What was the most successful raiding ship in history?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_auxiliary_cruiser_Pinguin
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM_U-35_(Germany)>entered service in November 1914, served for the entire war>sank 220 merchant ships with a total displacement of 505,121 GRT, damaged another 10
>>65109228Depends on your definition of what was a successful raiding ship? Admiral Piet Hein for example captured an entire Spanish treasure fleet worth about a billion dollars in todays money I believe with zero casualties but that involves a squadron rather than individual ships?
>>65109228Yeah like other anons kinda wondering what you had in mind with "raiding". Do you mean "amount of tonnage sunk" or "value of stuff to the enemy economy" or "amount actually captured for yourself/own side" (ie, prize taking)? In older eras while defeating enemy ships and burning them could certainly be called for and win military merits there was more emphasis on capturing stuff, both for your own side to use themselves (a naval ship was no small investment and each one could matter) and for the money you'd make, whereas as the industrial era went on I think the emphasis switched more towards just sinking as much as possible.
CSS Shenandoah only racked up 38 captures but it's a good story.>set sail in early 1865>capture several ships>start capturing merchant sailors who insist the war is over>don't believe them>on the way to bombard San Francisco>capture a ship with newspapers on board >realize the war is actually over>start worrying about getting hanged as pirates >sail around the world westward>surrender to bongs
In an era when national and military fuel consumption was several million kiloliters per year, seizing several ships each carrying 10,000 kiloliters of fuel must have been a considerable gain.However, Germany faced difficulties in bringing these valuable supplies, seized at sea, back to ports in Germany or France.
>>65109228>What was the most successful raiding ship in history?Indefatigable should be up there. Originally was a mid-1700s 3rd rate, but then got razee'd down into a powerful 44 gunner frigate for the Napoleonic Wars and she had I think she had like, 25 prizes captured, tons more destroyed, maybe the most or tied for the most of any ship of the era. I think all of her captains had significant success and she participated in significant engagements in both halves of the war. She was part of the 4 ship squadron under Graham Moore that captured a Spanish treasure fleet in 1804, before Spain could enter on France's side. It's tricky to do inflation that far back but it was a LOT of gold and silver captured.
>>65109749Also I'll admit I remember this era strongly because I got into it after reading the Aubrey/Maturin historical fiction novels as a kid and then reading about the founding of the US Navy, so definitely biased. Wouldn't be surprised if other ships have done more but it was an interesting era, the pinnacle of the age of sail yet also on the verge of sail becoming obsolete, lots of stuff happening in the world.
>>65109228Who is going to tell GreenPeace that the Confederate Navy of America is the single most critical factor to whales not going extinct,
>>65109863they'd call you a retarded literal commie supporting faggot and they'd be right lol
>>65109950>starting the graph 45 years after the CSN ceased to existLmao okay retard
>>65109228https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_auxiliary_cruiser_Kormoran10 merchant vessels sunk and 1 captured, which is moderately successful, but then she somehow managed to sink the modern light cruiser HMAS Sydney, leaving no survivors, though she herself was sunk after the encounter. Most of that was the captain of the Sydney being foolish, but it's still an impressive feat.
>>65110910>he actually thinks age of sail caught more then industrialized factory ships with explosive harpoonswhew
>>65109950I hate Russian whalers so much!
>>65109521Wow, I had no idea about this (am a bong). I'm always finding out something new about the ACW.
>>65111126>I hate Russian whalers so much!Actually was kinda wild how heavily the commies lied when it wasn't even necessary. They signed onto the whole sustainable whaling agreement IWC thing, and over the next 25 years reported they'd caught about 2700 humpback whales for example. Turns out they actually caught over 48000. Like, the IWC has zero enforcement mechanism whatsoever, it's a talk shop and voluntary, it's pure politics. And in the midst of the cold war it was far far down the list of geopolitical priorities, and there wasn't even much trade at threat back then.But ziggers lie like they breath I guess.
>>65111157They were at genocide levels. They were paid "by the head" and harpooned so many, thier bokendown factory ships couldn't process them. The whales rotted for no reason. They were an oil exporter and had no need for whale oil, they weren't harvesting meat, they were only trying to out do last years numbers for thier bonuses. Truely, a crime against nature, like all Russians.
>>65111169They were harvesting the meat actually. The problem is canned whalemeat tasted so bad no one wanted to buy it. So the Soviets just made it mandatory to buy whale meat. You want a tin of beef? You HAVE to buy 2 tins of whale. People who were kids in the USSR will all tell you how much they fucking hated eating whale.
>>65111169Yeah depressing planned economy incentive mentality. Oh here are 5 billion shoes (all badly made)! What you wanted gloves? Maybe next 5 year plan comrade.>>65111461>The problem is canned whalemeat tasted so bad no one wanted to buy itSame issue Japan has, they want to justify it so they try to get kids to eat it and nobody fucking wants to.Also not that commies cared but as long lived apex creatures whale meat tends to be pretty full of mercury, bioaccumulation happens in them just like every other sea creature. They've been economically near worthless to hunt for a long time while they do good in the ocean but MUH HISTORICAL CULTURISMS.
>>65109228Nemesis BTFO'd the Qing dynasty so hard it gave them generational trauma as a result.
>>65111092Bomb lances were the norm by the Civil War and many whaling vessels even in the 1900s were sailing ships.
>>65111157BREATHE.
that one kraut raider transport that sank an Australian cruiser
>>65109228submarine S13
Rais Hamidou ship
>>65109950Why? How? What did the soviets need that many fucking whales for?
>>65109749That's the answer I heard spoken around, a ship from the eighteenth to nineteenth century that could have racked up tons of prizes because england and france were at war for most of that era
>>65112819I mean, it definitely took the right captains, skill, the right ship, politics, and a healthy dose of luck. Getting prize cruises at all wasn't guaranteed, plenty of captains would get put on convoy duty or as part of the line or something and never see a single prize, or have some fat tub that couldn't do shit, or just not find anything or have it all get away. It was definitely notable for any single ship and captain to get even a handful of sizable prizes solo. Oceans are fucking big and voyages could last months to years, and all powered by wind.
>>65112752Because the 5 year plan said so.
>>65111092>The population going extinct due to vastly higher market demands in the 1860s is less relevant than *checks notes* the exact same harpoon technology being used a century later Still not going to let you slime away from trying to counter an argument about the CSN showing data only long after they existed, much less before to establish an actual trend. I'll unzip you know what to do bitch, just imagine it's your special ed teacher
>>65109635>10,000 kilolitersWhat made you decide to type this instead of 10 million liters or 10 megaliters?
>>65113446The added pleasure of making you seethe specifically.
