Republic of Texas

[emperor_andreas]

EPIC!

[Redhorse]

1948: The Texas Navy launches its first warship following the end of World War 2.

The San Marcos Class heavy cruisers replace the Rio Grande Class. Though the Rio Grandes are just shy of twenty years in service, they have been eclipsed by wartime advances in technology and do not have any more room for growth. Rio Grande is laid up in reserve in 1948, and the Sabine follows in 1949.

The San Marcos Class was perhaps the greatest challenge to Naval design and construction for the Texas Navy. Normally, large capital ships are built under contract in the US, where slipways are large enough for hulls over 600 feet in length. The largest Texas slipways belonged to Gray’s Iron Works, and the two available during the war were reserved for building the San Antonio Class light cruisers. US yards were at capacity during the war, and there were no yards available to the Texas Navy for building a heavy cruiser to replace the Rio Grandes.

In 1944, the third of the San Antonios was nearing completion, and its slipway would be available soon after launch. The Navy, desperate for a modern heavy cruiser, challenged the Design Bureau to find a way to get a heavy cruiser into a light cruiser hull. The inherent design limitation was a length of no more than 600 feet.

The plans drawn up by the Design Bureau were impressive. The San Marcos would be armed with 8”/55 rapid fire guns, new 5”/54 dual purpose secondaries, and the required mass of 40mm Bofors and 25mm heavy machine guns for operations in the Pacific. Required range was the standard 10,000 miles at cruising speed, with a maximum speed of 30 knots. Air complement would be the standard flight of 4 observer floatplanes.

Needless to say there were skeptics that it could be done at all, but it was. The San Marcos was laid down in 1945, but was incomplete when the war ended in August. She and her sister the San Saba survived the postwar cuts in naval construction. San Marcos took to the water and commissioned in 1948.



1945 Heavy Cruiser Plan 8, Republic of Texas Heavy Cruiser laid down 1945

Displacement:
13,712 t light; 14,289 t standard; 15,948 t normal; 17,275 t full load

Dimensions: Length (overall / waterline) x beam x draught (normal/deep)
(599.37 ft / 582.00 ft) x 75.00 ft x (23.25 / 24.71 ft)
(182.69 m / 177.39 m) x 22.86 m x (7.09 / 7.53 m)

Armament:
8 - 8.00" / 203 mm 55.0 cal guns - 276.33lbs / 125.34kg shells, 150 per gun
Breech loading guns in turret on barbette mounts, 1945 Model
4 x 2-gun mounts on centreline ends, evenly spread
2 raised mounts - superfiring
12 - 5.00" / 127 mm 38.0 cal guns - 59.33lbs / 26.91kg shells, 150 per gun
Dual purpose guns in deck and hoist mounts, 1945 Model
4 x 2-gun mounts on sides, evenly spread
2 x 2-gun mounts on centreline ends, evenly spread
2 double raised mounts
12 - 3.00" / 76.2 mm 50.0 cal guns - 14.29lbs / 6.48kg shells, 150 per gun
Anti-air guns in deck mounts, 1945 Model
6 x 2-gun mounts on sides, evenly spread
4 raised mounts
Weight of broadside 3,094 lbs / 1,403 kg

Armour:
- Belts: Width (max) Length (avg) Height (avg)
Main: 8.00" / 203 mm 378.30 ft / 115.31 m 17.00 ft / 5.18 m
Ends: 6.00" / 152 mm 203.68 ft / 62.08 m 8.50 ft / 2.59 m
Main Belt covers 100 % of normal length
Main Belt inclined -15.00 degrees (positive = in)

- Torpedo Bulkhead - Strengthened structural bulkheads:
3.00" / 76 mm 378.30 ft / 115.31 m 12.50 ft / 3.81 m
Beam between torpedo bulkheads 65.00 ft / 19.81 m

- Gun armour: Face (max) Other gunhouse (avg) Barbette/hoist (max)
Main: 8.00" / 203 mm 8.00" / 203 mm 8.00" / 203 mm
2nd: 5.00" / 127 mm 1.00" / 25 mm 5.00" / 127 mm
3rd: 0.50" / 13 mm - -

- Box over machinery & magazines:
4.00" / 102 mm
Forecastle: 2.00" / 51 mm Quarter deck: 2.00" / 51 mm

