French Pre-Dreadnoughts - When Hotels go to War
2019 ж. 9 Шіл.
4 184 003 Рет қаралды
Today we take a brief look at the design history of the French pre-dreadnoughts.
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Pinned post for Q&A :)
Worst looking warship of all time?
Prowler what this guy is saying, what is the ugliest warship ever made.
Good wendsday In your opinion, what is the most interesting sunken warship that hasn't been found yet ?
did anyone ever made a warship catamaran or trimaran?
What are the diagonal bars along the sides of the hull of older battleships and cruisers?
The designers perhaps misunderstood what was meant by the request to design an offensive ship.
8 months to find this gold, your wit has not gone unappreciated mister breadman.
@@WadsworthGaming One month to find this cringe.
In the designers' defence, they did make them offensive, only they went with the wrong kind of offensive, designing them in such a way to cause anyone who even looks at them to be offended by their design. (Edit: some of yers don't seem to realise that yes, I do know what the joke is about, and no, this is not an attempt to explain it, stop replying to an old comment)
Hon hon hon you want boat I’ll make you boat
@@foop7134 oh I dont know.....I think they look great especially the ram bow...who would have thought??
"We have the Hilton in range sir!"
You misspelled Bates Motel
Omfg lmao
Concentrate fire on the continental breakfast bar!
Allen Atkins “This is the Marriott, we have three confirmed hits on the Best Western”
_"Sir, rear observation post confirms sighting of the TRUMP hotel and spa! Can we even outrun that thing?"_
Admiral: The mere sight of the new battleship should strike terror into our enemy's heart. Naval architect: (taking notes and murmuring to himself:) Ship... must have... terrible appearance... Admiral: Her pugnacious appearance should repulse the enemy. Naval architect: (taking more notes) Repugnant appearance.(scribbles) Ah yes, Admiral! She shall be repulsive indeed! Admiral: After all, our goal is to repel the enemy. Naval architect: _Oh yes_ Monsieur, she will be _most repellent_ . I shall see to it! Admiral: The enemy should feel overmatched just beholding her! Just imagine, they shall feel sick in their hearts when they consider engaging her in battle! Naval architect: (taking notes and talking to himself) Spectators... should be overwhelmed with ... nausea... and ... (scribbling) despair in their hearts. Admiral: She should be so awesome that the enemy sailors would just as soon mutiny than engage her battle. Naval architect: I understand, Admiral! (scribbling and murmuring to himself:) Revolting appearance. Naval architect: Anything else, sir? Admiral: Of course she must have big guns and be capable of carrying out offensive maneuvers against an opposing fleet. Naval architect: (putting his notebook in his pocket) Oh yes, she shall be _most offensive_ . Believe me, Admiral. She shall be made to clash in every way you can imagine.
oh wow...
Sounds sadly but absolutely on point lol
best comment on YT IMO xD i can hear the french accent on this comment... its amazing... and disgusting
.
I'm crying.
The first British pre Dreadnoughts looked like beautiful steam liners with a few guns. The first French ones looked like the boiler room of my old school.
French have poor aesthetics for vehicles.
@@AverageAlienTrue, like SS France, Condorde, Mirage or TGV
@@krostouin concorde is british
@@AverageAlien Citroen DS?
I live the look of french pre dreadnought
Yamato: "I am not a hotel!" French Pre-dreadnoughts: "And for how many nights will Monsieur be requiring a room?"
Yamato: "Fear the mighty pagoda."
Alan Ferkinhoff The Yamato never had a pagoda mast...she had a tower mast instead, which are rather different structurally.
The French ships saw action in WW1.
@@jamesricker3997 To be fair the Yamato was far more fuel efficient ton for ton than any other BB class on the planet due to her Bulbous bow. Its not like they had enough fuel to be cruising around in Nagato and Fuso's either. Then there were those pesky Yankee subs and CV task forces just itching for a chance at the big target.
Actually it's kancolle reference
Ship designer: which of these designs do you want? Government: Yes.
It's why there were so many marital affairs in power circles back then. "How many guns?" "Yes" "Ehh what caliber sir?" "Yes" "Ehh can I plough your wife sir" "Yes"
@@TheLiamis in france its considered an insult to not plow other wifes
This is after all the ultimate proof that concept of the diversity and equal opportunity is in absolutely no doubt absolutely superior to everything else and France became the world superpower for ever since thanks to its adaptation so early on.
government: Why not??? lol
@@TheLiamis damn all this time i thought you were stuck inside Goering's ass???
Aircraft Carrier - Enterprise Battleship - Bismarck Cruiser - Hood Destroyer - Grom Submarine - Kursk Hotel - Trivago
Aircraft Carrier - Enterprise CV-6 Battleship - Bismarck Cruiser - Belfast Destroyer - Fubuki Hotel - French Battleship
@@randompirates4824 I thought Yamato was a Hotel?
