Shipbucket

A Soviet warship from a 1970s technothriller...

Allende (Named after Salvador Allende (President of Chile, 1970 - 1973).)
Guevara Class Guided Missile Destroyer (Fictional)
Nuclear Powered
Speed: 50 knots
Described as having "...a low, clean profile and flared bow, she hugged the water to make radar detection difficult."
Gun Armament: "...some forty-millimeter guns mounted on the bridge." (Russians do not use 40mm guns.)
Missile Armament: SAMs and SSMs (SSM launchers are concealed below decks and only raised above deck to fire.)
Note: Specifically identified as the third member of the class (Lead ship is presumably named either Guevara or Che Guevara, this is not however specified in the text.). The small gun armament is the result of a need to keep the ships weight down.

This comes from the 1974 novel 'Thirty-four East' by Alfred Coppel, the class (All of which are named after Latin American Revolutionaries.) are designed as 'tattletails', their mission, to tail US carrier groups and when war starts, call down a strike and fire every SSM they carry at the carrier before escaping at high speed.

A Weimar-era light cruiser from a 2016 short story entitled "The Mean Season" by Jamie Campbell (Pseud.)

Rostock
Cruiser
Main Battery: 9 x 5.9 inch guns (Triple turrets A, X & Y)
Secondary battery/AA armament not specified.
Torpedoes: 9 x 20inch (500mm) Torpedo Tubes
Displacement: 6400 tons
Speed: 31.5 knots (Max)
Note: The author states compromises have been made to the armor and range to fit in the weapons, but does not provide specifics.

Except for the torpedoes, the Rostock sounds like the standard K+ cruiser classes. The K's had 12 x 21" (4x3) TT.

A pair of modified Deutschland Class Cruiser (Panzerschiffe), the first from a J. E. MacDonnell 'Ripping Yarn'

Wolfe
Deutschland Class Cruiser (Modified)
6 x 11 inch guns (Triple turrets, fore and aft)
10 x 6 inch guns (Single turrets? five a side)
Unspecified AA and TT armament, probably no different from unmodified Deutschland Class
Steam Turbines producing 100,000 horsepower. Four shafts.
30 knots (Max), 25 knots (Cruise)
No other details provided.
Launched 1943?
Note: German for Wolf is Wulf. Wolfe is a surname derived from that word.

The second from a War comic I found recently...

Werther
Deutschland Class Cruiser (Modified)
Armament: 4 x 14 inch guns (Twin turrets fore and aft), other armament appears to be identical to the originals.
Other details as per the real ships.

From a late '70s thriller novel by Antony Trew, and which contains spoilers for the same.

Simeonov Class Bulk Carrier
Tonnage: 20,000 tons (Gross), 32,000 tons (Deadweight)
Holds: 7 (Numbered from the bow 1-7). Holds 2-6 are general cargo holds (Ore, Coal, Grain, etc.). Hold 1 is for refrigerated cargo.
Engines: Diesel. Twin Screw. Speed: 17 knots (Max). Range: 15,000mi (24140.16 km)
Machinery and Engines Aft
Electronics fit: All of which are real Soviet military electronic systems in use at the time the novel was written. 'Vee Cone', long range communications. 'Don 2', navigation radar. 'High Pole', Identification Friend or Foe. 'Side Globe', Electronic Countermeasures. It is not specified in the novel if the ships carry any standard civilian gear, also mentioned is a sophisticated navigation system making use of both an Inertial Navigating System and Electronic positioning systems.
Crew: 89 (5 radio operators)
Armament (Spoilers): As ostensible civilian freighters (with a possible wartime naval auxiliary role.) the ships have no overt armament fitted. However Hold 1 has been fitted out to carry 24 nuclear mines (And all the equipment needed to lay the mines.). The mines are launched from four concealed ports in the bow area of the ship.

Another Australian Destroyer from the pages of J. E. MacDonnell. This one has appeared in two of the novel's I've found so far.

