Difference between revisions of "Indefatigable Class Battlecruiser (1909)"

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===Fire Control Instruments===
 
===Fire Control Instruments===
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The ships used [[Vickers]] [[F.T.P.]] Mark III range and deflection instruments to send data to gun sights, retaining [[Barr and Stroud]] (probably Mark II*{{INF}}) instruments for other destinations.<ref>''Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914'', pp. 72.</ref>
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The ships used [[Vickers]] [[F.T.P.]] Mark III range and deflection instruments to send data to gun sights (likely with cross-connected Mark III* range transmitters<ref>''Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1910'', p. 148.</ref>), retaining [[Barr and Stroud]] (probably Mark II*{{INF}}) instruments for other destinations.<ref>''Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914'', pp. 72.</ref>
  
 
''Target Visible'' and ''Gun Ready'' signals mounted in the TSes and control positions indicated which turrets could see the target and which guns were ready.<ref>''Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914'', p. 11.</ref>
 
''Target Visible'' and ''Gun Ready'' signals mounted in the TSes and control positions indicated which turrets could see the target and which guns were ready.<ref>''Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914'', p. 11.</ref>

Revision as of 15:00, 19 April 2011

Armament

Guns

Torpedoes

Two 18-in submerged broadside tubes forward, depressed 3 degrees.[1]

Fire Control

Rangefinders

Sometime during or after 1917, an additional 9-foot rangefinder on an open mounting was to be added specifically to augment torpedo control.[2]

Evershed Bearing Indicators

All 3 ships were likely fitted with this equipment at some point, but only Indefatigable is explicitly mentioned in Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914.[3]

The transmitting positions were

  • Fore control platform (transmitters to port and starboard with a local switch to select one in use)
  • 'A' turret
  • 'X' turret
  • Upper aft conning tower

The protocols for how her crew should handle wooding of the turrets was outlined in the Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914.[4]

Mechanical Aid-to-Spotter

At some point, Australia and New Zealand were equipped with two Mark I Mechanical Aid-to-Spotters, one on each side of the foretop, keyed off the Evershed rack on the director. As the need for such gear was apparently first identified in early 1916, it seems likely that these installations were effected well after Jutland.[5]

Gunnery Control

The control arrangements were likely as follows.[6]

Control Positions

  • Fore top
  • Main top[Inference]
  • 'A' turret[Inference]
  • 'Y' turret[Inference]

Some ships had C.O.S.s within the control positions so they could be connected to either TS.[7]

Control Groups

The four 12-in turrets were separate groups, each with a local C.O.S.[Inference] so that it could be connected to

  • Forward TS
  • After TS
  • Local control from officer's position within turret

Directors

Main Battery

The ships were fitted with a tripod-type director in a light aloft tower on the foremast along with a directing gun in the Y turret.[8] The battery was not divisible into for split director firing.[9]

Secondary Battery

The 4-in broadside guns are not listed as ever having had directors installed.[10]

Torpedo Control

Transmitting Stations

Like all large British ships of the era prior to King George V and Queen Mary, these ships had 2 TSes.[11]

Dreyer Table

As of 1918, the New Zealand and Australia carried Mark I Dreyer tables[12]. As to time of installation, one secondary source asserts that Indefatigable and New Zealand had Mark I tables at the Battle of Jutland,[13] but no primary source confirms this. Moreover, a first-hand account seems to suggest a manual plotting board was being used in the T.S. of New Zealand.[14]

The ships were never given Dreyer Turret Control Tables.[15]

Fire Control Instruments

The ships used Vickers F.T.P. Mark III range and deflection instruments to send data to gun sights (likely with cross-connected Mark III* range transmitters[16]), retaining Barr and Stroud (probably Mark II*[Inference]) instruments for other destinations.[17]

Target Visible and Gun Ready signals mounted in the TSes and control positions indicated which turrets could see the target and which guns were ready.[18]

See Also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Addenda (1911) to Torpedo Manual, Vol. III., 1909, p. 155.
  2. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1917, p. 198. (C.I.O. 481/17)
  3. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914, pp. 33-9.
  4. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914, p. 36.
  5. ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, pp. 25-6.
  6. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914, pp. 7-8. (some inferences drawn due to fundamental differences between this design and that of Orion to which it is likened).
  7. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914, p. 7.
  8. ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. pp. 88, 142.
  9. ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. p. 88.
  10. ↑ The Director Firing Handbook, 1917. pp. 143.
  11. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914, pp. 6-7.
  12. ↑ Handbook of Capt. F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, p. 3.
  13. ↑ Sumida, Jon. In Defence of Naval Supremacy p. 300.
  14. ↑ Midshipman Gordon Eady quoted in Steel & Hart. Jutland 1916, p. 75.
  15. ↑ Handbook of Capt. F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, p. 3.
  16. ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1910, p. 148.
  17. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914, pp. 72.
  18. ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1914, p. 11.

Bibliography

Template:CatClassUKBattlecruiser

Template:Indefatigable Class (1909)

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