HMS By Jove 

My biggest laugh was when the actual French pre-dreadnaught was shown at the end. It fit in so perfectly.

Can't wait for "USS What do you mean we can't just pile up a bunch of Bofors 40mm and call it a superstructure?" next year.

Can't wait for the 5 minute guides to her sister ships, the HMS By Gee, By Gosh, By Gum, and By Jingo!

**Sees USS Second Amendment Rights** I see deck space without guns. CORRECT THAT.

"When they tried to relay Beatty's orders the signal flags caught fire, so nobody paid attention, resulting in the Battle Cruisers' performance improving markedly" oh dear I may have injured myself and the neighbors are gonna wonder what was going on... You, sir, rule the High Seas

USS 2nd Amendment Rights also had a disadvantage, as it was not allowed to dock in California or New York as it was considered a high capacity assault vessel. Seriously though - hilarious and brilliant video

The issue with the British being who they are is, it's hard to tell whether it's entirely fictional, or mostly true with sprinkled in jokes and exaggerations.

I love that even the lifeboats on USS Second Amendment Rights have Oerlikons.

"The deepest, darkest pits of hell they could possibly imagine" Ah, so Plymouth then.

The USS Second Amendment with the turret stacking fetish taken to the extreme.

My granddaddy served on the USS Second Amendment Right. He fed the elephants that loaded the big guns.

The four turrets on top of each other on USS Second Amendment Rights was a very nice touch :-D

"Still somewhat superior to French pre-dreadnoughts;" ROFLMAO at the whole video. Well done, sir. Well done!

The same design team may have been behind the subsequently covered up Larger Lighter Cruisers or "paperclads". HM Ships, Ridicuous and Ludicrous. As the two 18" guns were clearly both too many and too small the 40" gun was devised. This was carried centrally along the length of the ship and had a blast capable of devastatiing parts of entire fleets, or indeed small to medium sized islands. The loading, aiming and discharging process was felt to be too complex for any one officer to supervise, to the extent that the only command ever actully logged was "You may fire when ready". Five 8" guns discharged a full, but blank, charge into the breech of the main weapon, which then fired the colossal shell. Each 8" weapon was referred to as a "reactor", quite why is filed away somewhere in the basement of the NMRN library. A fragent of a log refers to "single reactor firing" during the test program but nothing more is recorded. Nothing is known of the ship's combat records barring these two phrases in log fragments, both are now lost. A rather nasty correspondence in The Times in the post war period suggested that each ship had a known design weakness, one relating to a condenser outlet being large enough to admit a dedicated individual with a small bomb who might reach the magazine and the other having some rather open sturcture into which, so the bitterly acrimonious letters fulminated, it was possible to enter between them in a small craft equivalent to a Coastal Motor Boat. Any remaining files are sealed or officially missing and no senior officer by the name of Tarkin has ever served in the Royal Navy and the rank of Grand Admiral is not a Royal Navy rank. It is howevere one used by their C20th opponents, who may have been the perpetrators of a successful hoax to divert resources into wasteful projects.

Lol. Noting that most of the details of the design process, the operational history and the approach to onboard health and safety all have a definite ring of authenticity, given the era. Well done. Would love to see more of USS Second Amendment. Maybe for NEXT April Fools Day?

Nice Brexit joke. I'm just happy that we germans have NEVER done any mistakes in our past.

USS Second Amendment Rights is the wrong pic. The real ship had far more guns.

Was that a giant Katana at the bow of that Japanese ship? Also at the Turrets.

Most excellent review, Sir! Thank you for the upload! My Great-Great-Uncle served aboard her during the war after marriage to the Queen's Maid's Sister-in-law... Unfortunately, during a certain gigantic battle in the North Sea, he had become trapped in one of the after barrels by an over-zealous loader who had rammed the shell home, only to be fired with great noise and angst into the broadside of a German cruiser... They did, however, find him after the battle - stuck in the enemy Officer's Loo, rambling something about fishing with Jackie while downing the last his rum-ration (which I was told he had stashed in a 3-pdr casing he always kept in his pants. PS - he was not awarded any medals for his action as the Admiralty considered his behaviour treasonous for not returning with the Navy's property (clothes or shell-casing) after the war...

No mention of the German Megadestroyer "Meticulously Engineered" or the French Dingy Cruiser "Whine and Cheese Convoy Escort?" What a grave oversight! And you call yourself an historian? Good day, sir!

Bloody amazing sir. One of the funniest things I have seen in a while. For some reason, the best part for me was imagining someone as serious as Jellicoe doing a demonic ritual at 6:05. I see him there, looking around with a "What the hell is going on" expression. That just makes me laugh. For next year may I recommend something with the Tillman battleships doing something over the top like detonating the Yamato in one salvo. HAPPY APRILS FOOLS BRIT ;)

Very enlightening, I had no idea Admiral Fisher's predecessor was Admiral Ace Rimmer.

