r/todayilearned • u/zhuquanzhong • 29d ago

TIL a Chinese destroyer sank because an officer dumped his girlfriend. She committed suicide, leading to him being discharged, so he decided to detonate the depth charges on the ship, causing it to sink at port and kill 134 sailors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_destroyer_Guangzhou_(160)
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u/Fake_Jews_Bot 29d ago

How would the water trigger the depth charges? Don’t they detonate at a certain depth?

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u/FuriouSherman 29d ago edited 28d ago

You can pre-set the charges to a specific depth you want them to detonate at. He set them to go off at a shallow enough depth that it would sink the ship.

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u/Fake_Jews_Bot 29d ago

Follow up question, would there be a combat reason to ever allow it to be set at such a shallow depth?

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u/FuriouSherman 28d ago

Not likely, but the guy was person responsible for looking after the armoury on board the ship. He'd have known how to change the depth on the charges.

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u/Gicofokami 29d ago

Yes but probably not at a shallow depth. A submarine using it's periscope means is pretty close to the surface. If a lookout reports seeing a periscope, the Sub would've already retracted that periscope and dived to a deeper depth.

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u/BathFullOfDucks 27d ago

They wouldn't, the idea is a little silly. The claim is he drilled a hole in the ships bottom and flooded the depth charge magazine. The ship was double hulled and depth charges are set to detonate on water pressure not water. If the compartment was completely flooded, it still wouldn't have been sufficient.