Shipbucket

Here's a ship that I put together as part of a larger AU that I'm working on. It's not in Shipbucket style/format (it is '2 pixel:1 foot' scale, 'cause that's all I draw in anyway); but if it seems I can bring it (and the others that I'm planning) up to Shipbucket standards without too much extra work, I might go for it. I have an entire alternative history worked out for the setup, and the ships follow it.



The Tennessee was the first 'modern' Confederate battleship. Similar to the British Royal Sovereign class, these ships have open barbette mountings and fixed loading angles and positions. The Tredgar Armory 13"/L34 '1000-pounder' main guns were the largest that the Confederacy could produce domestically; British 13.5"/L35 guns were considered undesirable due to the requirements of 1.) Royal Navy construction having priority and 2.) slowly straining relations between the Confederacy and British Empire over the so-called 'Cotton Laws.' Secondary armament was limited to only eight domestically produced Selma Iron Works 6.4"/L35 '125-pounder' breech loaders. On the Tennessee class, unlike on their British cousins, these were provided with fully enclosed positions with local armor of 4" and 2" splinter protection for backs and sides.

Protection was extremely important, with the main belt being fully 10' high and 14" thick, extending for 212' of the ship's overall 350' length. An upper belt of 8" ran the 142' between the fore and aft barbettes, and 3" armor protected the ends outside the main belt. The armored deck was 3" thick, extending from the end of the raised fo'c'sle to 50' short of the stern. The conning tower was 14" thick and two decks high.

The Tennessee's greatest downfall were their engineering plant. At a time when triple-expansion engines dominated naval engineering, the Confederacy deliberately used single-expansion plants in these ships to lessen maintenance costs. This resulted in a rather large portion of the vessel being devoted to propulsion, and as such the space below the armored deck was extremely cramped.

SPRINGSHARP REPORT

Tennessee, Confederate States of America Ironclad laid down 1886
Barbette ship

Displacement:
9,600 t light; 9,990 t standard; 10,800 t normal; 11,448 t full load

Dimensions: Length overall / water x beam x draught
350.00 ft / 350.00 ft x 70.00 ft x 24.00 ft (normal load)
106.68 m / 106.68 m x 21.34 m x 7.32 m

Armament:
4 - 13.00" / 330 mm guns (2x2 guns), 1,000.00lbs / 453.59kg shells, 1886 Model
Breech loading guns in open barbettes
on centreline ends, evenly spread
8 - 6.40" / 163 mm guns in single mounts, 125.00lbs / 56.70kg shells, 1886 Model
Breech loading guns in deck mounts
on side, all amidships
10 - 2.25" / 57.2 mm guns in single mounts, 5.00lbs / 2.27kg shells, 1886 Model
Quick firing guns in deck mounts
on side, evenly spread, all raised mounts
Weight of broadside 5,050 lbs / 2,291 kg
Shells per gun, main battery: 60

Armour:
- Belts: Width (max) Length (avg) Height (avg)
Main: 14.0" / 356 mm 212.00 ft / 64.62 m 10.00 ft / 3.05 m
Ends: 3.00" / 76 mm 138.00 ft / 42.06 m 10.00 ft / 3.05 m
Upper: 8.00" / 203 mm 142.00 ft / 43.28 m 8.00 ft / 2.44 m
Main Belt covers 93 % of normal length

- Gun armour: Face (max) Other gunhouse (avg) Barbette/hoist (max)
Main: - - 12.0" / 305 mm
2nd: 4.00" / 102 mm 2.00" / 51 mm -
3rd: 0.25" / 6 mm - -

- Armour deck: 3.00" / 76 mm, Conning tower: 14.00" / 356 mm

Machinery:
Coal fired boilers, simple reciprocating steam engines,
Direct drive, 2 shafts, 8,300 ihp / 6,192 Kw = 16.03 kts
Range 4,120nm at 10.00 kts
Bunker at max displacement = 1,458 tons (100% coal)

Complement:
529 - 688

Cost:
£1.105 million / $4.418 million

Distribution of weights at normal displacement:
Armament: 646 tons, 6.0 %
Armour: 3,921 tons, 36.3 %
- Belts: 2,000 tons, 18.5 %
- Torpedo bulkhead: 0 tons, 0.0 %
- Armament: 739 tons, 6.8 %
- Armour Deck: 1,035 tons, 9.6 %
- Conning Tower: 147 tons, 1.4 %
Machinery: 1,612 tons, 14.9 %
Hull, fittings & equipment: 3,340 tons, 30.9 %
Fuel, ammunition & stores: 1,200 tons, 11.1 %
Miscellaneous weights: 80 tons, 0.7 %

Overall survivability and seakeeping ability:
Survivability (Non-critical penetrating hits needed to sink ship):
10,072 lbs / 4,569 Kg = 9.8 x 13.0 " / 330 mm shells or 1.6 torpedoes
Stability (Unstable if below 1.00): 1.35
Metacentric height 5.0 ft / 1.5 m
Roll period: 13.2 seconds
Steadiness - As gun platform (Average = 50 %): 70 %
- Recoil effect (Restricted arc if above 1.00): 0.29
Seaboat quality (Average = 1.00): 1.49

