Target Ship's Speed?

[Macker]

I've played about 6 hours or so over a couple days and I just can't seem to find anywhere I can click or any box that would tell me my target ships speed. I do see an indication of maximum possible speed in the targeting info on the right hand side, though ships turn, then they get hit and have one or more of the engine icons above them. So far it seems the only way I can roughly gauge their speed is by looking at the range circles vs my ship, once I've selected one of the enemy ships. If the rings are getting closer, then they are closing on me and if their course is somewhat straight and mine is too, then they must be going faster than I am. Thankfully, I can see my own ship's speed.

I know that estimating speed was an important part of the gun aiming equation, so there must be some way to tell how fast an enemy ship is traveling. I just haven't found it yet. If you know, please tell me. Thanks!

[Wowzery]

After the ship is identified, on top, hover the mouse over the ship icon, it will tell you some information, included there is the ship's current speed.

[brucesim2003]

Imo it should tell you it's speed (or maybe only an estimate) before you I.D. the target.

[Macker]

8 hours ago, Wowzery said:

After the ship is identified, on top, hover the mouse over the ship icon, it will tell you some information, included there is the ship's current speed.

I think you're talking about the icons at the top of the screen? Thank you. I'll take a look tomorrow.

[DougToss]

I'd really like there to be delays and inaccuracies in measuring speed, heading and range depending on the fire control systems present on a ship as well as the conditions. 

“The rangefinder measured the geometric range between shooter and target, which was sometimes called the true range. Given rangefinder errors, this measurement could not be entirely accurate, but it is convenient to identify the rangefinder figure with the actual distance between ship and target. This range was not the same as the gun range, the range to which sights should be set. Gun range took into account the movement of the target while the shell was in the air and even that of the shooter while the shell was in the gun (where it shared the ship’s motion). It thus involved knowledge of how the range was changing: the range rate. The longer the range (ie, the more time the shell spent in the air), the more significant the range rate. At very long range, factors such as the rotation of the earth had to be taken into account. It began to matter that a ship was able to measure her own speed. That was difficult: only in about 1912 did the Royal Navy obtain an electric log (measuring speed). Other navies were probably in about the same position: the Germans license-produced the British log”

Excerpt From: Norman Friedman. “Naval Firepower: Battleship Guns and Gunnery in the Dreadnought Era”. Apple Books. 

“Successful gunnery required that the position of the target be projected ahead, ultimately to the moment at which a shell might be expected to hit. To do that, the shooter had to calculate the rates at which the range and bearing of the target changed; they were usually called the range and bearing rates. Calculation was difficult because neither was constant, and because each depended on the other. Alternatively, one might think in terms of the vector (magnitude and direction) pointing from shooter to target. The change in this vector was another vector which might be called the rate vector. It could be expressed as two components, one along the line of fire and one across it. The rate along was usually called the range rate. The rate across was usually called deflection. Its magnitude was the bearing rate multiplied by the range."

Excerpt From: Norman Friedman. “Naval Firepower: Battleship Guns and Gunnery in the Dreadnought Era”. Apple Books. 

“Fire-control systems contended with numerous time gaps and dead times, for example between rangefinder cuts (observations), or between observation and sight-setting and firing. Knowing the range rate made it possible to bridge time gaps between observations, or between observation and sight-setting, or to correct aim for the next salvo based on splashes from the last, while shooter and target moved. Prediction came to be called range-keeping or position-keeping.
In 1902 a gunnery officer, Lieutenant (later Rear Admiral) John Saumarez Dumaresq RN, made a remarkable discovery. The rate vector (magnitude and direction) between two ships moving at constant speeds along steady courses did not change over time. It did not depend on range. What did vary were the components of the vector along (ie, the rate along or range rate) and across the line of fire (the rate across), because the direction from shooter to target changed as both steamed along. If the rates were changing slowly, a graph of either against time would be a nearly straight line. ”

Excerpt From: Norman Friedman. “Naval Firepower: Battleship Guns and Gunnery in the Dreadnought Era”. Apple Books. 

“The Dumaresq gave speeds, in yards per minute or in knots, both along and across the line of sight. Although guns had deflection sights (to lead or trail the target) marked in knots, in fact the enemy’s speed across the line of sight could not be measured directly. What an observer saw was a change in bearing, ie, of the angle to the target. The speed across is the bearing rate (angle) multiplied by the range. The longer the range, the slower the angular rate: distant objects seem to move slowly. Later it was useful to translate between Dumaresq output and observable bearing rate. This generally took a human operator using a slide rule or extrapolating from a curve, either of which took time and potentially introduced errors. Some Dumaresqs had additional cross-lines giving bearing rates (angles) for different ranges, so that, given a deflection rate, the bearing rate in degrees could be read off (or estimated). It took a computer to translate smoothly, using a range carried in its analogue mechanism.”

Excerpt From: Norman Friedman. “Naval Firepower: Battleship Guns and Gunnery in the Dreadnought Era”. Apple Books. 

[Macker]

Yes, it works. The icons of the ships at the top of the screen with reveal an estimate of the ships speed, either visually or as measured by radar. It may be necessary to open a list of ships in order to see the speed of a specific ship if they are grouped together.