You are not logged in.

That ship in Cape Town - July 2nd

Dear visitor, welcome to WesWorld. If this is your first visit here, please read the Help. It explains in detail how this page works. To use all features of this page, you should consider registering. Please use the registration form, to register here or read more information about the registration process. If you are already registered, please login here.

Pengolodh_sc

Intermediate

Posts: 273

  • Send private message

1

Wednesday, October 8th 2003, 11:55pm

That ship in Cape Town - July 2nd

This is not a formal newsreport as such - just a mention on what happens. In the evening of July 1st the ship is floated out of the dock, and is seen moored alongside a quay in the military part of the harbour, tended to by a number of small service-vessels. It is now in full view, and is relatively clearly recognisable for observers as one of two cruisers laid down for the Nordmark Navy in 1919 - both of which visited Cape Town just a few weeks before.

Problems in identification stems mostly from both masts being torn off very far down, one of the funnels having collapsed on itself, all but one of eight single 15cm/5.9inch gunmounts being shot away, and portions of the superstructure (including parts of the bridge) being a tangled, blacksooted mass of twisted plates and stringers - there are no ship's boats to be seen, and the of the two cranes one is strewn across the superstructure, and the other is nowhere to be seen. There are thousands of splinter-holes all over the ship. While in dock the ship was emptied of ca. 800 tons of water, and given conspicuous temporary patches to holes in the hull. It is clearly a miracle that the ship at all reached harbour.

The ship is, by the name on the stern, identifiable as the RNNS Sigtuna. The whereabouts and fate of RNNS Kirkjubæjarklaustur are not presently commented on by official sources, but are the subject of much debate and speculation in media - much to the despair of the poor radioreporters attempting to pronounce that ship's name.

No interviews with crewmembers are allowed - not with those several hundred in hospital, and not with those not in hospital. Nevertheless, there will be newsreels and newspaper-photographs of the crew. The person identified as the senior officer of the ship is a rather young-looking lieutenant - it will not have escaped any radioreporter's notice that the new King, who served on that cruiser, would ahve outranked that lieutenant by rank alone, had he been present.

Datasheet for Nordmark cruisers Sigtuna and Kirkjubæjarklaustur:

Source code

 
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158

Large Light Cruiser 1919, laid down 1919 

     Length, 570 ft x Beam, 54.5 ft x Depth, 17.0 ft 
          8299 tons normal displacement (7363 tons standard) 

     Main battery:       8 x  5.9-inch 
     Secondary battery:  4 x  4.3-inch 
     Light battery:      4 x  1.5-inch 

          Weight of broadside: 988 lbs 

     12 TT, 21.0" 

     Main belt, 3.0 inches; bow and stern, 2.0 inches 
     Armor deck, average 1.0 inches 

     Battery armor: 
          Main, 1.0" shields / secondary, 1.0" shields 
          light guns, 1.0" shields  

     Maximum speed for 78008 shp = 32.00 knots 
          Approximate cruising radius, 7000 nm / 15 kts 

     Typical complement: 435-565 


                    Estimated cost, $6.463 million (£1.616 million) 

          Remarks: 

     Oil firing. 

     Relative extent of belt armor, 121 percent of 'typical' coverage. 

     Good seaboat; rides out heavy weather easily. 

     Magazines and engineering spaces are cramped, with poor 
     watertight subdivision. 

     Roomy upper decks; superior accommodation and working space. 


          Distribution of weights: 
                                                       Percent 
                                                       normal 
                                                    displacement: 

          Armament .........................    123 tons =   1 pct 
          Armor, total .....................   1055 tons =  13 pct 

               Belt                             644 tons =   8 pct 
               Deck                             385 tons =   5 pct 
               Armament                          26 tons =   0 pct 

          Machinery ........................   2770 tons =  33 pct 
          Hull and fittings; equipment .....   3111 tons =  37 pct 
          Fuel, ammunition, stores .........   1184 tons =  14 pct 
          Miscellaneous weights ............     55 tons =   1 pct 
                                              ----- 
                                               8299 tons = 100 pct 

          Estimated metacentric height, 3.4 ft 

     Displacement summary: 

          Light ship:              7114 tons 
          Standard displacement:   7363 tons 
          Normal service:          8299 tons 
          Full load:               9015 tons 

          Loading submergence 595 tons/foot 

     +++++++++++++++++++++++++ 


     Estimated overall survivability and seakeeping ability: 

          Relative margin of stability: 1.34 

          Shellfire needed to sink: 8157 lbs = 79.4 x 5.9-inch shells 
               (Approximates weight of penetrating 
               shell hits needed to sink ship, 
               not counting critical hits) 

          Torpedoes needed to sink: 1.1 
               (Approximates number of 'typical' 
               torpedo hits needed to sink ship) 

          Relative steadiness as gun platform, 62 percent 
               (50 percent is 'average') 

          Relative rocking effect from firing to beam, 0.16 

          Relative quality as a seaboat: 1.25 

     +++++++++++++++++++++++++ 


     Hull form characteristics: 

          Block coefficient: 0.55 
          Sharpness coefficient: 0.34 
          Hull speed coefficient 'M' = 8.61 
          'Natural speed' for length = 23.9 knots 
          Power going to wave formation 
               at top speed: 58 percent 


     Estimated hull characteristics and strength: 

          Relative underwater volume absorbed by 
               magazines and engineering spaces: 121 percent 

          Relative accommodation and working space: 157 percent 


          Displacement factor: 109 percent 
               (Displacement relative to loading factors) 


          Relative cross-sectional hull strength: 0.98 
               (Structure weight per square 
               foot of hull surface: 90 lbs) 

          Relative longitudinal hull strength: 1.26 
               (for 20.5 ft average freeboard; 
               freeboard adjustment +5.9 ft) 

          Relative composite hull strength: 1.00 

     +++++++++++++++++++++++++ 


[Machine-readable parameters: Spring Style v. 1.2.1] 

570.00 x 54.50 x 17.00; 20.50 -- Dimensions 
0.55 -- Block coefficient 
1919 -- Year laid down 
32.00 / 7000 / 15.00; Oil-fired turbine or equivalent -- Speed / radius / cruise 
55 tons -- Miscellaneous weights 
++++++++++ 
8 x 5.90; 0 -- Main battery; turrets 
  Central positioning of guns 
  Gun-shields 
   : 
4 x 4.30; 0 -- Secondary battery; turrets 
  Gun-shields 
   : 
0 -- No tertiary (QF/AA) battery 
4 x 1.55 -- Fourth (light) battery 
12 / 0 / 21.00 -- TT / submerged / size 
++++++++++ 
3.00 / 2.00 / 0.00 / 0.00; 121 -- Belt armor; relative extent 
1.00 / 0.00 -- Deck / CT 
1.00 / 1.00 / 0.00 / 1.00 -- Battery armor 


     +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++