Shipbucket

Excellent drawing; and the 'look' is (I think) due to her design origins as a Coast Guard cutter.

The Erie class actually draws more from US cruiser design than Coast Guard cutters. They were designed in a bit the same sort of fashion as the French colonial avisos, and drew on the lineage of the Colonial Gunboat, the Peace Cruiser, etc. The Eries were born out of the London Treaty's exemption of ships 600-2,000 tons, with up to 6.1" guns - so long as they didn't exceed 20 knots, and didn't have torpedo tubes. The US negotiators for the London Treaty, incidentally, saw this unlimited category as a way to evade Treaty restrictions on cruisers and destroyers, but in the end only Erie and Charleston were built.

Friedman's U.S. Cruisers has a chapter on the Erie-class and the other London Treaty designs.

Thanks for the clarification The design is certainly unique, and seemed to offer good service in the role of 'colonial gunboat'

Indeed they did. They're a very attractive design, too, what with the racy clipper prow and their almost-but-not-quite cruiser bridge.

I'm also planning on drawing PGM-9 class gunboat, unless someone objects of course.

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Worklist: Portuguese Navy and Barnegat class seaplane tenders

I have a 1:1250 scale model of the USS Erie. It's one of the (odd to say, but true) cutest and yet prettiest warships ever thought up. Like Brock stated: what with that graceful clipper bow, the almost-ran-as-a cruiser bridge structure and the unique stern, never repeated again, but so efficient in this design? What about that complex boat stowage midships with an additional floatplane stowage in-between? It's just so full of those little, almost anachronistic details that makes it so attractive, in spite of its size and rather modest looking history.

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My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen

I am curious as to what a RN version would have looked like.

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"It is better to type nothing and be assumed an ass, than to type something and remove all doubt." - Me

Apparently a small part of Erie's design process was inspired by some rumors from Britain. Friedman writes: "However, at the hearing, the British were credited with a design for a 2,300-tonner (16 knots, 10,000nm radius) with a diesel engine, bulge protection against torpedoes, four 6-inch guns, and space for a catapult. Ideas for ships of this sort were circulating in the British naval press of the time, but it is not clear whether this one really had official backing."

Erie's little sister, USS Charleston. Shown here as in 1944, wearing her warpaint, with new electronics, depth charge racks, and extra 6 20mm Oerlikons:

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Worklist: Portuguese Navy and Barnegat class seaplane tenders

Cute WhyMe, but by that time I don't believe she carried any aircraft

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Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"