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Post by MateDow on Mar 17, 2019 22:17:51 GMT -6
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Post by MateDow on Mar 18, 2019 7:54:52 GMT -6
5 July, 1900 Washington DC State, War, and Navy Building “Mr. Secretary you asked to see me?”
“Yes Admiral Dow. Please come in and have a seat.
“I need you to go up to New York and meet with Governor Roosevelt. He is creating problems for the president by continually harping on the negotiations over the Nicaragua canal. I know that you have a history with him and the president believes that you can win him over by emphasizing the importance of a Central American canal to the Navy.”
“I know that you two don’t always get along, but what makes you and the president think that I will have any better luck convincing him than the two you would?”
“The president feels that your history and position will allow a back channel approach to Mr. Roosevelt to work where an approach by us would be counterproductive. He needs to understand that we need to work with Britain on the world stage regardless of their aggression in southern Africa. Pro-German sentiments can not mitigate the need for a canal and without Britain’s agreement to abrogate the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty we will not be able to build our canal.”
“Sir, I would never presume to undercut the authority of the President, and would be happy to try and make him see our point of view.
“When would you like me to leave?”
“I’ve booked tickets for you on the Afternoon Congressional out of Union Station this afternoon. You’ll have a meeting with Governor Roosevelt tomorrow and hopefully be back in Washington for most of the weekend. So, go home grab a fresh uniform and your toiletries, and report back here to pick up the briefing documents before heading to the station.”
“Yes sir.”
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Post by cwemyss on Mar 18, 2019 19:46:39 GMT -6
Thank you. I have been copying your style because I liked it so much.
While I appreciate the compliment.... you've far surpassed what I've been doing. Great character development so far!
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Post by MateDow on Mar 18, 2019 21:23:58 GMT -6
15 August, 1900 Washington DC State, War, and Navy Building Although the General Board was newly established, meetings had tended toward straight forward topics like discussions of ship characteristics, logistical requirements, or other bland topics, Rear Admiral Dow felt that this one would probably be anything but.
It had been one week since Russian troops occupied in Caracas in response to Cipriano Castro’s default on Venezuela’s foreign debt. Although the Russians were saying that their occupation of the country was only a temporary response to the crisis, there were significant signs that they were there to stay.
Everyone rose to their feet as Admiral Dewey entered the room. “Please be seated gentleman.” He paused while everyone sat down. “Secretary Long and the President are looking for naval options in response to the Russian aggression in Venezuela, and we will not be leaving this room until we have a coherent plan to present. Captain Sigsbee, why don’t you catch everyone up on where the situation stands.”
Captain Sigsbee, Chief of Naval Intelligence organized his notes in front of him before beginning. “Here is the situation as we currently understand it. The consul reports that the Russian cruiser Varyag seized the gunboat Restaurador in response to the seizing of a Russian ship. The Venezuelans say the ship was providing supplies and arms to rebel forces. Of course, the Russians say that the ship was engaged in regular commerce. With the Varyag were transports ‘conveniently’ loaded with troops that the Russians say were being redeployed to Vladivostok by sea. These troops were landed at the port of La Guaira and then marched to Caracas where they occupied the government buildings and arrested President Castro.
Venezuelan Gunboat Restaurador
“The State Department has sent instructions to Ambassador Tower in St. Petersburg to present an ultimatum to the czar to pull his troops out of Venezuela or their will be consequences, but as you can imagine, this will take a while to move through the proper channels. Even in the best of times, the Russians are not renowned for the speed of their bureaucracy, and I am sure that there will be more excuses to slow things down with this. They will be in no mood to hear our protests.”
“Now that you know everything that we know, what should we recommend to the Secretary?”
Rear Admiral Dow quickly spoke up. “Sir, we should immediately begin preparations for the movement of the North Atlantic Station ships to bases in the Caribbean. Rear Admiral Farquhar will need time to ensure that all of his ships have the personnel that they will need for an extended deployment.