Hull form characteristics:
Hull has raised forecastle
Block coefficient: 0.643
Length to Beam Ratio: 5.00 : 1
'Natural speed' for length: 18.71 kts
Power going to wave formation at top speed: 47 %
Trim (Max stability = 0, Max steadiness = 100): 47
Bow angle (Positive = bow angles forward): 0.00 degrees
Stern overhang: 0.00 ft / 0.00 m
Freeboard (% = measuring location as a percentage of overall length):
- Stem: 15.00 ft / 4.57 m
- Forecastle (14 %): 15.00 ft / 4.57 m (12.00 ft / 3.66 m aft of break)
- Mid (50 %): 12.00 ft / 3.66 m
- Quarterdeck (14 %): 12.00 ft / 3.66 m
- Stern: 12.00 ft / 3.66 m
- Average freeboard: 12.43 ft / 3.79 m
Ship tends to be wet forward

Ship space, strength and comments:
Space - Hull below water (magazines/engines, low = better): 93.0 %
- Above water (accommodation/working, high = better): 80.6 %
Waterplane Area: 18,646 Square feet or 1,732 Square metres
Displacement factor (Displacement / loading): 87 %
Structure weight / hull surface area: 130 lbs/sq ft or 637 Kg/sq metre
Hull strength (Relative):
- Cross-sectional: 0.91
- Longitudinal: 2.18
- Overall: 1.00
Hull space for machinery, storage, compartmentation is adequate
Room for accommodation and workspaces is cramped
Ship has slow, easy roll, a good, steady gun platform
Good seaboat, rides out heavy weather easily

LONG LIVE THE CONFEDERACY!!!!
Sounds great! I would love to see it done in SB scale, and in FD scale for your modern army .

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Salide - Denton - The Interrealms

I am not very active on the forums anymore, but work is still being done on my AUs. Visit the Salidan Altiverse Page on the SB Wiki for more information. All current work is being done on Google Docs.
If anyone wishes for their nations to interact with the countries of the Salidan Altiverse, please send me a PM, after which we can further discuss through email.

134 views, and no comments.

Yeah, I'll STFU.

no need to. I'd love to see more, but I just don't know enough about these kinds of ships to give a useful comment

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Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

LOL- pre-dreads are rather rare on shipbucket... issues I am looking for help with are mostly the following:
1.) SHADING - am I doing it right? What needs to be changed to make it more realistic and less like, well, a drawing.
2.) COLORS - I pilfered those from (I believe) a French ship but they just don't look right. Is there a 'color chart' around?
3.) UNDERHULLS - yeah... uhm, for me it would be easier to build the darn ship, and then build a submarine to take the underhull photos. Tips on drawing them?


So far, the following ships are almost 'ready for consumption,' an additional 3-4 are in planning stage.
Remember- all are WIPs and change a little every day till they feel right.

C.S.S. South Carolina
1876 - first Confederate 'battleship,' armed with 4x1x12" MLR in casemates in the old 'ironclad' style.


C.S.S. David White
1885 - the first CSN ship with torpedoes as primary weapons and all quick-fire guns, also the last with sails.


C.S.S. John Lowe
1887 - a powerful torpedo-armed gunboat for Gulf/Caribbean patrols, with very short endurance due to her size.


C.S.S. Byscane
1884 - first protected cruiser without sails and carrying a uniform armament of 10x1x6.4" 125-pounder guns.


C.S.S. Torpedo Ram #1
1890 - the CSN's first torpedo boat destroyer, intended to be deployed against USN vessels on the Chesapeake.

Wow! Those looks really really great! well done! I'll be open to see more from your designs!

OK... Tennessee is about to get redone- I checked some source material and the main guns have to be redrawn a bit to adjust for a slight caliber change. She'll go onto a Shipbucket template as well when the alterations are complete.

The South Carolina actually started me off on this project. She was inspired by a picture of the H.M.S. Belleisle, which was from the same period and, being designed for the Mediterranean, would have been perfect for the Gulf/Caribbean region. A few hours of tweaking the design in Springsharp, and I came up with something that looked very Confederate and very seaworthy for my little subtropical world.

I've got an entire map of North America drawn out regarding how the continent developed differently because of the Confederate victory (a.k.a. England threatening to squash the Union like a bug over the Trent Affair). Deseret becomes a reality (with some help from the Confederacy and Canada), and a Mormon theocracy develops separating California and the Oregon Territory from the rest of the Union. These territories unite and form a nation on the West Coast, eventually expanding to the northern part of the Snake River Valley and gaining a small border with their former masters; clashes with the Mormons are constant and, early on, prevent supplies from the Union from reaching Sacramento.

Russia remains in control of Alaska (until 1917) and the Kingdom of Hawai'i is independent and woefully weak.
Mexico is able to become somewhat stronger without an overwhelming United States to control their destiny.

I like these, I really enjoy pre-1900 designs. Given the limited technology it's hard to get good designs without doing a lot of calculating.

Looking forward to more!

The forward scuppers aren't going to work with the turtleback bow. They'd most likely be smashed in first time it took a dive.
I personally think the torpedo armament is rather heavy, at least if torpedo boats are going to be its primary target. I'd replace one set of tubes with a heavier piece of artillery. A 2-3" Quick-firer should give you an edge against Northern destroyers. And since the north still possesses the industrial edge, you're going to need it.
A breakwater abeam the conning platform would make it far easier to man the midship guns. As it is the forward gun will most likely be unworkable in even moderate seas.
A searchlight is a must, and given that the radio has yet to be invented, you might even want to include a semaphore.

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“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

Re: you map: since I'm myself something of a CW-buff, I noticed that you didn't include West Virginia. Shouldn't this part have been relinquished back to the CSA - inspite of its overwhelmingly Unionist sentiment? Or was there some sort of monetary compensation made? Otherwise I like the idea and even have the outlines for a class of armored cruisers built along Sir Philip Watts' lines in the offing...

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My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen