Ram Challenge

[Kiwi Imperialist]

Italian flagship Re d'Italia sinking after having been rammed by Erzherzog Ferdinand Max at the Battle of Lissa.

Welcome to the Ram Challenge! Please read the challenge rules and requirements listed below before submitting an entry.

Design Requirements

1. Your submission must depict a fictional warship with a ram bow.
2. The ship should be designed in response to the Battle of Lissa, or an equivalent in-universe battle, which emphasises ramming.
3. It should be commissioned within 10 years of the Battle of Lissa (i.e. between 1866 and 1876).

Challenge Rules

1. Each participant may submit a single image.
2. The image should be a Shipbucket template modified to include the participant’s art and, optionally, one of the following: ship badge, unit insignia, manufacturer logo, national flag, or naval ensign. Other elements, including data sheets and scenic elements, are no longer permitted. If you have specifications and blocks of text, please include them in your post and not the image itself.
3. One side-view of the participant's ship must be included. One top-view is also permitted, but not required. All other views are prohibited.
4. If two views are included, they must depict the same individual ship (e.g. USCGC Bertholf WMSL-750) in the same paint scheme, markings, and configuration.
5. All art must be in Shipbucket scale and conform to the Shipbucket style guidelines.
6. A textual description accompanying each submission is permitted, but not necessary.
7. Non-serious entries, or entries substantially deviate from the challenge requirements, are not allowed.
8. Off-topic posts will be reported to the relevant authorities.

This challenge will run until Sunday 23 April 2023, ending at 23:59 UTC-12 (International Date Line West).
A countdown timer can be found at this link.

A poll will be held after this date to select a winner! When it opens, please provide honest and meaningful scores for each entry. Responses which grant maximum scores to a select group of entries, and minimum scores to all other entries, will be deleted. Members of the community who manipulate the results in such a fashion may also be subject to a permanent ban. Scores will be allocated in two categories, each with a scale of 1 to 10:

• Drawing Quality - The overall quality of the drawing. One might consider detailing, shading, and accuracy.
• Design Quality -The quality of the design presented, irrespective of drawing quality. One could consider feasibility, practicality, and realism.

[TNGShM]

Looks like I'm first.

Hiumijuu-class Ironclad



The Hiumijuu-class were a class of two oceangoing ironclads built for Alteias in the late 760s. They were the first oceangoing ironclads designed by Alteias, all previous ironclads being designed exclusively for defending the home islands. They served with distinction during the later years of the War of Ekranonian Conquest, with a quiet career afterwards. The two ships were named after creatures of Altesian legend, setting a precedent of capital ship naming that continues into the present day.

Ordered in 764 for the ongoing War of Ekranonian Conquest, the ships had to be ocean going in order to reach the Ekranon continent, some 2700 nautical miles away. Because of the distances between Alteias and its neighbors, they were designed from the beginning with sails. The pair were large for the time, with a length of 114 meters at the waterline. Most of the armament lay within its armored casemate: some four 38cm muzzle loading smoothbores arranged with two in the bow and stern gunports, with one on each broadside, and ten 28cm smoothbores, with one in each corner gunport and three each on each broadside. Four 20cm muzzle loading rifles were located in two twin turrets on top of the casemate. A four meter long ram bow completed the ship's armament. Interestingly, the ship was initially designed without a ram, but reports of the legendary Battle of Arken Bay, where an force of Gliadean ironclads sank much of a larger force of Meralian ironclads through ramming attacks. The report was so influential that for the next decade, Altesian warships were designed with ram bows , even though battle experience showed that ramming was usually ineffective. Armor ranged from 4cm on the deck to 28cm for the turrets, with 25cm of Altesian Maple backing with the exception of the turrets and conning towers. The armored belt extended from the main deck to 2m below the waterline.

The ships were powered by two horizontal back-acting engines, which drove a propeller each for a maximum speed of 14.5 knots. The steam for the engines was created by six cylindrical boilers at a pressure of 25psi. All of the boilers exhausted out of a single, large funnel. This funnel could partially retract while the ship was under sail. Range was a little over 1300 nautical miles at 8 knots, a respectable distance, but still insufficient to traverse the oceans surrounding Alteias. The engines were supplemented with two masts and a brig rig. Due to their large size and nonretracting propellers, ships were not great under sail, but it was they were still able to move at 8 or so knots.

Completed in 768, the two ships proved to be fast ships, but the turrets proved to be their downfall. While they provided good fields of fire, the weight from the turrets caused considerable instability, and they were removed in 769 in a large rebuild for both ships. The turrets would then be used on two smaller ships. The top of the casemate was plated over, two conning towers in place of the two turrets. A common complaint was that the vision slits on the original conning towers were too thin to see well out of, so the new conning towers were designed with wider slits. The two middle gunports on each side were moved inwards, with two more gunports installed. The armament was changed to six 25.5cm rifles and twelve 20cm rifles. The ships were recommissioned in December 769, not long after the commissioning of the class's successor, the two even more massive Arachi-class oceangoing monitors.

