Idea for an alt-history weapon: Screw ram

I had the idea for this as I was mulling over some of the replies to this thread on ironclad warfare. Basically, the screw ram would operate much as a screw propeller does, except that it would have a metal spike or drill in place of the propeller. It could then be placed at the front of a ship to provide a kind of souped-up version of the standard naval ram, the drill giving it much greater penetration power.

The temporal setting for this would be the decades immediately after the ironclad warship first became common, say from about 1850 to 1880 or so. During this period torpedoes and armour-piercing shells hadn't yet come into widespread use, meaning that warships were now practically impossible to sink with cannons and old naval tactics were, consequently, obsolete. This led to a period of great innovation as navies sought a new way of defeating their enemies. Assume that during this period a country had come up with the idea of screw rams and tried equipping some of their ships with it -- how effective do you think it would have been in combat?
 
It would have the unfortunate weakness of getting the ramming ship stuck to their target. If their target did start to sink they could drag the ramming ship down with them.
 
also the act of ramming into another ship could damage and destroy the drill's motor or worse cause the hole that the drill comes from to break open or widen potentially causing water to flood into the ship
 
I had the idea for this as I was mulling over some of the replies to this thread on ironclad warfare. Basically, the screw ram would operate much as a screw propeller does, except that it would have a metal spike or drill in place of the propeller. It could then be placed at the front of a ship to provide a kind of souped-up version of the standard naval ram, the drill giving it much greater penetration power.
-- how effective do you think it would have been in combat?
I can't see it working well. You'd end up break/jamming the mechanism that causes the drill bit to rotate when you drive it into the enemy ship.

Tim
 
Could the problem with the ram getting damaged/struck be fixed if you only had the tip of the drill sticking out from the ship, the rest being encased in metal like in a conventional ram (as shown in my amazingly well-drawn and accurate diagram), or would this not help? As for the filling with water problem, could you have that part of the ship sectioned off from the rest of the vessel, so that the ship can still stay afloat even if the ram part gets flooded? Or would that still have too bad an effect on her handling?

Screw Ram.png
 

TFSmith121

Banned
It's self-defeating, actually;

I had the idea for this as I was mulling over some of the replies to this thread on ironclad warfare. Basically, the screw ram would operate much as a screw propeller does, except that it would have a metal spike or drill in place of the propeller. It could then be placed at the front of a ship to provide a kind of souped-up version of the standard naval ram, the drill giving it much greater penetration power.

The temporal setting for this would be the decades immediately after the ironclad warship first became common, say from about 1850 to 1880 or so. During this period torpedoes and armour-piercing shells hadn't yet come into widespread use, meaning that warships were now practically impossible to sink with cannons and old naval tactics were, consequently, obsolete. This led to a period of great innovation as navies sought a new way of defeating their enemies. Assume that during this period a country had come up with the idea of screw rams and tried equipping some of their ships with it -- how effective do you think it would have been in combat?

It's self-defeating, and really ruins the purpose of the ram - which should be strong enough (in the remote chance of a "successful" ramming) to not weaken the ram to the point where it is lost...

First, ramming is difficult;

Second, the kinetic energy from the collision itself, assuming anything approaching equivalent tonnage between the ram and the target and a speed differential (pretty much necessary to accomplish the ramming in the first place) is going to cause the damage;

Third, weakening the ram - which by defintion should be the strongest and most solid element of the ram's hull - by introducing a hollow shaft, gaskets, some sort of transmission, etc amounts to an intentional weakening of the ram's structure.

Put it this way - striking a metal plate with a sledgehammer and having the sledge retain its functionality is possible; striking a metal plate with a spinning drill bit inside of a sledgehammer is a quick way to ruin the drill and the sledgehammer.

Best,
 

Delta Force

Banned
Ramming causes damage in the initial impact. A drill would only serve to weaken the ram and add cost and complexity while doing nothing to increase the kinetic energy of the collision. It would be better to use the drill engine to drive the main shaft(s) to make it easier to ram and increase the damage caused by an impact.
 
So if ramming's out of the question, would drilling be at all feasible? Or would this require the other ship to stay still for too long?
 
So if ramming's out of the question, would drilling be at all feasible? Or would this require the other ship to stay still for too long?
No, if you can get that close enough to drill, you can get close enough for a spar torpedo or a real ram which would be more effective and cheaper
Small assault boats that cling to its target and drill holes below the waterline?
Too easy to patch by damage control crews, giving the same boats a spar torpedo would do a much better job, quicker, from a safer distance
 
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