henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (06/29/90)
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) >From: creps@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Steve Creps) >>HMS Sheffield, destroyed completely by an Exocet whose warhead did not >>detonate... > > I thought Sheffield was lost because she was made of aluminum, which was >ignited by the burning missile (metallic Al will burn at high enough >temperature- you can ignite an aluminum can with a blowtorch, for example). >This isn't going to happen with a steel ship like the Iowa. Popular misconceptions notwithstanding, Sheffield was made of steel. Neither the superstructure nor the hull ignited, but the interior burnt out very throughly as things like hydraulic fluid fed the flames. She was in fact taken under tow after the fire finally petered out, but she wasn't controllable enough and eventually capsized. (The south Atlantic in winter is not a good place for towing exercises...) Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry