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Originally Posted by Rose
1. What happened if a ships' draft was shallower than 11 feet? (I guess they'd use the deck gun for that small of a ship?)
2. Why the hell didn't skippers just revert to the old Mark 10s till the 14s were sorted out?
And 3. How in God's name did "Mush" Morton on his epic first patrol manage to acheive such a great torpedo success rate considering the malfunctions of the 14s of that time?
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1. Some used the gun, some used torpedoes anyway, some didn't attack. Blair gives a pretty good overall account in
Silent Victory, including how different skippers felt about attacking native fishing boats, trawlers, sailing vessels, etc. [Edit: Theoretically, the Mark XIV
could hit shallow draft vessels.]
2. Don't know the whole answer, but one reason was that the brass absolutely insisted on using both the Mark XIV and the Mark VI until well into 1942. Part of the problem with the Mk 14 was that the designers and the admirals put a lot of faith in it and thought it was the skippers who were aiming poorly rather than the fish that were malfunctioning.
There were probably also technical reasons for not using the older torpedoes in newer subs - shortages, age, ability to load and fire with newer subs, etc. But I'm not as familiar with the technical part. I think the older boats (like the 'S'-class) still used them, though. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this.
3. He was partly lucky in that some of his Mk. 14s worked. Even then, of the first six torpedoes he shot at a single destroyer, only one hit. He was also aggressive - almost recklessly so. Also, part of his success came from what he claimed he sank and what their tonnages were. Morton "wore" his patrol success - sailing into Pearl Harbor with a broom tied to the shears. He also gained notoriety (or infamy) from the shooting incident - he was bound to be the subject of scuttlebutt. Last but not least, after that patrol, the brass credited him with
everything he claimed (they didn't always do that) - five ships for 32,000 tons. JANAC reduced that after the war, however, to three for 11,300. But by then he had already become famous. Again, hope somebody will correct any errors in that.