“On the logistics side, we will need time to move enough supplies to support an entire fleet. The sooner that we can begin those preparations, the sooner the fleet will be in position for future operations in the region. There are minor material deficiencies in the ships that should be corrected while they are still based in Norfolk and have easier access to shipyard facilities. While we complete our preparations we can see how the Russians respond to our ultimatum.”
Captain Robley Evans, a member on the Board of Inspection and Survey, spoke up next. “Sir, he’s right. We will need time to secure contracts to have coal delivered to Norfolk, contracts for colliers to transport the coal, and then we will need to load and move these ships. This doesn’t include the time that we will need to load the ships with supplies and complete the gunnery training programs that were initiated at the beginning of the year.”
Dewey looked down the table. “Captain Taylor, what do you think?”
Captain Henry Taylor, senior member of the Coaling Stations Board thought for a moment. “They are correct. We could rush ships down to Venezuela, but we’d be dependent on neutral parties to keep our ships supplied when they arrived. There aren’t sufficient supplies stockpiled in Florida or Cuba to support battleships for an extended deployment. The Georgia’s are short ranged, which will limit their strategic mobility. If we want to have them in theater we have to move them sooner rather than later. We could quickly deploy cruisers to the area due to their smaller coaling needs. That will allow us to monitor the seas around Venezuela and maybe prevent the Russians from moving any more forces into the region.”
Admiral Dewey looked around again. “Very well. I will advise Secretary Long and the President that we will give diplomacy time to work, but we will start moving supplies to our Caribbean bases to support future operations. We will also be issuing orders to Rear Admiral Farquhar to start making the preparations for the movement of his ships, but that the actual movement will be delayed pending the resolution through diplomatic channels.
“Thank you gentlemen, and you can return to your commands to draw up detailed requirements for the fleet movement.”
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Post by MateDow on Mar 19, 2019 23:58:34 GMT -6
6 September, 1900 Washington DC Senate Chamber Henry Cabot Lodge took his place before the rostrum, arranged his notes on the podium, and began to speak, “Mr. President, all people, men and women alike, who are capable of connected thought abhor war and desire nothing so much as to make secure the future peace of the world. Everybody hates war. Everyone longs to make it impossible. We all earnestly desire to advance toward the preservation of the world’s peace.
“It is almost needless to say that the question now before us is momentous that it transcends all party lines. Party considerations and party interests disappear in dealing with such a question as this. I will follow any man and vote any measure which in my honest opinion will make for the maintenance of the world’s peace.
“Unfortunately, there are times where that desire for peace is not consistent with events in the world. We are here to debate whether funds should be allocated for the construction of a new warships and the support of operations in the Caribbean in the response to the violation of Venezuelan sovereignty by the Russian Empire. I will remind you of the response of President Lincoln when asked for instructions in response to the approaching civil strife. He wrote back in a single line, ‘Entertain no compromise; have none of it.’
“That states the position that I occupy at this time and I have, in a humble way, occupied from the first contention of this proposal.
“How long would we stand as we now stand, a great Republic commanding respect, if we fail to adopt this course?
“Mr. President, there are critical moments in the life of every nation which call for the straightest, the plainest, and the most courageous thinking of which we are capable. We confront such a moment now. It is not only desperately important to America, it is important to the world. It is important to future generations if they shall live in peace.
“Our oceans have ceased to be moats which automatically protect our ramparts. A hostile power has established itself in a position to threaten our shores and we must move to protect our legitimate self-interest in our security. Russia’s unilateral plan appears to contemplate the engulfment, directly or indirectly, of a surrounding circle of states.
“I know of no reason why we should not stand by our ideals. If they vanish under ultimate pressures, we shall at least kept the record straight; we shall have kept faith with our forefathers; and we then shall clearly be free-agents in determining our own course.