With the intensification of the war in 770, the four ships were sent to the west coast of the Ekranon continent in order to defend Altesian holdings. There, the four behemoths would defend Altesian territory from repeated Qeu attacks. Initial battles were successful, with Qeu wooden ships destroyed quickly by the ironclads. However, in the early hours of 18 September 870, a Qeu force of nine ironclads ran into the Altesian force that was hidden by the cover of night. The result was a savage and confused action, where neither side could tell what was going on. Fighting quickly devolved into multiple smaller battles, with the Altesian ships fighting two or even three Qeu ships. While initial fighting resulted in a stalemate, the tide of the battle began to shift in favor of the Altesians when Adandara rammed the Qeu armored corvette Jouren Siafung, which sank after an hour. As the ranges closed from hundreds of meters to mere dozens, the larger 25.5cm rifles of the Hiumijuu-class and the massive 51cm smoothbores of the Arachi-class began to smash through the armor of the Qeu ships, while the fire from the smaller Qeu guns, the largest being a 22.5cm smoothbore, was largely ineffective. As dawn began to break, the Qeu ships retreated. Three Qeu ships were sunk or sinking, with a further three having heavy damage for the loss of 839 officers and men. On the Altesian side, all four ships were lightly damaged. The worst off of the ships was Hiumijuu, which suffered from an explosion in one of the 25.5cm rifles, killing or wounding nearly everyone in the frontmost quarter of the casemate. Other ships had jammed gunport shutters or had lost masts. Still, the battle was a major Altesian victory, with Qeu naval forces crippled for several months. Altesian forces took advantage of this to mount a large scale invasion of the main Qeu port on the continent, Alquans, with the four ironclads leading the force. The remaining three active Qeu ironclads could only watch from afar as their damaged sisters were scuttled while the Qeu army retreated. The Arachi-class were ordered to a different theater of the war soon afterwards, but Hiumijuu and Adandara remained off of Qeu-controlled areas of Ekranon. Their guns proved instrumental in suppressing coastal cities while remaining invulnerable to Qeu coastal defenses. Not long afterwards, Qeu forces would surrender and the resulting peace treaty ceded most of the Qeu territory to Alteias, ensuring that Alteias would have a large influence on Ekranon.

After the conclusion of Altesian conflict in the War of Ekranonian Conquest in early 771, the two ships would sail to various ports around the world on various goodwill missions, or to display the power of Alteias on several occasions. However, the two ships would never fire a shot in anger again. Adandara, approaching obsolescence, would be placed in reserve in 780 and scrapped in 782. Hiumijuu would be reassigned as a training ship around the same time. She would continue in this role until decommissioned in 791. For nearly six years, there was a movement to preserve the Hiumijuu as a memorial commemorating the Altesian victory over Qeu, but it was found that two decades of use followed by years spent idle resulted in the deterioration of the ship, and as a result she was also scrapped. There are still some remnants of the class, with the anchors of both ships being part of a memorial in Meria, and one of the conning towers functioning as a display in a children's museum in Remoris. A turret that was originally installed on Adandara is also on display at the Naval Preservation District in Yokomaro.

Specification:
Type: Casemate ironclad
Displacement: 8,389 tons
Length: 114m (wl), 116.4m (oa)
Beam: 22.25m
Draught: 6.4m
Propulsion:
- 2-shaft horizontal back-acting steam engines
- Six Kashirame boilers
- 4280 ihp
- Brig rig
Speed: 14.5 knots
Range: 1250 nmi at 8 knots (unlimited with sail)
Complement: 650
Armament:
As built
In casemate:
- 4 x 38cm Riasan smoothbores
- 10 x 28cm Riasan smoothbores
In turrets
- 4 x 20cm Iraka rifles
- Ram bow
- Various boarding equipment
As of 870
In casemate:
- 6 x 25.5cm Iraka rifles
- 12 x 20cm Iraka rifles
- Ram bow
- Various boarding equipment
Armor:
- Waterline belt: 7-9cm backed by 25cm of Altesian Maple
- Deck: 4cm with 25cm of backing
- Casemate: 12cm with 25cm of backing
- Turrets: 28cm
- Conning towers: 25cm

Ships in class:
Hiumijuu - Scrapped, 782
Adandara - Scrapped, 797

[Rob2012]

Cool drawing.