@@marseldagistani2251 Yamato called hotel because she never leave base because she expensive to operate, while French pre-Dreadnought is literally a hotel
Office Building - Nelson and Rodney
For everything else there's MasterCard
*opening title card:* "5 Minute Guide to Warships" *video length:* 48 minutes and 50 seconds
Yes. There were some changes during construction...
@@RAFMnBgaming Some of the superstructure was remodeled and extended...
More or less
Don't knock it - he's a guy (and as far as the rest of it is concerned, he has no idea about lengths)
RamadaArtist some added armament as well
It's a tragedy that some of these ships don't exist anymore. They're hilariously configured, and I would love to have a stroll through one.
Ikr, i cannot umderstand how someone cannot love these ships
Go to Tokyo and pay a visit to IJN Mikasa
@@chamberlane2899 exactly, mikasa is a beautiful ship, but not a massive shitpost of a design like massena
Indeed
@@BryanVonFriently Look, sometimes, you have to love the absolute abominations of designs, simply because they had to courage to commission them.
I imagine these ships being sold by a car salesman: "This ship has so many guns that her guns have guns!"
*slaps house-sized gun*
Slaps the hull of the ship: This bad boy can fit so many batteries on it!
Probably shouldn't slap it too hard. If french cars are anything to go by, a turret will fall off!
G U N C E P T I O N
@@Chris5685 That might be an anime. :D
You have to give the French credit though. They got 5 different lessons without building 5 classes. By making 5 seperate ships, they experimented with all the things they wanted to learn, and learned all the lessons at once.
A pioneer truly And it goes without saying, French copies everyone but no one copies the French
@@WingMaster562 actually the French invented a whole bunch of revolutionary war tech. Then the uk copied and would make double what France had a year or 2 later.
@@WingMaster562 On the contrary, from the 74 gun 3rd rate to the stealth frigate, everybody always copies the French. Arrogant, ignorant and wrong.
I guess I lost count; I thought there were 12 different designs in 5 ships.
@@wom_Bat I would've believed it if weren't for "ackwutually". Nah im messing with ya. But yeah, this reminds me of all the threads, comment section, forums and other debates about the idea of how UK pioneered the tank yet everyone copied the French because turrets, or how UK didn't copy the fFrench with the turret as "the British had their designs already in mind long before the French". All the crapstorms.
My sense of aesthetic may be offended but my imagination absolutely LOVES these ships. Many of them look like citadels or shanty towns. Extremely cool in a steam punk way.
yeah really. It looks dangerous, even if it's in an ugly way.
You are right and i share your point of view. Beeing a steampunk "engineer" building a lot of thechnical steampunk equipment, i came to the conclusion that the real steam world of our grandgrandfathers had been more exiting than any steampunk fictional story.
think of all the hidden back passages and hidden stairwells!
@@narmale this is not wrong, especially if you think of maintenance hatches and the like as not being normal hallways...
@@marhawkman303 always loved old buildings for this very reason 🥰
Can't explain why, but the phrase "Burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp" comes to mind.
Seems to describe French Industrial Engineering in general.
But she has HUGE..... tracts of land
@@TheAsh274 But I don't want any of that...I'd rather...I'd rather, just...
@@rascalferret You're not going to do a song while I'm here!
TheAsh274 .....He’s going to tell, he’s going to tell........
Pre-dreadnought ship designer: So, Admiral, what gun caliber do you want on the ship? Admiral: I want *_all the calibers_* !! Pre-dreadnought ship designer: But... Admiral: *_All the calibers_* !!!!!!
Dreadnought era *ADMIRAL: I STILL WANT ALL CALIBRES AND SPEED! LOTS OF SPEED!!* Designer: Yeah but the budget wont allow that speed. *ADMIRAL: I SAID I WANT THEM ALL NOW GIVE THEM ALL* Designer: Sir aswell as the budget we signed this deal that meams half your purposed calibres arent allowed to be built anymore. *ADMIRAL: I WANT IT DONE NOW* Designer: Okey, *(starts franctically redoing the design against the admirals wishes fully)*
@@Zretgul_timerunner /low whisper _Agincourt_
@@jlvfr *"Shuddering only the french can relate to"*
If only those decisions came from the admirals. It was the members of Parliament who took those retarded decisions 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
@@lucofparis4819 The French parliament, at the time, probably high on absinthe and reading Jules Verne. *La France: Fuck Yeah!*
The "Merde", the "Incroyable" and the "Sacre Bleu" somehow escaped mention.
You forget the "Zut" and the "Enculez" Any other names I forget to mention probably never left the drawing board.
The saperlipopette
You forgot the "Miste"
French Government: *holds a competition to choose ONE company to build battleships* French Government: Why are we having this competition again? *promptly gives contracts to every company that applies*
This is the US Government nowadays, with everything a defense contractor could possibly make for them
@@fluffly3606 todays’ US army looks more and more like French pre-war I & II : designed for the wars of the past. Not a good sign.
@@TheFrederic888 if the president decided that the next idea would be to reactivate missouri I wouldn't be suprised
@@drakeconsumerofsoulsandche4303 I'd be more surprised if he managed to Form a coherent sentence...