I was hoping that it would get converted to an aircraft carrier and survive to the second world war, but alas

6:46 "...resolved never again to do anything quite so idiotic, ridiculous, or self-defeating..." May seems to have missed that memo.

At first I perceived this to be a joke, but when I reflected that navies are bureaucracies, and having seen “HMS Pinafore” several times, I concluded that this is, indeed, historical fact.

"they condemned them to the darkest, deepest corner of the netherworld they could imagine." Belfast?

Lets add to the memes, British - HMS By Jove USA - USS Second Amendment Rights Japan - Most Honourable Combat France - Fuir Italy - Cambiare I Lati

I'm embarrassed to say how long you had me going. Maybe the absurdity of some actual ship designs had something to do with it. The smokescreen part was golden.

I just found this. This is AWESOME, and exactly what I needed today! Please consider "An April 1st in December 2020" video. Also, the "USS Second Amendment Rights" had me laughing out loud!

HMS By Jove, what an extraordinarily befitting name for a ship launched first of April.

Lets be totally honest: A video on the USS Second Amendment Rights sounds perfect.

How have I spent a year and a half watching Drach, and I missed this one? I'm sure I've seen that portrait of Vic Reg before, but placement is everything, and she does seem genuinely interested in her Royal Marines, in a subtle, regal way. Well done, Drach

Some demonic interference must have been responsible for Seymour keeping his post ...and his head. ...Why did Beatty retain him? There's a April Fool's Joke if-ever one-afloat in battle.

The opium wars bit added to the rum ration, priceless 😅

Even years later this is still one of my favorite episodes.

The USS Second Amendment design was finalized with 20" main guns in 12 quadruple turrets, and over a thousand Bofors 40mm cannon, even though they hadn't been invented yet. Great video. You actually had me until you started trotting out 'competing designs'. Well done.

Something omitted from this otherwise exhaustive report were the following... * Another By Jove-class ship was to be built for use on the Australia Station, but HMAS By Crikey was cancelled after the designers were initially committed and before construction commenced. * According to an incomplete memorandum found recently in the Admiralty archives, there was a proposal to build a third ship of the class for the Dutch Navy, but HNLMS By Graves never eventuated. The authenticity of the memo, which was signed only with the name 'Max,' has been challenged.

I don't know how many years I thought this was a real ship

Those Ship Bucket drawing edits are just, wonderful.

This just popped up for viewing today. I was taken aback until i saw the date. Thank god, I thought your credability was completely shot for a moment.

Can you do the ship the USN Golly Gee Willikers next?

Little known fact about Hms By Jove, new research points to the ship having accidentally sunk Uss Maine in Havana. The By jove the mistaking the Maine for a white whale.

The fact that this is an April fool's video and is still absolutely interesting amazes me

The funny thing is that about 1870 the British actually had a ship like this - the HMS Captain. Which sank on it's third voyage by capsizing in 40 knot winds. Apparently they did not take the masts and the sails into account when they did their calculations for the ships center of gravity. Out of a crew of 500 only 18 survived.

Splendid - more , MORE ! This content was awesome mate ! Thank You from the bottom of the see :)

The most English name ever giving to a warship

Now that I know what Warhammer 40K is, and also learn that Drach does too, I can't help picturing the gun loading as being performed by Ork Gretchin.

Best video you ever did, and you did a lot of really good ones.

Best video of the day!

Cant wait for the follow ups about USS 2nd Amendment Rights and IJNS Most Honourable Combat. :-)

The problem is with the actual history of the RN this^ could be actually true! XD

I want you to know that I began work today on a 1:100 scale USS Second Amendment Rights radio controlled model. Having trouble figuring out how to make BB guns out of all the secondary armament though.... Might have to go 1:32 scale.

Apart from the naming ceremony I found the whole thing mostly plausible. The admiralty in late 1800s were still fairly deep into opium and absinthe iirc. :)

bingewathcing this channel for way to long ... it took me several minutes to get the 1apr release date ... Hilarious well done good sir

This made my day and I needed this after my exam. Thank you

superior to some of the early French predreadnoughts - nice sting in the tail at the end:)

I'm quite surprised the designers of HMS By Jove didn't follow in the rather ditzy footsteps of Captain Coles and put the turrets below deck in little cutouts in the hull, making HMS By Jove about as seaworthy as a submarine fitted with screen doors

I think I found some more on the backstory of this particular vessel in the Tome of Forbidden Warships. Apparently it survived the trip to the breakers but the ceremony performed by the admirals condemned it to take the place of the Flying Dutchman in ferrying dead sailors to the world beyond. However as the 60s and 70s came about, a design team from the US, having partaken of the vast array of newly emerging drugs and, in a similar chemical haze as the original design team, resurrected the ship from the land of the condemned with the hope that a ghost ship could spy on the Soviets without being detected. The highlight of the USS By Jove’s career was serving escort duty for President Reagan since in order to meet the 600 ship navy, until more vessels were built desperate measures were needed at first. And they had heard that the admiral had hung his kippers from the mast, hence while serving this new escort role the ship’s motto was changed to “Win One for the Kipper”. One day while in port in Miami however, the ship was left without any mooring lines and she drifted out to sea. She was last seen heading towards the Bermuda Triangle and although sporadic sightings have been reported, her ultimate fate is unknown. As for the team that brought her into USN service, they were quietly shuffled off to a radar station in northern Alaska where they will most likely be discovered centuries or even millennia from now encased in a block of ice

Know I understand Brexit....and current British carrier design.

