Shipbucket

Hi all!

Admiral Spaun and Novara-class scout cruisers

A class of handsome cruisers which were the most active large units of the KuK navy during the war. They were among the first light cruisers with vertical armour (60mm) and were capable of 27 knots. The prototype Admiral Spaun had a complicated and unreliable four-shaft Parsons turbine plant and was armed with seven 100mm guns and two single 450mm torpedo tubes.


During the war, she had her aft mast shortened (which was apparently a temporary measure, because the cut down mast parts were carried at the ship's side) and received two more single torpedo tubes; a 66/50 HA gun was monuted aft.


The other three had simpler and more reliable two-shaft turbine plants, from Melms&Pfenniger of Munich on Saida and AEG-Curtis on the other two. Saida's plant was more reliable than Spaun's but less so than the engines of Novara and Helgoland. They had nine rather than seven 100mm guns and six rather than two 450mm torpedo tubes; the aft twin set was monted eccentrically dead aft, overhanging the stern. Saida was easily distinguishable from the other two by her flat, square ventilators.


Helgoland and Novara were quite identical. Photos labeled 'Helgoland' don't show the yardarm on the foremast; if she indeed didn't have it, that would be the only distinguishing factor.



Helgoland and Novara were modernized by replacing their 450mm torpedo tubes with the same number of 533mm tubes; they also had their mainmast shortened. All three received a single 66/50 HA gun.



For some reason, Saida retained her 450mm torpedo tubes.


After the war, the ships were divided up between the victorious Entente powers: Spaun was allotted to Great Britain and scrapped forthwith, Novara to France (commissioned as Thionville, scrapped 1936) and Saida and Helgoland to Italy (commissioned as Venezia and Brindisi, also scrapped in the late 1930s).

Greetings
GD

Beautiful ships.
Beautiful drawings.

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My Worklist
Sources and documentations are the most welcome.

-Koko Kyouwakoku (Republic of Koko)
-Koko's carrier-based aircrafts of WWII
-Koko Kaiun Yuso Kaisha - KoKaYu Line (Koko AU spinoff)
-Koko - Civil Aviation

beautiful sleek things
i know it might affect fidelity but the hull/rudder line looks weird going from double black to gap to double black like that

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Hatsuyuki-class Escort Ships . . . <3

Great work. They were beautiful ships and Your excellent drawings did them justice.

Thank you so much,
You didn't have to give me a birthday present .........

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Alexandre Dumas

JE SUIS CHARLIE

Very nice drawing of a very nice ship, probably the most eye catching of the KuK cruisers. Cheers.

If I recall the Novaria class did not have any fantail mounted torpedo tubes before 1916.

Hi all!

First things first:
@Karle: All written sources I have checked claim the Novaras were designed with three 450mm twin torpedo tubes (except Conway, who don't mention any torpedo tubes at all, probably in error). Might I ask where you got the info the Novaras had only two twin TT sets? I'm not omniscient, maybe I missed something.

And something obscure: The Argentine protected cruiser Patagonia.

This vessel - at 1430 ts mean displacement and a length of 65 meter she was barely bigger than a gunboat - was one of the very few export orders won by an Austrian shipyard in the 19th century. Typically Austrian, she was designed for head-on attack, with twin screws to give good maneuverability for ramming, and a ludicrously huge 254mm gun forward. There also were three 152mm and four 76mm pieces, making her quite overarmed for her size. Freeboard was so low she'd be well advised not to travel too far out of the River Plate estuary.


After an uneventful career, she was downgraded to survey ship in 1909; armament now consisted of a 152mm, a 120mm and six 76mm pieces.


She was later converted to a transport and scrapped at some point after 1920.

Greetings
GD

I found this on Wikipedia: "Novara was armed with nine 50-caliber 10 cm (3.9 in) guns in single pedestal mounts. Three were placed forward on the forecastle, four were located amidships, two on either side, and two were side by side on the quarterdeck. A Škoda 7-centimeter (2.8 in)/50 K10 anti-aircraft gun and six 53.3 cm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes in twin mounts were added in 1917. The navy planned to remove the guns on the forecastle and quarterdeck and replace them with a pair of 15-centimeter (5.9 in) guns fore and aft, but nothing was done before the end of the war. The ship was protected by a waterline armored belt that was 60 mm (2.4 in) thick amidships and a 20 mm (0.79 in) thick deck. The conning tower had 60 mm thick sides, and the guns had 40 mm (1.6 in) thick shields."

Be serious, don't use Wikipedia as a main refs
Use Navals-Books & photographic evidence