This is exactly what the French did. For these battleships and, between the 2 world wars, for tanks and planes. A lot of manufacturers. A lot of lobbying. A lot of politicians. But now, we don't have any money. So. We have to think before what we can do the best, or the better for everything. This is funny and ironical. Because French have the reputation to "optimize". Not to "maximize". The cartesian spirit as a cultural "trait de caractère". Not here...
"If you cannot *be* an offensive asset, at least look the part." - unnamed French admiral, ca. 1890.
U look like a steam punk!!!
french, offensive, noo noo sir!
The Massena(?) 17:05 is *the* butt ugliest ship I have *ever* seen. To paraphrase Jeremy Clarkson, "It's not only the ugliest ship I've ever seen, but quite possibly the ugliest *thing* I've ever seen."
They succeeded greatly
@@spikespa5208 No way, all of these are very cool steam punk. That one looks like a citadel.
When I see French pre-dreadnaughts it makes me think of what a battleship should like like in a Looney Toons cartoon sort of way.
Made by the Acme Battleship Company. CEO is Wile E Coyote!
"what a battleship should like like in a Looney Toons cartoon sort of way." That mentality may be why French film historians love Golden Age Hollywood cartoons!
Clearly you missed the pic of Yamato guns on a DD. It's make from a edited world of warships screen cap. The gun barrels are half as long as the dd on either side.
I think US ships from same period were looking about the same shape, with just some little differences.No?
Namegoeshere Orhere ☆ The New Yorker had an Extreme Cartoon take on Big Ships too.
Just a little note: while "Démocratie" is written with a "T", the "T" is pronounced like a "C". Don’t ask me why we write it with a "t" instead of a "c" I don’t know. Probably a vestige from Latin if I had to take a guess.
C'est juste comme ça que notre langue fonctionne pas besoin de raison.
@@florix7889 je sais bien… mais ça reste quand même bizarre
Mais Anglais aussi. -- tion (t pronounced as sh), and gh (pronounced as f) and c (pronounced as S) etc. Our excuse is that these words came from francais. In latin t , g and c are all pronounced hard. As in tank, goat and car.
@@francoistombe true
Not latin but greek
With that severe tumbledown hull form, they didn't so much have waterlines as they did coastlines, complete with beaches!
Underrated comment.
Wow! That battleship behind Iena in 27:40 is enormous!
when you notice its a hotel: *WHATS THE DIFFERENCE*
Truly camo
Ah yes the Homer Simpson school of ship design.
Hahaha! They are missing the dome lol
yep but they didnt learn, take a look at frances WW2 Tanks and Turretdesigns
They need a monorail!!!!
@@Sturminfantrist There was logic behind the french tanks, maybe not good logic, but there was a reasons they were what they were (mostly that the government did not trust the army and massive manpower shortages thanks to WW1). The only reason I see for these ships to be so bad is incompetence.
Doe! - French Admirals
_"Hotels going to war"_ makes for good click-bait, but with these ships having crews of 650, _"Tenements going to war"_ would be more socio-archtecturally accurate.
The French Navy themselves referred to them as floating hotels
@@iMajoraGaming and using a term like _naval tenements_ would've made recruiting a lot harder, too. … for the Navy, I mean. Might've helped Foreign Legion recruiting efforts.
Don't forget today's American Nimitz-class aircraft carriers have crews (including air wings) numbering over 6000. "When entire towns go floating to war"
Well thank goodness for you socially politically correct boneheads, who don't do your research.
I believe the term is "banlieue"
A video on pre-dreadnought power, electrical, water supply and other systems would be quite interesting. While locomotives are covered in detail there is far less material for contemporary iron ships.
Drachisms of the Day: 12:07 "Charles Martel takes the cake, the biscuit and quite probably the container as well." 16:29 "And now we move on from the least-pronounceable to the most visually-offensive." 37:38 "Fully capable of having electrically-powered turret, training and elevation mechanisms without putting on something of a lightning-show for everybody in the vicinity." 40:42 "Which rather put them in the status of 'obsolete on launch', unfortunately." 46:51 "And, to be honest, in some cases, horrific to look at."
Add 48:33 - “And so, that wraps up a BRIEF look at French Pre-dreadnought design.”
Save the container. It will become a collectable.
@16.29 He'd have a stronger point if that Jingleberry ship wasn't equally visually offensive!
You forgot 21:12 " Liable to capsize".
In the olden days, you could get a discount if you bought broken biscuits. Some of these French vessels are in that league; still technically biscuits, but..
I like how they have the lifeboats ready to lower at a moment's notice.
I seem to have missed the white flag.....
They needed them all.
@@RobertJohnson-nk6mz Be silent Robert
I mean, no matter who you are rapid deployment of escape vessels seems a great option for crew survival
Kind of how they should be you mean??
