Another book: HMS Hood

The Battlecruiser HMS Hood, an Illustrated Biography

Bruce Taylor

It’s a coffee table book, I guess, but it’s filled with information and images if the late great British Battlecruiser HMS Hood.

I've always been fascinated by large fighting ships- their grandeur, power and grace- and the roles that they played in major conflicts in the 20th century. Later, I became obsessed with the idea that a ship with hundreds of persons on board - a virtual floating city- could be destroyed and sunk - with all those people in a matter minutes. Where were they when they perished? Why couldn't they get out? This book answered many questions for me.

HMS Hood started life as a ship among ships- more modern, more glorious, more everything than any other ship in any other navy. She had 15 inch guns, was capable of well over 30 knots and carried her officers and crew in more comfort that any fighting ship before her. She was the biggest ship ever built for the Royal Navy.

HMS Hood on its World Tour, Melbourne, Australia, 1924 

HMS Hood leaving Hawaii on its world tour, 1924

HMS Hood was designed by the same people that designed the original WW1 battlecruisers that played a major role at the battle of Jutland-- and paid a heavy price. Designed to arrive fast, fight at close range, escape and repeat, they were at great disadvantage fighting it out at long range against battleships. The British were aware of this disadvantage in WW1, and were no less aware of it in 1941. Her range-finding equipment was inferior to the equipment used by the most modern fighting ships, and she used a more volatile gun propellant than the Germans or Americans did in WW2. All these facts would play a role in her fate.

Left: The Torpedoman's mess-deck. Right: The Officer's Wardroom

The Torpedomen crew ate, lived and slept in their mess (there were several). They ate at those tables, then slept above them in hammocks- in very close quarters. This is from 1931. Officers ate and drank in the Officer's Wardroom. They had separate quarters for sleeping. This is from 1932.

The lifetime of HMS Hood closely reflects the decline of the Royal Navy. In the 1920s, Britannia ruled the waves, and the Hood was the star of a Royal Navy world tour that circumnavigated the globe. It was the apex of her glory- she was the biggest, fastest, most powerful ship in the world. But there was much change over her 20+ years- she changed over time, as did the world- and she couldn't keep up.

Engine room throttle action in the Hood, 1931

By the 1930s, the Hood (like the Royal Navy) was still highly revered and magnificent outwardly, but old, rusty and rotten inside. Constant leaking promoted rusting of bulkheads and machinery, and hampered the efficiency and integrity of her fresh water systems. Training was neglected. She was also a major player in the sad story of the Invergordon mutiny- caused by a shameful rift between the officer and crew classes in the RN.

Years of neglect wore on her. By the late 1930s, she was weighted down by the weight of many layers of paint (tons), tons of new equipment; she rode low in the water and she still leaked constantly. Training was improved, but the ship was aging. There were newer ships in the RN, and many more modern ships in several navies of the world. She was still the pride of the Royal Navy, but her sad fate awaited her.

The Hood's stoker crews, May 1941.
Most of these men went down with the ship;
many died at the same moment, just after 6AM on May 24, 1941.

WW2 came quickly, and planned improvements would have to wait. Like the Royal Navy, she had been rushed into service, somewhat unprepared, but fought gallantly. In the end, her demise punctuated the decline of the Royal Navy. In 1941, she was sunk by the Battleship Bismarck, a brand new German battleship, the Hood being well over 20 years in service at that time.

The last view of the once Mighty Hood, May 24, 1941.

The ship and her crew of almost 1500 were gone within 3 minutes.

All these images are from the book, and can be found all over the web. The book also contains some wonderful cut-away views and schematics. But more that that, the full story of the Mighty Hood from start to finish is contained within this book.

I enjoyed this book enormously, and would recommend it to any history or navy enthusiast.

Photos from a few years ago

Took some photos at the weekly Kanata Cruise Night Car Show at Hazeldean Mall in Kanata. This was some 3 or 4 years ago. That's #1 and #2 in a 1950s 3-wheeled car from Germany. I think it's called a Messerschmidt KR200. That's the same company that built German fighter planes in WW2.
Here's the boys in the car:

Here's the car without the boys:

#1 son is actually driving now, and it's debatable whether or not he could fit into this thing now...

Science explained properly

Just saw this awesome image describing the origin of the Pluto-Charron planet-moon system. Here is what I love about it. It describes the favored theory of the day on how the system originated. It also tells us why the theory is favored. It also tells us what the drawbacks of the theory are. When we present scientific theory to the layman, we should always, ALWAYS be doing it in this way.

