NationStates Jolt Archive

Nb: WoS is not quite modern in terms of its technological base, having just recently split the atom and acquired jet technology. The fleets described here in are quite old even by Walmingtonian standards, as I have badly neglected the account [hangs head]. However, the recent upsurge in naval interest -especially pertaining to big-gun ships- has proved inspiration enough to once again share details of the vessels that've been sailing for the better part of a year, in real terms. It's mainly for interest, but all may feel free to comment in or out of character, even if only to poke fun at the tragic state of fleet air defences displayed by a nation flying Mach 1 capable jets itself. As an aside, WoS's isolated admiralty maintains that seamines ought to be defensive only, and that submarines are really more of a dirty Yankee/Jerry gimmick, with the nation's few submariners receiving roughly as much respect as... ah... the Germans and the Americans. And the Soviets. And all those other brutes. There exists the vague possibility of WoS ship yards turning out warships for export, in the unlikely event of interest abroad.

High Admiral John Laurie, First Sea Lord, oversees Home, South Seas, and Gallagan (Indian) Ocean fleets in the defence of the Royal Walmingtonian Empire and its interests and allies.

King Godfrey I Class Battleships

HMWS King Godfrey I ( “Good Godfrey” )
HMWS Queen Mavis ( “Merry Mave” )

Dimensions:
Length (overall): 748’2”
Beam (overall): 97’9”
Draft: 27’11” mean
Displacement (full): 43,400 tons

Crew: 1,744

Power and Performance:
Engine: eight boilers (oil fired)
Horsepower: 121,000
Shafts: 4
Max. Speed: 27.4 knots
Range: 7,900nm at 12 knots, 5,000nm at 22 knots

Armour:
Belt: 15” steel
Deck: 5.75”-7.2” steel
Bulkheads: 5.25”-11.25” steel
Main Turrets: 7.25”-16.5” steel
Conning Tower: 5.75”-10.5” steel

Armament:
Main: Eight 15” guns (four turrets, two fore, two aft) (two rounds per minute, 31,180yd/27,596.6m range at 30 deg. Elev.)
Secondary: Ten 6” guns (eight - ten rounds per minute, 19,000yd/17,000m range)
Anti Aircraft: Three 3” guns, eighteen 2pdr guns, thirty two 2x20mm guns

Aircraft: Two Wasp III float-biplanes, catapult launch.

The most famous action yet fought by this class occured in the Denmark Strait, when a RWN squadron lead by HMS Queen Mavis clashed with a Kriegsmarine squadron including the infamous Bismarck. The clash ended with losses on both sides, and the withdrawl of the German squadron after a trading of equal blows.

Glamorgan Class Battleships

HMWS Indefatigable
HMWS Mainwaring
HMWS Churchill

Dimensions:
Length (overall): 804’2”
Beam (overall): 110’5”
Draft: 30’6” mean
Displacement: 48,200 tons standard; 53,700+ tons full

Crew: 1,983

Power and Performance:
Engine: eight boilers (oil fired) Tedley & Crooke
Horsepower: 140,000
Shafts: 4
Max. Speed: 28.9 knots
Range: 8,550nm at 12 knots, 5,200nm at 22 knots

Armour:
Belt: 7.5”-16” steel
Deck: 6.5”-8.25” steel
Bulkheads: 5.25”-11.25” steel
Main Turrets: 7.25”-18.5” steel (470mm!)
Conning Tower: 6.75”-12.5” steel

Armament:
Main: Eight 15.5”/47 guns (four turrets, two fore, two aft) (two+ rounds per minute; 2,150lb AP shell; 40,500 yard range)
Secondary: Twelve 6” guns (6x2; eight to ten rounds per minute; 19,000-yard range)
Anti Aircraft: Eight 3” guns (4x2, potential DP); thirty-two 2pdr guns (16x2); forty-four 1” guns (22x2)

Aircraft: Three Wasp III, catapult launch

Radar:
Air Search: Walmington Model A MkI
Surface Search: Walmington Model B MkII
Fire Control: Walmington Model D MkII

Notes: The Glamorgans are fitted with new fire-control radar, previously unproven but said to be quite advanced and highly promising. Reasonably good optical sights will back this up. The 15.5” gun is an improvement over the reasonable 15” weapons mounted by the nation’s other two battleships, those of the Godfrey Class, though some may wonder why the navy didn’t splash-out on 16”ers. In light of the heavy armour evident in the Glamorgan design (when reading basic armour-thickness data one should assume that distribution tends to favour the heavier end of a given range rather than the lighter) it may simply be a minor weight-saving effort. Or it may be down to nothing more (or less) than stubborn Walmingtonian pride. The quality of the design’s heavy armour is likely to be high. Walmingtonian steel has traditionally been considered quite fine, but recent years have only seen it improve as the industry attempts at once to stay ahead of uneasy American neighbours while, some say, quietly striving to better famous Iansislian steel. Anti-torpedo protection is thought to be fairly good, partly (and again some credit is owed to Walmy pride) because Walmingtonian torpedoes are quite frankly not. Anything at which the nation is not good tends to be loathed, resulting in great efforts to ruin anybody else’s efforts in the given field. All in all the Glamorgans are as a big sister to the earlier Godfreys, and likely to be superior one on one against any hostile ships in Europe. They will be in excess of a thousand tons heavier than the likes of Bismarck with which Queen Mavis was able to engage on roughly equal terms.
Just when it was thought that Walmington had resigned itself to non-competition in the battleship race..

This concludes the RWN's battleship strength. More warship types to come, from Gull Class corvettes to Phoenician Class primary naval airbases (carriers)

Wayne Class Heavy Cruisers ( “Wayners” )
HMWS Henry
HMWS Admiral Coney
HMWS Tarriff
HMWS Raven
HMWS Rock Dove
HMWS Kite
HMWS Wendsleybury
HMWS Alexander Vale

Dimensions:
Length (overall): 608’4”
Beam (overall): 64’9”
Draft: 21’2”
Displacement (full): 13,709 tons

Crew: 831

Power and Performance:
Engine: four Wychwood boilers, oil-fired
Horsepower: 112,000
Shafts: 4
Max Speed: 33.7 knots
Range: 8,200nm at 12 knots, 5,100nm at 22 knots

Armour:
Belt: 3.5” to 5.8”
Deck: 2.25” to 3.5”
Main Turrets: 2.5” roof, 2.75-4” sides, 6” face
Conning Tower: 2.5” to 4.25”

Armament:
Main: Eight 8”/56 guns (4x2)
Secondary: Eight 4” DP guns (along broadsides; 2x2, 4x1)
Anti Aircraft: Sixteen 2pdr guns, twelve 2x20mm

Radar:
Air Search: Walmington Model A MkI
Surface Search: Walmington Model B MkII
Fire Control: Walmington Model D MkII

Aircraft: Two, catapult launch

Notes: The Walmingtonian 8”/56 gun fires a 320lb shell to 32,680 yards at two rounds per minute.
I wonder if I'll have to rename Tarriff...

Been along time Walmington.

Always nice to read about our Atlantic counterparts! - and even nicer, with regards to my ego, to remember that we field eight ships of the line to your five :). Of course, given that our primary naval plane is the prop-driven, hit-it-with-a-slingshot-to-blow-it-up SeaSteed, mayhap that's not quite as important as it might be. Keep up the good work, WoS!

*wonders if he ought to do the same thing in his factbook - then wonders if he can even find all the proper statistics*

So are you taking the WW2 RP into the Cold War type era?

You know, Roycelandia and Walmington-On-Sea really should sign some sort of Alliance/Trade Deal/Treaty of Friendship.

