Thiaria: Reboot

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4.3. Cuiteamh-Class
When Thiaria entered the war, all pre-war building plans had to be re-evaluated. Two large 18.000-ton cruisers with 220mm guns were to be laid down in 1940 and 1941, but these were first postponed for a year, then postponed infinitely and finally cancelled in late 1941. The high initial losses needed to be replaced quickly, and the prime requirement for any new cruiser was the shortest possible building time. The CTS yard, which had designed the large cruiser minelayers of the Coire-class, offered an evolved design based on a slightly lengthened hull turned into full-fledged fleet AA cruisers. The mine rails and the aircraft catapult were eliminated. Designed hp was reduced to 80.000 for a speed of 33 knots; the number of shafts decreased to two. Additional bunker room was worked in to provide 10.000 miles range at 15 knots. Two more 130mm twin mounts were added amidships, one on each beam, their magazines located between the central machinery units. The number of 37mm quads was also increased to six. Armour protection was wholly altered, eliminating the magazine armour boxes in favour of a 60mm belt over the vitals to give protection against destroyer fire. Effective protection against cruiser fire was considered unachievable on the displacement available. The armoured deck above the vitals was set at 50mm, and standard displacement increased to 6.300 tons. These vessels were the first pure fleet cruisers of the Thiarian Navy, without aviation facilities and thus unsuited for solo raiding. The type was approved in mid-1940, and no less than eight were authorized in the war emergency building programme. All were to be fitted as flagships for destroyer squadrons. With the naval yards busy with repair jobs, an initial batch of four were ordered by the private yards CSCA, Riordan, CTS and Boldisaire in August 1940. Like all Thiarian light cruisers, they were named for abstract qualities (substantive form), in the order of shipyards as given above: LT Cuiteamh (Gaelic: Retribution), LT Contuirt (Gaelic: Adventure), LT Cinseal (Gaelic: Pride) and LT Coimirce (Gaelic: Safeguard). All were laid down in late 1940 and early 1941. Orders for four more were placed in 1941, all at smaller private yards, none of which had ever built a cruiser-sized warship. LT Coraiste (Gaelic: Valour) was ordered at South-eastern Steel (Cruach Deisceartrach-Oithearach / CDO) at Corcaigh, LT Cosaint (Gealic: Defence) at the Slatiascaigh shipyard in Abersiorrad, LT Ceannairc (named for An Ceannairc (Gaelic: The Rebellion), the first uprising of Irish settlers and former African Slaves against the French in 1803 after Napoleon had revoked most revolutionary liberties and re-instated slavery, a central part of Thiaria's founding myth) at the Loingsigh&Riain shipyard at Arathiar, and LT Calloid (Gaelic: Tumult) at the Longaon shipyard in Iartha Mor (the mother company of the larger and better known airplane manufacturer Aeraon). Although CTS had already defaulted on their promise to deliver the Coire-class within 36 months, the cruisers of the first batch were to be delivered within 30 months. In the panicky atmosphere of 1940 and 1941, construction of the first batch indeed proceeded extremely quickly, and by mid-1942, all were launched. The second batch met with more difficulties; construction of aircraft carriers, destroyers, escorts and submarines was prioritized in terms of materiel and workforce from 1941, and by mid-1942, only the first two had been laid down. The other two were cancelled later that year in favour of mass orders for escorts and submarines. As building proceeded, the design was constantly altered to keep up with changing requirements. The somewhat austere fire control equipment of the Coires was augmented; four heavy and four light flak directors were provided, and electrical power generating capacity was doubled to operate the planned radar suite. To give them more bang in surface engagements, no less than sixteen 559mm torpedo tubes were added amidships to balance the still relatively weak gun battery, two quad sets on each beam, and the light AA outfit was increased every few months. As the hull design had already been relatively tight, they became substantially overweight and unstable, which the yard did not reveal until after they were launched. Production had already been delayed due to the intial hull redesign for increased armour protection; CTS thus rejected another time-consuming change, and simply bulged them instead, adding 800 tons of displacement. Completion was slowed down as all four were docked and bulged, and the lead unit, LT Cuiteamh, was not finished before July 1943. Contuirt followed in October, Cinseal in November and Coimirce in February 1944. As commissioned, all received Asdic, Hydrophones and two DC racks per ship for escort duty, plus twenty 20mm cannon. The bulges, while successfully restoring stability, reduced speed to 31 knots on 7.050 tons standard, no longer enough for a destroyer leader; they were now single-role AA escort cruisers. As completed, they looked like this:

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When they joined the fleet, Thiaria already had her hands full defending supply convoys to Montevideo and New Portugal; the latter had an average avgas supply of three weeks during 1943 and 1944, and a single missed convoy would render it open to invasion. The British and Brazilians attacked the convoys not only with the customary submarines, but also increasingly with surface forces. All Cuiteamh-class cruisers were used as close cover group flagships for conovoys; at least one of them was accompanying virtually every convoy in the last year of Thiaria's war on the axis side. Cuiteamh hit an air-dropped Brazilian mine while approaching New Portugal on her 9th convoy mission in April 1944 and spent the rest of the war under repair in Abernenui. Contuirt survived the war undamaged despite she was targeted by half a dozen enemy air strikes on her 15 convoy escort missions. Her crew was the very first in the Thiarian Navy to join the rebellion against the Murchada regime in August 1944, and she accompanied the battleship Conaire to An Trionaid that month. Cinseal made only three convoy escort missions. She was damaged by Brazilian carrier aircraft in December 1943, by the British submarine Shannon in March 1944 and finally sunk by British carrier aircraft in June 1944; between repairs, she had been in active service for a mere 15 weeks. Coimirce (together with the older Comhcheangal) was with the close escort group of the Montevideo convoy that came under US/Brazilian attack during the battle of Faoigabhar. The Thiarian distant cover group and the attacking force messily slugged it out, and the convoy came through, but a month later, Coimirce's convoy came under attack by the Brazilian cruisers Tamandare and Abreu, with whom Coimirce exchanged some rounds before the Brazilians retreated to avoid friendly fire events when allied airplanes attacked and sank five merchants. Coimirce then shot down four aircraft and escaped unharmed. She accompanied a total of ten convoys. Some of the convoy missions mentioned above overlap; in some cases, two (and in one case, even three) of these cruisers were present. Alterations were few; they replaced the AA platform amidships with a deckhouse on which four rather than two 20mm twins were mounted, and newer AA fire control radars and air search radars were installed in 1944. The fore and aft DP directors had to be raised to clear LA arcs for their larger radar antennae. At the time of her loss, Cinseal looked like this:

