Exploring Musashi,

Yossarian

Forum Resistance Leader
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As a kid Musashi, along with Missouri are my two most interesting child hood day dreams. Built the darn things out of blocks, lego's what ever I could get my hands on. Drew them, stared blankly at the clouds outside my classroom window, oblivious to pre algebra and riding the waves on the decks of either ship exploring strange lands, or just sailing either to victory.

Wanted books filled with Missouri's Pictures, but with Musashi I was saddened then to not have nearly as much to feed my young imagination. Learning about these two great ships at that age snowballed from learning about the war, to East Asia, and much about my own country as well.

To basics of engineering, the oceans, and their currents and mysteries. About Yamato too, and also Iowa, America and Japan's pre war idea's , and differences, to America's occupation. To why and how we thought differently before and during the conflict, and how we have changed up until today.

Kinda amazing how something so simple as day dreams over two ships can can spark so much in a child that carries with us even as we age ?

Then as especially now, I hold utmost respect to all sailors who fought at sea during this most destructive conflict, as this video shows, modern mechanized warfare is brutal and destructive, maybe somehow these images of it's sown devastation will dissuade today's powers from repeating these mistakes and reliving these tragedies, and how we all service men, statesmen, and citizen have a common vested interest in deeply questioning whether we should or shouldn't go to war...

Enjoy.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNMmqagTt90"]Musashi (武蔵) Expedition - YouTube[/ame]
 
Musashi might be a point of interest to some but in reality it only represents the fate of the Japanese Empire .
 
Musashi might be a point of interest to some but in reality it only represents the fate of the Japanese Empire .


That's only one of a thousand topics that rest here 1,000 meters below the waves of the Sibuyan sea.
 
Many of the brain dead thinks its a good idea to raise the Musashi .


This happens with every great discovery, back to Ballard's 1985 Titanic expedition.

Won't happen though, one it's a war grave and that would be illegal and still has large amounts of cordite onboard.

Two, it's a 70,000 ton vessel in 3 large pieces with massive structural damage and half buried in mud.
 
Forward:

As a kid Musashi, along with Missouri are my two most interesting child hood day dreams. Built the darn things out of blocks, lego's what ever I could get my hands on. Drew them, stared blankly at the clouds outside my classroom window, oblivious to pre algebra and riding the waves on the decks of either ship exploring strange lands, or just sailing either to victory.

Wanted books filled with Missouri's Pictures, but with Musashi I was saddened then to not have nearly as much to feed my young imagination. Learning about these two great ships at that age snowballed from learning about the war, to East Asia, and much about my own country as well.

To basics of engineering, the oceans, and their currents and mysteries. About Yamato too, and also Iowa, America and Japan's pre war idea's , and differences, to America's occupation. To why and how we thought differently before and during the conflict, and how we have changed up until today.

Kinda amazing how something so simple as day dreams over two ships can can spark so much in a child that carries with us even as we age ?

Then as especially now, I hold utmost respect to all sailors who fought at sea during this most destructive conflict, as this video shows, modern mechanized warfare is brutal and destructive, maybe somehow these images of it's sown devastation will dissuade today's powers from repeating these mistakes and reliving these tragedies, and how we all service men, statesmen, and citizen have a common vested interest in deeply questioning whether we should or shouldn't go to war...

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNMmqagTt90

This video really pissed me off then after about 30 minutes of Japanese I realised I had selected the wrong video, it makes a lot more sense in English.

So basically it is in 3 pieces, 3000 feet below sea level and a war grave I imagine the desire to raise it has finally been abandoned.
 
This video really pissed me off then after about 30 minutes of Japanese I realised I had selected the wrong video, it makes a lot more sense in English.

So basically it is in 3 pieces, 3000 feet below sea level and a war grave I imagine the desire to raise it has finally been abandoned.


Three main pieces yes, bow suffered massive implosion damage which shows that the water tight compartment design worked very well, a testimate to the engineering of these ships.

On the flip side however, there is a large debris field, although the compartmentalization was an engineering success.

Evidence from Yamato's wreck, as well as Musashi shows that the ergonomics factor for the crew running this honeycomb of water tight compartments was likely a nightmare.

Hence the huge number of causalities.

However both ships have sank remarkably identical to one another, Musashi on one hand however has a larger debris field due to her sinking in deeper water allowing the current to have a noticeable effect.

As you yourself have put it in one of our conversations :"They were Pig Ship's to run"... However I have to say Hog ship's is a better term.
 
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Realistically it is only the Shinano that could be in reasonable shape and salvagable (Except that it is a war grave as well).
 
Realistically it is only the Shinano that could be in reasonable shape and salvagable (Except that it is a war grave as well).


Ironically Shinano was the least well armored and study of the three. Serious stripping of armor was applied and many of the watertight compartments of her sisters were either incomplete or just plain out not built.

She was rushed to sea without even a proper shake down cruise to work out all the kinks. But I almost guarantee she is one piece.

One , she flooded thoroughly and was full of water when she sank, meaning little implosion damage.

And two, she was not filled to gunwales with cordite and explosives that would detonate when capsized.

However, I am starting to wonder:

Did the Yamato class have a weak frame after the "B" Barbette? Beginning at the main armor belt?
 
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