Whilst having a bit of fun, shooting into the water around my Mum's brand new Caracciolo class BB, I had one bb go astray and pass straight through the new ship's brand new balsa. Through and through. Seems Dad hadn't got around to installing the blast shields yet....... I am officially a very bad boy. Sorry Mum.
Er, no? The Caracciolo was on sea trials, and my brother and I were pounding the water around it, having fun. A ding in the end of one of my barrels caused one of my bb's to deflect, punching straight through the new ship's unarmoured hull, about 1/2" above the waterline. Apart from that, the new ship behaved quite well. It now has blast shields fitted.
Dad installed the pump months ago, but she never started pumping, the holes were too high. The Francesco Carriciolo has been patched and her paint touched up, so she now shows no sign of ever being hit. The offending barrel on the Rodney has been reamed out to remove the ding and now fires true.
This is a picture, taken covertly by an allied spy plane , of the new Italian dreadnought under trials. It appears the cannon are dummies but this could be a ruse.....
Not so tiny, Nikki. It just looks that way because of the windswell on the pond that day. She's about 5 foot long.
