WesWorld

King of Riva
Spammer wanna be
Posts: 60
(4/24/03 9:03:00 am)
Reply The Navalist, issue 22-11-20
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[edited spelling]

THE NAVALIST
- South Africans Official Navy Newspaper -
22th November 1920

RSAN BRAZZAVILLE ON TRIALS



Yesterday the RSANs newest cruiser RSAN Brazzaville (sistership to RSAN Yaoundé) sailed back to Cape Town, homebase of the 4th Cruiser Squadron to which the ship belongs. During the last days the new cruiser passed several speed trials. Her captain, Captain Anthony Vastfoorvard, was so kind to give our reporter Kes Koop an interview.

NAV: Captain Vastfoorvard, we´ve heard your new cruiser went through several speed trials. Can you give us some insight?
CV: Your informations are correct, Mr. Koop. The ship had to pass several test like sprints or sustained high speeds etc. during the last days. I´m very pleased with the result.
NAV: So the ship achieved the speed it was build for?
CV: Not at first place but that´s quite normal. You can´t open the throttles beyond limits in first place. We did several runs during the last week, raising the level each time we had no problem with the precedent tests. So finally, we reach the designed power output at which the ship accelerated to the expected speed – and beyond.
NAV: So everything was fine?
CV: Yes, sure. We had a valve that caused some trouble on the third day but nothing really unexpected.
NAV: That´s good news. So what will happen next?
CV: Training, training, training. Even though I´m a lucky man and got a really good crew there are still a lot of things to do. Remember the ship was commissioned on 3rd of October. Seven weeks is hardly enough but we´re making good progress.
NAV: I´ve heard your ship will be outfitted for some gunnery trials.
CV: Yes, that´s right. Some tests are planned for the next days.
NAV: Something completely different. What do you think about what happened in India and the abduction we´ve all heard of?
CV (grim face): I really adore Raveena Pillai, maybe I´m one of her greatest fans. What happened really upsets me! How could one dare to treat a lady like this? I´ll tell you something: I was short to order course for Yemen, sail all the way up the African coast and teach those cretins a lesson – even without a single shell onboard! We´re the Royal South African Navy after all. We have the men, we have the ships and if we have the will too, there´s hardly anything out there that can stop us!
NAV: But as it seems Indias forces can easily handle this “incident”.
CV: We´ll see……
NAV: You don´t think so?
CV: Hmmmmm….
NAV: Okay, so let me thank you for this little interview and the insight you gave us, Captain Vastfoorvard.

RSAN Brazaville left Cape Town again quite early this morning. During most of the night work continued on the ship to refuel and store ammo and other equipment. As it seems Captain Vastfoorvard really is not the man to waste much time.

[Players Note: the real stats of the YAOUNDÈ-class]

Yaoundé, laid down 1919
Brazzaville, laid down 1919
Bata, laid down 1920
Port Gentil, laid down 1920

Length, 145.0 m x Beam, 14.5 m x Depth, 5.8 m
5656 tonnes normal displacement (5161 tonnes standard)

Main battery: 10 x 15.0-cm
Secondary battery: 8 x 8.8-cm

Weight of broadside: 544 kg

Main belt, 8.0 cm; ends unarmored
(Relative extent of belt armor, 117 percent of 'typical' coverage)
Armor deck, average 3.5 cm
(Allocation: Over engines and magazines - 4.0 cm; ends - 2.5 cm)
Conning tower, 15.0 cm

Battery armor:
Main, 5.0 cm shields
Secondary, 2.5 cm shields

Maximum speed for 35008 shaft kw = 29.65 knots
(Trials with 14,3% overload for 40000 shaft kw = 30.64 knots)
Approximate cruising radius, 11200 nm / 10 knots

Typical complement: 326-424

Estimated cost, $4.643 million (£1.161 million)

Remarks:

Oil firing.

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 ......................... 150 tonnes = 3 pct
Armor, total ..................... 820 tonnes = 14 pct

Belt 386 tonnes = 7 pct
Deck 343 tonnes = 6 pct
C.T. 40 tonnes = 1 pct
Armament 50 tonnes = 1 pct

Machinery ........................ 1666 tonnes = 29 pct
Hull and fittings; equipment ..... 2313 tonnes = 41 pct
Fuel, ammunition, stores ......... 707 tonnes = 13 pct
Miscellaneous weights ............ 0 tonnes = 0 pct
-----
5656 tonnes = 100 pct

Estimated metacentric height, 0.7 m

Displacement summary:

Light ship: 4949 tonnes
Standard displacement: 5161 tonnes
Normal service: 5656 tonnes
Full load: 6028 tonnes

Loading submergence 1260 tonnes/metre

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


Estimated overall survivability and seakeeping ability:

Relative margin of stability: 1.22

Shellfire needed to sink: 2233 kg = 47.7 x 15.0-cm shells
(Approximates weight of penetrating
shell hits needed to sink ship,
not counting critical hits)

Torpedoes needed to sink: 0.9
(Approximates number of 'typical'
torpedo hits needed to sink ship)