It isn't always done this way. In fact, when experts discuss the newest and most exciting cosmological theories - dark matter, dark energy, inflation, string theory, etc., they rarely, if ever, present the pro's and con's. They present these theories as if they're done deals. Case in point, Neil deGrasse-Tyson, in the 5th installment of Seth MacFarlane's awesome Cosmos redux series on the Fox Network, describes dark matter in a way that suggests that it is a certainty - as if it exists as sure as the sands on you fave beach exist. Well, the truth is that we NEED it to exist, to keep current cosmological theory tied together. Now it may very well exist, but our theories could just as likely be flawed, or even ** shudder ** incorrect. It's not like there are beakers of the stuff in chemistry labs at MIT or anything.

Time to be thorough and honest here, kids. Especially you, NDT!

And another book again

Robot City, Isaac Asimov's, Book One: Odyssey

M.P. Kube-McDowell

I bought this book thinking that it was written by renown science fiction author Isaac Asimov. After it lived on my bookshelf for a year, I picked it and paid more attention to it than when I bought it, and was momentarily disappointed. With a more detailed look at the cover, I noticed that it just says Isaac Asimov above the title, with an apostrophe-S appended to the name, and another writer's name in fine print near the bottom... Uh-oh, I thought, I think I've seen this type of thing before... However, I decided to give it a chance, ready to back out at the slightest hint of boringness. So I read the intro by Isaac Asimov, where he was kind to the actual author (as you would expect / hope), and also to an illustrator- one Paul Rivoche, whom, as it turns out, I knew in high school. My interest immediately rekindled, I dove in. (The illustrations are great, by the way--- I bought the book because of Asimov's name, the cool sounding title, and the way cool cover art--- I am often suckered in by cool images like this.) 

The book seems to be written with Asimov's famous (to geeks, anyway) three laws of robotics as a major and ever-present theme element, which worried me, initially. That aside, it is actually a pretty good read- it includes a protagonist marooned astronaut, robots, space raiders, good aliens, bad aliens (including a really bad antagonist alien), a mysterious female, space ships, cool technology, more robots, and of course, a great big robot city. Fairly light reading, but I want to read the second book now!

And still another book

Winds of Change
Asimov, I.

After a serious "history" read, I needed a SciFy escape- how about something from one of the masters- Isaac Asimov...
The Winds of Change: 20 or so short stories by Isaac Asimov; some pretty good, some pretty dull. Here's a summary:
Perfect Fit: A criminal's punishment is being forced to forget how to use computers.
Belief: A man discovers that he can levitate; nobody will believe him, so a friend explains that he must find a way to help others to help him investigate the phenomenon.
A Fair Exchange: A scientist learns how to travel in time and make very slight adjustments; and ruins his life...
For the Birds: A man discovers a way for humans to move within the thin atmosphere of space stations.
Found: Two technicians discover than mankind has been discovered by metal life forms.
Good Taste: Nope, too boring; skipped this one after 2 pages...
How it Happened: Historians Aaron and Moses record history taking place over six days because they don't have enough papyrus on hand...
Ideas Die Hard: The first men to travel to the moon aren't- they're just in a simulation.
It Is Coming: Alien computer approaches Earth; humans scramble to tune their best computer to communicate with it; the computer is accepted into the computer society.
The Last Answer: A man dies, is selected by an immortal and omnipotent being offering immortality- to think of a way to end its existence...
The Last Shuttle: The last space shuttle takes the last humans off Earth for the last time...
Lest We Remember: An average man takes experimental drug to make him extraordinary; his wife ensures that he reaches his potential.
Nothing for Nothing: Visitors from space trade with prehistoric man- technology for art.
One Night of Song: Man grants a wish to another man- his ex-girlfriend is permitted to sing perfectly- for one performance only...
The Smile That Loses: Man grants a with to a woman- a photo of her husband smiling- a husband that never smiles...
To Tell at a Glance: Young woman must identify a spy amongst a group of dignitaries.
The Winds of Change: A scientist learns how to travel in time and makes changes that affect things (yawn).

I like Asimov, but not all of his stories. I'd like to read a novel of his, but how to know if it will be one of his good ones, or another Good Taste or Lest We Remember....

