Shipbucket

that Athena is begging to be rebuilt through the cold war, midway style .....

The Eagle is OK but the Albatross just looks a bit silly with a single gun turret on a jet will it actually do anything apart from slow it down a lot ? by 44 the success of unarmed bombers would point to not having any defence (or you would want a massively powerful defence B29 style)

Thanks JSB, I was looking at the US Avenger which still had the single gun turret aft in 1943-44. I could have made it really sleek and streamlined, but when I looked at the early jets they looked more like upgraded piston engine aircraft rather than the truer 'jet' look ten or so years later. The other reason I used the same configuration as the earlier piston engine Canard types was the Japanese J7 Shinden type which was to have a jet engine in a one for one replacement with the piston engine.

With the Athena and post war drawings I decided not to. I could have done the AA cruiser and the 1945 BB in post war outfits as well. I figured Atlantis has gone as far as I want it to. Feel free to carry on if you would like to do post war drawings of the later ships and add them to the thread.

I want to try something different but I am not certain yet what that will be.

I was having a look through my drawings and AU's to see if it all looked finished or if there should be more drawings to come. Atlantis was the first AU I looked at and did up the following chart.



What showed up was the great gap between 1928 and 1940 for CV building, at least one more ship type should be in there. Most navies also concentrated on one or two cruiser types to build during the war itself, so far I have none till the auto 5" cruiser of 1945.

There are plenty of destroyers and escorts.

Poseidon Class Aircraft Carriers.

After all the Treatys had shaken out, Atlantis had 81,000 tons that could be used for aircraft carrier construction. This ended up being expended in three Poseidon class and the one Goliath class (see page 7) was laid down and completed after the expiry of the London Treaty. The three Poseidon class completed in 1932, 1934 and 1937. The Poseidon was refurbished with new weaponry in 1939-40, the Hyperion and Demeter missed out on this and only added some extra AA weaponry, keeping the low angle 5" throughout their service (I am thinking Hyperion and Demeter may be sunk I just don't know where or by whom yet).



These were large carriers with good armour, but to achieve that and keep within the 27,000 tons, the ships were only one hangar deck with 58 aircraft, compared to the two hangar decks on the Athena and Goliath classes.

Name/Date/Fate
Poseidon (1932)
Hyperion (1934)
Demeter (1937)

Artemis Class Anti-Aircraft Cruiser.

The Artemis class were to be the best of their type when units started completing from 1943. Compared to the Dido and Atlanta class cruisers, these ships were bigger, faster, and better armed. The Holy Trinity!

The ships were armed with the Havok twin 5" 54cal Mk21 turrets and mountings. This gun type was 50% better than the average 5" which fired at 8 rpm. The Havok guns fired at 12 rpm and had 300 rounds per gun. This combined with the thousands of 2" ammunition for the Havok 2"/60cal Mk3 fully automatic weapon system, required a 611 foot hull to take everything. The technology advances allowed for a 120,000shp propulsion system to be fitted into place where a 90,000shp propulsion system would have fitted only a few years before. The 120,000shp pushed the ship along at a respectable 34 knots, while 35.5 knots were made on trials with 115% overload of normal full power.



The class started construction in 1940 with the first two units being completed in 1943, a further 3 completed in 1944, and a last 3 in 1945.

I think I might be getting the hang of these AA cruisers, practise makes perfect!

Poseidon Class Aircraft Carriers Part Deux.


Of the three Poseidon class carriers, only the Poseidon received the major refurbishment planned for all three. With Hyperion and Demeter only receiving essential upgrades to keep them at sea as long as possible they were paired with either the Poseidon or Goliath which had been fully upgraded.




The upgrade removed all of the original armament which was then replaced with 8 twin 4", 4 quad 40mm, 6 twin 40mm, and finally 2 twin 25.4mm. Radar, new homing equipment for the aircraft, catapults and many other items that had been invented for use on aircraft carriers since these ships were designed.

Ocean Class Heavy Cruisers.

The ink was barely dry on the Washington Treaty when Atlantis laid down its first pair of Heavy cruisers to the new limits. Reducing the main armament to 9x7.5" in triple turrets (rather than the maximum 8") made quite a saving in weight which could then be devoted into extra armour. Three boiler rooms and two engine rooms, overall produced 80,000shp for 32 knots. While not as fast as some of their competitors, the 3-4.5" main belt, and 2.5" deck armour, certainly gave them an edge in protection.

The full armament was 9x7.5", 10x4" (replaced the 5x90mm originally fitted as placeholders for when the twin 4" became available in 1933), 8x37mm, 8x25.4mm. 6x21" torpedoes, one aircraft and catapult. The ship was 570 feet long, with a breadth of 64 feet. Displacement of 10,100 tons standard and 13,250 tons full load.

This drawing replaces the Cerberus class cruisers I originally put together. I never liked that drawing, some parts looked too modern, some bits too old, it never looked right to me.




The original Ocean class armoured cruisers were retired and scrapped in 1924-25 with their names being transferred to the new ships under construction. Eventually 6 ships of the class were completed.

I was not really keen on the three funnel version so did a two funnel version as well.



AWS Caribbean (1927)
AWS Mediterranean (1927)
AWS Pacific (1928)
AWS Atlantic (1929)
AWS Arctic (1930)
AWS Tasman (1930)

Nice ships, and I believe that the two funneled version is the better looking.

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Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"

Yep, two funnels look much better and more practical engine room/boiler room layout too.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Thanks for the comments Novice and Hood.


Cerberus Class Heavy Cruisers.

Like a lot of countries, Atlantis took their last large light cruiser, the Triton Class, and turned the same hull, propulsion and superstructure into a heavy cruiser, armed with 12x7.5". Atlantis kept the size of the ship to reasonable dimensions by not fitting seaplane handling equipment. This saved 50-60 feet of hull size and several thousand tons of displacement. Heavier armour was fitted with a 5.5" armoured belt and 3" of deck armour. At 611 feet long with a breadth of 68 feet, the ship required 80,000shp to move it along at 32 knots.

The final completed armament was, 12x7.5", 14x4", 32x40mm, 6x21" torpedo tubes.



Originally to have been a class of four, only the first two laid down in 1939 and completed in 1942 made it to the war as cruisers, the other two ships were postponed on the outbreak of war, but 6 months later were restarted to a new design, the two ships were to be completed as Light Aircraft Carriers. (Guess what drawings coming next?)

AWS Cerberus (1942)

AWS Vermuyden (1942)