“Mr. President, I conclude as I began. We must win wars with maximum speed and minimum loss. Therefore we must have the most efficient force available. We cannot drift to victory, but we must exert maximum united effort on all fronts.
“I only want to help. I want to do my duty. It is in the spirit that I ask for honest condor in our commitments, and our dedication. The greatest contribution we can make is that which will most swiftly bring our victorious sons back home, which will best validate our aspirations, our sacrifices, and our dreams.”
Senator Lodge
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Post by MateDow on Mar 20, 2019 22:41:24 GMT -6
17 September, 1900 Washington DC State, War, and Navy Building Rear Admiral Dow looked around the table at the assembled bureau chiefs. “Well, the president signed the supplemental funding authorization. I am surprised at the speed that Congress moved on this. They usually pick apart anything that requires them to spend money. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining, only surprised. At least they all see the threat that Russia is posing.
“How are we coming with our plans for the fleet movement?”
Rear Admiral Endicott, Chief of Yards & Docks looked down at his notes. “We have five colliers enroute to Key West with 25,000 tons of coal, and another four colliers enroute to Guantanamo with a further 20,000 tons. There are three colliers loaded and waiting at anchor in Hampton Roads, one loading in Norfolk, and three more colliers under contract from New England Coal and Coke enroute to Norfolk for loading.”
Admiral Dow jotted notes on his pad. “The Secretary has ordered five battleships, two armored cruisers, two scouting cruisers and six destroyers of the North Atlantic Station under Rear Admiral Farquhar to Key West with a battalion of Marines to establish a secure base of operations. They will be departing on Saturday with an anticipated arrival of the 25th.
“The President has ordered the creation of a new command called the Caribbean Station with the headquarters in Key West. Command will be given to Rear Admiral Farquhar when he arrives and Rear Admiral Schley given command of the North Atlantic Station.”
“What is the plan for their arrival in Key West?”
“Once the ships arrive they will be immediately refueled using stockpiled coal. The Army transport McClellan is moving technicians and spare parts to the base. She departed yesterday and should arrive in five days. They should be able to conduct the initial maintenance of the ships until the base can be expanded. We estimate that it will take two days to complete the coaling of the ships, after which they will be ready for sustained operations.”
US Army Transport McClellan
Admiral Dow turned to Captain Sigsbee, “Do we know what forces the Russians have in the region?”
The Chief of Naval Intelligence had the information without looking at his notes. “At the moment it appears that they only have the armored cruiser Varyag in the Caribbean. We do have reports that they are preparing additional ships from their Baltic Fleet for overseas deployment. We are not sure if they are intended to reinforce their Pacific Fleet or move to the Caribbean. At the moment I estimate that they will not be headed to the Caribbean due to the lack of dockyard space. We estimate that they can only effectively base four to five heavy ships, by which I mean armored cruisers or battleships, in Venezuela.”
“So for the moment we will have overwhelming force in the region?”
“Yes sir.”
“That is good. I want to be able to project more power into the region than Russia. Our closer proximity to the region should make that easy, but we need to remain current on our force estimates to ensure that we can maintain that standard.
“We will be starting construction on the armored cruiser Island at the end of the month. I recommended to the Secretary, and he agreed, that we should just use the existing Columbia design. She will be built at the New York Naval Shipyard to expedite construction. Even so, she won’t be completed for two years. Congress didn’t allocate enough funds to shorten that timeframe.
“The cruiser Epping will begin her trials next month with the Olympia following by the end of the year. That will help with the scouting cruiser numbers. I suspect we will be needing them to counter cruisers that will attempt to raid commerce along our coast.
“We have also been implementing Lieutenant Sims’ improvements to the gearing of our guns and training methods. This is allowing us to improve the gunnery performance throughout the fleet making each ship more effective. If everything happens according to our original schedule, those improvements should be completed by the end of the year.
