Kriegsmarine, appear to have folded their stanchions outboard as opposed to inboard, in some cases, in a manor resembling the flight deck netting of modern warships.. Victor Hayward (HMS TIGER at Bay) mentions having been asleep at his gun and missed the special sea dutymen striking the railings in the hours before his ship went into action at Jutland. So I think it would be important to remember that ships would only actually do this when they 'knew' they were going into action and actually had enough time to perform these evolutions - which obviously applies in the case of HMS HOOD at Denmark Strait (and is corroborated on wreckage photos anyway). Also, I understand that guard railing on the upper decks was permanent structure and usually not struck (where there may be a greater danger of falling from some control, searchlight or gun position etc) - but at exactly what deck level 0-? can be difficult to ascertain. I assume that the movable stanchions are just the ones supporting soft cable lifelines with visible screw tensioners etc. In the case of HMS HOOD for example, I am assuming that the shelter deck stanchions & railings were struck. When HMS HOOD was lost, Robert Tilburn abandoned ship from the shelterdeck - where he and two others were taking cover abaft the portside number 1 UP launcher and its associated splinter shielding. I may be wrong but I get the feeling he may have mentioned having to climb a railing to get off the ship, if a railing was actually there.. there were obviously other things he had to see and process, which were far worse than having to worry about climbing something as he was getting off the ship. Actually, respectfully, he mentioned having to run to the ship's side to be sick - and just ending up in the water as it came to him. His account is obviously still a very upsetting story to read. I may be wrong, but my wager is made on HOOD's shelterdeck railings.
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