USS Texas battleship: What is this thing under the bow?

Factual Questions
1

I know many here hate video links but this is the only way I can show it (see below). It is queued to the right spot and anyone can see what I am asking about with a few seconds watch (maybe 10 seconds).

Not sure how to verbally describe the bit in question. Looks like something you would use to tie the ship to a dock or tow it but I cannot imagine how any of that would work since it is under the bow.

So, what is it and what was it used for? The commentator says it is a rare feature and only a few ships ever had one.

2

He says it’s the deadeye (ie attachment point) for paravanes

3

So a paravane , as a weapon on a navy ship, is a device towed underwater…

For anti-submarine use, it would have to be an explosive warhead that tried to go deep under the keel, and if it was rammed into a submarine, or the sonar, etc, determined it was close enough, it would explode or be detonated…

For anti-mine use, the paravane would be deployed to go out to the side and down, and then it has a cutter attached, so that if it had the mine caught on the tow line, the mines mooring line would be dragged along the tow line and into the cutter…thus cutting the mine free or at least its remote detonation cable.

4

Did they work as intended?

I am guessing not since the video suggests it is a rare item to see on a ship.

5

I would guess the device was made redundant when task specific craft were designed.

6

Exactly. Navies realized that using your big expensive battleships to clear mines was stupid when you could use an expendable, cheap minesweeper instead.

7

Thanks!

As an aside…

I watched the bit I linked five times and for the life of me could not lock on to the word he was saying. I turned on the CC for the video, I tried Googling some variations and I got nothing.

Then you write “paravanes” and now it seems obvious and I cannot hear it any other way.

There is probably a term for this but heck if I know what it is. Kinda cool though.

(I also didn’t know what a “deadeye” was so…double-whammy for me.)

8

I can’t think of a word that is exactly right. I suppose it’s really the positive flipside of auditory pareidolia.

Once you hear the pattern you can’t unhear it. When you hear non-existent voices on allegedly backmasked records its bad. But when you hear existent voices in real speech, it’s good. But the basic thing happening in your brain is the same. Either way you are hearing a pattern and latching on to it.

9

That is a really cool video by a guy that’s pleasantly tongue-tied with enthusiasm. I heard deadeye but that’s a term used in rigging and I have some experience there. But paravanes is a new term for me.