It’s crazy to think that we can fit the entire engine capacity of an old battleship into one speed boat nowadays
The motor wouldn't last near as long though
@@travisgartside409 give it 10 years and they will
@@luisgalic6581 HIGHLY doubt you could cram the 40,000 hp of a dreadnought battleship into a speed boat in the next 10 years and make it last more than a day. Not happening.
@@jonnyj. He never specified how large of a speed boat it is
@@jonnyj. idk man, look how far we got in the last 10 years. Also, development is exponential so look at the last 20 years and tell me it’s not possible
These ships look like something out of a science fiction pulp magazine, zooming off to the planet Zog to rescue a hostage space princess...weird but somehow wonderful
more like WH40k... XD something the Orc boys would be using LOL
That's funny; she doesn't look Druish. 🤣
tbh, looking at those tumble-home designs, it made clear to me where Ghibli took inspiration of a lot of his moving mechanical apparatuses
His battleships and Warcraft were always amazing to see
I thought EXACTLY the same thing!!!
The French built their tanks the same way in the 1930's. Different designs, different requirements awarded to different manufacturers. Must be a French thing.
And hence the massive Char C built by a shipyard owner basically as a rort to make easy money off the government.
The French in 1940 had far MORE tanks that were on average MUCH better gunned and MUCH better armoured tanks than the Germans did. They had little impact on German strategy and tactics because the French had no idea how to use tanks as well as the French Army being fairly ambivalent about whose side they wanted to be on in the first place.
It is based on the good old policy of "no vendor left behind!" - it would be unfair to the others if one of them would win the competition. Not really sportsmanlike, you know?
@@screamingnutbag7955 And they were horribly out of position. The worst of it was that the Germans invaded THREE times through the Ardennes in exactly the same way, and only when the US Army was there to receive the brunt of it, it ended in tears. The other two times, despite being warned about the upcoming mess by the British, they said "nah, the German army will never take that risk". That left the tanks completely out of position and thus irrelevant, while 5 tanks in the correct position could have stopped the entire invasion from being a Blitzkrieg and turning it into a slugfest on the Maginot line. You can have all the tanks you want, of the best quality. But surprise can negate it all.
@@screamingnutbag7955 they had about 2 tank designs that fittingly where better, Both of these where due to the french acting logically on the matter for once, the tanks in questions being the Char B1 and the Somua S35 both of these however where plauged by rather poor command choices such as the one man turret for the S35 and The Rather lackluster main armament of the Char B1
I suppose the advantage to the Patchwork Fleet would be that each type of ship would have different weaknesses for opponents to figure out and exploit. Looking on the bright side here.
big brain move I see xD
No ...experiment a design
This is how Codename: Kids Next Door doctrine works.
Tumblehome body, punch a hole inside and its going down
But also has different strengths and weaknesses for your own command to figure out
Practicality aside, French Pre-Dreadnought were arguably the most gracefully designed warships ever, and this tradition was more or less inherited by their successors such as Richelieu class battleship.
I'm wanting to take your word for it, honest, but I just don't know where you're seeing any grace.
french pre-dreadnought attacks ship. crew of attacked vessel: captain there is a french house shooting at us!
Irobert1115HD lol
Hey, they can sneak up on you... just looks like an innocent hotel minding its own business.
@Paul Provenzano Other way round, surely?
Captain - "well shoot back "
Baltic fishing fleet ' nice catch today ' 2nd Pacific squadron ' Japanese torpedo boats !! ' German merchant ships ' bad fog today' 2nd Pacific squadron ' Japanese torpedo boats!! ' British fishing boats ' bloody sounded like gunfire' 2nd Pacific squadron ' Japanese torpedo boats!! ' Marine National ' keep your eyes open, we have heard an jumpy Russian fleet is at sea.' 2nd Pacific squadron ' yes we would like to book rooms for several nights. '
24:08 "Shit not enough room for crew quarters"! " No problem we'll build a shed on the back"
Should have done this episode using the robot voice.
Only in the French navy
The different characteristics should have been offset by the fact that the crew served on the same ship throughout their careers, right? Eh?
no no, sheds are too mundane we will build a hotel instead and install a casino and brothel inside for good measure! ^.^ ;P
@@Feiora It's the French version of "with blackjack and hookers".
Considering the unseaworthiness of the previous ships, the fact that their designers would build a ship of that size and end up a foot deeper draft than designed once built, I'm thinking a “fleet of samples” was probably the wisest choice they could have made!
yeah if one ship has a crippling design flaw... at least the others will probably have a different flaw.
Considering how near France was located to England there designs for predreadnought Battleships are worlds apart. Fortunately for France they weren't as dependent on their navy as the British traditionally were or history would have been extremely unkind to France in times of war. Though odd and obviously extremely experimental France's bizarre designs during the Pre-Dreadnought Era were certainly worth an extensive examination and I have thoroughly appreciated this video about them alongside the different styles that evolved from the Royal Navy.
Am I the only one who thinks they look very steam punk?
My friend these things are the most steampunk things to ever exist!
No
Mizaki based a lot of his military designs on Pre WW1 French kit.