Consistent high quality absurdity throughout - well done, By Jove!

5:58 - For some reason I am reminded of Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines.

They did try to transfer her to the RAN as HMAS Boomerang but she kept coming back.

Loved the opening. Probably one of the more “orthodox” designs from the era.

The flash insert of HMS Dragon at 6:34 is hilarious

One year later and this still makes me laugh 😂😂😂

Don’t forget to do a video on the uss moniter’s upgraded counterpart the uss spinnin boi

when I need a chuckle I watch this video thanks drach

Up until IJN Most Honourable Combat I thought this was an actual historical ship. Ridiculous yet completely British.

"Fair Winds and Following Seas" Brothers, Nice British humor, love it.

So basicly.. this ship is the naval version of the TOG-2?

Dear Drach... You have way too much time on your hands... Best wishes, Science Chap.

That final jab at the French pre-dreads! I'm done! xD

I looked at the thumbnail and said out loud in the middle of a car ride, “what the hell have the British conjured this time?! That looks like something the French would build!”

I just found this today...excellent! TY Drac. also TY from the benevolent witch doctors of Liberia.(BWDL) Their promise of Naval success has befallen = No metric for America! No metric for us!

I can add to the history of this fine ship. She was sold to the Russians and joined the Second Pacific Fleet. It was due to setting fire to her sails that the Third Pacific Fleet arrived before the Second Pacific Fleet thus confusing everybody except those living near the international date line to whom arriving the day before you left is quite frequent.

HMS second ammendment😅

You should keep this going on April 1 2020 with IJN Most Honorable Combat - I counted 5 blades at least on it - looks great.

Brilliant....what a way to awaken . My day is made .

What are you talking about. They never scrapped it. That was just a cover story because they still needed it intact for the ritual to continue working. Its still in drydock at [REDACTED] even to this day. There is a cover story for the location being an asylum for unusually eccentric engineers... Who for some reason, have been permitted with retrofitting it to this day. Lets just say that the axial mounting of a captured V-3 is one of the LEAST weird things currently on the thing, and that it may *technically* be capable of flying... for about one minute. Oh, but the mast is still there. They just mounted a couple flamethrowers on the sides of it on it after switching to an engine that proved incapable of setting it on fire anymore, as this was apparently deemed an essential feature. Still not sure where the heck they got the Greek Fire recipe though.

Watched this last April. Brilliant.

Watching this a year later in December, I got to the flying tugs before I realized it was an April fools video.

Great sense of humor. Love it.

HMS By Jove? As a certain cartoon character is known to say..."That's Nasty!!"

Oh I do like your humor. So So good. I can't wait to hear all about USS Second Amendment. I would think everyone shold breathe a sigh of relief. What a good laugh.

Love the new intro music much more fitting

I kknew the Royal Navy was huge, but I never thought that they would actually run out of sensible names and start naming ships after British colloquial expressions. I eagerly await videos on the HMS Baldedash, the HMS Bloody ‘Ell and the HMS Bollocks and Sod Off.

By jove! That was one of the best laughs I've had in a while. Who ever said that a "stiff upper lip," never had a sense of humor!

So what exactly how much opium was used to Spike Milligan's rum?

Naval history meets Monty Python, Drachinifel edition.

Bravo! I nearly doubled over with laughter -- there is nothing like the British talent of (under)stating absurdities in a matter-of-fact tone of voice and (I assume) a straight face. The Monthy Python troupe members (living and dead) must have saluted this episode with loud guffaw and slapped knees. I do have one question, though -- what was Drachinfel drinking, smoking, or otherwise administering that inspired this episode? Is any of it readily available in the US?

Holy cow, I couldn't stop giggling the entire video. Awesome :)

Chuckle...Snort...Guffaw..Laugh until I cry. Brilliant work!

That time Sellar & Yeatman broke into the printer's and deftly slipped a page into that year's Jane's just before it went to press.

You forgot to mention it was also a counter for the german SMS Pickelhaube

By Jove what a Splendid Idea!

Any chance of some more like this please?

You totally should do a video for HIRMS "General Admiral Emperor Andrei Popov of Kamchatka". Which should have been a GIANT FLOATING BALL with turbo-Kamchatka tier career.

One of the best tutorials yet

I liked part of her missing the Fisher scrapping as there were not records of her.

As an American I can say, we do love our guns don't we...LOL British humor is the best!