The British Battleship. Norman Friedman
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Collingwood as seagoing cadet training ship, 1919 or 1920, with her funnel caps removed. Her after control top had already been removed in 1918. Note that her double 24in searchlights had been replaced by single 36in lights by this time. The two 24in lamps atop her bridge replaced 36in lights previously placed there. Part of a range dial is evident on the face of her foretop. Note that the objects atop it were not rangefinders, but the ship did not have 4in directors. (Dr David Stevens, RAN Seapower Centre)
St Vincent is shown in August 1919. The clinker screen on her forefunnel has been cut down and her anti-aircraft guns removed. Her turret roofs show the bulges of built-in rangefinders.
Neptune was fitted with an experimental director (the vertical cylinder visible under her foretop). In 1912 her compass platform was extended forward slightly so that an open rangefinder could be mounted on it (as shown here). Some time after September 1913 she was modified for searchlight trials much as was Bellerophon. Of the two paired 24in searchlights on either side of the forward superstructure, one was raised onto a platform above the compass platform, the other onto a slightly higher platform around the fore leg of the foremast. Another pair on each side, taken from the after searchlight platform, was mounted on a high lattice platform on either side of the forefunnel. The two mainmast pairs were raised onto separate platforms on each of the sloped mainmast legs. The upper guns atop the forward superstructure, visible here in open embrasures, were protected by casemates.
HMS Neptune finally broke away from the Dreadnought arrangement. The earlier practice of mounting anti-torpedo guns atop turrets was dropped, probably because it was now accepted that the Germans might use their destroyers (fleet torpedo boats) during a day action. The structure amidships, though often described as a flying bridge, was actually open girder work to support boats. She was armed with sixteen 4in guns: two in casemates and four in open mountings above them near her bridge, two in casemates and two in open mountings above them near her second funnel, four in casemates (on two levels) and two in open mountings above them forward of ‘X’ turret, in the after superstructure. In 1914–15 the fore part of the ‘flying bridge’ was removed (Hercules and Colossus had the after part removed). By 1916 Neptune had a prominent clinker screen on her raised forefunnel and her superstructure (forward, amidships and aft) had been built up a level to house the upper 4in guns in casemates. The guns in the centre superstructure around her after funnel were relocated to fire aft rather than forward. Prior to this there were single-level casemates in both places, with open 4in mountings above them. By April 1917 the centre and lower group of after 4in guns had been removed to arm small escorts.
Neptune as built. Note that this ship, as well as Colossus and Hercules and Agincourt, did not have solid ‘flying decks’ or ‘flying bridges’ on which boats were stowed. Rather, they had beams (often arched like bridge beams, as in Neptune) supporting open girder work which in turn supported boats. In Neptune, the forward set of girders supported a broader ‘admiral’s walk’ on the starboard side. Neptune and contemporary Royal Navy dreadnoughts had four 3pdrs, which were mounted behind shutters, hence were obviously intended for combat and not simply for saluting. (A D Baker III)
At the 1909 Colonial Conference, the Admiralty pressed the governments of the British Dominions (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and India) to contribute to Empire seapower by building and maintaining fleet units. Each unit would help protect trade by running down raiders. Together the units could form a Pacific Fleet to deal with any concentrated threat. A unit would comprise a battlecruiser of current type, three light cruisers and destroyers and submarines for local defence. Of the Dominion governments, only Australia’s decided to build a Fleet Unit, including a battlecruiser of current – meaning Indefatigable – type. She became HMAS Australia. New Zealand decided to buy a second such ship and present her to the Royal Navy: HMS New Zealand. The South Africans decided that because their government was being reorganised (to become the Union of South Africa) it would be inappropriate to consider forming a fleet or subsidising a capital ship. The Canadians formed a local navy and began to consider subsidising capital ships, but without results for several years. Australia was not quite a repeat Indefatigable. Her protection was modified and her conning, spotting and signal tower rearranged as in HMS Hercules and later designs, bridges being rearranged.21
Given the decision at the 12 June 1907 Board meeting, the single battleship of the 1908–9 programme should have been a repeat St. Vincent. Instead she was a completely new design. On 4 May 1908 Controller (Captain Henry B Jackson) asked DNC to improve the St Vincent class without a material increase of beam, with a length not to exceed 600ft overall. The new ship could be armed with 12in guns mounted as in the New Cruiser design (five turrets) or 13.5in guns.
The battlecruiser equivalent to Neptune was HMS Indefatigable, shown in July 1911 as completed. Note that in contrast to the Invincibles, her compass platform did not extend well forward. (Broadside forward view from Dr David Stevens, RAN Seapower Centre)
By early June Watts had produced a series of studies of ships armed with either 12in/50 or 13.5in/50 guns. His first (A) was arranged as in Dreadnought except that the two waist guns were en échelon, firing 40° before and 30° abaft the beam on the opposite side of the ship. That considerably lengthened the ship (to 565ft, 21150 tons). Design B saved length by having ‘X’ turret superfire over ‘Y’ (520ft, 20,250 tons). Both A and B offered ten-gun broadsides rather than the eight of all earlier British dreadnoughts. Nothing in the Cover explains the sudden departure from the blast limitations which had shaped Dreadnought and Invincible, but a casual mention of periscopic sights (rather than sights in hoods) probably provides the explanation. The report of gun trials shows that periscopic sights were indeed fitted to the 1908–9 battleship (Neptune).
C was a ten-gun 13.5in ship with turrets arranged as in Dreadnought. The much larger turrets required a longer hull: 530ft (21,100 tons). Arranging 13.5in turrets as in Design A (Design D) required a much longer hull (575ft, 22,500 tons). Limiting overall length to 600ft made the design somewhat cramped; Watts thought she should be 15–20ft longer. E was a 13.5in version of B, superfiring saving some length (545ft, 22,000 tons).
Since the 13.5in gun was so much more powerful than the 12in/50, Watts offered eight-gun designs based on the Invincible arrangement. On this basis F was 520ft long (19,750 tons). In G, the forward broadside turret was moved up onto the forecastle and moved closer to ‘A’ turret. In Design H, the after broadside turret was moved closer to ‘X’ turret. Like F, these ships would have been 520ft long (20,050 tons). Both G and H were considered inferior to F because of blast interference. Arcs would be affected by the guns and rear of the adjacent turret. In F, the turrets were almost equally spread out, so there was a minimum chance of one shell knocking out more than one turret. Moving the waist turrets towards the ends in H would exacerbate pitching and there were problems with the run of the propeller shafts under the after waist turret (‘P’).
None of the eight-gun designs seems to have been acceptable, so in Design I Watts returned to the conditions Controller laid down. He took St Vincent, lengthened it by 10ft and made ‘X’ and ‘Y’ superfiring