tonight on discovery canada

[Capt. Shark Bait]

a 2hr docu-movie on the sinking of Lusitania by a U-boat. saw a coupla minutes of it a few days ago, the scene was in the boat's control room:|\\

[ReallyDedPoet]

Nice:up:

RDP

[Spiral1]

It's played on the Discovery Times channel if you're in the U.S. Their web site doesn't say the next date it will be on but only that it will be played from May 15th through June 16th.

[gutterrat13]

i watched that show. the U-boat looked strikingly similar to the S-boat that was modified in U-571 :p

[Strangelove]

I watched it. Exellent infotainment. My only gripe is that every time the captain ordered the sub to dive he would call out "Blow ballast!". :nope:

[ReallyDedPoet]

Anybody watch Sea Hunters on Discovery, a lot of shows has them looking for wrecks of U-Boats:yep:

RDP

[HolySdrJR]

I watched it. Exellent infotainment. My only gripe is that every time the captain ordered the sub to dive he would call out "Blow ballast!". :nope:

He didn't have time compression, and he was in a hurry....

[Capt. Shark Bait]

Anybody watch Sea Hunters on Discovery, a lot of shows has them looking for wrecks of U-Boats:yep:

RDP

history channel here carries that

[ReallyDedPoet]

Anybody watch Sea Hunters on Discovery, a lot of shows has them looking for wrecks of U-Boats:yep:

RDP
history channel here carries that

Some good stuff:up:

RDP

[Capt. Shark Bait]

having watched, and if it's historically accurate, i hearby charge the British Admiraly with gross negligence in failing to provide adequate protection for Lusitania. the admiralty is far more to blame than the U-boat commander

[ReallyDedPoet]

Missed it:damn::damn:

RDP

[Capt. Shark Bait]

it's on again tonight at 0100est, thurs. 1600 and sun. 1000 and 1400hrs

[ReallyDedPoet]

Thanks:up:

RDP

[ReallyDedPoet]

Anybody watch Sea Hunters on Discovery, a lot of shows has them looking for wrecks of U-Boats:yep:

RDP
This is on right now: 5:20 Atlantic Time, :roll: , on the History Channel, about U-215, minelayer involved in Operation Drumbeat:yep: He, he, quoting myself.

Anyway, check it out if you can.

RDP

[DirtyHarry3033]

Capt. Shark Bait, thanks for the heads-up :up: Caught it this afternoon on Discovery, very informative and entertaining.

Though I might have preferred a straight documentary relying on interviews with historians, and archival photos and newsreel footage as opposed to a hollywood-style "docu-drama", I'll take whatever I can get on Lusitania. Her fate holds almost as much fascination for me as Titanic.

My biggest problem with it was how every time the "docu-drama" Schwieger wanted to dive to periscope depth, he'd order "Blow ballast!!!" :rotfl:Well in my attempt to "rationalize" this discrepancy I thought how in those days the order "Hard a'starboard" resulted in a turn to port. So maybe in those days the order to "Blow ballast" would cause the boat to submerge??? :hmm:

DH

[Capt. Shark Bait]

....in those days the order to "Blow ballast" would cause the boat to submerge??? :hmm:

DH

i'm thinkin that could be a translation thing, but yeah, "blow ballast" would result in submerging. in U571 the order givin was the same or blow all ballast, or something similar

[Sailor Steve]

....in those days the order to "Blow ballast" would cause the boat to submerge??? :hmm:

DH

i'm thinkin that could be a translation thing, but yeah, "blow ballast" would result in submerging. in U571 the order givin was the same or blow all ballast, or something similar
I don't know about WW1 Germans, but in WW2 and later "blow ballast" is the order given to empty the tanks, forcing the boat to surface.

In U-571 Harvey Keitel also gave three blasts on the klaxon and said "Dive, dive!" Three blasts is to surface, two is to dive. I wouldn't use that movie as an example of anything, except maybe how to make a bad movie.

[Capt. Shark Bait]

oh, right, he he:ping:

[DirtyHarry3033]

....in those days the order to "Blow ballast" would cause the boat to submerge??? :hmm:

DH
i'm thinkin that could be a translation thing, but yeah, "blow ballast" would result in submerging. in U571 the order givin was the same or blow all ballast, or something similar
:o

Let's think about it. There are "ballast tanks" on every sub. The purpose of such a tank is to make the sub float, or to sink, or to have neutral buoyancy in order to maintain a certain depth (such as periscope depth).

The way this is done is by flooding the tanks with ballast (water) to make the boat sink, blowing compressed air into the tanks to make the boat rise by forcing out ballast (water), and by fiddling around with taking on and blowing out ballast (water) until neutral buoyancy and trim has been achieved.

Bottom line is, "blowing ballast" involves expelling water out of the ballast tanks and replacing it with air. This causes the boat to rise.

U-571 was an entertaining movie, but it had more to do with action than with submarines. The submarine was just a convenient location for the action to be set ;)

DH