Shipbucket

I have decided to take a break from my Roman AU to work a little on my American no washington treaty au. Seeing the aparrent lack of light cruisers between the Omaha and the Brooklyn, I decided to make a light cruiser inspired by a picture I found of the starting point for the Brooklyn class, picture is below.



It has 12 6 inch guns in 4 triple turrets, and interestingly enough, 4 dual 5 inch turrets. On my drawing I used the ones I drew for my American entry into the 25.000 ton BB/BC "competition." The turret is based on the turrets I have seen on early 30s design battleships, you can find them in Friedman's US Battleships.

The Phoenix is the same size as the Brooklyn, 185 meters long and 18 meters wide. Since it's a light cruiser, I tried to keep the displacement as close to 10.000 tons as possible. I was able to get down to 10.600 tons. Top speed is 33 kts, range is 10000 nm at 10 kts. Armor is also very similar to the Brooklyn, armor belt is 5 inches thick. The turrets are 6 inches at the front, 2 inches on the sides and the rear, the barbettes are 6 inches thick. The conning tower is 5 inches thick. The armor belt covers all the front turrets, and the #3 turret aft. The armor belt goes as deep as the knuckle, so I guess it kinda blends in with it, if that is even possible. Overall it looks alot like the New Orleans class.

USS Phoenix as commisioned in 1936:


Phoenix in 1939. Note the addition of the two 1.1 inch quad AA guns.


Phoenix in 1941. Bulwark on top of the pilothouse has been extended all the way to the edge. Aft davit has been removed.
The ship is now painted in the MS-1 pain scheme.


Phoenix in 1942 as she appeared in the Guadalcanal campaign. All .50 cals have been removed, and replaced with Bofors 20mm. A few more Bofors
have been added to the bow and below the bridge and the aft superstructure. Two more 1.1 inch guns have been added to the stern.
The ship is now painted in the MS-21 all blue pain scheme.


Phoenix as refitted in 1943- Her refit included the remodeling of her superstructure to improve the fire arc for the AA guns. Her LA 5 inch guns are replaced with 5"/38 dual turrets. Her AA complement has been modified, 8 quad 40mm Bofors have replaced the 1.1 inch guns. The Oerlikon 20mm have been increased to 18 twin mounts. The ship also recieved two SG radars and a SK radar atop of her foremast. The ship is painted in the Measure 33 Design 13D.


USS Phoenix in early-mid 1944. The only real change is the addition of two Bofors 20mm guns on the bow and two atop of turret #2.


USS Phoenix in late 1944 with the mk 51 replacing the mk 49 directors. Late 1944 also sees the addition of 4 more Oerlikons around the #2 funnel.


USS Phoenix as she appeared during the invasion of Okinawa in 1945. In anticipation of heavy air resistance, and kamikaze attacks, the Phoenix was outfitted with an additional 4 quad Bofors 40mm guns, two fore, and two aft. The ship also recieved the SP/SM radar height finder on her mainmast. The Phoenix is now painted in the Measure 22 pain scheme.


USS Phoenix, United States of America, Light Cruiser, laid down in 1932

Displacement:
11 011 t light; 11 463 t standard; 12 100 t normal; 12 609 t full load

Dimensions: Length overall / water x beam x draught
606,00 ft / 595,50 ft x 62,00 ft x 27,00 ft (normal load)
184,71 m / 181,51 m x 18,90 m x 8,23 m

Armament:
12 - 6,00" / 152 mm guns (4x3 guns), 108,00lbs / 48,99kg shells, 1932 Model
Breech loading guns in turrets (on barbettes)
on centreline ends, evenly spread, 2 raised mounts - superfiring
8 - 5,00" / 127 mm guns (4x2 guns), 62,50lbs / 28,35kg shells, 1932 Model
Breech loading guns in deck mounts with hoists
on side, all amidships
4 - 0,50" / 12,7 mm guns in single mounts, 0,06lbs / 0,03kg shells, 1932 Model
Breech loading guns in deck mounts
on side, evenly spread
Weight of broadside 1 796 lbs / 815 kg
Shells per gun, main battery: 200

Armour:
- Belts: Width (max) Length (avg) Height (avg)
Main: 5,00" / 127 mm 390,00 ft / 118,87 m 20,00 ft / 6,10 m
Ends: Unarmoured
Main Belt covers 101 % of normal length
Main belt does not fully cover magazines and engineering spaces

- Torpedo Bulkhead:
2,00" / 51 mm 321,50 ft / 97,99 m 10,00 ft / 3,05 m

- Gun armour: Face (max) Other gunhouse (avg) Barbette/hoist (max)
Main: 6,00" / 152 mm 2,00" / 51 mm 6,00" / 152 mm

- Armour deck: 2,00" / 51 mm, Conning tower: 5,00" / 127 mm

Machinery:
Oil fired boilers, steam turbines,
Geared drive, 4 shafts, 104 456 shp / 77 924 Kw = 33,00 kts
Range 10 000nm at 10,00 kts
Bunker at max displacement = 1 146 tons

