Difference between revisions of "Caroline Class Cruiser (1914)"

From The Dreadnought Project
Jump to: navigation, search
(Dreyer Table)
Line 31: Line 31:
  
 
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 ''Caroline'' herself, or when they were effected.<ref>''The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919'', pp. 14.</ref>
 
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 ''Caroline'' herself, or when they were effected.<ref>''The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919'', pp. 14.</ref>
 
===Torpedo Control===
 
  
 
===Transmitting Stations===
 
===Transmitting Stations===
Line 41: Line 39:
  
 
===Fire Control Instruments===
 
===Fire Control Instruments===
 +
 +
==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.<ref>''Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1916'', p. 146.</ref>
  
 
==See Also==
 
==See Also==

Revision as of 12:49, 10 May 2011

The six light cruisers of the Caroline Class were completed in 1914 and 1915.

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

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.[2]

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.[3]

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.[4]

Gunnery Control

Control Positions

Control Groups

Directors

All six ships were fitted with directors in 1917 and 1918.[5]

The director was on a pedestal mounting without a tower. Likely, there was no directing gun.[6]

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 Caroline herself, or when they were effected.[7]

Transmitting Stations

Dreyer Table

Most of these ships had no fire control tables during the war, but by June 1918, Comus and Carysfort are listed as having Dreyer Turret Control Tables in their T.S.es, and by 1930 all but Caroline were so equipped (Cordelia had been scrapped in 1923).[8]

Fire Control Instruments

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.[9]

See Also

Footnotes

  1. Progress in Naval Gunnery, 1914-1918", p. 10.
  2. Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1917, p. 199. (possibly pertinent: C.I.O. 481/17)
  3. The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, p. 29.
  4. The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, p. 29.
  5. The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, pp. 11-12.
  6. 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.
  7. The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, pp. 14.
  8. Handbook of Capt. F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, p. 3, Pamphlet on the Turret Dreyer Table as fitted in the turrets of H.M. battleships and in the transmitting stations of certain cruisers, 1930, p. 4.
  9. Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1916, p. 146.

Bibliography

Template:CatClassUKLightCruiser

Template:Caroline Class (1914)