Roycelandia has all the up to the second Technology, but still insists on all our designs being as Retro as possible- in other words, we have Spitfire Fighters with ECMs, HUDs, and all sorts of other Modern stuff in them, Soldiers dressed like British Soldiers from "Zulu" carrying a semi-auto version of the SMLE, and Dreadnoughts that can beat the stuffing out of most modern Naval Vessels, and so on.

It goes without saying we're rather fond of our Atomic Weapons, although we've yet to actually use them on someone. (William Hill is offering odds of 3 to 2 that this will happen sometime in the near future, however.)

Did we mention our Overseas Colonies and rampant Imperialism as well? :)

Artitsa, sort of, yes. Mainwaring is being used to trial radar-guided anti-aircraft turrets, for example, and we're trying the same on land with the Cavalry Cruiser MkII hull and a pair of 1" aviation guns... essentially we're trying to create a ZSU-25-2, and we have broken the sound barrier in level flight (we call it the art of transsonics). On the other hand we refuse to accept that battlecruisers might not be a good idea, and still prefer the wireless to the television.

I'm afraid we're a bit out of the loop regarding the Ians... nobody knows who's in charge anymore, and nobody wants to aid in the proliferation of maritime jet warfare until we do :) Of course there's some debate about who's going to be in charge here, soon, which reminds me...

...Roycelandia, yes, we might need to use you, somehow, come to think of it :) We're in a long-running war with the USA. The attack was something of a surprise, and by that combined with vast technical superiority and excessive brutality more or less crushed most of the US fleet, Army, and Air Force... but its just got out how we did it (as in, nobody really understood the nature of these atomic super weapons at first), and the Americans' partisan activity is on the increase, so the war is now way beyond unpopular. I was gearing up to get rid of Walmington and concentrate on New Eastgate, but its been decided now that I'll be getting New Eastgate killed and concentrating on Walmington... so I need a way out. I've decided that I'd rather keep most of the characters going, too, rather than getting new ones (although I'm sure more will crop up in time), which means we need to swing popular support back to Mainwaring et al. We need either to blame somebody else, or get them to help us win in America. Thing is, we haven't the man power to police the east coast and keep it apart from the rest. Essentially we're trying to part the founding states from the rest, bringing the eastern seaboard firmly back into the more loyal Anglosphere... if that makes sense. We're hoping to create thirteen nations loyal to the motherland (Britain), and, ah, Roycelandian manpower might get one of them a Roycelandian prince, perhaps?

I was gearing up to get rid of Walmington and concentrate on New Eastgate, but its been decided now that I'll be getting New Eastgate killed and concentrating on Walmington...

((Ah, very glad to hear it! :) And who knows? Maybe you can get Tarriff to play scape-goat or something - I think he's gone for good now.))

Roycelandia would be only too keen to help WoS issue forth a Righteous Smackdown to your wayward Colonies... however, we should stress that we have a large Empire of our own and can't afford to over-extend ourselves too much.

So, with that out of the way, how can we help? :)

While I'm still thinking about the American situation and the future of the empire, here, look at our carriers!

Phoenician Class

Dimensions:
Length (overall): 776'1"
Beam (overall): 98'2"
Draft: 24'8"

Displacement (full): 31,991 tons

Crew: 1,997 including flight crew

Power and Performance:
Engine: Wychwood oil-fired
Power: 112,000hp
Shafts: 4
Speed: 30 knots
Range: 9,100nm at 12 knots, 5,480nm at 22 knots.

Armour:
Deck: 4" steel
Belt: 3.75"

Armament:
Main: Four 6" guns, six 4" guns
AA: Six 3" guns, six 6x2pdr turrets, eighteen 2x20mm,

Radar:
Air Search: Walmington Model A MkI
Surface Search:Walmington Model B MkI

Air Wing:
Up to 58 aircraft (Swordfish, Wasp II, Nexus, Ocean Tern)

HMWS Phoenicia
HMWS Carthage
HMWS Minos

Sparrow Class

Dimensions:
Length (overall): 504'2"
Beam (overall): 79'1"
Draft: 19'7"

