Cambrian Class Cruiser (1915)
The four light cruisers of the Cambrian Class were completed in 1915 and 1916. They were sometimes considered repeats of the earlier two-ship Calliope class.
Armament
Guns
These ships were originally armed with a mixed battery of 2x6-in guns aft and 8x4-in guns. Later, in stages, 2 more 6-in guns were shipped, replacing 4-in guns. Most of the 6-in mountings were simultaneously modified to a 20 degree elevation limit, increased from a likely former limit of 15 degrees.[1]
Torpedoes
2 Service Bar 21-in submerged broadside tubes amidships depressed 4 degrees and bearing 90.[2]
Fire Control
Rangefinders
Sometime during or after 1917, an additional 9-foot rangefinder being handed down from a battleship or battlecruiser (likely an F.T. 24) was to be added specifically to augment torpedo control.[3]
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.[4]
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.[5]
Gunnery Control
Control Positions
Control Groups
Directors
In 1916, it was approved that the ships of this class should be retrofitted with directors as time, resources and opportunity permitted.[6]
All four were fitted with their directors in 1917 and 1918.[7]
The director was on a pedestal mounting without a tower. Likely, there was no directing gun.[8]
The elevation limits of their weapons may have increased in late 1917 or early 1918, resulting in orders for adapting their director systems issued 13 November, 1917. It is not clear whether these alterations were for the entire class or just Cambrian herself, or when they were effected.[9]
Transmitting Stations
Dreyer Table
These ships had no fire control tables.[10]
Fire Control Instruments
In 1916, it was approved that the Cambrian (and conceivably her class), should have range receivers in the fore top to show rangefinder ranges, presumably transmitted from the T.S.[11]
Torpedo Control
In 1916, it was decided that all light cruisers of Bristol class and later should have torpedo firing keys (Pattern 2333) fitted on the fore bridge, in parallel with those in the CT, and that a flexible voice pipe be fitted between these positions. [12]
Additionally, all light cruisers with submerged tubes were to receive torpedo order and gyro angle instruments between torpedo flats and both control positions. The C class (which may or may not encompass the Cambrian class) was to receive Chadburn Torpedo Telegraphs to meet this need. Otherwise, Barr and Stroud would be a likely choice.[13]
See Also
Footnotes
- ↑ Progress in Naval Gunnery, 1914-1918", p. 10.
- ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1915, p. 36.
- ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1917, p. 199. (possibly pertinent: C.I.O. 481/17)
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1916, p. 175.
- ↑ 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. - ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, pp. 14.
- ↑ absent from list in Handbook of Capt. F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, p. 3.
- ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1916, p. 145.
- ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1916, p. 146.
- ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1916, p. 146.
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
- Template:BibUKProgressInNavalGunnery1914-1918