Relative steadiness as gun platform, 56 percent
(50 percent is 'average')

Relative rocking effect from firing to beam, 0.28

Relative quality as a seaboat: 1.12

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


Hull form characteristics:

Block coefficient: 0.46
Sharpness coefficient: 0.32
Hull speed coefficient 'M' = 8.16
'Natural speed' for length = 21.8 knots
Power going to wave formation
at top speed: 56 percent


Estimated hull characteristics and strength:

Relative underwater volume absorbed by
magazines and engineering spaces: 116 percent

Relative accommodation and working space: 129 percent


Displacement factor: 106 percent
(Displacement relative to loading factors)


Relative cross-sectional hull strength: 1.05
(Structure weight per square
metre of hull surface: 463 kg)

Relative longitudinal hull strength: 1.81
(for 5.00 m average freeboard;
freeboard adjustment +0.88 m)

Relative composite hull strength: 1.11

Edited by: King of Riva at: 4/24/03 9:13:14 am

The Rock Doctor
Spammer wanna be
Posts: 48
(4/24/03 9:15:47 am)
Reply Re: The Navalist, issue 22-11-20
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Captain Vastfoorvard doesn't seem to be lacking in self-confidence.

A very nice line drawing, by the way.

King of Riva
Spammer wanna be
Posts: 61
(4/24/03 9:20:49 am)
Reply Re: The Navalist, issue 22-11-20
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*g*

Indeed, may have something to do with his name, though.

Thanks for your kind words. Personally I think the cruisers lines are not as graceful as they could be. But as always, there´s a reason. It shows the step from the older cruisers with their CTs and bridges of german style towards the more block-like superstructures (without CT, think of some british vessels) I use on my later designs.

Rooijen10
Spammer wanna be
Posts: 84
(4/24/03 2:48:31 pm)
Reply Re: The Navalist, issue 22-11-20
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"Vastfoorvard"



Very nice name.
Nice that there is another well known fan of Ms. Pillai outside of India. Perhaps Captain Vastfoorvard should meet the Nakamura sisters, who are also big Pillai fans. They may have a lot to talk about.
A very nice ship, King, as well as a nice drawing.

Walter


King of Riva
Spammer wanna be
Posts: 62
(4/24/03 7:30:58 pm)
Reply The sisters...
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Maybe Cpt. Vastfoorvard will meet them off the Yemen coast, who knows?!

The linedrawing: I took some input from the german Königsberg(II)- and Cöln(II)-classes of 1918 and mixed it with the Emden(III) of 1921. The problem here is, that the Königsbergs and Cölns had a relatively long bridge but they had no superfiring guns forward. Thus their bridges were only 2 1/2 decks high and within the first third of the hulls length. These design features allowed a very balanced look of those ships. For the Yaounde I had the "problem" of a superfiring gun forward and thus a higher bridge that I had to place further away from the bow. The "visual weight" of the forward superstructure, together with the first stack, is now much closer to the ships center - not a good idea if you want to have your ship look gracefull and fast, though. It makes the vessel look more "bulky" or "fat". It´s more like a workhorse than a greyhound, if you know what I mean.
Further more these so called (within the RSAN) "gun cruisers" have many guns that needed to be placed with good firearcs and no torpedos for some "visual variety". Of course you won´t find small caliber automatic weapons too. This is 1919/20 after all - too early for useful 2cm or 4cm guns, even though they may be introduced within the next year or so. I´ll add them later during those cruisers careers.

Anyway, glad you like it. Looks like I´m my worst critic!

thesmilingassassin
Spammer wanna be
Posts: 41
(4/25/03 2:01:03 am)
Reply nice ship
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Personally i would have shortened the bridge at the CT level but thats the way i like my ships to look, I think its a great design. Stephan do you have any pics of the Emden handy? If so could you E-mail them too me? I'd like to see if I can Scratch build her from spare model parts and add her to my large german warship model collection.

King of Riva
Spammer wanna be
Posts: 63
(4/25/03 3:16:47 am)
Reply No pic of Emden, sorry.
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I can´t give you a linedrawing of her because I have no scanner at hand, sorry.

I just looked on warships1 but there a linedrawing is also missing....?! Maybe someone else could help you.

The Rock Doctor
Spammer wanna be
Posts: 49
(4/25/03 8:50:50 am)
Reply Re: No pic of Emden, sorry.
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There's a somewhat washed-out line drawing at:

hera.mni.fh-giessen.de/~hg6339/DataFrames.htm

Click on "data sheets" in the top left corner, then "Cruisers", then "Germany III".

Edited by: The Rock Doctor at: 4/25/03 8:51:58 am

Rooijen10
Spammer wanna be
Posts: 85
(4/25/03 12:29:38 pm)
Reply Re: The sisters...
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Quote:
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Maybe Cpt. Vastfoorvard will meet them off the Yemen coast, who knows?!
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Statement made by a spokesman of the Bakufu:
"The Japanese Government denies that there are any of its civilians in the vicinity of the Red Sea Area. There are, however, a handful of ships of the Imperial Navy in the given area."

Walter