Video of battleship being sunk by U-boat. Massive explosion.

[Davros?]

Here is a HD video of HMS Barham just after she got hit by torpedos from a U-Boat, Her aft magazine blows up while heeling over killing over 800 men. You dont often get video of this quality of an event like that, i feel sorry for the guys you can see trying to jump into the water they must have ended up going in several directions at the same time.

[Uncle Howie]

Not exactly HD!

[Davros?]

Not exactly HD!

It should run at 720p if you load it in youtube, to be fair they probably used something like 16mm film so its not really HD. If they used 35mm it could have been restored and run beyond 1080p.

[squealpiggy]

The phrase "Worse things happen at sea" is one that bears bloody justification. My favourite era of history, that of wooden sailing ships, is also one of the most horrific in terms of conditions in a battle. The iron ships of the First and Second World War had their own horrors (imagine working in an engine room when a steam chamber blows!) but there's something so visceral about the trials in the belly of a wooden man'o'war in battle.

This is one of the gun decks of the HMS Victory, flagship of the Nelson's force in the Battle of Trafalgar:



Each of those cannon were manned by a crew of six to eight gunners who were responsible for loading it with cartridge and roundshot, hauling it into place and firing it. There was no light, no sound but for the roar of the guns, and following the first few volleys by the enemy the deck would be slick with blood.

A hit to the side of a ship with a cannonball would cause the inside of the hull to splinter and produce flying shards of wooden shrapnel causing immense damage to anyone inside. To counteract the blood on the decks members of the crew would sprinkle sawdust on the ground. Most of the crew would go barefoot to help their grip, but this was no help when a recoiling cannon crushed a foot or a brass money suddenly lost its load of cannonballs and sent lead shot rolling around the deck.

Battles were won and lost based on the skill of the gunnery and gun crews were rated not on their accuracy but on their speed of reloading and firing. Good gun crews could manage five shots in sixty seconds at least at first, but you can imagine how quickly a crew would tire and how the rate of fire would slow as members were killed or maimed by the enemy.



This is somewhat inaccurate as no captain worth his salt would dive to the ground to avoid a shot. It was considered a matter of great pride to remain upright during a battle. A French captain at the battle of the Nile famously lost both of his limbs to cannonshot yet stayed up on deck propped in a barrel directing his crew until he was fatally shot.