Displacement (full): 17,110 tons

Crew: 904 including flight crew

Power and Performance:
Engine: Wychwood oil fired.
Power: 15,000hp
Shafts: 1
Speed: 19kt
Range: 12,800nm at 12kt, 8,470nm at 18kt

Armour:
Deck:6.5" wood

Armament:
Main: Two 4" guns, two 3" DP guns
AA: eight 2x20mm machineguns, twelve 2pdr guns

Radar:
Air Search: Walmington Model A MkI
Surface Search:Walmington Model B MkI

Air Wing:
One catapult. Up to 22 aircraft (Swordfish and Wasp II, perhaps Nexus fighters)

HMWS Sparrow
HMWS Newry
HMWS Stanley
HMWS Bishop


JFMkII Tern/JFMkII* Ocean Tern/JFMkIIC Super Tern 2-seat nightfighter
Length: 32’5”
Span: 39’10”
Weight: 8,983lb empty; 15,150lb max takeoff
Power Plant: One Wychwood Automation 1-W Little Bear 6,000lb turbojet
Top Speed: 662mph at sea level; 604mph at 36,000ft
Range: 1,100 miles
Ceiling: 41,500ft
Armament: 2x20mm aviation cannon; 2x1” Chasshire aviation cannon; two underwing hardpoints for 500lb bombs, fuel tanks, 6x2” “Grapeshot” rockets

The future of Walmington's carrier force is uncertain. As the nation tries to force itself into the jet age, it becomes evident that the Sparrow Class is obsolete, unable to safely operate such planes. There role as anti-submarine patrol vessels is not expired, though the advent of longer-range aircraft and the introduction of a corvette force hints at an end in sight. This has delayed the replacement of the vessels' old AA battery with dual-mount 1" automatic guns. Of course, Walmington has not yet become familiar with the concept of rotary wing aircraft.

There is significant pressure to increase the number of fleet carriers available, for the security of the strained empire. It seems that nobody in Admiralty or government can agree on the future size of composition of the Royal Walmingtonian Navy, which recently began to decommission its single class of U-boat, and without the introduction of any major class of surface vessels since the anti-Fascist war, the case is put that there are funds to spare... while the counter is stated in the survival of the nation with a relatively weakened fleet.

WoS, you know Roycelandia has some Carrier Airships? We thought the technology might be of interest... so far, we have the IRAS (Imperial Roycelandian AirShip) Pterodactyl, Bird of Prey, Staff of Zeus, and Chariot of Ra on active duty.

Each one of the Carrier Airships carries between 6-24 Spitfire Turboprop Fighters or Harrier Jump Jets, as well as Kookaburra recon planes or Tigershark Biplanes, depending on the fitout.

The IRAS Staff of Zeus has been configured to carry two Lancaster Bombers and four Spitfires, increasing the bomber's range exponentially.

All of Roycelandia's Carrier Airships are made of a space-age bullet-resistant fabric and filled with Helium, and come with a complete array of defensive armaments, ECM, and the other sorts of things you'd find on any sea-based Carrier.

We've been extraordinarily pleased with their performance thus far, and would be delighted to offer the designs for sale to our friends in WoS...

OOC: I notice you have specifcations for the JFMII Tern but what happened to the JFMI Cricket/C-7 Sledgehammer planes?

OOC: Ah, its in active reserve, at the moment. We found the Iansislian engines to be rather unreliable (working on Ians' own reports on the same engines which I'm sure that I remember reading somewhere). We've 'mastered' the art of 'trans-sonics' now, too. That is, we've built a fighter with afterburners, capable of brief sprints just over Mach 1, and armed with unguided air to air rockets and 1" aviation cannons. Anyway, the Cricket crashed a few times, killed a few good pilots, and got withdrawn from frontline service and consigned to emergency defence of the homeland in the event of Nazi revival while we're bogged-down in America.

(All right, that's it, I'm half way inspired- we're 'modernising' the fleet (the Walmingtonian way))




(Yes, all wrong.)