Shipbucket

Yes but IIRC American naval personnel drew a lot of flak for not using conning towers and thus getting themselves killed in battle; the commanders killed at Guadalcanal come to mind.

I believe Friedman's Cruisers talks about it in the section about Alaska. It said something like "the general board has no objection to officers standing in the open and being killed, but views this as irresponsible given their command requirements".

Colosseum wrote:"the general board has no objection to officers standing in the open and being killed, but views this as irresponsible given their command requirements".

ok, ok... I'll see if I can draw a believable one then. I have no bloody idea where to put the thing though, the con seems a bit cramped as it is. maybe move eveything down one level, lose the bottom row of windows and platform then mount it up top? I may have to move the tripod mast a bit further aft then, unless I did a redesign and incorporated it into the armored con. That still leaves the question of where to put the directors, though.

The captain of USS Texas (BB-35) used the ship's conning tower off Cherbourg after the open bridge got wrecked by a shell bouncing off the top of said conning tower, killing the helmsman, the ship's only casualty in two world wars.

Alrighty then, I believe I may have adressed most of the significant issues.

Which means I missed something.




Maybe I should call this "The Final Design". I seem to get more replies and suggestions that way.

One request though. If you believe something ought be changed or moved, don't just say "move piece X", give a suggestion on where you believe it might work better. I do, on occassion, weary of the "How about here then? No OK How about here then? No Then how about here? No" game after a while.

I would extend the fire control tower rearwards and maybe even combine it with funnel no.1. You can move the external pipes to a p&s configuration on that funnel if you do that.

That would give Spot One the ability to rotate 360 degrees, which is something I've seen quite a few photos of on USN cruisers. For whatever reason they seemed to like rotating the directors so the front faced aft. Believe it had something to do with protecting the delicate ranging radar antennas and rangefinder optics.

I would extend the size of the bilge keel horizontally, make it at least as long as the bottom section of the armor belt.

As this is the 1928 version I would delete the aftmost Pom-Pom from the fantail. IIRC that position was only given AA once the need for it had arisen. I would be surprised to see machine cannon at all on a cruiser built this early.

You might experiment with adding another deck level amidships. You could try raising the funnels to sit atop it or just leaving them where they are, doesn't really matter. This deck level would provide boat storage while also giving you the capability to install a secondary battery of open mount 5" guns (like Brooklyn or New Orleans) amidships at the 00 level.

Personally I am not a fan of the rounded underwater section of the bow heading aft to the keel. I think it looks strange for whatever reason. I prefer the squared-off USN type, but it's really an aesthetic choice. This is what I would do: also added some bow details that weren't there, like jackstaff with anchor light, bow chock, and anchor chain hawsehole.



I think it gives the ship a more warlike appearance for whatever reason. Again, your choice.

I was thinking I might want to raise the funnels themselves a bit too, maybe 15' or so.

EDIT: A speculative question... Would a cruiser this size be capable of carrying 5 triple 8's instead of the 5 twin 8's currently on there? I'm not considering changing it, just curiousity is all.

Zephyr wrote:I was thinking I might want to raise the funnels themselves a bit too, maybe 15' or so.

EDIT: A speculative question... Would a cruiser this size be capable of carrying 5 triple 8's instead of the 5 twin 8's currently on there? I'm not considering changing it, just curiousity is all.

Well IIRC the Mogami was outfitted in 1936 with 6" guns and then up-armed to 8" guns once hostilities commenced, so it's not out of the question at all. I'm no expert on weights and balance and whatnot but I can't imagine it would be that big of a deal.

And btw, forgot to say that you have been doing excellent work on these.

I like that bow.

EDIT: Hmm. Now you got me thinking. A heavy, armed with 15 x 8" ... That could definately put a damper on somebodies day.

Zephyr wrote:EDIT: A speculative question... Would a cruiser this size be capable of carrying 5 triple 8's instead of the 5 twin 8's currently on there? I'm not considering changing it, just curiousity is all.

In a not entirely educated word: no.

Mogami had twin 8-inch gun turrets, BTW.

Weren't Mogami also designed to take those 8in guns from the start?