- Conning towers: Forward 8.00" / 203 mm, Aft 0.00" / 0 mm

Machinery:
Oil fired boilers, steam turbines,
Electric motors, 4 shafts, 79,093 shp / 59,003 Kw = 30.00 kts
Range 10,000nm at 15.00 kts
Bunker at max displacement = 2,986 tons

Complement:
709 - 922

Cost:
£7.460 million / $29.841 million

Distribution of weights at normal displacement:
Armament: 967 tons, 6.1 %
- Guns: 967 tons, 6.1 %
Armour: 4,705 tons, 29.5 %
- Belts: 2,571 tons, 16.1 %
- Torpedo bulkhead: 525 tons, 3.3 %
- Armament: 1,146 tons, 7.2 %
- Armour Deck: 353 tons, 2.2 %
- Conning Tower: 109 tons, 0.7 %
Machinery: 1,997 tons, 12.5 %
Hull, fittings & equipment: 6,043 tons, 37.9 %
Fuel, ammunition & stores: 2,236 tons, 14.0 %
Miscellaneous weights: 0 tons, 0.0 %

Overall survivability and seakeeping ability:
Survivability (Non-critical penetrating hits needed to sink ship):
32,728 lbs / 14,845 Kg = 127.8 x 8.0 " / 203 mm shells or 5.6 torpedoes
Stability (Unstable if below 1.00): 1.09
Metacentric height 3.8 ft / 1.2 m
Roll period: 16.1 seconds
Steadiness - As gun platform (Average = 50 %): 56 %
- Recoil effect (Restricted arc if above 1.00): 0.48
Seaboat quality (Average = 1.00): 1.12

Hull form characteristics:
Hull has a flush deck,
a straight bulbous bow and large transom stern
Block coefficient (normal/deep): 0.550 / 0.560
Length to Beam Ratio: 7.76 : 1
'Natural speed' for length: 27.94 kts
Power going to wave formation at top speed: 58 %
Trim (Max stability = 0, Max steadiness = 100): 50
Bow angle (Positive = bow angles forward): 20.00 degrees
Stern overhang: 6.00 ft / 1.83 m
Freeboard (% = length of deck as a percentage of waterline length):
Fore end, Aft end
- Forecastle: 20.00 %, 31.25 ft / 9.53 m, 26.25 ft / 8.00 m
- Forward deck: 30.00 %, 26.25 ft / 8.00 m, 23.25 ft / 7.09 m
- Aft deck: 35.00 %, 23.25 ft / 7.09 m, 23.25 ft / 7.09 m
- Quarter deck: 15.00 %, 23.25 ft / 7.09 m, 24.25 ft / 7.39 m
- Average freeboard: 24.78 ft / 7.55 m

Ship space, strength and comments:
Space - Hull below water (magazines/engines, low = better): 69.3 %
- Above water (accommodation/working, high = better): 204.0 %
Waterplane Area: 31,715 Square feet or 2,946 Square metres
Displacement factor (Displacement / loading): 136 %
Structure weight / hull surface area: 149 lbs/sq ft or 727 Kg/sq metre
Hull strength (Relative):
- Cross-sectional: 1.09
- Longitudinal: 2.09
- Overall: 1.16
Excellent machinery, storage, compartmentation space
Excellent accommodation and workspace room

Her most impressive feature was the compact and efficient turbo-electric powerplant. It consumed far less volume than earlier plants, allowing a larger number of critical spaces under the protection of the ship's armor. The 40mm Bofors were replaced mid-construction with new 3"/50 anti-aircraft guns from the United States. The 25mm guns were eliminated altogether to reduce total expense. And she was all business - superstructure spaces dedicated to combat operations were kept to a minimum, the rest going to routine requirements and accomodations. The majority of combat spaces were under armor. Crew spaces were comfortable, but not lavish.

[emperor_andreas]

Very nice work!

[eswube]

Impressive.

[Hood]

Looks very nice and balanced despite its compactness.

[Colosseum]

Cool stuff but it just seems too "tall" for me. I'd reduce the freeboard by a few feet and eliminate at least one deck level from the superstructure.

Good examples for real life ships of the same generation (post-war "super" cruisers incorporating all the lessons learned during the many air actions in the Pacific) would be the CL-106 and CA-122 types. Those drawings need to be updated but would be a good example for details you could steal.

