Hood being chased by Strasbourg, and Jean Bart. Jeff was too experienced to allow the Frenchies to get him in a sandwich, and was able to survive the battle.
Looks like the propellers chopped up some rotted paper or leaves or some other kind of flimsy debris.
This is a huge pond, with thousands of live fish, and one very big DEAD one. A huge dead catfish. It was off in a corner not bothering anyone. Well Eric and Bat were jockeying for position in this corner, and for some unexplainable reason, Bat backed his Dunkerque over this thing. So if anyone was wondering how Bat's Dunkerque props hold up to old dead fish. Well. It slices. It dices. It fillets. It STINKS! It could only happen to Bat. Mikey
A guy in our local club actually speared a live fish on his props a couple weeks ago. A very inefficient method of catching lunch.
Too funny. I would have thought that live fish would not get anywhere near our boats. That will teach them.. Mikey
froggyfrenchman has a really good fish story if he wants to tell it. Just ask him! ;>} It happened in N.J. when he had a HOOD......
Well. I mean I try not to remember that story. But if I remember correctly.. At a battle long ago, in N.J. I had a brand new HMS Hood. Another skipper showed up with the USS Montana. At some point, we decided to have a one-on-one. Early in the battle, the Hood was doing pretty good, as the Montana went into combat with her gun-pins in place, so it was extremely nice being able to shoot at my opponant, without being shot in return. Well, at least until the problem was realized, and resolved. Then in the middle of the action, the Hood came to a complete stop, then listed slightly to one side, and began to go backwards, for reasons unknown. Then she actually started moving sideways. We are not talking about turning sideways. But moving sideways without any headway. At first I was thinking it was just a radio control issue of some sort, as the old Hood had been ram-sunk earlier in the event by a pocket-battleship driver that went up the hill to get a better view of the combat zone, and she had been acting flaky ever since. I won't mention any names (Bobo).. But when she started going sideways, and around in circles (in her own length) I decided it wasn't an issue with the radio control, but perhaps something to do with the Bermuda Triangle. The ship was all over the place, and had a mind of it's own. The skipper of the Montana appeared to be hesitant to get anywhere near the Hood early on, but eventually went on the offensive and laid some serious pain on her after testing the waters and discovering that whatever the old Hood was suffering from wasn't contagious. I was still in control of the cannons, but was too busy trying to regain control of the ship to be effective with them, and so the battle raged on. As the battle wound down, the old Hood was getting lower in the water, with no pump, and she slipped beneath the waves, as the pumps came to life. Upon being lifted out of the water, it was found that her props had been fouled by a grunch of fishing line, and at the end of it was a very lively smallish fish. Perhaps 5-6 inches in length, with a very big attitude. If I remember correctly. That was the only speed-bump in the otherwise charmed life of my original Hood. Mikey
That's a good story! Almost like a children's book: "The Tiny Tenacious Fishy vs. the Big Bad Battlecruiser"
I think I remember other speed bumps in the HOOD's life!!! What about the time you ran the hood ashore on the banks of a Maryland Pond and a certain captain with a US battleship (reflaged as another nation so he could run on the Axis side) proceeded to pound in to pieces over your objections. But the ram he mentioned was classic! Frenchy started out at the beginning of battle announcing loudly "the hood has no stringers, don't ram her!" Out of the middle of the lake came a fast moving German cruiser .... running straight for the hood! Without even slowing down it rammed hard into the starboard side forward and down went the Hood in less that two miniutes of the battle. Frenchy went into the water to fetch the boat saying %$&&**# things about the German captain. My New Orleans at the time was not in battle having developed a leak that kept her from the lake the whole day. She was built to Poindexter plans and developed a crack which was right where the two ribs for the lower stern section and the forward section joined. This was found that night and she could battle the next day. I remember also the time when froggyfrenchman had a US cruiser (I think that it was a Pensicola but I could be wrong on that) and was the only one left on the Allied side at the third sortie of a battle in NJ. He was undaunted and went out to fight the Axis three ships and met his end . But .... As the ship settled verious pieces of superstructure poped to the surface all connected to the hull by string. When picked from the watery grave, the hull was brought to shore trailing various lines with superstructure behind. Ah memories!!! Marty
