WesWorld

Must be thinking alike...Australia will be building this ship late 1933 or early 1934.


The history of this ship dates back to 1929. On that year a plane flown by the infamous Japanese pilot Manzo crashed into HMAS Brisbane. The RAN immidietly began looking into Anti-Aircraft Cruisers. Among them there where some mostrosities sporting up to 21x4.7" guns. Fortunately saner heads prevailed.

The main and most important result of the AA program was the development of a twin Dual Purpose version of the 4.7" gun used by the RAN. The BC Tiger would be the first ship to carry these guns.

Among the many AA Cruiser proposals was a 10x4.7" DL one. While not a good AA plataform, it showed promise as a Destroyer Leader. The Current Destryer Leader the HMAS Admirality Island while a good ship was considered too small for the role as a result of having to fit within Treaty Limits. So whit Australia no longer limited by the Treaty, it was decided to go ahead with the larger Destroyer Leader.




HMAS Keeling Isl, Australia Destroyer Leader laid down 1933

Displacement:
2,458 t light; 2,604 t standard; 3,321 t normal; 3,895 t full load

Dimensions: Length overall / water x beam x draught
426.26 ft / 420.00 ft x 41.00 ft x 15.00 ft (normal load)
129.92 m / 128.02 m x 12.50 m x 4.57 m

Armament:
10 - 4.70" / 119 mm guns (5x2 guns), 51.91lbs / 23.55kg shells, 1933 Model
Dual purpose guns in deck mounts with hoists
on centreline, evenly spread, 2 raised mounts
12 - 1.57" / 40.0 mm guns (3x4 guns), 1.95lbs / 0.88kg shells, 1933 Model
Anti-aircraft guns in deck mounts
on centreline, evenly spread
20 - 0.79" / 20.0 mm guns (10x2 guns), 0.24lbs / 0.11kg shells, 1933 Model
Machine guns in deck mounts
on side, evenly spread
Weight of broadside 547 lbs / 248 kg
Shells per gun, main battery: 250
8 - 21.0" / 533.4 mm above water torpedoes

Armour:
- Gun armour: Face (max) Other gunhouse (avg) Barbette/hoist (max)
Main: 1.20" / 30 mm - -

- Conning tower: 1.20" / 30 mm

Machinery:
Oil fired boilers, steam turbines,
Geared drive, 4 shafts, 46,572 shp / 34,743 Kw = 33.00 kts
Range 12,000nm at 15.00 kts
Bunker at max displacement = 1,291 tons

Complement:
218 - 284

Cost:
£1.572 million / $6.289 million

Distribution of weights at normal displacement:
Armament: 68 tons, 2.1 %
Armour: 33 tons, 1.0 %
- Belts: 0 tons, 0.0 %
- Torpedo bulkhead: 0 tons, 0.0 %
- Armament: 27 tons, 0.8 %
- Armour Deck: 0 tons, 0.0 %
- Conning Tower: 6 tons, 0.2 %
Machinery: 1,350 tons, 40.7 %
Hull, fittings & equipment: 932 tons, 28.1 %
Fuel, ammunition & stores: 863 tons, 26.0 %
Miscellaneous weights: 75 tons, 2.3 %

Overall survivability and seakeeping ability:
Survivability (Non-critical penetrating hits needed to sink ship):
1,321 lbs / 599 Kg = 25.5 x 4.7 " / 119 mm shells or 0.5 torpedoes
Stability (Unstable if below 1.00): 1.32
Metacentric height 2.2 ft / 0.7 m
Roll period: 11.7 seconds
Steadiness - As gun platform (Average = 50 %): 70 %
- Recoil effect (Restricted arc if above 1.00): 0.55
Seaboat quality (Average = 1.00): 1.22

Hull form characteristics:
Hull has raised forecastle
and transom stern
Block coefficient: 0.450
Length to Beam Ratio: 10.24 : 1
'Natural speed' for length: 23.49 kts
Power going to wave formation at top speed: 64 %
Trim (Max stability = 0, Max steadiness = 100): 57
Bow angle (Positive = bow angles forward): 9.00 degrees
Stern overhang: 2.46 ft / 0.75 m
Freeboard (% = measuring location as a percentage of overall length):
- Stem: 24.00 ft / 7.32 m
- Forecastle (17 %): 20.00 ft / 6.10 m (17.00 ft / 5.18 m aft of break)
- Mid (50 %): 17.00 ft / 5.18 m
- Quarterdeck (19 %): 17.00 ft / 5.18 m
- Stern: 17.00 ft / 5.18 m
- Average freeboard: 17.78 ft / 5.42 m

Ship space, strength and comments:
Space - Hull below water (magazines/engines, low = better): 150.9 %
- Above water (accommodation/working, high = better): 115.2 %
Waterplane Area: 11,410 Square feet or 1,060 Square metres
Displacement factor (Displacement / loading): 99 %
Structure weight / hull surface area: 42 lbs/sq ft or 207 Kg/sq metre
Hull strength (Relative):
- Cross-sectional: 0.52
- Longitudinal: 1.78
- Overall: 0.59
Hull space for machinery, storage, compartmentation is cramped
Room for accommodation and workspaces is adequate
Ship has slow, easy roll, a good, steady gun platform
Good seaboat, rides out heavy weather easily

No comments?

Fast and packing a heavy punch. An arms race could start in Asia if more ships like that began to appear.

Kind of reminds me of my Archer class DD(aa), just bigger!

Quoted

No comments?

Probably better off with a Tribal.

Q 4.7" mount is near enough useless.

Go for a nice big hull with lots of space for growth.

I agree in reguards to Q turret, very bad possition. A better possition would be where the aft 40mm mount is.

Alternate 40mm arangement could be 1 quad and 4 twin with the quad placed aft of the aft funnel and the twins abreast the fore funnel and either between the torpedo launchers or abreast the aft superstructure.

I appreciate the back-story, incidently. Always a good feature.

The 1 metre difference between forecastle and mid-deck/quarterdeck seems a bit odd.

The guys have mentioned Q mount and I agree with them. So I'd say drop Q mount and either reduce the size of the ship or use the freed-up hull strength to bump the speed up a bit closer to that of your destroyers.

Well all my destroyers are 33kts so she is fast enough to keep up with them. Also increasing speed will result in reduced range and seakeeping. Australia values seakeeping and range above speed, and sustained top speed above actual top speed.

About Q turrent, Australia vaules hitting power so Im not going to sacrifice it. I could place it where the aft 40mm mount is, but then the ship would look too American. Im trying to make my ships different. What about moving stuff around thereby giving the midship mount more room?

Quoted

About Q turrent, Australia vaules hitting power so Im not going to sacrifice it.

At the moment it is able to fire on about 80° on each beam. Just shove it forwards like Dido.

I'd agree on this. Hitting power is not as great if you can't bring the weapons to bare on your target. Placement of Q turret for widest possible fire arc would be critical in combat with say...any nation's light cruiser forces.

I dont like the Didos, but I'll see what I can do.

Fletcher layout seems more usefull IMO.

Why worry about the layout looking too American when the DD already looks to be heavily influenced by British designs.

Two different versions.

IMO the first version looks better though I'd rather see that fore quad 2pdr replaced by 2 twins mounted on either side of the bridge structure. Tough to say where your 20mm twins will mount however.

I had forgotten, Seawolf did a picture of her, still has the old configuration but otherwise looks good. Ill be gping with the Fletcher style layout.

I really like his drawings but this time something seems to be wrong with her main guns.....?!

Its an old drawing based on my original configuration, hence the gun layout.

That´s ok. I was referring to gun houses and barrels which seem out of proportion....