Caledon Class Cruiser (1916)
The four light cruisers of the Caledon Class were completed in 1917.
Armament
Guns
The five 6-in guns on the centre-line had a maximum elevation of 30 degrees.[1]
Torpedoes
Four double 21-in mounts, two each side, 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.[2]
Fire Control
Rangefinders
Sometime during or after 1917, an additional 9-foot rangefinder was to be added specifically to augment torpedo control.[3]
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.[4]
Orders for Evershed installations for searchlight control from February 1917 first applied to the Danae class, but may not have applied to Caledon.[5]
Gunnery Control
Control Positions
Control Groups
Guns 1 through 3 were a group and guns 4 and 5 a separate control group.[6]
The T.S. had a 3 position C.O.S. for firing, elevation and training signals:
- all guns on director tower
- all guns on #4 directing gun
- guns #1 - 3 on director tower, guns #4 and 5 on directing gun
Directors
All ships were completed with gunnery directors in place on the tripod foremast.[7] 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.[8]
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.[9]
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.[10]
Torpedo Control
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.[11]
Fire Control Instruments
See Also
Footnotes
- ↑ Progress in Naval Gunnery, 1914-1918", p. 10.
- ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1916, p. 35.
- ↑ 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, Annual Report of the Torpedo School', 1916', p. 175.
- ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, p. 29.
- ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. Plate 82.
- ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, p. 11.
- ↑ Handbook of Captain F. C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, 1918., p. 142 and plate opposite.
- ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. Plate 82.
- ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. Plate 82.
- ↑ absent from list in Handbook of Capt. F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, p. 3.
Bibliography
- 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
