Shipbucket

And now something with big guns.



Design

The Prince royal class was designed as an replacement for old and obsolete Dreadnought's of the Knight class, The Knight class was out performed in every aspect, there guns was to small, they was to slow, and they armor could withstand modern naval guns. The Navy needed a class of ship that was big enough to carry the best guns available at that time, have the armor to withstand several direct hits and was faster. for this requirement, The Main Naval Shipyard saw what the British build, and immediately designed an ship that was similar to the British Battleships. The shipyard come up with the Prince Royal class. a ship that was around 198 meter long, had a top speed of 25 knots+ and carried 4 twin long barrel 15" turret. with strengthened bulkhead, and decks with armor plating, hull with spaced armor belt, and box over the magazine and engine room, they would be able to withstand a lot of punishment while deliver it back with interest.

Here gun director was an improved British gun director for better faster and better communication line between the CIC, the gun director and the guns.

Main guns was a fully electric hydraulic gun system, electric motors and hydraulic piston had the task of move the gun around on tracks. the Hydraulic piston had also the job to lock and take the shock from the guns. barrels was tilted by electric motors with manual drift as backup, the gun barrels had also a simple system with locking pins that will stop the gun at the exact same spot it was on last time, these gave the gun the opportunity to fall back in the exact same it was in and send a shell in almost the same spot. The guns rotating engine was connected to the ruder so if the gun have been locked in to an angle it could be coupled up to the ruder control, and if the ship turn the gun will turn, this gave the gun the opportunity to keep it's barrels in the general direction of where it's firing.

History

1920 Caledonia have been laying in constant conflict with the Chines for a long time (Yes the Chines in this AU is an war-hungering nation or something like that). During 1921 a Caledonian Task force on patrol in it's colonial waters, come under attack by Chines Dreadnoughts and battleships. The Chines as always had say those colonies belong to them, and Caledonia as normal said it was them's.

Colonial war 1921

When the task force come under fire by an superior force of Chines Dreadnought's and Battleships, Caledonia had to pull back, for there was no ships in the area that could stand up for the Chines task force, many Caledonia Dreadnoughts was still in Europa and doing repairs, or patrolling neutral waters. But 3 newly commissioned Battleships of the Prince Royal class was just been launched, before any trails they was sent down to the colony to go after the Chines. May 1921 a Caledonian hotpot fleet of newly build Battleship, 1 large Dreadnought that was originally just was taken out of service and a couple of support ships, trawled down to the colonies to "rendezvous" with the Task force that consisted of cruisers and dreadnoughts. in Late May The Fleet intercepted the Chines fleet and engaged them at close range. The Chines Dreadnought was fast sunken by the superior firepower of the old Caledonian Dreadnought's six 16,4" guns. but she was again heavy damaged by the Chines battleships. The Prince Royal class, had problem with the new gun's in the start of the battle, had now managed to fix the problem and opened fire on the Chines, it was a battle that was devastating for the Chines. Of the Three Dreadnoughts, and four Battleships, only two Chines battleships managed to return from the battle. On the Caledonia side there was just the Caledonian Dreadnought that got damaged.

As newspaper wrote:
"Firepower of one old Caledonia Dreadnought and three newly untested Battleships, devastated and Chines battle-group..."

Nice ship Heuhen! I take it China isn't heavily preyed upon by western powers in this AU?

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Worklist

"If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done." ~Ludwig Wittgenstein

something like that.

Interesting history and a nice looking ship. Two questions though;

What is the strake like structure beneath the ram on the bow?

What year were these ships laid down and commissioned? Reason I ask is that the ship looks externally too early for 15in guns but I could be mistaken.

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"The first rule is not to lose; The second rule is not to forget the first rule"

have you heard about Queen Elizabeth class!!!?

I do, I meant as in her overall design looks pre-1910 for the most part apart from superfiring turrets. If you were indeed using the QEs as reference then I'd imagine you're looking at a WW1 period design with these.

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"The first rule is not to lose; The second rule is not to forget the first rule"

Yes I used the QE. Note that QE was build in 1913. And if the text bellow is correct (The quote), Caledonia would earliest be able to launch a battleship similar to the QE just with Caledonian design and ... 2-4 years later.

This is QE in 1913:
http://www.shipbucket.com/images.php?di ... 201913.png
and this in 1924:
http://www.shipbucket.com/Real%20Design ... 201924.png

and my ships would be launched between them. So I don't see any problem at all!

Nope if that's the case I agree with you in that you have a good feasible design here. Even more actually given the launch of the QEs upset the naval balance world over with the 15in gun being rather more potent than the 11, 12 and 13.5 guns most common at the time on various dreadnoughts.

In your case, Caledonia would certainly have a desire to build an equivalent ship just like Germany did with the Badens.

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"The first rule is not to lose; The second rule is not to forget the first rule"

HCoMS Royal was the last Dreadnought giant ever to be build, when she was launched she was already obsolete by the British standards, thus the building program of the Prince royal class. some was nicked trough the media as the sleeping Giant. because she rarly saw action, most of here time was in dock for repairing it's experimental 16,4" guns that by size was far in front of any navy, but the gun effectiveness have always been questioned, by admirals. No one think she will ever fire here gun in anger. But then the conflict against the Chines forces started, the Admiralty moved the HCoMS Royal closer to Chines water in hope that the Chines would not engage Caledonian fleet, due to here presence.

Chines conflict 1914

September 24. 1914, kl.0700 Chines warships engaged Caledonian fleet. HCoMS Royal was ordered to retreat because of gun problems, but when the Chines managed to get trough the front line the managed to catch up with HCoMS Royal due to here low top speed. by 1600 HCoMS Royal opened full broadside against three Chines Battleships, 3 minutes later she fired again, and was still aiming in on the Chines, by kl.1630 her 10 salvo Hit the Chines Battleships with devastating power, The Chines Battleships "Chi Ha" got the entire fore deck with both it's mains gun there ripped apart, while Battleships " Qianlong" got the entire superstructure blown of and the third Battleship was hit in the Engineering compartment and sank. by kl.1900 HCoMS Royal had engaged five battleships, two battlecruiser and several cruisers. She was hit several times and was damaged, but was still engaging the Chines ships. by kl.1915 she was reinforced by the fifth fleet under the command of an British Admiral that was on visit, but took the command when the Fleet Admiral had to go to shore due to illness.

After the conflict with the Chines in 1914 she traveled home to Caledonia for repairs, and have here gun's upgrade. something she received several times due to the problem with these guns, as shown in the first engagement with the Chines, where just after 60 shot started to hits it's targets. It was first in 1932 Caledonia managed to solve the problem with the guns.

Very nice.

But backstory of you ships start to remind a low budget karate film. Bang! one battleship sunk. Bang! second battleship sunk. Bang! Bang! Bang! whole battleships fleet sunk. BANG! whole continent sunk! There is no tragic end, only happy end for every ship with come back to port like hero and dead enemy ship bodies all over the place.

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Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!