“Well gentlemen, if there is nothing else, please give your reports to my aide so I can brief the Secretary and Admiral Dewey on the current status of our planning. If we encounter any problems in our planning let me know so it can be addressed quickly. We have the assets of most of the technical bureaus in the Navy, and we should use them to their fullest extent.”
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Post by MateDow on Mar 22, 2019 1:31:28 GMT -6
9 October, 1900 Washington DC Washington Naval Yard Rear Admiral O’Neil, Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, looked at the most recent request by the Bureau of Ships. “They want us to develop a turret for a future battleship armed with an 8-inch gun? Why don’t they just continue to use the twin 6-inch turrets that are currently in use?”
Lieutenant Fenton answered what he assumed was a question directed at him. “I talked to Constructor Woodward at Construction and Repair and he blames it on the new Chief of BuShips. Apparently he wants a gun that is heavy enough to be used against enemy cruisers, but also penetrate the armor on foreign battleships. Naval intelligence has data that the Russians have limited their belt armor to only 6 inches. A gun of this caliber should be able to penetrate their armor at anticipated battle ranges.”
“Yes, but the British and German battleships have heavier armor.”
“He would just say that the Russians are our most probable enemy at the moment. The admiral also believes that the thicker armor on the British and German ships provides additional rationale for the larger gun. It will be more useful against them as well in penetrating any armor used for the protection of their secondary batteries or hull ends beyond the belt.
“They are making the point that with the new Krupp technique for making armor, ships will just be getting more effective armor for less weight. That is the trend for our designs, and they assume that foreign designers are working in that direction as well. Without the larger gun we will be in a position where only the primary battery will be able to penetrate their armor.
“They also point to trends where other countries will eventually start to build large cruisers to match our Columbia’s. We can’t hope that they will not look at them and see the future of armored cruisers.”
Admiral O’Neil let out a deep sigh. “Well, they are the ones that design the ships. If they want a turret that will kill cruisers we will give them the best design that we can. Have the engineers start work on single gun turret. Let them know that I expect it to have the same weight as the 6-inch gun turret that they will be replacing. That should keep the weight down enough to have a reasonable chance to hit a cruiser. Have them use the new hydraulic recoil system that we just completed. The extra weight will be balanced by the increased rate of fire that we expect.”
Lieutenant Fenton finished writing his notes. “Yes sir. I’ll have them start their work.”
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Post by MateDow on Mar 22, 2019 1:32:27 GMT -6
I have learned too late that I am bad at taking screenshots late at night.
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Post by MateDow on Mar 25, 2019 0:49:59 GMT -6
7 November, 1900 Washington DC State, War, and Navy Building
Rear Admiral Dow was in the Secretary’s office waiting for their morning meeting to being. “It looks like you are going to be able to keep your job for another four years sir.”
“I will, assuming that I still have the confidence of President McKinley. The other question is what that popping jay Roosevelt is going to do with the vice-presidency. I will be surprised if he completes his term without something that he finds more exciting catching his attention and taking him to South America or something. He’s done it before. I know that he thinks that is a wholly unimportant job.
“Sorry, I know that you and he are good friends, and I shouldn’t be speaking ill of him to you.”
“That is alright sir. I can’t argue with you that Teddy is a little, shall we say, ‘spontaneous’ in his decision making. And I believe his thoughts on the vice-presidency were along the lines of ‘It’s a no man's land somewhere between the legislative and executive branch.”
Vice-President Roosevelt During the Spanish-American War
Admiral Dow reminded himself that Secretary Long had also been up for the position of McKinley’s Vice-President, so it wasn’t surprising that there was bad blood there in addition to the stresses of being Roosevelt’s superior at the beginning of the Spanish-American War. From everything that he’d read about the Republican Convention, the decision hadn’t been close; they had overwhelmingly chosen Roosevelt.
“Even with those thoughts, I would be surprised if he quit the job. You have to admit that he put his all into the election. If I had to guess, he will make new roles for the Vice-President that will allow him to be more out in the public.”
