Design of a battleship with a displacement of 16,000 tons by John Harvard Biles in 1914

Design 16,000 tons battleship. ©Warshipsresearch.blogspot.com

British pre-dreadnought HMS Lord Nelson. ©Warshipsresearch.blogspot.com

There was just two forms of defence agansit a submarine attacking a target with her torpedoes. One was to destroy the submarine herself or improve the protection of the target, especially the bottom of the surface ship. In his article described Biles (1) some designs of battleships which should be able to keep fighting even after being torpedoed by a 21” torpedo. One of the solutions was to armor the bottom resulting in reducing her speed with 2 knots. The newest battleships had a form with a low resistance to forward motion. His idea was to develop a form better adapted to fitting and carrying armor despiter creating greater resistance or a reducing speed.

One design he suggested was a battleship with a displacement of 16,000 tons and as dimensions 434 (between perpendiculars)-460 (over all) x 80 (extreme) x 24 feet. Speed 18 knots. Armament consisted of 3x2-14” guns and 16-5” guns. The armor consisted on side at waterline 5”, above water line 5”, under the waterline 4”, on casemate 2”, on barbettes 5” and with 2” thick protective deck-plating. The reduced armor coudl resist 6” projectiles. She was sufficiently well armored above the waterline. The sections below the waterline were straight with a circular arc at the end to simplify the armor contruction of the bottom. This design was about the displacement of the British battleship HMS Nelson (2) which was sometimes called a dreadnought.

Notes

1. Sir John Harvard Biles (1854-1933) was Professor of Naval Architecture at the University of Glasgow, Scotland between 1891-1921.

2. Of the Lord Nelson-class pre-dreadnought battleships preceded by Swiftsure-class succeeded by HMS Dreadnought with a displacement of 15,604 ( normal)-18,106 (deep load) tons. Dimensions 443.6 (over all) x 79.6 x 30 (extra deep load), speed 19 knots and armament 2x2-30.5cm/12” guns, 10 (4x2&2x1) 23.4cm/9.2” guns, 24x1-12-odr 76mm/3” guns, 12x1-3pdr 47mm/1.9” guns and 5-45cm/18” torpedo tubes.

Sources

Biles, sir John. “Battleship protection against submarine. Proposed increase of armor at the expense of decrease in speed” in Journal of the United States Artillery, volume 42, 1914.

Idem. “On the Protection of Battleships against Submarine Attack” in: Shipbuilding and Shipping Record, 9 July 1914.

T. G. Owens. “Some questions to battleship design” in: Shipbuilding and Shipping Record, 9 April 1914.