Amazon Ad

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

An anachronistic Defence, after the 1861 ironclad battleship

Wikipedia has a good site about old British ironclad battleships. I looked there to get information about the Defence, built in 1861. I was interested to see that the Defence was not finally broken up until after 1940. These old iron hulls lasted a long time. The ships served as hulks for many decades. The Defence had dimensions of 302ft x 54ft x 25ft and had a displacement of 6,150 tons. The armament, as built was 8-110pdr Armstrong BLR, 10-68pdr MLSB, and 4-5in BLR (the 40pdr). An anchronistic armament for the Defence would consist of 8-5in/51, 10-5.5in/50, and 4-4in/40 guns. I created a Springsharp design using much of the same parameters as the Warrior design, except that the ship has less capability, which is a good description of the Defence and Resistance, compared to the Warrior and Black Prince. The design is very reasonable and is capable, even if just as a "convoy cruiser". This is the Springsharp report:
Defence, anachronistic version, Great Britain Armoured Cruiser laid down 1907

Displacement:
 5,255 t light; 5,516 t standard; 6,150 t normal; 6,657 t full load

Dimensions: Length overall / water x beam x draught
 305.10 ft / 302.00 ft x 54.00 ft x 25.00 ft (normal load)
 92.99 m / 92.05 m x 16.46 m  x 7.62 m

Armament:
      8 - 5.00" / 127 mm guns (4x2 guns), 62.50lbs / 28.35kg shells, 1907 Model
   Breech loading guns in turrets (on barbettes)
   on centreline ends, evenly spread, 2 raised mounts - superfiring
      10 - 5.50" / 140 mm guns in single mounts, 85.00lbs / 38.56kg shells, 1907 Model
   Breech loading guns in casemate mounts 
   on side, evenly spread
   10 guns in hull casemates - Limited use in heavy seas
      4 - 4.00" / 102 mm guns in single mounts, 32.00lbs / 14.51kg shells, 1907 Model
   Breech loading guns in deck mounts with hoists
   on side, all amidships
 Weight of broadside 1,478 lbs / 670 kg
 Shells per gun, main battery: 150

Armour:
   - Belts:  Width (max) Length (avg)  Height (avg)
 Main: 4.50" / 114 mm 235.00 ft / 71.63 m 24.00 ft / 7.32 m
 Ends: Unarmoured
   Main Belt covers 120 % of normal length
   Main belt does not fully cover magazines and engineering spaces

   - Torpedo Bulkhead:
  1.00" / 25 mm 235.00 ft / 71.63 m 26.00 ft / 7.92 m

   - Gun armour: Face (max) Other gunhouse (avg) Barbette/hoist (max)
 Main: 4.50" / 114 mm 3.00" / 76 mm  4.50" / 114 mm
 2nd: 2.00" / 51 mm 2.00" / 51 mm  2.00" / 51 mm
 3rd: 1.00" / 25 mm 1.00" / 25 mm  1.00" / 25 mm

   - Armour deck: 1.00" / 25 mm, Conning tower: 4.50" / 114 mm

Machinery:
 Coal fired boilers, complex reciprocating steam engines, 
 Direct drive, 2 shafts, 13,567 ihp / 10,121 Kw = 20.00 kts
 Range 4,500nm at 12.00 kts
 Bunker at max displacement = 1,140 tons (100% coal)

Complement:
 346 - 451

Cost:
 £0.548 million / $2.193 million

Distribution of weights at normal displacement:
 Armament: 182 tons, 3.0 %
 Armour: 1,859 tons, 30.2 %
    - Belts: 1,069 tons, 17.4 %
    - Torpedo bulkhead: 226 tons, 3.7 %
    - Armament: 326 tons, 5.3 %
    - Armour Deck: 206 tons, 3.4 %
    - Conning Tower: 33 tons, 0.5 %
 Machinery: 1,507 tons, 24.5 %
 Hull, fittings & equipment: 1,706 tons, 27.7 %
 Fuel, ammunition & stores: 895 tons, 14.6 %
 Miscellaneous weights: 0 tons, 0.0 %

Overall survivability and seakeeping ability:
 Survivability (Non-critical penetrating hits needed to sink ship):
   5,717 lbs / 2,593 Kg = 91.5 x 5.0 " / 127 mm shells or 1.2 torpedoes
 Stability (Unstable if below 1.00): 1.10
 Metacentric height 2.4 ft / 0.7 m
 Roll period: 14.7 seconds
 Steadiness - As gun platform (Average = 50 %): 85 %
   - Recoil effect (Restricted arc if above 1.00): 0.57
 Seaboat quality  (Average = 1.00): 1.39

Hull form characteristics:
 Hull has a flush deck
 Block coefficient: 0.528
 Length to Beam Ratio: 5.59 : 1
 'Natural speed' for length: 17.38 kts
 Power going to wave formation at top speed: 59 %
 Trim (Max stability = 0, Max steadiness = 100): 61
 Bow angle (Positive = bow angles forward): 3.00 degrees
 Stern overhang: 2.00 ft / 0.61 m
 Freeboard (% = measuring location as a percentage of overall length):
    - Stem:  21.00 ft / 6.40 m
    - Forecastle (20 %): 17.00 ft / 5.18 m
    - Mid (50 %):  17.00 ft / 5.18 m
    - Quarterdeck (15 %): 17.00 ft / 5.18 m
    - Stern:  17.00 ft / 5.18 m
    - Average freeboard: 17.32 ft / 5.28 m

Ship space, strength and comments:
 Space - Hull below water (magazines/engines, low = better): 163.5 %
  - Above water (accommodation/working, high = better): 104.3 %
 Waterplane Area: 11,149 Square feet or 1,036 Square metres
 Displacement factor (Displacement / loading): 97 %
 Structure weight / hull surface area: 89 lbs/sq ft or 433 Kg/sq metre
 Hull strength (Relative):
  - Cross-sectional: 0.87
  - Longitudinal: 3.85
  - Overall: 1.00
 Hull space for machinery, storage, compartmentation is cramped
 Room for accommodation and workspaces is adequate
 Ship has slow, easy roll, a good, steady gun platform
 Good seaboat, rides out heavy weather easily

No comments:

Amazon Context Links