Royal Naval Watertight Doors & Hatches

[Guest]

Hi I'm trying to get info on Royal Naval Ships Watertight Doors and Hatches, There was an article inModel Boats June 1964 but it is very dated. I need to know the exact sizes of watertight doors etc so that these can be scaled down to fit a couple of ships I'm doing. Any ideas would be most welcome.

Cheers and Happy Sailingeace:

Soldier151

[Guest]

There are companies that sell doors and hatches, which may be usefull to you. Apart from that reference books such as the "Anatomy of the Ship" series are incredibly detailed and may contain what you want.

Have a look through the "Model Dockyard" site, they supply both and get a copy of Model Boats Magazine and have a look through the traders.

[Guest]

Try posting your question on the modelboatmayhem website forum.

[Guest]

Hope this helps...Vickers SEL would be a good place to start, as they can pass you on to the Naval Architecture Department. Be careful though...Depending on what you're modelling certain information is still classified.

I can tell you this though.

Watertight doors and hatches on all HM Ships have either X,Y, or Z codes.

X doors were usually left open most times and closed during higher alert (zulu-bravo, or zulu-alpha state), this is to protect The Citadel. The ship's steering, control and fighting systems had to be gas-tight with positive pressure air systems in place. The reason why HMS Sheffield and HMS Antelope were unsavable was partly because of fire and communications failures.

Y doors were closed generally but you had access. Again, this changed if the Ship was on alert for the same reasons, then you had to have permission to access first.

Z doors were always closed and you had to have permission to enter a restricted part of the ship. During alert...phone first.

What Ship are you going to model?

Best wishes and good luck...jules