Lion Class Battleship - Design and Description

Design and Description

The choice of 14-inch (356 mm) gun and the mix of quadruple and twin turrets for the main battery of the King George Vs had been dictated by the Second London Naval Treaty, which limited battleships to 35,000 long tons (36,000 t) standard displacement and a main calibre of 14 inches. However, when the Japanese Government refused to agree to its terms, the maximum calibre allowed reverted to 16 inches in April 1937. The Board of Admiralty then began preliminary design work on a 35,000-ton ship armed with 16-inch guns and they were promising enough that the Director of Naval Construction (DNC) was ordered to further investigate such designs, providing for several aircraft as well. To save design time, many of the features of the King George Vs were incorporated in the new design, but the limited size of the ship was a real challenge for the designers. The increased weight of the main armament was compensated for by a slight reduction in the overall weight of armour and the elimination of two twin 5.25-inch (133 mm) gun turrets.

The designer's issues were made much easier on 31 March 1938 when the signatories of the Treaty invoked its escalation clause because the Japanese refused to provide any information about their battleship construction programme and the signatories feared that their new ships could be outclassed by the new Japanese battleships. The new limit was 45,000 long tons (46,000 t), but the Admiralty decided to limit themselves to 40,000 long tons (41,000 t) and nine 16-inch guns on cost grounds. A new design was prepared with more armour, more powerful machinery, the two twin 5.25-inch gun turrets restored, and four aircraft added. The Admiralty approved this design on 15 December and bids were solicited very shortly afterwards.

Read more about this topic:  Lion Class Battleship

Famous quotes containing the words design and/or description:

    With wonderful art he grinds into paint for his picture all his moods and experiences, so that all his forces may be brought to the encounter. Apparently writing without a particular design or responsibility, setting down his soliloquies from time to time, taking advantage of all his humors, when at length the hour comes to declare himself, he puts down in plain English, without quotation marks, what he, Thomas Carlyle, is ready to defend in the face of the world.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Why does philosophy use concepts and why does faith use symbols if both try to express the same ultimate? The answer, of course, is that the relation to the ultimate is not the same in each case. The philosophical relation is in principle a detached description of the basic structure in which the ultimate manifests itself. The relation of faith is in principle an involved expression of concern about the meaning of the ultimate for the faithful.
    Paul Tillich (1886–1965)