“Yes admiral, I guess you do. What is new today?”
“BuOrd reports that the torpedo station has made an improvement to our torpedoes that will give them additional range. As they have explained it to me, the design of the valve allows for additional tension in the spring that controls the depth maintenance system. This leads to less undulation in the depth of the torpedo while moving through the water. This should allow for ranges of 800 yards when fired on a high speed setting. This will increase the envelope where our destroyers can make a successful attack.
“All of the preparations for the commissioning ceremony for the destroyer Lary are coming together. We will have all of our office’s plans completed on time. Lt. Commander Nicholson reports that everything is on schedule on his end and the shipyard is working at closing out all of the punchlist items that have been submitted to date. Bath Iron Works has done a good job and there haven’t been many deficiencies to be fixed.
“That is everything for today.”
“I am glad that they received that contract. I grew up near there. Well, upriver from there. Very well Admiral, if there is nothing else pressing, leave your briefing papers with my secretary, and have a good morning.”
“Thank you sir.”
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Post by MateDow on Mar 25, 2019 22:14:24 GMT -6
10 December, 1900 Washington DC State, War, and Navy Building Rear Admiral Dow looked up as his aide stuck his head through the door. “Admiral, Captain Sigsbee is here to meet with you and he says that it urgent.”
“Very well. Send him in.”
The Chief of Naval Intelligence, walked in. “Good morning sir. Sorry to come unannounced, but there is something that you need to be aware of.”
“No problem Charles. It gives me an excuse to put off writing this report. Have a seat.”
“Thank you sir. We have caught a Japanese spy near the Torpedo Station in Newport. His name is Hiroshi Abe, and his cover was as a merchant. We were fortunate to catch him. A Chinese laundry worker checking the pockets of a jacket to be washed found drawings of the Mark 3 torpedo; this is the new one with the improved hydrostatic valve. We set up surveillance outside the laundry and caught Mr. Abe as he left with the jacket.
“Unfortunately, we have not been able to determine who at the Torpedo Station was feeding him the information.”
Admiral Dow leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath. “I assume that the Secretary recommended that we keep this quiet?”
“Yes he is. I briefed him before coming up and recommended to him that we keep this quiet for a number of reasons. The primary one is that we need to figure out who is leaking the information so we can plug it. If we announce that we caught a spy it will just drive him underground, where if he ‘has to leave the country due to other business’ it won’t cause as much alarm.
“The other benefit of this will be not irritating the Japanese. At a time when we are facing the Russians we can’t afford to agitate a country that could be a potential ally, or at least remain neutral, in any conflict. The Japanese do not have any love for the Russians after they butted in after their war with China, but I don’t want to count on that. We should try and keep our relations cordial.”
“That makes sense. Why are you briefing me in on this? It doesn’t appear to come under any of my domains.”
“I felt that you need to know what our potential enemies are capable of if you are going to design sufficient protection into our future ships. BuOrd never seems to be forthcoming with information, so you might never have known what the Japanese had taken, or the fact that they needed the technology in the first place.”
“Once again, that makes sense. I’ll keep it in mind. Fortunately it looks like Congress will increase the size of the ships that they will approve. I have been working on this since I arrived here to overcome the 14,000 ton limit that they have imposed on our ships. It will allow next year’s battleships to have armor protection and range of operations. The fact that we had to cut the armor on the Kentucky’s to provide coal wasn’t the best tradeoff. If Congress had allowed us to increase the tonnage over the Georgia’s we could have maintained the protection while still increasing the range.
Captain Sigsbee stood up to leave. “I know that you are busy so I won’t take up any more of your time. Let me know if there is anything that I can do to help you with this matter.”