Another book: Winston Churchill: Young Statesman

Here's another one:

Young Statesman- Winston Churchill 1901-1914

R. Churchill

This book covers the life of Winston Churchill after his military experiences in India and Africa. He started as a member of the Conservative party, running in a “safe seat” guaranteeing election, but soon became disenchanted with the protectionist leanings of the party. He then "crossed the floor" and became a member of the Liberal party. Whether he really felt this way, or he saw it as an opportunity as the Conservative party crumbled around him is anyone’s guess. He did however, very effectively champion the concept of free trade. Either way, it was obvious that he had a great talent for both writing speeches and for delivering them. The book contains a plethora of examples of both. He was clearly seen as a very capable and rising star in politics by those who mattered-- members of parliament (both Conservative and Liberal), the press, and the influential, aristocratic and privileged classes. He was also a bit of a visionary; as early as 1904, he recognized the importance, and even the inevitable future involvement of the United States in European affairs.

By 1906 he became Under Secretary for the Colonies,, and was in the Privy Council a year later. In the same year, he first used the phrase “terminological inexactitudes” to indicate inaccurate terminology, but soon the phrase was understood to be a polite term for lying.

In 1906 he went for a “working holiday” - much of it personal time, and used the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Venus as his transportation. In modern times, this would seem an outrageous misuse of Navy resources, but was an accepted perk in the early 1900s, for a colonial official working for the government of a world power, in a time without air travel.

After making it to the Cabinet, he had to face an election- was defeated, then won again in a “safe” Liberal seat. In this election, he differentiated Liberalism and Socialism in this way: “Socialism wants to pull down wealth; Liberalism wants to pull up poverty...” a stance that stands up well more than 100 years later, even as the terms “Liberal” and “Socialist” have changed slightly in that time.

He was described by David Lloyd George, future Prime Minister (and longtime friend of Churchill), as being “as long winded as he is persistent” - this was a fair statement, and defined Churchill well, which is punctuated time and time again throughout his public career.

He was soon made a member of Asquith's cabinet, and ran the Home Office, where he initiated positive advancements for unions and the poor. He was also instrumental in attempts to advance the Irish Home Rule bill, and was not popular with Ulster for his efforts. He then advanced to the top spot in the Admiralty, as "First Lord" - the top political post in control of the Royal Navy, where his energy, intelligence and communication skills got him off to a great start, and did the country well in preparing for the inevitable clash with Germany. 

There’s a lot of information in these books -- a lot. If you have a keen interest in Winston Churchill, the build-up to the Great War, or British politics of this era, this is a very interesting book, and a good source of information. If you’re casually interested, look for a thinner book...

Baseball stats- ya gotta love 'em!

One of the many things I love about baseball is the stats. It starts with a pitcher's number of wins, losses, games started, games completed, shutouts, strikeouts, walks allowed, and ERA (run average per nine innings of pitching not including those runs scored due to defensive errors), and much more. And there's players fielding percentages- the number of errors compared to the total number of times the player fielded the ball. And then there's the batters hitting stats- number of hits, number of doubles, number of triples, number of home runs, number of runs scored, number of walks, batting average, on-base average, slugging percentage, and much more. 
Then there's the story of my poor Montreal Expos, who one year decided to improve their offence at the expense of defense. At the end of the year, they were the top team in their division in pitching (measured by pitcher's ERA, strikeouts, and other stats), and they were the top team in their division in hitting (measured by batter's batting average, runs scored and other stats). That year, they finished third in their division, because they used the better-hitting Wallace Johnson at second base instead of defensively amazing (but anemic hitting) Rodney Scott. Their preference for offensive numbers ahead of the less-measureable defensive capabilities was their downfall.
Then there's the story of the movie MoneyBall, and the real-life exploits of the Oakland A's in the early 1990s and the Boston Redsox on the early 2000s- proving that focusing on some statistics- the more important ones- does deliver results.
I bring all this up because I just read this article: http://www.athleticsnation.com/2013/6/12/4419388/bartolo-colons-historic-season. It's about the A's Bartolo Colon, who is having a good season pitching, while walking very few batters. And to quantify Colon's season, the author has dug deeply into the data (big data) to find the player's walks per nine innings of pitching and to calculate the player's walk percentage of total batters faced. But not just that-- also, the percentage of pitches in the strike zone, as called by the umpires, and of course, the percentage of pitches in the strike zone, as determined by Pitch f/x (which tracks the number of pitches that a pitcher throws both in and out of the strike zone, no matter what the umpires actually call the pitch).
So what does this all mean in the greater scheme of things?
Almost nothing.
But it makes me love baseball even more!