CUS Hawaii (Mon-1933)

Back to Commonwealth Union of America ship list:

Having had to cancel the last two Manitoba class battleships was a blow to the CUA Navy. The ships were over 50% complete at the time and their armaments were available. Rather than scrapping the eight twin turrets, these were put into storage for when they may be fitted to a pair of future battleships. However when battleship designs were being drawn in the late 1920's a new triple 16" turret was designed for them (see Columbia class). This left the CSA with its four twin 16". The CUA Navy had seen the CSA build the Havana class utilising spare turrets and that idea of a double ended monitor was thought to be of value. To that end the CSA BuDes drew up plans for a monitor to be armed with four 16" in two twin turrets of which four were to be built. The plans were sent to Britain, France and Italy who signed off on the designs being a miscelaneous ship type and not to be counted against any of the restricted tonnage limits. These permissions were required before construction could commence.

This takes us to the end of 1929, with turmoil in the finance houses and Governments trying to keep their economies from colapsing. The Hawaii class was not cancelled but sourcing of the materials for their construction was slowed. During the same period the GALT treatys on arms limitations expired and were not renewed. This event led to a redesign of the Hawaii class which added over a hundred feet to the length and increased propulsion and armour to a more acceptable level. The redesign also included the upgrading of the heavy AA armament from the single 4" to the twin 4.5" guns. What resulted was a shallow draught vessel that resembled a cruiser but replaced the cruisers guns fore and aft with a battleships guns.

Two required resources aboard ship. Left the bridge lookouts searching for enemy aircraft, and right, the Bofors 40mm guns waiting to shoot them down.

Back to Commonwealth Union of America ship list: