Like the 8 gun Shackleton to the 10 gun Hillary class, the
Antarctican Navy had designed and authorised the 10x16" gunned
Dumont class before the first 8 gun Barents class ship was
completed. The world had gone mad and the Senate knew that
avaricious eyes would be turned toward Antarctica. Antarctica
had successfully repelled two previous invasions and did not
want to give those avaricious eyes any thought that Antarctica
might be ripe for the taking. A strong Navy was a very visible
deterrent. The next Scott class battleships would revert to type
with an eight gun upgrade on the Dumont hull, but the upgrade
guns would be 18". Only one was completed (see
Captain Scott) and the ten gun follow up class was cancelled
by the Senate.
The Dumont Class did not introduce any new fittings to the Navy,
they were essentially repeats of the Barents class with an extra
turret. In case you have wondered, the Antarctican Navy had
trialled twin turrets against triple turrets and had found that
overall the twins fired faster, were less intricate and required
less maintenance. It was not until the new generation of
battleships of the mid-1930's that triple turrets were finally
introduced to the Antarctican Navy.
When you upgrade a battleship that is good to start with, and
had been considered one of the best in the world. Chances are
you will end up with ships fit for purpose. Lets see how I got
on. No apologies for the 'RN' look. The RN gives me a
bigger choice of parts than other navies. Besides I like the
RN!. Despite all that, the drawing looks good.
What did I do. Stripped all the superstructure between B and X
turrets. Raised the old armoured deck and installed new
(smaller) machinery, installed a new armoured deck, new
superstructures, secondary armament with the dual purpose 5"
system. The best was the brand new 40mm Bofors weapons in quad
mountings. Twenty mountings gave 80 barrels, a massive AA
barrage for enemy aircraft to get through. Six 20mm legacy
mountings were left in place. Aircraft handling facilities for
three aircraft and a cross deck catapult were fitted. Radar
started sprouting everywhere, with even predictors for the 40mm
enhancing their accuracy.
| Displacement | 40,000 tons standard, 44,500 tons full load | |
| Length | 743 ft | |
| Breadth | 106 ft | |
| Draught | 31 ft | |
| Machinery | 4 shaft, steam turbines, 130,000shp | |
| Speed | 28 knots | |
| Range | 8000 miles at 12 knots | |
| Armour | 13" side, 5" deck, 13" turrets | |
| Armament | As completed 10 x 16" (5x2) 16 x 6" (8x2) 8 x 4" AA (8x1) 6 x 2pd AA (6x1) |
1940 10 x 16" (5x2) 16 x 5" (8x2) 80 x 40mm (20x4) 6 x 20mm (6x1) |
| Aircraft | 0 | 3 |
| Complement | 2040-2080 as Flagships | |
| Notes | Captain Dumont Captain Crean Captain Koch Captain Pugh |
|
Quad 4omm with radar predictor mounted behind. (Warthunder)
