Shipbucket

Hello again!

As with the British WWI destroyer site, this one is open for everybody, because I have neither time nor inclination to do all 100-odd of them. Apart from the early souts presented below, I've material for the Weymouth-class, and that's pretty much it from me for the time being. So whoever wants to fill some gaps in the inventory - draw away!

Early British turbine scouts: Boadicea-class cruisers, Blanche-Class cruisers and Active-class cruisers

1. Boadicea-class:
The Boadicea-class consisted of two very lightly armed ships named HMS Boadicea and HMS Bellona, completed 1909/10. Their decks and sides had some splinter protection (up to 25mm), but no real armour. Armament consisted of only six 102mm guns - two abreast in front of the bridge, two at the sides behind the deck break and two aft on the centerline for a broadside of four barrrels - and two single 457mm deck torpedo tubes (many souces talk about submerged tubes, but the photographs definitely show deck swivel tubes), and speed was a rather moderate 25 knots, making them unsuitable as leaders for turbine destroyers. As completed, they had low foremasts and high mainmasts:



Boadicea and Bellona could easily be told from each other from Boadicea's larger bulwark around the forward guns and her level-topped funnels. Bellona was the only of her kind with raked funnel tops:



Boadicea had her mainmast shortened in 1912, but the topgallant was placed on top of the foremast:



Bellona had her mainmast cut down in its entirety before the war; the topgallant was also moved forward:



Both received four additional 102mm guns along the sides amidships and a 76mm flak in 1916. Although that made them roughly equal to most older German light cruisers, they were not used in a combat role. At Jutland, both were attached to the Grand Fleet for repeating visual signals:




In 1917/8, both replaced their 76mm HA guns with 102mm HA guns.



Boadicea also got rid of her mainmast, and her 102mm guns on the forecastle and directly behind the deck break were fitted with destroyer-type shields:



Both were retired immediately after the war and scrapped.

2. Blanche-class
The next pair, HMS Blanche and HMS Blonde - completed 1910/11 - were nearly identical with the Boadiceas, but they had no mainmasts and ten 102mm guns from the start (arranged slightly different as on the Boadicas as refitted; although practically all sources state the aft two guns were on the centerline, practically all photographs indicate they were diagonally staggered at the ship's sides), single 533mm deck torpedo tubes instead of 457mm. Their aft superstructure was slightly different as that of the Boadiceas. As completed, they were identical:



Blonde was fitted with destroyer-type gunshields to all ten guns before the war started:



Like the Boadiceas, Blanche was employed as a signals repeater at Jutland. By that time, she had received a 76mm flak and some modifications to the superstructure:



Blonde, who had received similar modifications, missed the battle; she looked like this in 1917:



After Jutland, Blanche received full-sized gunshields for all her 102mm guns, a 102mm flak instead of the 76mm one and further alterations to her aft superstructure:



Like the Boadiceas, both were redundant after the war and scrapped in 1920.

3. Active-class
The third group consisted of three ships, named HMS Active, HMS Amphion and HMS Fearless. They were completed in 1911 (Active) and 1913 (other two). They could be told by their older half sisters by their sickle-shaped bow. Otherwise, they were very similar; their armament and its arrangement was the same as on the Blanches. Again, their aft superstructure was somewhat altered:



Amphion differed only in some details aft from Active; she was the first RN cruiser to be sunk during the first world war after striking a mine. At the time of her loss, she was unaltered:



Active served at Jutland as a signals repeater. She had received a 76mm HA gun; otherwise no significant alterations were made (if the photographs on the net are labeled correctly, that is).



Fearless also differed in minor superstructure details. By 1916, she was fitted with full-sized gunshields to all her guns and a 76mm HA piece; her searchlights were re-arranged for better arcs:



Active received dazzle camouflage towards the end of the war; probably the others were also painted like that, but I found no photographs of any of the others in camouflage. She also received a 102mm HA gun, landed two of her 102mm LA guns (I found no written account which ones, and photographs are inconclusive; my deleting the T pair is an educated guess pending more reliable information) and had her searchlights re-arranged:



The surviving units were scrapped in 1920.

Greetings
GD

Exellent!

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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

Great stuff. Those look very nice!

well this is a well waited thread! good work.

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Shipbucket mainsite, aka "The Archive"
New AU project "Aravala"

These are excellently drawn, as we've come to expect from GD's works.
A really informative series of drawings and descriptions too.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

"Amphion differed only in some details aft from Active;" well ...
Unlike the other scouts, Amphion had only two screws. See pm

Lots of possibilities here GD

Wonderful. Many thanks.

SUPERB!!!

Awesome job!!!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

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