Battlecruisers - HMS Uncatchable Sketch Design
Head of the Department of Military Shipbuilding Philip Oates was considered a supporter of the various caliber artillery weapons of the ship and especially preferred all the other 234mm guns. He always revived against a ship armed with guns of only one large caliber, and was still of this opinion when the Committee discussed the effectiveness of such weapons. Watt's commitment to the guns of this very caliber had a simple explanation. Soon after he was appointed commander of the military shipbuilding department, he observed in Polperro near the coast of Cornwall an experimental shooting conducted by volley-fired line ships, according to the old decommissioned armored corvette "Orion" (1878).
The volleys of 305-mm guns of battleships covered the target, but, that was unusual, without successful hits. After this, passing behind the stern of the target, a cruiser of the Drake type fired at it. One of his 234-mm shells fell behind the aft turret and struck the armored deck. Then it swerved to the horizontal direction, passed through the entire engine room, and bent upwards ahead of the barbette of 343 mm thick, where it tore off the massive steel bit for the anchor rope, causing considerable damage along the way. Watts was terribly impressed by the unusual and surprising wanderings of a single projectile and its truly "devastating" result.
For comparison, the 234-mm gun produced 2.84 shells per minute (one shell after 21 seconds) weighing 172.5 kg, which was 490 kg of metal per minute, while the 305 mm gun of the 1906 model produced 0.81 rounds per minute (one projectile in 74 seconds) weighing 386 kg, which was 312.7 kg of metal per minute. If a gun of a smaller caliber is judged by this comparison, then its volley per unit time produced almost 1.3 times more metal than the 305 mm gun. In addition, 234-mm guns and their installations were very popular in the Navy. The command of the gun crews admired their actions and was considered an excellent weapon in terms of guidance and ease of maintenance.
The idea of a ship armed with guns only of a "single large caliber", basically still continued to be ignored when the chief designer of the Naval Administration of Naval Affairs presented to Wattsu the sketch designs of such a ship. These projects were a logical consequence of the conclusions to which the command of the Navy came, but this was too decisive step, contrary to Watt's views. As a result of Narbet's incessant and rather disrespectful perseverance, Watts directed these projects to Fleet inspector Admiral William May.
Admiral May was somewhat amused by the idea, but he liked that the designers showed at least some initiative. He discussed this issue with Narbet, as Narbet later recalled: "I remember well how he got up from behind the desk and, putting his right hand on my shoulder, with a benevolent smile on his face said that he thinks: And I could almost hear his thoughts: "Poor old capricious Narbet has come to this." It's safe to say that William May shared the warm attitude of Philip Watt to the 234mm guns.
In the meantime, the Committee was trying to find the best layout of the guns in pairs, provided that the ship was armed with 305 mm guns. In the process, the members of the Committee carried out many draft sketches, because in the Committee groping their way to an acceptable solution. However, in fact they could not be considered satisfactory for both a battleship and an armored (destroyer) cruiser. One of the initial projects involved the installation of ten 234-mm guns in five twin-turret towers, similar to the location of the Dreadnought towers.
First of all, it should be recalled that the arrangement of towers is always a compromise. If, for example, the dimensions of the ship are determined by the dimensions of the shipyards, the slipways and the width of the locks through which it will have to pass, only a certain space can be allocated to the power plant (and, in advance, it is known how many turbines and boilers will be needed to obtain the given speed And the range of navigation), these conditions already determine the location of turbines and boilers, chimneys, masts, battle logging and all other things that interfere with the operation of artillery. Thus, it will not be about "which arrangement of the towers of the artillery of the main caliber is the best in itself," but on a much more limited issue: "
However, the Committee decided to abandon the use of 234-mm guns and design ships with only 305-mm. The artillery of the "single large" caliber, chosen for these large cruisers, provided the maximum destructive effect together with the greatest possible accuracy and effectiveness of fire control over long distances. 305-mm guns were eventually chosen because they had to shoot farthest and destroy any existing cruiser. These ships were, for the most part, intended for this, but they also formed a high-speed squadron to support the line fleet. The head of the military shipbuilding department, Phillip Watt, was a little dissatisfied with the fact that his favorite scheme of mixed weapons of 234 mm and 305 mm guns found only a minor response in the Committee.
During all the meetings of the Committee, Chief Designer Narbet replaced Whatts in the management of military shipbuilding. During this time, Narbet prepared a series of projects for armored (destroyer) cruisers armed with 305-mm guns, the speed of which ranged from 21 to 25 knots. He made several attempts to induce Watts to show them in the Committee, but he firmly believed that the members of the Committee would find the best solution themselves and cope with the difficulties that had arisen. However, one morning, when Narbet was more persistent than usual, and Watt at that time was more accommodating, the head of the military shipbuilding department still agreed to take a bunch of sketch designs to the committee meeting, although he reproached Narbet that he wastes his time. For each meeting of the Committee, an agenda was envisaged, but this time the secretary reported,
One can imagine the statements of Admiral Fisher in this situation. At that moment Watts showed Narbet's drawings, and Fischer grabbed this straw so as not to disrupt the meeting. The subsequent discussion of the details of the projects and the explanatory note led to the fact that one of Narbet's projects was adopted as the basis for a battleship, and the other for an armored (destroyer) cruiser.
In total, the Committee considered seven major projects for the location of the artillery of the main caliber (among them the Fisher-Garda project and five Narbet projects under numbers from "1" to "5"). As in the draft designs of battleships, each pair of towers in the middle of the ship had a single redoubt, in addition to which the bases of the towers of any side armor were not covered. As already mentioned, the initial draft designs presented in 1905 to the Committee were 25-knots. Ships with steam piston machines.
The first draft of the British armored cruiser of the new generation (the Uncatchable project) was developed by the first Lord Admiral of Admiral John Fisher, the chief designer of the Portsmouth government shipyard, William Gard. The project envisaged the installation of eight 305-mm guns in four bilaterally linear-elevated towers in a diametral plane on the upper deck-two on a half-tank and two in the stern of the ship. This arrangement of the towers, which later became classical, provided eight guns in the onboard volley, four in the fore and aft. However, the project was too advanced for its time, and it was rejected. The objection was caused by the very linearly elevated arrangement of the towers, since there was no experience with such placement and the expected effect of muzzle gases on the lower tower.