[BvonTeapot]

Kontor-class Ironclad Adler von Lübeck



HS Adler von Lübeck is one of two vessels in the Kontor-class ironclads in the Hanseatic Fleet. Designated as "First-Rate Oceangoing Ironclads," they are tasked with being the heavy spearhead of the fleet with the capability of acting as command ships and brawlers that can meet the enemy in the open ocean. Following the Battle of Lissa, the North German Federal Navy saw the effectiveness of a ram battleship and both Prussia and the Hanseatic League sought out their own answers to the ironclad ram question.

For the Hanseatic League, the answer was this unique design of ship. The design was to lay low in the water and use its powerful ram to embed itself in the side of a hostile ship, while its unique turret design would allow for rapid fire. The two primary turrets consist of 3 twin 14" gun mounts, which would operate in a manner similar to no other ship. One mount would fire at the target, and then the entire turret would turn in order to bear the next mount. This one would fire, and as they are reloading, the third mount would be placed on target. This would be done until the fire mission was completed, giving hypothetically giving an impressive fire rate. The secondary battery consisted of 5" casemates, loaded in the central superstructure of the ship and the fore and aft hull, and 12x gunports that can be seen under the fore and aft wheelhouse - in these gunports are Hale Rocket launchers that would be used to set fire to the deck of whatever ship was rammed. In addition to guns, the ship also carried two torpedo boats that could be launched for reconnaissance or fire missions and a balloon that would be used for observation.

The ship was given the name of the "Sailing Circus" due to her centre mast and colour scheme, as well as the two "carousel" turrets. The pennant of the Hanseatic League did not help with this, as it was coloured white and red and raised at the very top of the centre mast.

Thank you to Obj. 221 on Discord for the assistance with getting the turrets to look right, these rotating turrets are some tricky ones.


Specifications:

Specification:
Type: "First Rate Oceangoing Ironclad" (Turreted ironclad)
Displacement: ~15,000 tons
Armament:

• 12 x 14" guns
• 18 x 5" guns
• 12 x Hale Rocket launchers
• 2 x III-class oceangoing torpedo boats - Klein Georg and Cecile

Ships of the Class:

• HS Bergen
• HS Adler von Lübeck

[maxwell john]

HMS (Later HMCS) Canada

As steam power began to develop, the Royal Navy of the 1850s desired a new design that would incorporate the best and most modern technology onto a battleship, to best get use out of the ship due to the rapidly changing nature of naval design during the era. As such, what was planned as a battleship ram was constantly being changed in design, up until the launching of the hull in 1866. The ships most notable feature is its massive tumblehome, which was both a carry over from the age of sail, as well as considered the best way to stabilize large guns, and to add the most impact to the ram. It is heavily armored, although not particularly fast.
Crew: 795

Weaponry:
1x2 Twin 20 inch Dahlgren gun turret amidships (Both as a main armament and a testbed for the American guns and turrets becoming available to the market)
2x1 Single 12 inch 25 ton long guns
4x 18 lber long guns
4x 24 lber Millar Howitzers
1x Ram
1x Gas and Smoke Projector (from the figurehead)
10x Nordenfelt guns
3x underwater whitehead torpedo launchers (added in the last minute to the design, before adequate testing was done)

The ship was created in 1866, when it entered service. It served until 1882, in which case its guns were already showing their age and were effectively relegated to second-line duty. In 1885, she was sent to the fledgling RCN where she protected Halifax harbour. She did this job well, eventually undergoing refits of its entire weapon systems and removing the rams prominence, and she served as a harbor protection ship in the First World War, even sinking a U-boat. As part of the plans for 1918, its smoke projector was fitted to be filled with poisonous gas and the ship beached intentionally somewhere on the North Seas Coast in order to release the gas and create a beachhead, but this was never achieved. She sat as a rusting hulk until 1951, when a civilian group bought her and has since restored her, although when they went out of money in 1983, she once again was left rusting and has remained so. In 2008, she began settling to the bottom, and an ecological zone has been set up around the hull as removal and hopeful restoration as a museum ship was planned. Since then, no activity has been seen on or near the hull.

Her sister was given to the Victorian naval force in Australia, alongside Nelson and Cerberus, where she was eventually turned into a target ship in 1938.

[_Zustt_]

Helstland Steam Frigate.

Project description.
Helstland is an ocean-going steam-powered armoured frigate. The standard displacement is 4.150T. The hull frame is made of iron, the sheathing is wooden. The hull has covering from copper plates. Sail plan is fully rigged vessel with three masts with square sails on each. The main armament is twenty-four 130mm muzzle-loading guns, twelve on each side, and two 280mm Breech-loading guns in an armoured turret. The guns are located in one closed gun deck and in turret located on top of the gun deck. Frigate also carries four 15mm multiple-barrel guns located on combat platforms. Steam is generated by eight coal-fueled boilers. Two steam piston engines propel two screws on two shaft. The total power is 5.200 Shp. Ship ensure 15 knots maximum speed. Only the turret and gun deck are armored. Armor protect only against small and medium projectiles.

