Glad you liked it. I have always been interested in this aspect of seagoing vessels.
From when I was a kid living in Subic Bay, and they towed in the aft end of the USS Frank Evans which had been sliced in two by the Australian carrier Melbourne, to my experience watching Damage Control teams in operation aboard a carrier (USS JFK, which seemed to have an inordinate need for damage control) I have respect and admiration for sailors who specialize in that, never mind the non-specialists who are often called on out of necessity.
Also, my squadron (VA-46) was somehow widely viewed as being responsible for the Forrestal fire, even though our part was having the misfortune of having a plane parked directly in the path of a Zuni rocket.
When I was in, years after that, they still talked about it in my squadron in the first person as if they had been there, though none had.
But it made me plenty interested in it, to be sure.
Another fantastic book that discusses this apsect of damage control aboard a warship is “Shattered Sword”, which discusses the Battle of Midway from the Japanese point of view.
Reading that, you realize the Japanese historically made consistently poor decisions in ship design with respect to damage control, and did an even worse job of developing damage control techniques around them, and it all came to a head in spectacular fashion with the sinking of the Japanese carriers that day.
This is not to denigrate the Japanese sailors who were gutsy, capable, and dedicated, but they had piss poor damage control procedures that should have been drawn up in such a way to minimize those deficiencies, but weren’t.
You almost have to feel sorry for them.
But in a discussion about a related subject, what was astonishing to me is how much damage a warship could take before it succumbed and slipped beneath the waves. Like humans. It is amazing the amount of damage a human body can incur and still remain alive...likewise with ships.
Also, Drachinifel has a great video on the differences between US and IJN damage control. Turns out that some IJN vessels, like Shokaku, had commanders that did understand good damage control, and their ships did have basic DC elements incorporated, but their biggest problem was their personnel and doctrine. Shokaku, for example, survived several battles with the kind of damage that killed its sisters simply because the then-new CO took one look at the IJN DC doctrine for his ship, said “screw that,” tossed the manual and went to an equivalent of US DC crew doctrine instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC6LN3U5ELk
Another very good post. Thanks for your service.
I am finishing a great book and you might have read it:
“The Admirals” Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy and King — The Five Star Admirals Who Won The War At Sea.