Difference between revisions of "Caledon Class Cruiser (1916)"

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===Guns===
 
===Guns===
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* Five 6-in 45cal BL Mark XII guns on the centre-line with a maximum elevation of 30 degrees.<ref>''Progress in Naval Gunnery, 1914-1918", p. 10.</ref>
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* Five 6-in 45cal BL Mark XII guns on the centre-line with a maximum elevation of 30 degrees.<ref>''Progress in Naval Gunnery, 1914-1918", p. 10.</ref>  The guns had armoured shields of 1/4 inch on the face, 3/16 inch on sides and top, weighing 1.25 tons.<ref>''Technical History and Index'', Vol 3, Part 28, p. 18.  I presume the described ""C" class" pertains to these ships</ref>
 
* Two 3-in 20cwt QF on HA mountings
 
* Two 3-in 20cwt QF on HA mountings
 
* Four 3-pdr
 
* Four 3-pdr

Revision as of 17:02, 9 August 2011

The four light cruisers of the Caledon Class were completed in 1917.

In contemporary documents, often referred to as the Calypso Class.

Armament

The ships were armed as follows.[1]

Guns

  • Five 6-in 45cal BL Mark XII guns on the centre-line with a maximum elevation of 30 degrees.[2] The guns had armoured shields of 1/4 inch on the face, 3/16 inch on sides and top, weighing 1.25 tons.[3]
  • Two 3-in 20cwt QF on HA mountings
  • Four 3-pdr

Torpedoes

  • Eight 21-in above water tubes on four twin mountings disposed in pairs abreast, bearing 60-120 degrees.

As the 6-in guns fired over these, they proved untenable for manned firing as the 6-in guns would have necessitated a blast shield projecting fully 18 feet from the muzzle. The ugly expedient taken was to train the tubes to a pre-arranged bearing on coming to action stations and to use remote firing from the primary and secondary control positions.[4]

Fire Control

Rangefinders

Sometime during or after 1917, an additional 9-foot rangefinder was to be added specifically to augment torpedo control.[5]

Evershed Bearing Indicators

These ships may have had Evershed gear for gun control from delivery, as this feature for light cruisers was inaugurated by the Centaur class. The approval for their outfits was issued in 1916.[6]

Orders for Evershed installations for searchlight control from February 1917 first applied to the Danae class, but may not have applied to Caledon.[7]

Gunnery Control

Control Positions

Control Groups

Guns 1 through 3 were a group and guns 4 and 5 a separate control group.[8]

The T.S. had a 3 position C.O.S. for firing, elevation and training signals:

  1. all guns on director tower
  2. all guns on #4 directing gun
  3. guns #1 - 3 on director tower, guns #4 and 5 on directing gun

Directors

Director Firing Circuits
Director Firing Handbook, 1917, Plate 82.

All ships were completed with gunnery directors in place on the tripod foremast.[9] The director was in a tower on a pedestal mounting and was augmented by use of their 'X' (or number 4) gun as a directing gun.[10]

Each gun had a local COS to switch it between director and local firing. Seemingly, these were 2-position, director or local, and lacking the customary option to cross-over the local main and aux pistols and circuits. The gunnery director tower had 3 firing pistols, main, auxiliary and "local", and a 3-position COS to govern their behavior. It is not apparent to the editor what the "local" pistol did.[11]

The director was powered by either of a pair of motor alternators, with a C.O.S. available to choose which was to be used.[12]

Transmitting Stations

Other than the control details mentioned above, no information on its equipment is available. Presumably, there was at least a range clock, dumaresq, and range and deflection transmitters, and likely in pairs to match the control grouping provided for director firing.

Dreyer Table

These ships had no fire control tables.[13]

Fire Control Instruments

Torpedo Control

Torpedo Control, as proposed in 1916[14]

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. [15]

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 Caledon class) was to receive Chadburn Torpedo Telegraphs to meet this need. Otherwise, Barr and Stroud would be a likely choice.[16]

The CT and the after control position were equipped with combined deflection, order and bearing transmitters with telltale and receivers, Graham type, Mark I, which connected through COSes in the TS to the crew's shelter positions near the tubes. The aft TCP had a Barr and Stroud Mark III range transmitter wired to a receiver in the CT, and both control positions had fire gongs to the tubes. The CT had voice pipes to the after TCP, and both positions had pipes to the tubes. Both TCPs also had Electro-Pneumatic Firing Gear to the tubes.[17]

By 1917, modifications to the torpedo control voice pipe system were desired. The voice pipes (port and starboard) to the CT were ordered to be removed in 1917, and in 1918, stop cocks were to be added just abaft the after torpedo positions to allow the after control position to be chopped out to improve the acoustic efficiency of the networks to remaining the rangefinder platform control position forward. [18]

See Also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906-1921, p. 60.
  2. ↑ Progress in Naval Gunnery, 1914-1918", p. 10.
  3. ↑ Technical History and Index, Vol 3, Part 28, p. 18. I presume the described ""C" class" pertains to these ships
  4. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1916, p. 35.
  5. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1917, p. 199. (possibly pertinent: C.I.O. 481/17)
  6. ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, p. 29, Annual Report of the Torpedo School', 1916', p. 175.
  7. ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, p. 29.
  8. ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. Plate 82.
  9. ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, p. 11.
  10. ↑ Handbook of Captain F. C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, 1918., p. 142 and plate opposite.
  11. ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. Plate 82.
  12. ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. Plate 82.
  13. ↑ absent from list in Handbook of Capt. F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, p. 3.
  14. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1916, Plate 86.
  15. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1916, p. 146.
  16. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1916, p. 146.
  17. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1916, p. 146.
  18. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1918, p. 214. CT VP removal per C.I.O. 4037/17.

Bibliography

Template:CatClassUKLightCruiser

Template:Caledon Class (1916)

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