A mistake on the part of the Admiralty, actually. But a Battleship.
First authorized in 1907, she intially was supposed to be armed with 6 x 12" in triple turrets fore and aft, and 8 x 9" in four twin wing turrets. Laid down in mid 1908, construction was halted less than 3 months later as tests with the HMS Sovereign, the first all big gun battleship (commissioned in 1906) were completed, and when the Admiralty Design Bureau realized that they had no triple 12" turrets then in production. So, a few overzealous officers at the ADB decided to use instead the new 14" guns then under development, first with 8 x twin turrets, then by early 1909, 8 triple turrets. Unfortunately it was determined that would be too much weight, so that plan was dropped, especially as the new guns and turrets were undergoing some delays in development. So, it was finally decided to use existing twin 12" turrets, 8 of them being procured for the ship, and construction was resumed in 1910. The 8 triple 14" turrets and guns were subsequently used on the King Malcolm class. Even so, the eight 12" turrets were heavier than expected, so armor had to be reduced. A large side belt was provided, except instead of the standard 10"-14" belt battleships then had, she had a 6"-9" belt, like current battlecruisers. So, in the end, the Sanxay Straits got the worst of both worlds, armed and armored like a battlecruiser with the speed (21 knots) of a battleship. What had been planned as the flagship and pride of the fleet and the most powerful battleship in the region quickly became relegated to second line duties on colonial stations. The Sanxay Straits was also the last battleship to ship wing turrets for main armament.
_________________ "Anybody remotely interesting is mad in some way." - The Seventh Doctor
Last edited by Zephyr on April 9th, 2012, 4:49 am, edited 2 times in total.
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