Torpedo Director Pattern 2006
The Torpedo Director Pattern 2006 was a circular British torpedo director used in a variety of surface ships, created for use from conning towers with 4 inch slots limiting their overhead. A tangent bar allowed the lateral offset to the firing tube to be accounted for.
Thirty of these compact, circular directors were ordered for trial in Vernon and at sea in 1904.[3] It is described in the Torpedo Drill Book, 1905 as the "new" director.[4]
Design
Its torpedo arm was not pivoted, and the square knob used to set enemy speed was geared such that each flat of the square knob was a knot of enemy speed (4 knots per turn). The sights were fine wires in sighting arches. The distance from the fore sight to the pivot of the sight bar was fixed at 17 inches.[5]
Probably ready for service in 1905,[6] it was used in conning towers and director towers of "earlier ships" (as judged by 1912[7]).
The directors had slides underneath permitting some lateral motion (3 inches?) to look around obstacles.[8]
It was graduated for torpedo speeds of 15 to 40 knots, and for enemy speeds of zero to 30 knots. The sight bar bore a scale requiring arithmetic to calculate a running range, given an estimated range to the enemy as an input.[TO BE CONTINUED - TONE]
Alterations
In 1909, when the increased speeds of heater torpedoes could exceed 40 knots, it was decided not to alter the 2006's scale, as the capital ships carrying it would, by doctrine, not set their torpedoes to these high speeds, instead using the heaters' enhanced range settings at lower speeds. In any event, it was to be the case that should such fire be required, the director would be set to half speed of torpedo and enemy.[9]
In 1912, a design was approved to add a central bearing disc and a Carpenter's disc sight to the director.[10]
The Pattern 2006a variant was created to be able to adapt to gyro angles, sometime after 1912.[11][12]
By 1916, British displeasure with tangent bars was such that Pattern 2006 directors and later models brought in for repair were sent back without their tangent bars.[13]
See Also
Footnotes
- ↑ Torpedo Manual Vol III, 1909, Plate 64.
- ↑ Handbook of Torpedo Control, 1916, Plate 3.
- ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1904, pp. 54-55.
- ↑ Torpedo Drill Book, 1905, p. 376, figure opposite p. 382.
- ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1904, pp. 54-55.
- ↑ Torpedo Drill Book, 1905, p. 381.
- ↑ Torpedo Drill Book, 1912, p. 495.
- ↑ The Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1910, p. 33. (C. of N., May 1906, G. 5965/06?)
- ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1909 pp. 22-23. (G.T.O. Feb 1st 1909)
- ↑ The Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1912, p. 25.
- ↑ The Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1912, p. 25.
- ↑ Torpedo Drill Book, 1914, p. 564.
- ↑ Handbook of Torpedo Control, 1916, p. 18.
Bibliography
