Shipbucket

Hood recently referred to future developments of the Royal Navy if Admiral Fisher had not railroaded the shipbuilding industry for his grandiose schemes. One of those developments was the development of a triple 15" turret that could have armed the next generation of Royal Navy battleships after the Queen Elizabeth class. Taking that and putting some thought to it I put together the drawing below. One of the major decisions was to raise the 6" battery deck one level to get it away from the spray and wetness that bedevilled earlier ships.

Looks good, but I'm thinking any fresh sheet design would more closely resemble Hood's underwater hull. Overall my mental image is a shorter Hood perhaps.
I do agree with the higher casemates, that seems very likely. As mentioned elsewhere, I find the return of double-decker casemates for the 1914 Programme R Class ships a strange retrograde step. But it shows thoughts were there to raise these guns.

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I based the bow on the Renown / Courageous type which were the latest designs during the same time period as I envisioned for this ship. I figured the dimensions at 673 x 98 x 30. Propulsion out to 100,000shp (same as Tiger) for 27 knots. Displacements of 35,000 tons std, and 39,750 full load. Armour would be the same as the QE's with 13" belt and turrets, with a 2.5" deck.

One of the reluctances to raise the casemates (or to adopt the double-level ones) is the upper belt armor. What you have here probably would not be acceptable, with the gap between the upper belt and the lower edge of the casemate allowing shells to burst between them. I'm not sure of it, but I recall from my copy of Parkes that there aren't any RN casemate ships without complete armor between belt and lower casemate edge.

Edit: Or at least, not after the late 1800's, when I dimly recall this issue being raised in some of the pre-dreadnoughts.

I did think of that problem. With R&R during the 9" belt refit they replaced the 6" armour above the new 9" belt. I thought something similar might work here. A 6"-9" belt placed above the 13" belt but I was not sure how to depict that on the drawing. So the 13" belt would cover up to the main deck as shown and then a thinner strip between the main and forecastle decks. The deck armour would still be placed at the main deck level and probably then place a burster/trigger deck of an inch or so on the forecastle deck. I am not sure if the designers had got that far in their thinking by this stage of 1914/15.

I always get requests to draw the WW2 update versions of the drawings, so here it is.




(Hood) As you are well aware the HMS Hood ended up being as huge as it was due to the requirement for 32 knots speed. The less speed requirement the smaller propulsion plant required. I could change the bow to a "Hood-like" bow but it does not make any difference. I would not design a mini-Hood as the Hood design really did have too many problems/flaws. I have always liked the idea of enlarging the Queen Elizabeth class with the same or nine gun armament with the enlarged hull and propulsion plant providing the 3-4 knot extra speed.

Thoughts of a Fisherless WW1, made me think about things a bit deeper. Admiral Fisher sidetracked the two R class into Repulse and Renown, and ordered the three Courageous class. That was a total of approximately 120,000 tons. For Great Britain it is not the shipbuilding capacity that gets strained it is the ability to provide the steel required by the shipbuilding industry that is the limiting factor on how much can be built. For my Fisherless world the three Barfleur Class are going to take 105,000 tons of that amount. Leaves 15,000 to put toward whatever was next. The four Admiral class were next in the list of capital ship building projects. Initially at 36,000 tons each that would have been 144,000 tons of steel. Add the 15,000 to that figure and we end up with about 160,000, which is just nice to build my four ship Majestic Class. So what happens to the CV conversions of the ugly sisters, I hear you ask? They get replaced with two Majestic class conversions. The fourth ship is cancelled.

Majestic Class.

Lessons from Jutland had shown the vulnerability of the battlecruiser and the staying power of the fast battleship in comparison. The decision to end the battlecruiser line with Tiger and follow the Queen Elizabeth class with the Barfleur class was vindicated. The next step was an enlarged Barfleur utilising the same triple 15" turret. That the US and Japan had gone to 16" guns was not a problem as the new Majestic class was to be armed with four triple turrets. At 40,000 tons standard they were to be huge ships for their time. Only Majestic was completed post war.

These are really nice!

With the completion of Majestic in 1920, a decision was to be made as to what would happen with the three uncompleted ships. Two were at 75% and 80% complete but their construction had been halted in 1918. With the convening of the Washington conference their future became even more problematic. The fourth unit was only 40% complete and the decision was taken to scrap it as the funds to complete it would be hard to come by. As we know now the Washington Naval Treaty had a far reaching affect on warship production for years to come.

But what does that do to my Fisherless Royal Navy. In real life the Royal Navy ends up with 5 Royal Sovereign, 5 Queen Elizabeth, 2 Renown, and Hood. The two Nelson class yet to be built. In my FRN the 2 Renowns and Hood disappear and Tiger is the last of the battlecruisers. With the three Barfleur class, Majestic and three possible sisters something has to give. Is the RN likely to try to get an extra ship through? Would the WNT allow the RN 5xR, 5xQE, 3 Barfleur, Majestic, then the 2 Nelsons to be built? Keep the Tiger as the training ship.

This was not good news for the Majestic's sisters, the WNT would not allow them to be completed as battleships. The new-fangled type of ships to carry wheeled aircraft were their saviour. While they could not be completed as battleships they could be converted to aircraft carriers. The RN had been trialling these ships with the Cavendish, Eagle, Argus and then the purpose built Hermes. The two Majestic class ships Goliath and Bulwark would be the RN's largest and most ambitious aircraft carrier projects.



The removal of the armour and main armament gave a large amount of tonnage to put to its new purpose. The main armament was to be the twelve six inch casemate guns originally fitted. Heavy AA was provided by six single 4" and the light AA by 8 single 2 pounder pom poms.


The Majestic proved to be an excellent ship, powerful and well armoured. It became well known on Navy days and spent time on a world cruise accompanied by a couple of cruisers. This 'show the flag' tour visited all of the Commonwealth countries of the British Empire plus selected other places both allies and potential enemies alike. Various updates and refits were given to the ship through its service through to early 1938 when the ship was taken in hand for rebuilding along the lines of those given to the Queen Elizabeth and Barfleur class ships. Where the Majestic differed is that it was used as the trials ship for the new superstructures to be used on the new King George V class battleships. At that stage it was still unsure if the KGV would be completed with 4.5" or 5.25" heavy dual purpose weapons. The Majestic was fitted with the 4.5" battery.



The ship emerged from its rebuilding quite capable of taking on any enemy.

Last entry for another of my Alternate reality warship sets, the Barfleur and Majestic type ships came about from Hoods comments in another thread and gave me the inspiration for the half dozen drawings in this thread. That is what is so important in Shipbucket, the comments made in each thread can lead to not only people learning about ships and the various systems on them. But also the backgrounds to how various ship classes came about. Members such as Hood, Smurf and others for Royal Navy information are first class, their knowledge and access to information is second to none. Without them I could not have completed the many real, never were and personal designs I have created.

The last drawing in this set is the 1939 rebuild of the Goliath into its initial WW2 fittings. All of the changes shown have not occurred in one go - they are an accumulation of changes from its initial commissioning to the drawing shown below.