They do.
No kidding: the Jaureguiberry looks so baddass, I've seriously thought about having a tattoo of it.
Ah, Drach's specialty.. a brief look video clocking at 45+ minutes 😁
Always nice having a decade or two condensed into a documentary.
He had me cackling with joy when I saw "brief look" and how long the video was...
One word FRENCH
In context, it was "brief".
5 minute guide to warships... more or less
I unironically love these ships. Those multi-level wing turrets are stupidly cool.
These French ships look like those crazy steampunk drawings you see over at DeviantArt.
ship blue prints look like Orc 40k style vessels
But without the Waaagh! Field to make them actually effective
And not enough Dakka.
@@Horus_the_Lupercal you see 15:36?? Where you gonna put another gun??
@Rory Jones You put those guns on those guns
@@Horus_the_Lupercal You can never have enough dakka
Ah yes, I remember when Fisher Price made Pre-Dreadnoughts for the French Navy.
I can't imagine Fisher would want these things no matter how low the price
Lol nice
Baby's first Dreadnought *DELETE YOUR PLAYMATES FROM 5 KM AWAY!*
This literally looks like someone said ‘hey you know our current sailing ship thingy? Yeah let’s just make a metal version of that’
I think that's actually a true statement--making a steel and iron ship with a tumble-home hull is not the brightest thing in the world; but it worked for wooden ships of the line. Helped them be less top heavy with batteries of guns arranged on the sides, and made boarding a great deal more difficult. What's odd to me is that it is still popular; in yacht design as well as warships. Some things never change.
28:00 ha ha... you almost can't tell where the building ends and the warship begins. Remarkable.
What a time to be alive, everyone tripping on acid and drinking absinthe. That’s what I think when I see these 😂😂
That's a Very good (or bad?) Camo design choice for a warship : Apartment Block camo
Exactly ! I checked my glasses, I thought I had a problem, I was not seeing any ship !😄
Do you see them? Do you quake in fear The glorious French pre dreadnoughts THE F A T B O I S
*I do see them but i only hope they atleast sees the mines we dropped to them in equal favour*
That mean nothing in French :
Did the tumblehome designers frequent the Moulain Rouge often? Because those lower hull curves have some serious lewdness going on...
PURGE THE HERETICS, BURN THE UNCLEAN!
INDEED...Renfaire/ Steampunk/Pirate Wench THICC Currrvy Grrrl Warships! ;-P
@@johnathanblackwell9960 LOL...WHO ASKED YOU, (VP) Mike Pence? GO Play Golf With "Don, The Covid-19 Con!" ;-)
@@dougauzene8389 relax, CNN.
Thicc
Not sure how I came to be watching this, but entertained by the barely hidden contempt of the narrator.
For what it's worth, I think there was a point in the video when a French admiral expressed the same contempt.
I love how those wacky looking battleships from Howl's Moving Castle were actually inspired by real life ships.
These French battleships where you can literally hear Drac roll his eyes over the dialogue made me think of the Zumwalt-class destroyers. They are not only visually, shall we say distinctive, but given that the engines don't work, the radar doesn't work with the rest of the fleet, and the advanced railguns aren't even being trained with because the rounds cost a million dollars each. Well they would fit right in, wouldn't they?
When you look at the Zumwalts and then look at the CSS Virginia..... 'course when you burn a hull to the waterline and then rebuild it, it leaves one an awful lot to be re-imagined.
@Angel Apolinar I'm pretty sure the point is to make it indistinguishable from a fishing boat, to make identifying it as a target as difficult as possible. If someone told you the fishing boat sized return on radar was the Zumwalt, you could target it of course, but you'll have no way of knowing through radar alone.
Zumwalt doesn't have a railgun, the whole railgun project in USN is currently on hold as the Navy is reconsidering whether it's worth continuing the project or not. The gun on Zumwalt is a more modern version but otherwise not that different to an enlarged naval automatic 127mm gun in a larger scale of 155mm. To date... no navy have a fully functional and operational railgun, several navy (USN included) have functional prototypes but none are in service.
Isn't one of the benefits of a railgun is that its ammo is relatively simple to make, thus cheaper than conventional shells?
@@jordanwong7902 yes, well actually the main benefit for the navy is that the ammo doesn't need to carry explosives at all (it can, but it doesn't need to) which is one of the holy grail for warships because detonation of ammunition is one of the deadliest threat to a warship, so not having ammunition that can go BOOM is MUCH safer for the warship. But Zumwalt doesn't carry a railgun anyhow so this doesn't help the ship either way. It instead carries a more advanced but otherwise normal gunpowder based autoloading 155mm gun... Which has NO AMMO because the ammo intended for it was so expensive that the navy refused it.... and it can't use regular 155mm shell, so it's stuck with no ammunition.
"When Hotel's go to War" Star Trek, is that you?
Yeah, I was thinking yesterday, lets have kids on warships.
That would be the Enterprise-D with the carpeting and mini-golf course on the bridge. That one and the Enterprise-E also had a Captain's Yacht...
