Quote:
Originally Posted by TorpX
You can zig till your heart's content without taking any bearings whatsoever. He needed the bearings for navigation purposes. The point being that the two situations are not remotely comparable. The skipper of the Lusitania has much more information before he takes the first bearing, than any U-boat skipper would have of a potential target.
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So you're arguing with me by agreeing with me? This makes no sense.
Obviously I have skipped a few steps in the explanation. Steps that I thought were obvious. Apparently, however, you aren't up to speed. Let me try explaining again in a simpler way that may be more appropriate to your knowledge base.
You see, there exists this thing called an ocean. It's filled with water. Goods produced on one side of the ocean often need to be used on the other side of the ocean. The method of moving the goods from one side to the other normally involves things called ships.
Ships are big metal containers with motors. The ships float because they are airtight and water does not get into them. However, during wars, another type of ship, called a submarine, often tries to pierce these ships so that they no longer float. When the ships stop floating, it's called "sinking."
The method of sinking ships normally involves something called a torpedo. A torpedo is a narrow tube filled with explosives and a motor. When launched from a submarine, a torpedo will (hopefully) intersect with the ship and then explode. If successful, this torpedo will cause the ship to fill with water and sink.
Now from the point of view of the skipper of the submarine, the problem is getting the torpedo to intersect the ship – not where it is now, but where it will be in the future when the torpedo arrives. In order to do so, the skipper will need to gather some information about the ship's speed, direction, and how often these things change.
Now the ship in question, known as RMS Lusitania, was torpedoed and sunk. With that fact in mind, we must realize that Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger apparently managed to solve the complex geometrical problem that faced him well enough to intersect the Lusitania with a torpedo thus causing her to sink.
Now the Captain of the Lusitania, one Mr. William Thomas Turner, was asked to explain why he didn't do a better job of ensuring that his ship didn't get sunk. Captain Turner claimed that it taken 30 minutes or more for the u-boat to acquire the exact heading of the ship using the four-bearing method. Thus, according to the Captain, it wasn't his fault that his ship got sunk.
Other captains, however, disagreed and pointed out that
there is a simple two-bearing method that would have worked well enough under the circumstances and that doesn't take 30 minutes. It only takes 5-10 minutes.
So you see, TorpX, the subject at hand is not how a captain can zigzag a ship. It is not about what bearings a captain needs or doesn't need to zigzag a ship. Nor is it about what bearings the captain of the Lusitania might want or need to make. We are concerned entirely about the problem from the point of view of U-20, the German-made submarine that torpedoed the Lusitania.
If you still don't understand, maybe you can sit with your mommy and she can explain any big words that you don't get.