HMAS Jackal
Destroyer, class not specified
4 x 4.7 inch guns (A,B,X & Y)
1 x QF 2-pounder Mark V (8 barreled version)
2 x Quadruple 21 inch TT
Fitted with Radar & Sonar.
No other details provided.

I am guessing this would best be approached by starting with one of the interwar British A-I Class Destroyers as the baseline and modifying from there.

J.E. MacDonell had to be one of the most prolific writers of his time - there were dozens of his ripping yarns for the Navy. He also did dozens more in what can be only described as 'Romance' novels.

I remember Jackal with 'Dutchy' Holland in command. Supposedly an 'experimental' A-I with more speed. I did not remember the 8 barrel pom pom which would have been very unusual on a destroyer. The 8 barrel mounting was a big heavy beasty.

Krakatoa wrote: ↑December 1st, 2018, 7:11 pm J.E. MacDonell had to be one of the most prolific writers of his time - there were dozens of his ripping yarns for the Navy. He also did dozens more in what can be only described as 'Romance' novels.

I remember Jackal with 'Dutchy' Holland in command. Supposedly an 'experimental' A-I with more speed. I did not remember the 8 barrel pom pom which would have been very unusual on a destroyer. The 8 barrel mounting was a big heavy beasty.

And if this quote from the novel is anything to go by, quite the gunboat stopper as well...

"Now, Selaru's only a small island, remember that. The bastards won't have any battle wagons. If anything comes out for us it'll have a wooden hull, and inside that hull there'll be big petrol tanks, and these little two-pounder babies just love petrol tanks. But we don't want to go belting away at a boat that's already on fire, now do we? Soon's you see the first lick of flame, then stand by for my 'shift target'. We got eight barrels here and each of 'em fires a hundred and twenty rounds a minute"

"Jesus" the trainer said, grinning and shaking his head in spurious wonderment.

The Snake Boats (1967), pg.143

Two ships from Douglas Reeman novels where the author gave the ships crest, motto & pennant number.

From Killing Ground (1991)

HMS Gladiator (H38)
G Class Destroyer
Details as per the real ships.
Built: 1936
Ships Crest: "An uplifted stabbing sword gripped by an armored fist". Motto: Manu Forti
Note: Author explicitly identifies the ship as being of the interwar G Class. Pennant clashes with that of D Class Destroyer HMS Delight.

From For Valor (2001)

HMS Hakka (G44)
Tribal Class Destroyer
Details as per the real ships
Ships crest: "...an exotic phoenix emerging from flames with Chinese characters in the background..." Motto: 'Is anything impossible?' (Motto rendered in English only by the author.)
Note: Author explicitly identifies the ship as being a Tribal Class Destroyer. The Hakka are a minority subgroup of the Han Chinese, they were very prominent in the Tai-Ping revolt in the 1850s and 1860s.

The first purely non-warship entry for this thread. This one is taken from a 1970s thriller novel by John Wingate.

NS Leviathan
Oil Tanker (Ultra-large Crude Carrier)
Length: 1475 ft (449.6m)
Beam: 226ft (68.9m)
Draft (Fully laden): 104ft (31.7m)
Displacement(Empty): 88,025 tonnes, Displacement (Fully laden): 674,025 tonnes
Carries: 586,000 tonnes of Crude Oil
Crew: 38
Engines: Nuclear/Steam Turbine, 4 x reactors each of which produces 34,000hp (Four shafts/propellers)
Rudders: 4 (One for each propeller, the design of the rudders is described as being based on the rudder design of the Batillus Class of ULCCs)
Speed: 17.8 knots (Fully laden), 19.2 knots (In ballast)
Note: The forward island (Containing the bridge) is located 100ft (30.5m) from the bow. The ships helipad (Large enough to take a Westland WS-61 Sea King Helicopter) is located on the port side. Built in a US Yard, registered in Panama.

This one may be easier than some as the artist who did the cover made his own attempt to depict the ship moving at some speed.

Target Risk - Cover of 1979 New English Library paperback edition.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qhbnun7r7vrcb ... R.jpg?dl=0