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Of the second batch, only Coraiste was completed in September 1944, and she came too late for the war. Cosaint was still unfinished at Thiaria's surrender in November; she was scheduled to complete in February 1945. Both had been lengthened and widened compared with the original design while on stocks, resulting in a standard displacement of 6.880ts. Apart from this, they saved weight by reducing the number of torpedo tubes to eight and lowering and simplifying the amidships superstructure. The number of 20mm cannon as commissioned was 28 in 10 twin and 8 single mounts. The second batch, which needed no bulges and was capable of 32,5 knots, looked like this:

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Contuirt and Coimirce were partly disarmed after the war, losing their torpedoes and 20mm cannon and the lateral 130mm turrets. They were now light enough for the bulges (which had been hastily built and were starting to leak anyway) to be removed in a 1948/9 yard period; speed increased to 32,5 knots. In their part-disarmed state, they looked like this:

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Both remained continuously in service till 1957; in that year, they were placed in reserve and laid up. Cuiteamh on the other hand was laid up unrepaired in 1944 until the peace treaty was signed in 1948, which stipulated Cuiteamh may be retained as one of six cruisers of Thiaria's postwar fleet. Repairs commenced in 1950, but she was damaged by a yard fire in 1951 and again laid up. Lack of funds prevented further work till 1954. Cuiteamh then was completed as a gun cruiser. All 130mm and 37mm guns were landed; in place of the former, four single Mk.45 automatic 127mm/54 guns and in place of the latter six twin automatic 76mm guns were installed. She also received a completely new superstructure with only one funnel and two lattice masts, one of which carried an old SX radar which had been delivered in 1949 already. Apart from that old set, the rest of the electronics gear was high end US equipment. Four sets of French sourced 550mm triple ASW torpedo sets were carried as well, in place of the old surface torpedo tubes. The engine plant was removed entirely and replaced by a new 68.000hp steam plant with four times the electric power generation capability; speed dropped to 30 knots. She was the most modern unit of the Thiarian fleet when she returned to service in 1956, but due to structural issues that could never be fully remedied, Cuiteamh never gave very satisfactory service. After merely ten years, she was judged unfit for further modernization in 1967 and placed in reserve. She was never reactivated and scrapped in 1972. After her 1956 refit, she looked like this:

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Plans to convert Contuirt and Coimirce to missile cruisers were drafted from 1958; in that year, a launch unit and some missiles of the Swiss designed Contraves liquid-fueled SAM system were acquired and tested, with profoundly sobering results. The rebuild programme stalled till 1962, when the Kennedy administration granted access to contemporary missile technology. Terrier, which was installed on Spleodar and Fulaingt, was too bulky for the Contuirt-class, and Tartar was substituted. Contuirt began her reconstruction in 1964 and re-emerged in late 1966, virtually new. She received the same engine plant as Cuiteamh and a very similar superstructure; with her new single funnel and the standardized lattice masts, she also somewhat resembled the larger Ardcheim and Spleodar from a distance. Two Mk.45 127mm guns including fire control were installed forward and the Mk.11 Tartar launcher aft. Two heavy SPG-55 guidance radars topped the aft deckhouse (they were purchased to retain commonality with the Terrier guidance system on Ardcheim and Spleodar, although lighter directors would have been available), and two lattice masts were erected; the aft one carried a SPS-26 3D-radar. Two single 76mm guns with on-mount radar guidance were installed on the positions of the former forward 37mm mounts. ASW equipment comprised a bow sonar, two french-built triple 550mm L3 ASW torpedo launchers and Malafon (originally ASROC was planned, but not delivered). Coimirce was scheduled for the same refit beginning in 1967, but by that time, Thiarian military co-operation with the USA was terminated. The enthusiasm of the Agaidh Dearg government for the navy - viewed by many as a service which never managed to rid itself from fascist influences, unlike the 'democratic' Army - was lukewarm at best, and the cruiser was stricken as a cost-saving measure in 1968. She was scrapped in 1971. Contuirt on the other hand lasted in active service till 1984, although without any significant modernizations, and became a museum ship afterwards. She was the only Thiarian WWII-era cruiser to be preserved and is open to the public since 1988. Contuirt looked like this in 1968, after delivery and installation of Malafon:

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Cosaint's hull was scuttled by Murchada loyalists in October 1945; she was salvaged in 1956 and scrapped. Coraiste became a Brazilian prize; as she was in pristine condition fresh from the yard, she had a long post-war service record with the Brazilian Navy under her new name Almirante Vidal. Pics of her and other prizes maybe later in the Other People's ships thread, because I need a break from Thiaria now and do some real ships. This post wraps the Thiarian cruiser force of WWII.

Greetings
GD

Shipbucket

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