Shipbucket

So you are betting on a heavy artillery ships, I understand correctly?
Colleague, she would not be a "light cruiser". It will be a "weak armed armored cruiser"
Hmmm... You mean 10"/40 Mark 3?

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Serve the Nation! Be striped!

Unfortunately yes. You could call her a weak armored cruiser. But the 6"/50 actually has a greater range than the 8" Invincible currently carries. The same thing happened to the USS Olympia - she was originally fitted with 8" guns, but later in life they were replaced by 5" guns because they had the same range and penetration as the older 8". Invincible only has to last ten more years before I replace her entirely with a new ship.
Yes. The 10"/40 was also used in the Galveston Coast Defenses built in the same time period. But the same thing that happened to the US Navy will happen to us. The 12" gun and battleships will make the 10" rather useless by WWI.

Here's an example of one of Galveston's 10" emplacements: http://fortwiki.com/Battery_Hampton

Just remember I'll never build a perfect navy...they must have flaws, sometimes big flaws, to be realistic.

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Redhorse

Current Projects:
Republic of Texas Navy
FD Scale F-14s

Colleague, you know ... The doctrine of your fleet I do not understand. The absence of destroyers in the Navy 1870-1890 can not be explained as "flaws". Their value is oblivious, especially for small fleets.

You can not build a seaworthy destroyers and torpedo-gunboats. But coastal destroyers and torpedo boats of the third class necessary element of the fleets of the time!

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Serve the Nation! Be striped!

That's ok. But feel free to sit back and enjoy the drawings...I have lots of free time until January.

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Redhorse

Current Projects:
Republic of Texas Navy
FD Scale F-14s

Dilandu. destroyers did not really exist till the end of the century. In fact it was Lord Fisher of Kilverstone who coined the name. Torpedoboats did exist, from third class to first class, but were not common in minor navies. Torpedo launches, i e steam powered cutters or whaleboats that were armed with a torpedo tube and could be shipped by larger warships (such as ACRs or BBs) were more common. Yet there existed a widespread prejudice against the torpedo as a weapon. So, being a mostly third rate navy (as far as I can deduce!) in terms of numbers and strength, but not necessarily as a reflection of its professionalism, Redhorse's Texas navy is on the right track in its building process. And I live in the Great Lone Star State!

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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

That is correct. The Republic is not a first-rate naval power. It is doing the best it can with a limited number of men, money, and ports with a very shallow draft (less than 25 feet until 1900).

To that end, the Cruiser Invincible emerged from a major refit by Gray's Ironworks on Pelican Island in late 1905. Not everyone is happy with her, either:


What was once an elegant ship is now a Frankenstein's monster. The refit was extremely ambitious and costly - over a third of her original construction cost. Her 8" guns, once some of the most powerful, were obselete when she went into the dry-dock. The 6"/50s arming the light cruisers had much the same range and penetration as the bigger gun. The big turrets were taken down, the barbette plated over as a deck, and the 6" guns mounted in pairs under an armored shield. The hoists were retained but modified for the smaller ordnance, and the shield was open at the back. The 5" guns were replaced by 3"/50s to protect against torpedo boats, and the broadside torpedo tubes were increased in diameter from 14 to 18 inches.

He powerplant was replaced entirely by newer multiple expansion engines and oil-fired boilers. The first such in the Navy, they were imposed by the Secretary of the Navy, who wanted to capitalize on the booming oil industry in Texas. But altering her structure from coal to oil bunkers was difficult, as the Gray's had no experience with the behavior of liquid fuel tankage. But for all its problems, the new plant could push her through the water at 20 knots, which met Congress' new mandate for the minimum speed of future ships.

But all that new work changed her to the point that no one really knows what to do with her. The phrase used to describe her was "undergunned, overarmored, and unnecessary". Her classification was officially changed to light cruiser, and she served ten more years just so the country could get its money's worth out of her.

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Redhorse

Current Projects:
Republic of Texas Navy
FD Scale F-14s

She's not at all a Frankensteins Mistress Rather I find her very elegant and a little sass! Good job, Redhorse!

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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

Although not perfect, but then what is, I like this one. As a reminder, the conversion from coal to oil, also had the added bonus of requiring less men, as you don't all those sailors feedin the boilers with coal, using shovels and wheel-barrows.

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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"

Good point Novice, the RoT Navy will appreciate the boom in available manpower for other duty's outside of coal movers.

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"It is better to type nothing and be assumed an ass, than to type something and remove all doubt." - Me

In 1906, Congress authorized the construction of a new cruiser and four destroyers. It made the same authorization for a second cruiser and four more destroyers again the next year. In 1908 the first batch of destroyers was commissioned, the Beaumont Class:



Similar to the American Bainbridge class in most respects, especially hull dimensions, the Beaumonts were built by both Levingston Yards and Gray's Iron Works. Levingston built the first batch, and Gray's the second while Levingston drew up plans for the next class of destroyers.

The Beaumonts were oil burners as required of all new naval construction, and had a top speed of 28 knots. Because they were oil burners, not coil fired, they could cruise twice as far as a Bainbridge without refueling. But their armament was light, only a pair of 3"/50 quick firing guns and pair of 18" torpedo tubes with one reload each. And they were unarmored, a defect considered acceptable until the second class of boats got on the stocks.

Within two years Texas will have eight destroyers, with plans to double that number before the next Congressional review in 1911. Designed and built quickly, they were not without their faults but met the Navy's intent to maintain parity with rival states.

Thanks to Kitsune for his Bainbridge hull, and in my haste I have forgotten to add the ship's flag. I'll correct for subsequent versions when I publish the next "Ships of the Texas Navy".

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Redhorse

Current Projects:
Republic of Texas Navy
FD Scale F-14s