HMS Devastation - Guide 221 

Pinned post for Q&A :)

Sail out into that storm and see if you sink. Old beta testing seems somewhat more perilous in the old days.

Ah yes, that brief and wonderfully illuminating period of RN history when the RN forgot how to design ships and instead focused on making them as By Jove as possible.

Not to be a blithering nuisance (looking at you Kamchatka), since we know you're really busy (and not a torpedo boat), but an idea for a video could be on the Spanish pre-dreadnought Pelayo that you mentioned a while ago in the Armada Options video. Its a proper cool ship, and could bring about some more interesting info on the Spanish Navy. Oh, not forgetting, love you're vids Drach *probably should've started with that*

Can you do more more warships from the 1870s and 1880s, because this period is so interesting as its the transition from sail to steam and from iron to steel.

So Devastation, named after the feeling a prom queen gets when her corsage wilts early, manages to be a pre-pre dreadnought but proves some early modern ship concepts and lasts just long enough to be retired when the real one arrives. Good longevity!

HMS _Devastation_ is one badass name for a ship

I'm going to ask for a video on the City-Class gunboats of the United States Civil War. Those ships had a brief career, but had a large influence on the direction of that war.

HMS Devastation is the ship depicted on the ‘England’s Glory’ match box.

One thing I learned from this channel is that the British come up with some cool ass names for their ships

As an American, and an Army man at that, I find stories and pictures of early British ships very interesting. Thanks.

Fun (alleged) fact. Devastation is widely believed to be the ship portrayed on the boxes of 'England's Glory' matches, perhaps because the ship had become famous with the public in a 'show the flag' cruise around the UK (the picture is not an exact representation of the ship). There is a pub in Gloucester, where the matches were made, called the 'England's Glory', which has a similar picture on its sign outside (I hope the pub is still going!).

2:41 the OG "all big gun" capital ship. And one of the few that actually followed the concept to the letter (no secondaries or AAA).

This time I'm so early, the King of Spain has an unsinged beard!

"Thunderer". I mean, it's kinda close to "Thunderchild" and it's the right sort of ship...

Still waiting on HMVS Cerberus , would be interesting to know how hair raising sailing a ship with no freeboard from England to Australia was .

Read in one of my history books that these ironclads did not do well against the Martian tripods and their heat ray.

The Devastation class were my fav ships of all time because when I first saw a picture of it as a kid I was so impressed by its shape and the fact that in 1870's they had such modern look good vessels when literally everything else was more like a ship of the line.

gattling on the masttop ? 1st CIWS!

Idk why, but as time goes, ironclad and pre-dreadnought era ships look cooler and cooler to me

This era in naval architecture is really fascinating. Going from the early ironclads and working up to more modern designs like HMS Dreadnaught. You can see navies feeling their way along the evolutionary corridor.

Even in cloudy days of mine, such as today, theres always a Drach ready to entertain and educate me with his big brain and soothing voice

2:14 an interesting picture. Perhaps the engineer is explaining the damage to a visitor. ➡️ Particularly noteworthy for us moderns: The illumination for the engineering space consists of a handheld, double-wicked oil lamp. "Well, of course," one might say, but seeing the scene does improve one's perspective on shipboard environment, even when dockside & cold iron.

Love the photo @ 5:30 new in foreground, old in background.

My British cousins make the best names for ships. We've got batlleships named for our states and a lot of cruisers and subs named for our cities. (Fleet) Carriers now are usually named after important people, like Presidents and famous admirals. Ok. Not bad, but not awesome. But you can't compete with Untouchable, Devastation, Dreadnought, Unsinkable, Redoubtable, Thunderer, Victory, Ark Royal, etc., etc. I mean just look at some of the names of the ships in Beatties' battlecruiser squadron. Inflexible, Indomitable, Lion, Indefatigable, etc. So awesome! The only ship we have with as cool and prestigious a name, imho, is Enterprise. Not that Johnston, Roberts, and many others haven't comported themselves with great honor, just that their names haven't reached the height of CV 6, CV 65, space shuttle, NCC 1701, etc. Good on the Brits for having the overall absolute best names. ...And may the old alliances still stand strong!

I remember Drach talking about peculiar ship names and nicknames in a very old Drydock episode. Maybe its time for a proper video about funny/unusual ship names? :)

Ah yes, Drachinfel posting a new video. 1 of my three top RU-vid favorites along with The History Guy and Mark Felton.

Thanks for clarifying the difference between the First Lord of the Admiralty and the First Sea Lord.

HMS "Thunderer", Eh? I'd sport it were quite possible if not likely that the well informed H.G. Wells were aware of that boat's revolutionary place in the British Navy's development. Hence I speculate as to his "War of the Worlds" naming of the described as top notch "Thunderchild" as related to the Thunderer's occasion. Only in a minor way do I speculate, but, I'll speculate to distraction if given slack to... It's not a bad speculation if you ask me.

I love 1860 to 1880 designs. Victorian battleship names are soo good, soo unapologetically imperialist.

ML 1392 Harbour defence launch would be nice to touch on as a class of ship. This ship was used as a channel marker for Gold beach on D Day and at least a couple still survive to this day. Little wooden ships but with an interesting history I think

my Grandfather was appointed to HMS Devastation in Jan 1889 as a Commander was known in the RN as Prothero "The Bad" commanded the naval Brigade early part of the Boer War, wounded at Graspan, flag Captain of HMS Doris, later in retirement as Vice-Adm R.C Prothero C.B, M.V.O., RN

Why is it that every ship built before the turn of the previous century looks so damned sexy compared to (almost) everything that came after?

This is where I really see the beginning of Pre-Dreadnought design as we know it

Given the uncertainties of the time, these ships were a quality revolution in design, and outmatched any contemporaries. The breastwork extended to the sides of the ship and made them far more practical than monitors. The Royal Navy got it right with these ships.

Ah, a name to behold, such shall Devastation be named and such shall she deliver.

I have a crazy scenario playing out in my head about an alternative situation in which the Devastation and Thunderer were kept in service until the Great War now, just feeds my alternate history imagination I guess

Wow, I have been waiting for this ship! Finally, some Ironclad Love!

Good afternoon in Greenwich Mean Time

Devastation is the ship that features on the match box 'England's Glory'. The artist shows it merrily steaming in reverse. One of the problems was having the funnels forward of the mast, apart from deceiving artists, was that the smoke often obscured the lookouts view.

HMS Cadmus was the last sloop to be built for the royal navy, would it be possible to do an episode on this ship as it was the transition from sail to steam. Thank you for the brilliant video's that you do, plus the humour in which they are narrated. My grandfather served on her during ww1 in Singapore.

“A combined steam and sail rig” Uh oh, I’m getting HMS By Jove flashbacks

I love hearing about this period of history with the dramatic arms race brought about by all the new technologies being developed in the growing industrial age

Thank you for the excellent video, so informative. I have a particular interest in HMS Devastation, because my grandfather who was a Royal Marine served on the ship in 1894.

I wonder if the British just go down a pre-determined list to name their ships or is there some kind of drunken committee that just tosses darts at names they think are cool. Because, let's face it, I'm surprised more warships haven't been named "Devastation."

122 likes in 9 minutes, not bad. A fine way to great a Saturday morning. A Drach video and coffee. Thank you, sir.

Its funny to see how it takes all new technologies to reach maturity in 40 years from steam powerd ships with paddles to steam and screw driven machinery , from early iron clads to pre dread noughts , from early powerd flight to jet fighters all in just 40 years. of first conception even today , from the primitive computers of the late 30s and early 40s to personal computers in the late 70s and early 80s. A mysterious thing technological evolution is. it takes 40 years from infancie with limited use to general use and adulthood .

One of my favourite ships. When I was young I found an old note book in a bookshop with ink drawings of this ship in.

Thank you, loved it. You always have great stories. History is the greatest story ever told.

It's a Thunderchild Saturday! I got my _Thunderchild_ t-shirt on. I got my third cup o _Java._ I got a new video from that DrachiniFellow to watch as I dig into my domestic responsibilities. A great start to an otherwise mundane weekend.

I was expecting to settle in for an hour for this 5 minute guide! This is remarkably closer to 5 minutes than usual!

Devastation was a great looking ship in her day and in many ways was just as revolutionary as HMS Dreadnought would be.

How about a guide to the USN Mississippi class, The USS Mississippi BB-23 and the USS Idaho BB-24? Lots of opportunity for snark at the US Congress and a long history.

I have never watched one of your videos and not come away wiser and more curious. Thank you Sir.

Love those 1870's+ battleships

Devastation would be a great name for a ballistic missile sub

A gatling on the mast top... that must have been a *fun* place to be...

Nice tune. Really fits the sea and also war.

A very useful, long-lived pair of ships!

Fascinating. Was completely unaware of these vessels.

Excellent video. It was a surprise to me to learn that naval guns at this late date, and of this size, continued to be muzzle-loaders. For we who are just learning about the evolution of late-19th century naval ships, could I encourage you to do a video about the large-bore muzzle loading guns of the period, and how they were operated (especially during combat)? Many thanks, Harlan

Thank you, Drachinifel.

The picture on a box of matches. Interesting vessel.

I've never seen these two ships before. Thank you.

Great names, Devastation, now there's a statement of intent.

I had read about the Thunderer gun explosion, but this is the first time I got to see a photo of the ship.

Amazing to see the evolution of ships.

Thanks for the content!

5:32 - Kamchatka shakes in fear on the design board

I would say the British shipnaming skills are even better than their shipbuilding skills.

What a history lesson! Thank you!!! Also, a beautiful ship!

I have been waiting for this one since soon after you started the "Five-Minute Guide" series.

Why can’t we assign cool names to our ships? Like Sovereign of the seas, Invincible, Devastation, Unstoppable and thunderer etc. I mean our two new carriers could’ve been named Illustrious and Invincible instead of the QE and PW. Thank god we didn’t name it PW and Repulse ☹️

Very interestng ship, great to see steam&iron era ships shown in detail. More suggesions: MN Dupuis de Lôme, Russian Navy Peresvet Class.

Hms cavalier I really enjoy your videos!!! 👌

Gotta love the old royal navy names of it's ships.

Great video as always. Would you cover Czechoslovakian monitor Prezident Masaryk? I'm sure that during your research on the topic you will find some amusing stuff about landlocked Czechoslovakia a naval warfare, especially because of the hilarious journey of Czechoslovakian Legion through Russia.

The Devastation-class would have been the ideal ship-type for the US Navy to have built 1870-1890, ideal for coastal defense and regional power projection. With the exception of large caliber rifled guns and thick armor plate, the US had the tech and industrial capability to build such ships, in fact the USN had a lot of surplus armor plate and steam engines from the Civil War that could have been utilized in newly built iron hulls. Adopting a sloping 6-inch protected deck made up of 3-inch plates with subdivision above and in putting into production the rifled Dahlgren guns developed in the late 1870s could have given the USN a respectable seagoing ironclad. If the Russians could build the Devastation-knockoff 'Petr Veliky' then the USN surely could have too. In fact the USN did end up with Devastation-like ironclads with its 1880 built monitors that raised up their gun turrets with a armored barbette, with a raised superstructure amidships. The largest monitor, the 6000-ton USS Puritan (BM-1) was equal the Devastations, serving very well as a "battleship" in the Spanish American War off Cuba and Puerto Rico. Better administration in the 1870s (The USN ate more money in 1870s then it spent in the 1880s when they actually built new modern ships) could have created perhaps three or four Devastation-class ships, that with refits would have served well into the 20th Century.

Excellent research. Thanks.

Remarkable.

A fascinating period for military tech on land and the sea. I wonder how the average sailor felt about going out into an Atlantic storm in a hunk of very sinkable iron with little freeboard.

Such HMS devastation, this was not my intention

British shipbuilder: how much free board do you want British Navy: None

thankx yur channel is the best i have come across thankx for the hard work

Great video. A ship I had forgotten about.

"We've replaced all the engines, she's been totally re-armed. The armour's been up(down)graded. New funnels have been added. Funnels have been removed. The ship's length/beam has been extended/reduced [OK, not necessarily this ship, but....]. Ah, still that wonderful old [insert ship name here]!" 😊

Saturday startin right!

Drach intro starts... Welp now I want to blow shit up in World of Warships

Interested in this ship as CPO Tom Crean, one of the greatest Antarctic explorers with Scott and Shackleton served on this ship as an AB.

Too bad that we don't still have HMS Devastation to display near HMS Warrior. The contrast would be more than just interesting.

The beauty of these ships makes the monstrosities the French were turning out look even worse

Those ships lasted a long time considering the technological advances of the era. I'm impressed.

British ships allways had best names.

I love US Navy vessels, but the Royal Navy has some of the most badass names.

With reference to last nights Live Drydock. I'm requesting that Drach sings Drunken Sailor. ;) It was clearly what one of the questions was aiming at, lol. But I think Drach missed it when he answered the question. :) I would happily join in making a fool of myself, but I live a bit to far away. :)

Best name for a battleship ever.

Gotta love those older names.

Pls do a vid on HMS Bad-ass. I mean at some point they musta ran out of high brow threatening names and threw a bone to the masses.

HMS Thunderer . . . HMS Thunderchilde . . . we have a winner. That's where Wells got his idea for the "Armored Ram".

A 1/350 scale model of HMS Devistation would be cool.