Cruisers were getting bigger and the 6" secondary armament of
the Ross class battleships was felt to not be strong enough for
the job any more. The Antarctican Admiralty had liked the twin
9.5" on the Byrd class and felt that an upgraded Ross class with
six twin 9.5" turrets would be a ship to be reckoned with. The
size of the ships grew a little bit more. The first steel
battleships had been just under 400 feet now they were nearly
500 feet and twice the tonnage. Most of all these were to be the
first turbine engined battleships built for Antarctica. The
turbine machinery required a third funnel,
The Peary class also introduce the tripod mast to Antarctican
battleships. Gunnery directors made there first appearance in
this class. One of the pitfalls with the class was that there
were now eight quite large holes in the armoured deck where the
barbettes went through. For almost a year these ships were the
most powerful in the world. Then they became obsolete. It was
that quick. The speed of the building of the Dreadnought
surprised the world. At age 20 the two remaining ships of the
class were converted first to training ships, then one as a
trials, and area defence vessel, while the other was stripped
and converted to an aircraft carrier.
It does help if I remember to add the
drawings before I post to the internet, duh.
.PNG)
While as the trials ship, the Commodore Peary had the forward
two, broadside, 9.5" turrets removed and replaced with the new
dual purpose 5" twin turrets. These were left aboard when the
ship was converted to an ADV. Two quad 2 pounder mountings were
added and several 20mm fitted. Eventually some radar was added
to the gunnery controllers and an air search radar to the top
mast.
| Displacement | 16,800 tons standard, 19,750 tons full load | |
| Length | 495 ft | |
| Breadth | 82 ft | |
| Draught | 26 ft | |
| Machinery | 2 shaft, steam turbines, 30,000shp | |
| Speed | 22 knots | |
| Range | 7000 miles at 10 knots | |
| Armour | 11" side, 2" deck, 11"/7"/5" turrets | |
| Armament | As completed 4 x 14" (2x2) 12 x 9.5" (6x2) 2 x 3" AA (2x1) added 1916 4 x 2pd AA (4x1) added 1917 |
As ADV 2 x 14" (1x2) 2 x 9.5" (1x2) 4 x 5" DP (2x2) 8 x 2pd (2x4) 10 x 20mm (10x1) |
| Aircraft | nil | up to six |
| Torpedoes | 1 x 18" submerged in the bow (up to four reloads) | |
| Complement | 870-895 as Flagship | |
| Notes | Commodore Peary - converted to ADV 1927-29 Commodore Bellinghausen - mined 1916 Commodore Plaisted - mined 1916 Commodore Bancroft - converted to CV |
|
Bow torpedo room of Peary class battleships. Note reloads.
