Birkenhead Class Cruiser (1915)
The two light cruisers of the Birkenhead Class were completed in 1915 and 1916.
Armament
Guns
Torpedoes
2 Elswick 6.8m 21-in submerged broadside tubes forward depressed 2 degrees and bearing 90. Impulse from Elswick H.P. air.[1]
Fire Control
Rangefinders
Evershed Bearing Indicators
The Centaur class were the first light cruisers fitted with Evershed gear for gun control, but it is not clear whether older light cruisers were ever fitted.[2]
Orders for Evershed installations for searchlight control from February 1917 first applied to the Danae class, but seem unlikely to have applied to earlier ships.[3]
Gunnery Control
Control Positions
Control Groups
Directors
Both were fitted with directors in 1917 and 1918.[4]
The director was on a pedestal mounting in a tower on the foremast. Likely, 'X' or 'Y' served as a directing gun.[5]
Torpedo Control
Transmitting Stations
Dreyer Table
These ships had no fire control tables.[6]
Fire Control Instruments
[TO BE CONTINUED - TONE]
See Also
Footnotes
- ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1915, p. 36.
- ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, p. 29.
- ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, p. 29.
- ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, pp. 11-12.
- ↑ Handbook of Captain F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, 1918., p. 142 and plate opposite.
I am inferring that the 2 light cruisers shown in the plate are meant to represent those with and without a tower. - ↑ absent from list in Handbook of Capt. F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, p. 3.
Bibliography
- Template:BibUKARTS1915
- Template:BibUKDirectorFiringHandbook1917
- Admiralty, Gunnery Branch (1910). Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1909. Copy No. 173 is Ja 345a at Admiralty Library, Portsmouth, United Kingdom.
- Template:BibUKDreyerTableHandbook1918
- Template:BibUKFireControlInHMShips1919
