About ships classification on the site

[Dr_V]

Victor & Dragos:

In the listing of Romanian ships you filed:

[quote]Speedboats:
Vosper-class gunboat
Power-class gunboat [/quote]

Weren't theese MTBs? :? A foreign visitor of the site can think that you mean MGB (motor gunboat), as these are the ones usually called "gunboats".

From my knowledge the British Power Boat MTB (Romania had 6) is armed with 2x 18" TTs, 1x6 pdr. gun, 2x20mm AA and 4 MG (2 double Vickers mounts on sides) and the Vosper type MTB with 4x18" TTs, 2x20mmAA and 4 MG. Were the Romanian ones modified by removing the Torpedo Tubes? I knew that wasn't so.

No offence or hidden thaughts, but you can consider changing that listing. :keep:


Also I believe that the royal yachts (Luceafarul and Taifun) and the training ship Mircea should be included, as they were part of the Navy, even if they were not armed and didn't participated directly to the war.

[dragos]

They are designated as "vedete torpiloare", I am not very familiar with the English naval definitions.

The 6 Power boats had the following armament:
2 x 20mm
1 x 13.2mm
2 x 533mm torpedo tubes

The 3 Vosper boats:
2 x 4 x 20mm
2 x 533mm

[Dr_V]

"Vedete torpiloare" is the exact Romanian translation for "Motor Torpedo Boats". The English call those "motor" TB to distinguish from the "classical" torpedo boats that are steam powered, usually much bigger and resemble a small old destroyer in design. "Smeul" class ships were classic old torpedo boats, even if the Romanians removed the TTs from them.

Concearning the armament, what I've told you was the standard armament for those classes of TB employed by the British navy. So the Romanian Royal Navy made the following modifications to them:

British Power Boats: removed the 6 pdr. gun mounted foreword and replaced it with a MG (the 13.2mm), discarded the twin Vickers on the sides and replaced the 18" TTs with 2x21" (233mm) TTs. The idea must had been to increase the power of their torpedo attack even if this ment sacrificing some of the AA defence capabilitys.

Vosper type: are you sure it's 2x4x20mm? Not 4x2x20mm? I don't think that a 47 tons MTB can carry quadruple mounts. Anyway, again we find the 21" torpedos and obviousely only 2 tubes, there's no space (or displacement) for 4x21" tubes on a Vosper MTB, especially after so much increasing the number of AA cannons.

So the Romanian Navy was betting on the surprise effect in MTB tactiks, a rather good option considering that even the Brits came to the same conclusion during the war (the agressive patroll tactiks for the light costal forces, including the smaller MTBs as the Vosper and Power types, were abandoned in favor of carefully planned speciffic attacks). The 21" TTs ment not only more powerfull torpedows, but also longer range, increasing the chances of escape for the small warship.

[dragos]

Thanks for the info. I have checked the photos with Vosper-class boats: they have 2 quad 20mm AAMGs.