@@AvengerII But the "E" was more like a warship. The Galaxy class (Enterprise D) was meant for deep space exploration and colonization more than combat, that´s why it had a lot of civilian facilities on board that would be useless on a warship.
All hail the firetruck enterprise!
@@AvengerII _"mini-golf course on the bridge"_ ---- Are...are you referring to the design of the console behind the capt. chair?
I love the title of this one... "When Hotels Go to War" :-)
Great video. If the Queen Regent of Spain had successfully enlisted France and/or Britain in Spain’s fight with the USA in 1898.....these are some of the ships that might have gone up against American pre-dreads like the Oregon, Iowa, New York, Indiana, and Massachusetts, in the Atlantic or Caribbean. It’s an interesting alternative history to ponder...
Ship Designer : I have a completed blueprint French Admiral : Hmm now wheres the ballroom? Ship Designer : Ballroom? French Admiral : Yes and move the forward gun to the stern and the stern gun to the port side Ship Designer : Uh French Admiral : OH and put a massive hotel on the top Ship Designer : And uh gun calibur? French Admiral : oui Ship Designer : uh admiral? French Admiral : Oui all caliburs....and a place for a life sized replica eifel tower
ya haha!
Designer: what is this 'Eifel tower '? Admiral: mon Dieu, we Yet have to build that as well. It comes out of Your design budget!
I don't know why but I just love the quite unique style the French ships had gone for, Idk why. It's like a weird version of steam punk
no, but SteamPunk is a very French look.
Transarctica 😊
Where do you think steam punk got its idea from? You got things bass ackwards. It's like saying Japanese samurai wear Jedi pants.
@@khaccanhle1930 oh right well I didn't know that, the only thing I'd add is I'm so sure that the Jedi clothes are based off Monks like both Buddhist and Christian attire mixed together, not samurai.
Why is there other gamers on this part of the internet?
There were a couple of French pre-dreadnoughts that had a design-profile I loved. Of course these ships (Bouvet, Messina) were not the normal conventional combat vessels of the day. A rounded tumble hull, prone to capsizing if counter-flooding measures not taken quickly upon hitting a mine, shell hit, or torpedo. But the steampunk designed pre-dreadnought looked like it was out of a Harry Potter novel. Different single barrel turret big guns and a secondary battery of varying calibers. Some called them odd-looking, very odd looking, but to me it's lines were an imagination made true by French engineering. The Bouvet was sunk in the British-French joint effort to lay waste to Turkish Forts on the steep hills that lined the coast of Turkey. Bouvet hit a mine and capsized within a nano-minute, taking the entire crew down with it. Thanks for this excellent commentary with photos on French pre-dreadnoughts and battleships.
Loved the inclusion on the "Brennus" trivia, I'm a big Roman history buff, so it made me smile a bit when you started talking about it. Great video, your content is much appreciated, good sir.
16:38 I don't know why but I love the look of that ship. Maybe because it looks like a steampunk version of the Victory with all those porthole/gunports running along the side. It's a shame they had to drag their flag through the water behind it though.
Those portholes were there so the sinking would happen faster.
The French Military in a nutshell: 19th Cent: I want something to bludgeon the English, but without spending much francs. Be... creative." 20th Cent: I want something to bludgeon the Germans, but without spending much francs. Be... creative."
A conversation between a french and an english sailor: English sailor: "You french, are fighting for money. We fight for honor" French sailor: "we all fight for something we have not." ;) But you have to understand that France always had to make a difficult choice between land army and naval army. Despite of that, WWII navy was very good. Not a lot of ships, but good ships.
German sailor: angry noises
@mandellorian You seems to talk about quadruple turrets. There were a problem with quadruple turrets in Strasbourg and in Dunkerque. (330mm) But I think it has been fixed for the Richelieu and Jean Bart. (380mm) Richelieu wasn't the best ship of French navy. Emile Bertin, for example, was the fastest cruiser in the world. (more than 40kts). Some destroyers were really good too.
@mandellorian The Richelieu fired a shell designed for the Dunkerque, not for itself, due to the fact that tthe Richelieu wasnt finished in 1940.
@@Miithrandir "Tout est perdu, fors l'honneur."
*-rings bell frantically-* BEST WESTERN OFF THE STARBOARD BOW!!
Incredibly expensive floating toilets with "standing only" sleeping arrangements. But I'm sure the meals were fantastic. France was in the grips of a drunken hysteria.
Well...France still has a thriving ship building industry, they can still build ocean liners and did so for the British (QM2). while back in Britain our most famous yards are now housing estates or tourist attractions.
@Marry ChristmasThe French just launched a new class of nuclear subs too.
Léo VIARD And the French build their own nuclear missiles and warheads. Britain buys American.
Might those yards by any chance be ridiculously subsidized ?
Ouch
@@HauntedXXXPancake We would like to subsidize our shipyards. Unfortunately, the European Commission refuses to do so with fierce obstinacy. But hey, unlike the English we are not yet submitted (not completely) to the wishes of Uncle Sam.
