Shipbucket

Hello! I'm here with some new ship:



The disastrous battle of Scarborough, (16 december, 1914), when the six superdreadnoughts of Warrender squadron were taken by surprise and destroyed by the main forces of Hochseeflotte, not only damaged the reputation of Royal Navy, but also affected badly the global situation. The numerical superiority of British Navy over the German still held, but was reduced significanly; fearing, that another such defeat may turn the balance in favor of Germany, the Royal Navy were forced to concentrate all avaliable forces in North Sea, reducing the presence in Mediterranean to the absolute minimum.

The political consequenses was, also, dire. Encouraged by the first significant defeat of "invinsible" Royal Navy, the pro-german powers in Italy gave the upper hand. By the end of 1914, it became apparent, that the Italy would join the Central Power soon.

For the position of french navy, this all mess have two main results:

- The Marine Nationale Francais could no longer rely on british assistance to control the situation on Mediterranean.

- In the near future, the Marine Nationale Francais would face the combined threat of both Austro-Hungarian and Italian navy.

The main concerns of french admirals was the lack of fast, heavy armed warships to support the navy. The main battleline of French Navy by the end of 1914 consisted of three (3) "Danton"-class semi-dreadnoughts, three (3) "Mirabeau"-class dreadnoughts and four (4) "Courbet"-class dreadnoughts. Those ships was powerfull, heavy armed, but lacked in therms of speed; their maximum was about 19-20 knots.

The combined German, Austro-Hungarian and Italian forces on the Mediterranean totalled of seven semi-dreadnoughts, six dreadnoughts and one battlecruiser (counting the german "Goeben"), but at least two of them - the italian "Dante Alighieri" and german "Goeben" - were capable of more than 22 knots. The french admirals also anticipated (incorrectly), that the new Italian dreadnoughts would be capable of 23-24 knots and thus would be able to compose the "fast wing" of their navy. This may gave the Central Powers a significand tactical advantage.

To counter this threat, admiral de Villard suggested to complete one of the french ships still under construction as fast battleship, capable of serving as the backbone of fast forces and countering the enemy speed advantage. Because the three "Bretagne"-class and five "Normandie"-class superdreadnoughts were already in significant stage of completion - and thei design alteration would take too much time - it was decided to use the four avaliable "Bretange", the "Savoie". Ordered by Greece navy as "Basileos Constantinos" in 1914, this ship was requisitioned by the Marine Nationale Francais after the war started. By the end of 1914, her hull was only laid up, and thus allowed to a large alterations.

By the spring of 1915, the new design for "Savoie" was authorised:

- The central 13,5-inch (34 cm) turret was excluded. The freed space was used to place another pair of boiler rooms with eight small-tube Guyot du Temple boilers each. The total number of boilers was 40.

- The bow and ster were lenghtened to the total lenght of 185 meters.

- New british-build Parsons steam turbines allowed to reach full power of 58000 h.p. and supercharged - 70000 h.p. for a short time, which gave the "Savoie" maximum speed of about 24 knots.

- The armor scheme was radically revised under the experience of the battle of Scarborough. The upper belt were limited to the citadel only, and the heavy casemates for the secondary guns were excluded from the design. The thickness of main belt was upgraded to the 11,5 inches (28 cm)

- The original horizontal protection of three thin armored decks were considered ineffective. The forecastle deck were left unarmored; the thickness of upper armored deck were reduced to the 0,9 inches (0,2 cm). The main armored deck, on the contrary, was greatly improved to the thickness of 3,5 inches (0,8 cm) on the flat parts and 4 inchers on slopes.

- The anti-torpedo bulkhead was about 0,6-1 inch thick.

- All four main turrets now have the maximum elevation of 18 degrees, which made possible firing ranges up to 20000 yards.

- The bulk of secondary artillery was placed in the lightly-armored twin turrets on the upper deck and forecastle deck. There was three turrets on each boardside. The additional eight secondary guns (four to boardside) were placed in the casemates on the main deck (the stern) and on the upper deck (bow)

- The fire control system was improved by including four additional rangefinders and director control system.

The "Savioe" was launched in June 1915, after the war with Italy became the fact. She was build on the AC de la Lorie, in
St-Nazaire; in early 1917 she was completed and hurriedly comissioned in the French Navy.

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Serve the Nation! Be striped!

A very nice and practical redesign. And it works in Springsharp too!

Thanks!

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Serve the Nation! Be striped!

I like the design Dilandu, looks like a mini-French version of a Queen Elizabeth class battleship. It would certainly have needed that extra 15-16 meters of length to help it achieve its 24 knot speed. It will be interesting to see what you do with the design as a WW2 rebuild.

Yes, that was exactly the idea - somethin in lines of "cheap version of QE for Mediterranean". And, historically, the "Savoie" was the only french dreadnought in 1914, which state allowed such alterations to be done without dismantling already completed hull.
Hm! Thanks for the idea! I'll try to figure something...

Initially, I think, they would add the bulges and install the main gun directors somewhere in 1920s. It would drop speed a bit, but greatly improve the underwater protection. Also, she would be converted to oil, and fly-off platform for the spotter plane would be installed.

Later, in 1930s, the "Savoie" would underwent a major rebuild. Her boilers and, probably, turbines, would be replaced, her casemate secondary armament would be removed, and more AA guns would be placed. She would carry about four twin 100-mm/45 Model 1930, and four twin 37-mm/50 Model 1925.

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Serve the Nation! Be striped!

Because you are using 5.5" twin turrets, you could replace those with the twin 5.1" on a one for one basis. Remove the other casemate 5.5". Upgrade the deck armour. Rebuild the bow with a more Dunkerquish flared bow. Rebuild the bridge area (if you had some money to spare). The use of the 5.1" dual purpose guns would let you have more light AA of 37mm/13.2mm sizes.

With the advance of technology you could replace the 70,000shp propulsion system with a more powerful 100-110,000shp system for 26-27 knots, which would allow the ship to be able to keep up with or catch the German raiders.

Hm, thanks for the idea!

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Serve the Nation! Be striped!