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Post by MateDow on Mar 26, 2019 21:18:21 GMT -6
18 December, 1900 USS Kentucky 15 miles SW of Tortugas Bank, Florida As the smoke drifted astern, Rear Admiral Farquhar thought that the British had had it right when they called it “exercising the great guns.” It was a term that dated from conducting gunnery training in the days of sail. His ship’s gunners had reduced the target raft to a mass of shredded canvas and splintered lumber. From a range of 5,000 yards hits from the twelve and six inch guns had efficiently dealt destruction.
He trained his binoculars astern to watch as the Rhode Island swung to starboard to begin her firing run. The flash of the guns was followed by the sound about three seconds later. Initially, the splashes were left of the target, but it appeared that the range was accurate. While the 12-inch guns went through their loading cycle the 6-inch guns of the secondary battery started firing salvoes at the target. Within moments holes started to appear in the target as the gunners established the range and rate of change.
Through his binoculars he could see the gunnery team on the level above the bridge working the Dumaresq to ensure that future salvoes would maintain the range. After every salvo from the main battery would land, they would put the corrections in and send the revised range to the gunners.
Almost a year’s hard training had been required to get the fleet to this proficiency level. He would be able to confidently rate each of the battleships in the squadron a “good” when he submitted his report to the Secretary this year. The cruisers were showing the same improvement over when he took command last year.
When Admiral Dewey had first approached him with the training plans he’d been surprised, and had assumed that it would never be implemented. The expense of the new training regime would be significant because of the amount of time that his ships would be spending at sea and conducting gunnery training. It was always more expensive to keep a ship at sea rather than tied up. It also made the maintenance of the ships more difficult as things broke more often and there was less time to get them fixed.
He’d followed in the papers while Rear Admiral Dow had been selling the program to Congress. The fact that the program would consume almost an eighth of the Navy’s budget for the year had been a hard sell to the Senators, but eventually they came to see the importance. The Admiral had stressed that all of the money that they were spending on new ships would be wasted in wartime if the crews couldn’t reasonably be expected to hit a target.
When the ships returned to port tomorrow their crew will have earned their time ashore. He didn’t envy the police in Key West who would have their hands full trying to keep them in check, but he would quietly pass the word to his captains to go more easily on the ones that overindulged than they normally would. It would help with the morale.
Even with the additional workload the crews liked the new routine. Everyone enjoyed the roar of the guns, seeing the tattered remains of the targets, and the tiredness of a hard day’s work. It made the hours of turret drills, damage control drills, and the other drills worthwhile. This is the reason that they joined the Navy. They might have said it was just a job, but this is the real reason that they left their Midwestern farms, Northeastern cities, and Western forests. It was so they could show up wearing the blue uniform, impress the girls, and then talk about the great guns with their dads and grandads. Heck, if he was honest with himself, that was the reason that he’d left Pennsylvania all those years ago.
Tugs had placed another target into position and Alabama began to turn into firing position. Once again, splashes quickly obscured the target.
This report would practically write itself. There would always be improvements to note on the AAR, but he was sure that the individual ship’s reports wouldn’t contain any severe deficiencies to be corrected.
Seaman manning the main battery guns on Kentucky
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Post by MateDow on Mar 28, 2019 2:19:26 GMT -6
20 December, 1900 Washington DC State, War, and Navy Building Rear Admiral Dow was excited. This would be the first battleship design under his tenure. Working with Congress to get this building program approved had taken time, but in the end they’d approved the construction of four more battleships that would be laid down over the next seven months. Supplemental budgets usually weren’t this generous. The ability to build a homogenous squadron of four battleships simultaneously wasn’t something that Congress handed out often; the costs were usually spread out over a longer period of time.
He’d given a pretty detailed list of requirements to challenge his constructors, and they hadn’t disappointed him; not that he’d expected they would. They were a group of consummate professionals with decades of experience. The requirements had been based on Captain Sigsbee’s assessments of foreign ships and their capabilities. British battleships were equally heavily armed, but had thinner armor. Russian battleships were hardly better than armored cruisers.