We need to remember that the difficulty of spotting shell splashes from different calibre guns was not one that would have occurred to the designers, since before Tsushima it was envisaged that any battles would be fought at quite close ranges.
Gotta love the extreme tumblehome designs, ships that look like they're upside down even before they get into battle.
I wonder what would happen if you said “do a barrel roll” at the helm?
They look like the hull was sculptured rather than assembled. Tres elegante.
That's my favorite era. The steam era and art Nouveau style and whatever you call that style during the Charles Martel years. I suppose it's the guilded age. I need to look it up.
Me: Im pretty knowledgeable in Naval history. Drachinifel : Oh Really, Hold my Beer! Between these French Hotels and The Russian Circular ships I am quite humbled by my actual lack of Naval Warship history. Another Excellent tutorial my Friend and Thanks.
Ric Dale - Your statement is hardly accurate! I don't see Drach needing to set his beer down to set anyone straight in naval history, except maybe Craig Symonds, and a very few, very select, set of others.
47:00 "punic fleet dead ahead sir!" -"wrong millenium" -"oh, sorry"
this is gold xdd
+1 point ^^
France had been ideologically fractured which had allowed for a very unhealthy political climate to take hold, in turn favouring more than average cronyism and pork-barreling. A fragmented industrial base compounded the problem as far as armament was concerned. It was to last till after WWII, at the least… These documentaries are of great interest not only for their obvious merits in terms of naval history but also for their insight into the wider picture of those and our times.
I can only imagine how much laughing was going on across the channel during this period.
Look at HMS pre dreadnought…
"Haw haw, it will be a pleasure fighting against them!" "Sir, the Entente has just been signed. We will now be fighting *with* them." "Oh bloody hell."
And all the way across the country, where the knews has arrived in Germany, the laughter will be heard there, too.
With a lot more German military bravado
The thumbnail image looks like what a galleon would be if you mixed it with an ironclad and then Monty Python's foot squahed it.
and now for something completly differnt
Then lets do a silly walk now.... ^_^
*GET ON WITH IT!*
I never wanted to be a pre-dreadnought anyway. I always wanted to be a... lumberjack!.... Swinging from tree to tree.... singing,.. singing.... singing........
Always look at the briiiiight side of life...
I thought prisons rather then hotels. Hotels at this time tended to be a bit more ornate whereas prisons were more functional. And remembering that some warship hulks ended up as prison ships maybe they were built with that future in mind. The Marceau was named after the great French naval hero Marcel Marceau and had the reputation of being the quietest ship to go to sea. Unfortunately she was lost at sea with all hands when it turned out they were actually drowning and not just waving. Having said that she did get a standing ovation from the rest of the fleet. The Gauloises is the only example of a French Navy ship being sponsored by a tobacco company. Looking at the early ships it was like they were being designed by a committee, or several committees, who had heard a warship described to them but never actually seen one. Then when they finally get the hang of it up pops the Dreadnought. Not a case of better late then never.
If only that was for the politicians that squabbled over their design...
@@dbodesign6494 we could also include those who's interference with the French Army before and during the Battle of France which gave victory to the Germans in WW2. I have a feeling you you would need a very large fleet of them.
How considerate of the French to build their ships to be convertible to prison ships. That way, when the French surrendered, the enemy wouldn't have to find someplace to house them.
The Denton Class was especially impressive but by the time of their construction numerous Dreadnought designs were already in service by the English, U.S. and German navies. Equally important, these advanced pre-Dreadnought or Semi-Dreadnought designs lacked adequate stability in the event of significant battle damage especially under water damage by mines and torpedoes.
...all of which Drach himself points out in the video.
The single most beautiful and cool looking predreadnought designs I've ever seen
Huh?
2:42 this..is not a tumblehome surface ship...this is a surfaced submarine ...
"Jaune école" ( i believe that is the name ) was being talked about, they advocated subs and not battleships at that point in the video.
I do enjoy a tin of butter biscuits. When I was a child, I'd see the tin and would get quite excited only to be disappointed when it turned out the tin was full of my grandmother's sewing supplies. Now as an adult I can get as many biscuits as I please, nary a sewing needle in sight.
They have those on tatooine?
@@harroldthered7050 I did not grow up on Tatooine. I grew up at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.
You get the idea that the designers never actually went to sea… maybe a nice lagoon. One wave 🌊 and it’s bath time with silly Willy and his rubber duckey…. Ah, the Austro-Hungarian Navy… remembered spending an afternoon in the War Museum of Vienna looking at models of ships that were bottled up in Triest
Such a good documentary, simultaneously funny, educational, and soothing to listen to before bed
The absinthe flowed freely in those early days...
*opium
@@testaccount4191 ** combined.
"When hotel went to war" Yamato trembling in corner
Thinking that capitol ships are obsolete? Geez, the French really were ahead of their time. First ironclads, first smokeless powder small arms. Vive le France!
