I have done a lot of drawings based on the British Hawkins class cruiser hull. The Hawkins class was built to counter German raiders on the high seas. So I put my German hat on and tried to figure out what a Medium sized cruiser could look like with a completion date expected to be 1918-19. As normal with a raider the ship would have to be able to defeat the escort that might be guarding a convoy on the high seas. These would generally be light cruisers of the Town type or older armoured cruisers (County type) that would have the range.
I ended up with a 500+ foot cruiser armed with 8 x 170mm. The German 170mm was better than the British 6" and 7.5" that would arm the escort cruisers listed above. The 170mm gun and turrets were already available on the older pre-dreadnought battleships which could have been used to speed up production to get the ships to sea if the type had been proceeded with. The type was replaced with the second design armed with 6x8.2" which gave a much better superiority over the expected British Convoy Protection ships.
Displacement: 7,800 tons normal, 10,750 tons full load
Dimensions: 511 x 56 x 23 feet (523x58x23)
Machinery: 2 shaft, turbines, 60,000shp (65,000shp)
Speed: 30 knots
Endurance: 12,000 nmi at 12 knots
Armour: 4.1" belt (5.1"), 2" deck, 2.75" turrets (5.5"-3.4")
Armament:
8 x 6.7" (170mm) (4x2) - 6 x 8.2" (3x2)
6 x 88mm (6x1)
Torpedoes: 8 x 19.7" (500mm) (4x2)
Crew: 580
After quite a bit of discussion on the original design with its 170mm guns, I decided to add further drawings with 210mm guns. First was a six 210mm gun version, then an eight 210mm gun version. The same central citadel and engine area was kept but the assigned horsepower was in creased to 65,000shp for the six gun version, then out to 70,000shp for the eight gun version. The eight gun version I also increased the height of the hull by 3 feet. The armoured belt on the eight gun version also went from 4.1" to 5.1" (130mm). The turret armour also was increased with 5.5" face 3.4" sides, rear and roof. What started as a 'medium' cruiser design has ended up as a precursor to the Washington Treaty heavy cruisers of just a few years later design.
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