a bit of an what if, although quite close to reality.
the real life Van Speijk class frigates was an modified Leander class frigate. but what if the british shared the welding design expertise and the powerplant, but not the design itself.
the netherlands modified the design to fit dutch systems and design and operating practise, and the resulting drawing work was a lot more then expected, and the ships were because of that costlier then expected. it is known that the friesland class hull was not out of date (it's construction, only partially welded, was) so what if the dutch build an new ship based on the friesland hull, the type 12 construction method (welded and in blocks) and the type 81 powerplant. the resulting ship is shown here.
![[ img ]](http://cizadlo.us/JScholtens/Public/Alternate%20Dutch%20navy/FF%20Van%20Speijk%20Alternate.png)
I have chosen for weapons that were in the dutch inventory already to further reduce costs (as the van speijk class lost their main gun relatively soon because they were the only ships in the navy that used it, while the 120mm was reused on the tromps and even considered for the LCF)
so the limbo and 4,5in gun are replaced by the bofors mortar and the 120mm gun used on the friesland class.