Outstanding video, I can’t think of another KZhead Channel dedicated to naval ships of the world that could’ve done better service to such a specific subject, and at the same time keeping it dynamic, interesting, and well worth the view no matter how many books one may additionally read on the same subject. Keep up the good work.
Some of the ships are the most stylized ships I've ever seen. They are dead sexy. If they can't win a battle they might survive because enemy's would hate to blow up such an artistic structure.
They would probably survive because any enemy crew would be laughing so hard they would not be able to aim their guns straight.
Sure they would, look!! they already surrendered
Amazing period, although the early French pre-dreadnoughts, should we maybe call them pre-pre-dreadnoughts; they are certainly in a league of their own, as handsome to behold as a shard of glass stabbing your eyes, but very organic. It is almost like there are no naval designer responsible, they just invited a lot of people to build what ever they liked on the poor hulls in "anything goes" fashion, very much like a medieval settlement were anyone can just erect whatever building they like to follow the shape of the terrain. But looking at them later like the Patri class is quite striking and and if not elegant have an air of meaning business, I quite like them.
I think some of them look like citadels & my imagination loves the look (if not my sense of aesthetic).
@@unfurling3129 each to his own, I'm happy the old man'o'war gets some love, old sailors like me have an eye for long sweeping lines and a mindset hard to change.
Very interesting. I knew the design of these ships was a major challenge, but to get a glimpse into the tradeoffs was neat.
I have to say, I love the image of Émile Bertin battering recalcitrant Amirals with an English battleship model until they agree to built more Battleships.
I’m not a big Francophile...but the ‘tumble home’ design aesthetic they built-in to their ships was PIMP !!! That look !! If I was a Billionaire I thing I’d have to build my mega yacht like one of those.
IJN Yamato: Our hotel battle will be legend
I just imagine the theme from 'Pentagon Wars' playing in the head of the guys overseeing the Patchwork Fleet.
Designed by studio ghibli.
When I was a kid I went to the naval museum in Toulon where they have fantastic contemporary models of all these ships. I was really impressed by the cartoonish quality of the battleships of this period. Guns sticking out in all directions. Lots of shiny brass work etc.
I find it strange that in early versions they had gun positions in crow's nests at multiple levels, spiral stairways inside of the steel tube of the supporting structure. It is hard to tell, but there might have been room for one stairway up and one stairway down in the same tube. And then wooden life boats all over the place on the sides that would be splintered by shell fire. And the early versions with rectangular windows at regular spacing, they really did look like hotels, if not hospitals! Crazy stuff.
18:55 When your battleship has more lifeboats than the Titanic
The first time I saw the name on this video I had Covid, and well I laughed and felt a bit better. I have had Janes Fighting Ships since I was a kid, so I had a vague idea where this was going. Love all your vids Drachinfeld.
Drach, you must have bust your pick on this one and the work is genuinely appreciated. I never knew French predreds were so varied and in many cases so weird. The designers clearly had a hard time giving up the tumble home from age of sail when the French designed and built excellent frigates and ships of the battle line. The British navy loved captured French ships. How their designers fell from their age of sail pinnacle to the age of iron.
The French language must do something to mindset, in the 60's USS Newport News (CA-148) passed through the Kiel canal for a visit in Kiel and operations in the Baltic. We had our TACAN antenna removed in France so we could pass under some bridges. It took 17 or 18 French workers screaming and yelling at each other to remove it with a crane. When we reinstalled it in Germany it took one German worker by my side on the antenna platform and one in the crane they both used two way radios instead of yelling and franticly waving their arms like the French.
Have you ever heard of "French precision"? No? What about "German art?" No? Well, there you have it.
@@SonsOfLorgar ( -_･)
@@SonsOfLorgar Any country that uses metric system is more precise than countries using Imperial units anyway
National stereotypes exist for a reason!
@@jrd33 Perhaps the French should stick with cooking. I like the dragon fly.
These ships are really neat, each one unique. Usually one warship of a certain time looks much like another, even across different countries but here there is so much creativity.
14:51 - Using coal bunkers to protect the ship's insides seems like a somewhat dumb idea, given that coal dust + air = gigantic fuel-air bomb just waiting for an ignition source, such as, say, an incoming shell.
One thing you could have brought up. the French ROF on the Carnot type was due to them having all round loading and had it before the RN introduced it on the last of the Majestics. This was a major advance in naval gunnery at the time.
French naval skill had kept the English on their toes for centuries. The French had a highly skilled navy along with good numbers of very nice ships for a very long time. They were also the first into the oil-powered battleship era, the development that led to WW1.
@@screamingnutbag7955 Yes, I feel there is a lot of bias against those designs which are - in good part - quite clever and innovative. A prejudice which is felt in the mispronunciation (or inhibition to properly pronounce) French names as much as to recognize their positiv sides.
The pre-dread period was always of interest to me. I mean after the RN starts with basically a standard type you have everybody else's very different ships.
Gordon Ramsey's hotel hell just did an episode on French pre dreadnoughts