Shipbucket

Hi everyone!

Thanks for the praise!

Concering the guns: I've compared the 102mm Mk.IV with and without gunshields with scaled drawings of various destroyer classes. The shields and the breech part of the gun usually fit (although there were more types than the one shown), but the barrels were shorter in reality. I cut the barrels by three pixels; IMHO there's no redraw necessary, at least for this type of gunshield. The L-class destroyers for instance used smaller ones. I may present a reworked 102mm Mk.IV when I come round to drawing the L-class next year. Similarly, the 102mm BL Mk.VII as fitted to the Boadicea-class was longer than the one on the parts sheet; I lengthened the barrel by three pixels to make it match my source pics.

Greetings
GD

That's most useful I'll make those interim changes and I'll await a new Mk.IV for next year.
There are dozens of these guns and mounts and shields so I've tried to keep things generic as not everything can be shown. Also, without good quality images of the weapons, often the sizes and details come from scaled ship drawings which vary in details too.

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Hello everyone

Last ones for this year: Almirante Lynch/Faulknor-class destroyers

The chilean government ordered six destroyers from the British White yard in 1911. Only two were delivered to the Chilean Navy as Almirante Condell and Almirante Lynch; the other four were requisitioned for the RN in August 1914. They were considerably larger and more powerful than any contemporary RN destroyer design and carried six 102mm guns. Unlike the RN, the Chileans provided their guns with full-sized gunshields. Sources differ widely as to their torpedo armament; four single 457mm and four single 533mm (side mounted in either case) are both quoted, but a construction plan shows three tubes on the centerline, caliber unknown. There is virtually no photographic evidence on the www (none I found anyway) to shed light on that matter, so I decided to show the Chilean version as designed.



They had a long service life with the Chilean Navy, into the early 1950s; during this period, they were only little altered. The most significant modification was landing the single torpedo tubes and installing two twin sets on the centerline in the 1930s. They also received a pair of Pompoms aft.



The other four - to be named Almirante Goni, Almirante Riveros, Almirante Simpson and Almirante Williams - were renamed HMS Broke, HMS Tipperary, HMS Faulknor and HMS Botha. Faulknor and Botha retained the somewhat awkward gun arrangement of the original design, with three pairs of guns mounted abreast, two forward, two aft and two beside the bridge. These also received four single 533mm TTs at the ship sides and a single Pompom.



The other pair, Broke and Tipperary, had their gun arrangement altered with only one gun fore and aft (the latter on a prominent bandstand) and two pairs abreast, one beside the bridge and the other just aft of the backup conning station, giving a broadside of four instead of three guns, and two twin 533mm torpedo tubes, also side-mounted.



Tipperary was sunk at Jutland by the German battleship Nassau. The other three survived the war. Broke was refitted early in 1918. She landed four of her 102mm guns (those at the ends and the aft flank pair), receiving one 120mm gun forward and one aft instead. Wikipedia said the aft 120mm gun was mounted on a bandstand between the aft funnels; this arrangement is not only implausible, but not supported by photographic evidence, which clearly shows a gun aft on the bandstand. The forward flank pair of 102mm remained on board.



The other two received a similar refit immediately postwar; accordoing to period photographs (as I interpret them), Botha received a bandstand for the aft 120mm gun like Broke, while it was placed slightly forward in the deck in Faulknor. Both also lost their single 533mm TTs in favour of two twins, mounted at the sides as in Broke, and got a second Pompom.



In this state, the three survivors were transferred to Chile in 1920. Unlike their slightly older sisters, they were badly worn out by their war service and had to be decommissioned in the early 1930s. They did not receive any further modernizations.



As usually when drawing WWI ships, most of the available period photographs are - if at all - labeled wrongly more often than not. This might have led to mistakes (apart from these that result from my personal laziness). Anyone with superior knowledge please let me know.

Greetings
GD

Great. Well, done.

Indeed, some nice drawings as usual.

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Sources and documentations are the most welcome.

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Another superb set.
I've nothing to add to these or any criticisms or further comments, other than to say that I think your doing a good job with the available photographic evidence, much of which in this era was of low quality and often obscures more than it reveals. Labelling is always a thorny issue but I see no reason to doubt the reasonable assumptions you've made based on available evidence.

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More fantastic work!

Awesome job GD. An excellent series of drawings.

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Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"

Hi again

HMS Swift was the first destroyer leader of the RN that was a destroyer herself; the RN previously (and, due to Swift's disappointing performance, afterwards as well, till a really satisfying leader design became available in shape of the Marksman-class (see above)) preferred light cruisers as flotilla leaders. Designed for a kind of performance that was beyond the technical possibilities of her day, Swift took more than three years to complete and run trials; numerous modifications had to be made, and yet she failed to attain her design speed and always remained a fuel hog. With four 102mm guns and two single 457mm torpedo tubes, she was exceptionally poorly armed for her size. Despite her roomy hull, she was not very comfortable, because her engines ate up enormous volume. On the plus side, her high freeboard made her a very good sea boat.



During the war, an attempt was made to make better use of her size by arming her with a single 152mm gun forward; the two 102mm pieces mounted abreast in front of the bridge were landed. Her bridge was strengthened and enlargened, a second searchlight amidships was added and the remaining 102mm guns received partial gunshields. A line drawing of her 1916 state also shows something that looks like a 47mm (3pdr) gun on a HA mount aft, but I found no mention of AA guns in any published source I have access to. The 152mm gun was no success, and the original armament was again mounted in 1917. Structurally weak as she was, HMS Swift was quickly discarded after the war.



Greetings
GD

Very nice additions.
Not sure on the HA mount, I'll check my sources as it might be genuine.

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