Chief Constructor Hichborn was justifiably proud of the design as well. With a modest 2,000 ton increase in displacement they had doubled the throw weight of the secondary battery. The 8-inch 45-caliber gun fired a 260 pound shell comparted the 105 pound shell for the 6-inch guns of the preceding battleships. He was also able to restore armor thicknesses that had been instituted in the Kentucky-class as result of congressional limitations.
In addition to restoring the belt armor thickness, they had added an additional half-inch of deck armor to the design. This was based on the test firings against the hulk of the monitor Keokuk last year. BuOrd had been surprised at the need for additional deck armor to stop large splinters from modern heavy guns. There was also a fear that if battle ranges continued to increase the percentage of shells hitting the deck armor would increase because the shells would go over the belt due to their increased angle of impact.
Read Admiral Dow’s only concern with the design was the thickness of the armor on the secondary battery turrets. He’d specified a lightweight turret from the Bureau of Ordnance, and they’d given him one. It had the same 2 ½” armor of the previous 6-inch turret. His worry was all of the extra powder that would be in this turret. The heavier shell of the 8-inch gun required a powder charge that was three time heavier than the 6-inch gun. If that ignited it would threaten the ship instead of just knocking out the turret. It would definitely be something he’d have to correct in subsequent designs.
He noticed that Chief Engineer Melville had worked his magic again with the propulsion plant. He had increased her speed by two knots over the previous design. Even though they would probably be operating with the previous ships with their 16-knot speed, they would have some reserve power for fouling of the hull or battle damage.
Melville also explained that the propulsion plant would be more reliable than their predecessors. Whereas the Kentuckys had required forced draft to achieve their top speed, these ships could achieve a higher speed without the use of it. This had required extra weight for the boilers to accommodate the larger firing surface that it required, but it should pay for itself in the long run with maintenance costs.
Of course, the more powerful plant meant that more crew needed to be assigned to keep that powerplant fed. That fact would cut into some of the savings that he expected from maintenance costs, but in the long run a small price to pay.
Even with the increased powerplant, they had maintained the standard torpedo protection system of the previous ships. There was some question as to how effective it would be in the face of an actual torpedo hit, but without any data the design would stay the same. He remembered the warning from Captain Sigsbee about foreign espionage in our torpedo research. The scary thought was, if we are able to design advanced torpedoes, other countries probably were as well.
Between the extra gun turrets and the extra funnel required by the power increases, these ships would have a more cluttered appearance, but it was definitely worth it for the increase in combat power. Plus, three funnels were apparently becoming his signature design element.
This design would be the basis for the detail drawings sent to the shipyards. The design of the scantlings and structure of a ship was always much more time consuming than the rough drawings that he approved. That is why they were called detail drawings. As the lead shipyard, the New York Naval Shipyard would be responsible for the creation of most of the drawings, which would then be sent to the private shipbuilders.
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Post by boomboomf22 on Mar 28, 2019 9:58:36 GMT -6
Jeebus, why does your local yard read as 60,000 size possible!?!?
Anyway seems a decent and compact design, tho I am leery of the 2.5" secondary armor myself.
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Post by aeson on Mar 28, 2019 11:37:26 GMT -6
I, too, am a bit leery of 8" secondary guns with only 2.5" of armor protecting them. Probably would've gone with 'only' eight 8" guns to allow for heavier armor, myself, and maybe put them in casemates as well since casemates are lighter than single turrets, though I'm not sure that that would be enough to allow the ship enough secondary armor for my comfort.
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Post by MateDow on Mar 28, 2019 21:31:53 GMT -6
Jeebus, why does your local yard read as 60,000 size possible!?!? Anyway seems a decent and compact design, tho I am leery of the 2.5" secondary armor myself.
I forgot to get screenshots while I was playing and went back and captured them all in 1927. I had ambitious private yards I guess.
Also the reason that it says that I had 1900 tons of spare weight.
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