The Snow Fell

Two views of a naval snow - Charles Brooking
(Source)

If your mind works anything like mine (and believe me, you have my pity) then the title of this post and the opening artwork has you feeling a bit like NOMAD after an encounter with Captain Kirk.

I was reading a section of Derek Beck's excellent book The War Before Independence, where he is describing part of the American invasion of Canada in 1775. There I happened upon mention of the British vessel Fell. Which the book called a "snow." Of course, I thought it was a typesetter's error and what they really meant was "scow," a flat-bottomed boat with a blunt bow, which seemed like a perfectly reasonable vessel to find on the St. Lawrence River back in the day.

Then on the next page, Major* Beck mentioned it again. In my smugness I assumed that the good author had made an error of some kind (there were a couple of minor errors in Igniting the American Revolution which are not all that apparent to some), until, as many of us do when reading Lex's old posts, I looked it up.

In sailing, a snow, snaw or snauw is a square rigged vessel with two masts, complemented by a snow- or trysail-mast stepped immediately abaft (behind) the main mast. (Source)

I was gobsmacked, I had "no ideer," I was amazed at my ignorance, and (tee hee) I learned a new thing.

Which inspired me to write about different types of warships that I am familiar with. Not the more modern variety mind you. Well, the discovery of that new use for the word "snow," and the good Cap'n mentioning battlecruisers in a comment to yesterday's post inspired this post.

It struck me as I was reading about events in the winter of '75 (When you were in Tech School in Colorado, Sarge? No, silly, 1775. Not 1975.) was that I just know that there was a guy, probably with my sense of humor, who upon commissioning a "snow" to be built, decided to call it "Fell."

"So guvnor, what will ye be naming this fine snow that we're abuilding for ye?"

"I shall call her the Fell."

"Heh, at's ripe, the snow 'Fell,' at's funny right there. Good one guvnor."

No doubt when General Carlton of His Majesty's Army sought ships for protecting the province of Canada during the early stages of the Revolution someone offered him Fell.

"What sort of vessel is she?"

"She's a snow Yer Honor, the snow Fell."

"D'ya think you're being humorous laddie?"

"Nossir, at's her name, Fell. And she's a snow."

Reminds me of a certain scene from Monty Python's Life of Bryan when a certain centurion refers to someone as having a "joke name," which I shan't reproduce here, as it's a tad risqué, but which you're welcome to Google at your leisure.

Anyhoo.

Warship types. There are many. Now and back in the day. Of course, back in the day I believe there were far more different types than we have now. Supposition on my part, yes and I won't be offering any proof of that day. Rather a lazy decision on my part, but "you gets what ya pays for."

In the age of sail, back in the days of "wooden ships and iron men," there were various ship types referred to as warships. From the small sloop-of-war having a single gundeck (and smallish cannon to the number of eighteen or so) to the massive ships with three gundecks sporting as many as 120 cannon, the Royal Navy classified their ships in two ways (as far as I am able to ascertain), beginning around 1677 by a certain Samuel Pepys, who was then Secretary to the Admiralty (what we colonials would some day call the Department of the Navy). Mr. Pepys diary is his real claim to fame, I had heard of him but I didn't know about the diary thing in which a great many events from English history are recorded.

Oh yeah, the Royal Navy's classification of British warships, back in the day, we were talking about that weren't we?

Major warships were classified by a type and a "rate." The rating of a ship was (eventually) based on the number of cannon she carried. Ships with the largest number of cannon were the first, second, and third rates. And... Heck, it's probably easier if I just give you a table -

(Source)

Incidentally, those 1st, 2nd and 3rd rates, the Ships of the Line? Those were also known as Line of Battle Ships, said term being eventually shortened from that to just battleship. So this ship (and those like her) -

HMS Victory (A 1st Rate)
(Source)

...are pretty much the great-great-grandfathers of this ship (and those like her) -

USS Wisconsin (BB 64)
(Source)

Oh Sarge?

Yes?

So what's the difference between a battleship and a battlecruiser?

Well, they look very similar, but basically a battlecruiser has similar armament to a battleship but isn't as heavily armored. The idea was that a battlecruiser was faster, she could kill anything fast enough to catch her and outrun anything big enough to kill her. In practice, it didn't work out so well, especially for the battlecruisers operated by the Royal Navy in World War I at the Battle of Jutland. The British lost three battlecruisers that day: HMS Invincible, HMS Indefatigable, and HMS Queen Mary, leading the admiral commanding the battlecruiser division, Admiral David Beatty, to remark, "There's something wrong with our bloody ships today!"

Uh yes sir, there certainly was.

Point being here, I guess, if I ever have a point, is that both USS Lexington (CV 2) and USS Saratoga (CV 3) were intended to be battlecruisers but became aircraft carriers instead, fast being an excellent asset for a carrier. (The British converted two battlecruisers to aircraft carriers as well: HMS Courageous and HMS Glorious.)

German battlecruisers (as opposed to the British variety) were very well designed and could (and did) take a lot of punishment and still remain in action.

British and German battlecruisers were handsome vessels.

HMS Hood, handsome but flawed. Sunk by the German battleship Bismarck.
(Source) 

German battlecruiser Gneisenau
(Source)

Good thing for the West that the British were far better sailors than the Germans. (And had a much bigger navy, quantity having a quality all its own...)

One last thing, the title of this post? Yeah, that happened last night as well...

The snow Fell, the snow fell...

Sort of a history post and a weather post all in one...

Yup, my mind works in odd ways.

I shall analyze...




* For he is indeed a major in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.