Republic of Algarve.

Those ships have quite niced lines, both as cruisers and as carriers.

Cool. The bright red hulls bother me a lot, though. I know that's technically the "standard" but I can't look at them without feeling they're amateurish anymore...

Same here. I guess working too much on American ships will do that to anyone.

Thanks for the comments guys.

As to the hull colour, that is the colour used on the Dutch ships in the archives.

Looking at Aces 1947 onderzeebootjagers series shows his early drawings with the same colour as these drawings, but his drawings then change the hull colour to the more common darker shade for his later drawings.

I would take it from that, that I could recolour the hulls to a similar colour to Aces later drawings.

Well, I changed the colour in later drawings after taking the colour from actual under water hull pictures of these ships. there is no reason whatsoever that it would be correct for all dutch ships to have this colour for the antifouling, especially years earlier. That said, for AU purposes, I think you'd be close enough

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I have changed the colour of the latest cruiser / carrier set of drawings if someone would like to comment on the new colour scheme compared to the old thanks.

If favourable I will go through and change the rest.

What happened to Callisto’s 15” guns or Algarves Vanguard.

The Battleship Callisto (renamed Admiral McCaw) had its five twin 15” put into storage while the hull became an aircraft carrier. But what to do with the twin 15”? A third Mars class battleship was ordered but with a completely new layout to take the four twin 15” in place of the three triple 15”. It was indistinguishable in looks from the Mars and Mercury except for the gun layout. Completed in 1939 the new ship had new radar and electronic systems that were not fitted to the others till later in 1939 and early 1940.

[ img ]

Displacement: 37,000 tons standard, 45,400 tons full load.
Dimensions: 787 x 106 x 28 feet
Machinery: 4 shaft, geared turbines, 150,000shp
Speed: 28 knots
Endurance: 10,000 miles at 15 knots
Armour: 12" belt, 6" deck, 13/8/5" turrets
Armament:
8 x 15" (4x2)
20 x 4.5" (10x2)
46 x 40mm (23x2)
Aircraft:3
Crew: 2200

ARS Minerva (1939)

Sledgehammer Class Monitor.

The final fifth turret from Callisto was to be used to create a new class of ship for the Algarvian Navy. Algarve had seen the use of spare turrets by the British to create several classes of Monitor type vessels. These vessels had proved very useful in anchoring the seaward end of the Army on the Continent, and at the Gallipoli Peninsular. Being able to project their power out 15 miles inland was a useful attribute. But the British Monitors were slow and often had to be towed into battle as their engines were unreliable or too small to propel the ship against a tide.

The Algarvian Navy laid down the Sledgehammer in 1937 with completion set for 1940. However the steel shortage created in 1940 by the change from one shift to two shift working rates and the use of double the amount of steel meant that steel production had had to be prioritised with some jobs being slowed considerably till steel production caught up.

Finally completed in 1941, the Sledgehammer was an advance on what a Monitor had been like. The main advance was in speed. Algarve was thousands of miles away from the proposed area of operations. To get to these operational areas required more speed than had been previously given to monitors. The Sledgehammer was capable of 22 knots, a speed that gave the ship much more operational radius than the earlier vessels.

[ img ]

Displacement: 10,850 tons normal, 13,450 tons full load.
Dimensions: 459 x 82 x 14 feet.
Machinery: 2 shaft, geared turbines, 22,000shp
Speed: 22 knots
Endurance: 7,000 miles at 12 knots
Armour: 4.5” belt, 2.5” deck, 15/9/6” turret.
Armament:
2 x 15” (1x2)
8 x 4.5” (4x2)
20 x 40mm (10x2)
Aircraft: 1
Crew: 625

Amethyst Class Patrol Craft.

The open end of the Algarve Inland Sea required patrolling to stop pirates/smugglers from escaping without paying the Government Taxes on exports. Namely precious metals and gems. The old destroyers from WW1 had been doing the job but as they got older and more unreliable a new replacement type was sought. Much smaller and just as heavily armed the new patrol craft became a success with their type being used all over the world. From fighting E-boats in the Channel and aircraft around the coast of England, to being heavily involved in the Mediterranean fighting Italian cruisers, destroyers, aircraft, and German tanks along the coastal roads of North Africa. Eventually hundreds were produced and built by Algarve, Australia, Britain, Canada, and other Commonwealth countries. The version below is one of the 1940 built units that went to the Mediterranean.

[ img ]

Displacement: 520 tons full load
Dimensions: 186 x 32 x 12 feet
Machinery: 2 shaft, diesel engines, 6,500ihp
Speed: 30 knots
Endurance: 3,000 miles at 15 knots.
Armour: Nil
Armament:
2 x 4” (2x1)
4 x 40mm (2x2)
2 x 21" TT (2x1)
Crew: 48

I like the Sledgehammer, looks a really capable monitor and I guess for your AU seaworthiness is going to be more paramount than the RN who only had to get across the Channel.

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Sword Class Flotilla Cruiser.

When the original late 1930’s DD’s were built it was expected that one of the destroyers of the class could be used as leaders. Within 3 years, extra equipment and electronics had displaced the Captain D areas and a new class of Destroyer Leader, termed Flotilla Cruisers, was designed and built. The main specification was for speed to work with destroyers, 34 knots. Some destroyers are faster but a cruiser with a sea speed of 34 knots will outpace most destroyers except in a flat calm. The armament was AA orientated with the 4.5” and 40mm gun systems, while the torpedoes gave the ship some teeth to get into bigger targets.

Originally four were laid down in 1938 (2) and 1939 (2) with completion in late 1940 through 1941. Two were lost in 1941 in the Mediterranean which lead to another four being laid down in 1942 and completed through 1944.

I had not thought about it originally, but the class makes a good comparison to the Japanese Akitsuki Class.

[ img ]

Displacement: 3,400 tons standard, 4,200 tons full load
Dimensions: 453 x 42 x 14
Machinery: 2 shaft, geared turbines, 70,000shp
Speed: 34.5 knots
Endurance: 5,600 miles at 15 knots
Armour: 50mm belt over machinery spaces, 25mm deck over machinery.
Armament:
8 x 4.5” (4x2)
10 x 40mm (5x2)
6 x 21 TT (2x3)
Crew: 420

ARS Rapier

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ARS Cutlass

ARS Claymore

ARS Scimitar

ARS Excalibur

ARS Falchion

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