[Schodact]

It's high time I did something in-setting outside of Lasafenia.

The Helgoland class was a class of two ironclad frigates ordered by Denmark in the early 1870s. Loosely comparable to contemporary French designs, they would be armed with six 260mm guns arranged in a central battery layout. While the design itself was of little import, the ships history would be far more interesting.

Shortly after entering service, Denmark declared war on Lasafenia due to clashes in colonial goals. The war came to a front in 1875 when the major forces of the two navies engaged each other off of the southern coast of Grandenia with the Helgoland class acting as the core of the Danish navy and the Lasafenian navy comprised primarily of the much older and less advanced Ehrwürdig class coastal monitors. The Lasafenian navy was utterly crushed in this battle losing all three ironclads and the loss would pave the way for the eventual loss of Grandenia to the Danes.

The impact of this war was astounding as it shocked Lasafenia into putting a more concerted effort into their navy, something that had been largely ignored up to this point. The Sonne class of coastal defense battleship was completed a few years later in 1883 and would mark the beginning of what would eventually be one of the most powerful navies in the world a few decades later.

[Armoured man]

Wanryu Class Coastal Ironclad



The sole member of her class, the Wanryu was a coastal ironclad constructed in the early 1870s, the reason for her design and construction was Japan's supposed Intent to acquire new and powerful steam-powered ironclads, the likes of which would make the entirety of the Zipang navy obsolete overnight. However following Wanryu's construction and commissioning, these supposed Japanese ironclads would never materialize, making her for a brief time one of the most powerful warships in all of Asia.

Wanryu Class Ironclad

Specifications

Tonnage - 8,000 tonnes standard
Speed - 13 knots under steam power
Range - 1000nm at 8 knots
Armament - 2x2 15", 4x1 15", muzzle-loading guns
Armour - Pilothouse: 10" Gun turret: 5" Main belt: 8-11" Deck: 2-3"

[jjx indoweeb]

Vestenico Ruso II
Armoured Knight-Priest of the Great East



Named after the canonical Ruso II ce Vesteny (lit: Ruso II the Blessed) of the olden middle ages, the ship was built in the shadow of the military's rapid politicization.
Laid in 1771, Ruso II would be one of the last warships launched featuring both steam and sail power. In Sekravat's case, the only other kind succeeding it would be the armoured corvette Havfije with a schooner rig.
She was conceptualized as a seagoing warship, and featured a wrought iron naval ram which saw extensive success and popularity in the navies of Verdantis in the age of ironclads.

The armament consists of a main battery of two 45cm muzzle-loading long guns mounted in barbettes, a secondary battery of eight 20cm breechloaders mounted on casemates amidships, and four additional quick firing guns covering the ship's front and rear sides.
The ship were armoured with wrought iron, 20-50cm on the belt and the bridge with 50cm of steel to protect against shrapnel and explosive rounds.
Propulsion consists of 6 boilers powering 2 steam reciprocating engines and an atypical four-masted rig.

She featured an unusual rig classified as a "yawl-barque". This is due to the fact that her jiggermast sports a single gaff sail that is not rigged to the mizzen, in addition to the traditional ship rig. This design makes it so that stability of the ship is ensured while in full sail, and the aforementioned jigger gaff doubles as a steadying sail in battle.

Although innovative for the time, This design caused several problems, Mainly due to the lack of deck space that were available for the crew to efficiently manipulate the sails.
Reloading also weren't a straightforward system. Although the batteries were placed on top of the magazines, only the casemates were able to be optimized for quick firing as the main battery was not equipped with an integrated elevator and rammer, instead relying on cranes to lead the ammunition into the guns which needed to be rotated back to the direction of the elevator prior to loading.

Nevertheless she proved to be reliable in service, acting as the flagship of the Grand Blue Squadron from 1874 to 1881, in which she saw all of her combat service in the Mhoteniyan war of succession raiding commerce and culminating in the 1879 blockade, where she took part in sinking a frigate in the battle of Vodogdus.

In 1882 she was reassigned to coastal service, later in 1883 she was transferred to the Polyotrom Squadron via the Kirkassi Canal. This ferry necessitated her rigging to be dissasembled, and this task was carried out in the Samkhran Steelwises.
After her refit and transferral, the sails were discarded and fighting tops were installed.

The ship would later be reduced to flagship of the Reserve Fleet stationed in Sokoliiy beginning from 1890 to 1899, where she was decommissioned and later bought and subsequently scrapped in 1901 by Alatinum scrappers.

[jjx indoweeb]

it has been fun cooking up the Ruso, and so satisfying finally getting to finish my entry from the Ironclad Menace challenge of the yesteryears.
my first time rigging sails and the second time i really finished a sip in MSPaint and so far its been super comfy, expect me to do lots of sail age ships in the future.