I would move the TDY-1 jammer antenna to a platform on the main mast and put an SP/SM height finder in its current place.

Only other suggestion would be to smooth out the bow curve. It's honestly really ugly right now (sorry). Real ships don't have a curve that ends at the boot topping - I would look at the various USN cruiser drawings for an example.

Otherwise really cool stuff with a good backstory as usual.

[Redhorse]

Cool stuff but it just seems too "tall" for me. I'd reduce the freeboard by a few feet and eliminate at least one deck level from the superstructure.

Good examples for real life ships of the same generation (post-war "super" cruisers incorporating all the lessons learned during the many air actions in the Pacific) would be the CL-106 and CA-122 types. Those drawings need to be updated but would be a good example for details you could steal.

I would move the TDY-1 jammer antenna to a platform on the main mast and put an SP/SM height finder in its current place.

Only other suggestion would be to smooth out the bow curve. It's honestly really ugly right now (sorry). Real ships don't have a curve that ends at the boot topping - I would look at the various USN cruiser drawings for an example.

Otherwise really cool stuff with a good backstory as usual.

I wasn't thrilled with the superstructure height, either. Flag ops and flag intel are right behind the conning tower...I can probably drop them down a level without too much trouble. Then I can move the two compartments between the Navigation and Flag Bridges there and remove a deck.

I spent a lot of time on navsource.org looking over pics of the Oregon City and Des Moines classes. I particularly like the Oregon City class, but good pics are hard to find.

The rest of the critiques are easy fixes: moving the TDY, adding a SP/SM and fixing the bow.

[macseann]

Hey Redhorse, why the switch to British QF Mk I style turrets?

Other than that, this looks good. Go Republic of Texas!

[Redhorse]

1947: The Butcher's Bill

The Texas Armed Forces completed their withdrawl from occupied Europe and Pacific areas of operation in 1946. Reduction in force began almost immediately, with the discharge of conscripts who had the longest time in service. Volunteers were mustered out according to a merit system, and regulars for cause or or hardship.

Congress ordered the Army, Navy, and Air Force to establish their organization for a post-war, all volunteer force again. Expenditures were capped at no more than 5% GDP. All services had to establish a reserve force comprising up to 25% of the total force. The National Guard would be reorganized.

The end result was a gutted force with limited capabilities. Congress turned a deaf ear to the Armed Forces' Staff and concentrated on paying off the enormous war debt at any expense.

The Army wanted to maintain a full Corps. Its compromise gave them a Regular Army of one infantry division, one armored division, and an understrength airborne infantry brigade. The Army Reserve was an armored cavalry brigade, field artillery brigade, and a parachute infantry battalion for the airborne infantry brigade if it mobilized. The National Guard got three infantry and one armored divisions.

The Navy got its two battleships, two heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, and 36 destroyers. The destroyer escort force was reduced to only 8 ships, the rest in reserve. Enough amphibious capability was maintained to land the First Marine Brigade with vessels laid up in reserve to move an army division if needed. Replacements were authorized for two worn out destroyer tenders, two oilers, and three submarines. Most disappointing was the loss of the escort carriers - the Air Force was unable to man enough squadrons for much more than the Navy's observation and scouting requirements, and the flattops were laid up in reserve.

The Air Force was reduced to little more than its pre-war capabilities plus those acquired during the war. All organizations were pared back to bare minimums. ASW and patrol aircraft were mothballed, as were all air attack and most of the air transport assets. The bomber forces was scaled back to three squadrons of Dominators and three squadrons of Invaders. P-51Ds provided the fighter coverage (theoretically) for air defense, air escort, and air attack.

The only acquisitions made in the years 1946 and 1947 were:

1. Replacement for the exhausted Piper Cubs.



The Fairchild 24 was licensed produced by the Texas Engineering and Manufacturing Company (TEMCO), formerly Globe Aircraft. The initial contract was for 80+ airframes, but only 16 were produced in two versions: the L-13A, with room for pilot +2, and the LH-13B MEDEVAC aircraft wtih room for pilot + patient and attendant.

2. Acquistion of three Tench Class US fleet submarines. They were completed in 1946, but never commissioned and transferred gratis to the Texas Navy. These boats, SS-24 thru 26, became the Hammerhead class.

[emperor_andreas]

Nice!