Complement:
576 - 749

Cost:
£4,571 million / $18,284 million

Distribution of weights at normal displacement:
Armament: 225 tons, 1,9 %
Armour: 3 257 tons, 26,9 %
- Belts: 1 620 tons, 13,4 %
- Torpedo bulkhead: 238 tons, 2,0 %
- Armament: 488 tons, 4,0 %
- Armour Deck: 855 tons, 7,1 %
- Conning Tower: 57 tons, 0,5 %
Machinery: 3 083 tons, 25,5 %
Hull, fittings & equipment: 4 446 tons, 36,7 %
Fuel, ammunition & stores: 1 089 tons, 9,0 %
Miscellaneous weights: 0 tons, 0,0 %

Overall survivability and seakeeping ability:
Survivability (Non-critical penetrating hits needed to sink ship):
13 011 lbs / 5 902 Kg = 120,5 x 6,0 " / 152 mm shells or 1,9 torpedoes
Stability (Unstable if below 1.00): 1,11
Metacentric height 3,0 ft / 0,9 m
Roll period: 15,0 seconds
Steadiness - As gun platform (Average = 50 %): 52 %
- Recoil effect (Restricted arc if above 1.00): 0,39
Seaboat quality (Average = 1.00): 1,03

Hull form characteristics:
Hull has raised forecastle, rise forward of midbreak, low quarterdeck
Block coefficient: 0,425
Length to Beam Ratio: 9,60 : 1
'Natural speed' for length: 24,40 kts
Power going to wave formation at top speed: 56 %
Trim (Max stability = 0, Max steadiness = 100): 50
Bow angle (Positive = bow angles forward): 16,08 degrees
Stern overhang: 2,00 ft / 0,61 m
Freeboard (% = measuring location as a percentage of overall length):
- Stem: 29,50 ft / 8,99 m
- Forecastle (20 %): 26,00 ft / 7,92 m (24,00 ft / 7,32 m aft of break)
- Mid (50 %): 22,50 ft / 6,86 m (13,50 ft / 4,11 m aft of break)
- Quarterdeck (15 %): 13,50 ft / 4,11 m (14,50 ft / 4,42 m before break)
- Stern: 15,00 ft / 4,57 m
- Average freeboard: 19,49 ft / 5,94 m

Ship space, strength and comments:
Space - Hull below water (magazines/engines, low = better): 144,6 %
- Above water (accommodation/working, high = better): 139,5 %
Waterplane Area: 23 097 Square feet or 2 146 Square metres
Displacement factor (Displacement / loading): 108 %
Structure weight / hull surface area: 111 lbs/sq ft or 544 Kg/sq metre
Hull strength (Relative):
- Cross-sectional: 0,95
- Longitudinal: 1,56
- Overall: 1,00
Hull space for machinery, storage, compartmentation is cramped
Room for accommodation and workspaces is excellent

Hi Karle!

I'm no USN expert, so praise from me may not be worth much, but you have it anyway! Excellent drawing! Although - as far as I understood - the 127mm twin turrets for the secondary batteries of early 1930s US BB designs were LA only, the same as on the big Somers and Porter-class destroyers, but I might have got that wrong.

Greetings
GD

The Porter and Somers did indeed have La guns only. I see no reason not to have Ha guns as the 5"/38 was designed as a DP gun from the very start. The USS Brooklyn irl had DP guns when she was commisioned in 1937, so it is not much of a stretch to have them in 1936.

Looking very good! I like the New Orleans look you gave her.

I like this one. Only advice is that the screws maybe look a bit too large, but I'm no expert.

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

A nice drawing. On the angled deckhouse immediately forward of the rear 6" turrets, I think the angled portion should be shaded darker, not lighter. The portholes also ought to be narrowed by a pixel, since we're looking at them at an angle. I think these minor changes would make the shape more clear.

Glad you like it, cause I just added some more drawings of the ship. A 1939, 41 and 42 version. The screws are 2-3 pixels longer than that of other US cruisers, so the size difference is negligible.
That part is narrower than the hangar, but wider than the inward sloping part that the turret stands on, also of note, its narrower than the hull. The hangar extends vertically from the hull all the way to the top, so I colored it the same way as the hull. I did it like that so I would not have 6-7 different colors on the superstructure

This is really well done! It's so beautiful!

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Good stuff. Love the evolution.

_________________
USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

She looks very nice "light" cruiser (in the LNT sense), my question is in a "my American no washington treaty au" does she make sense ?

With no limits from treaty's would you not get lighter scouts (cheap 6" ships) and then much bigger 8"+ up to full BCs and fast BBs ?

Even if you did get a light scout at 10,000t (maybe needed for the range requirements of the pacific ?) would it not need much more than 30Kt to run from the faster new capital ships in your AU ? Would a Speed of at least 34Kn be needed to run with Lexington-class etc ?