Centaur Class Cruiser (1916)
The two light cruisers of the Centaur Class were completed in 1916.
Armament
The ships were armed as follows.[1]
Guns
- Five 6-in 45cal BL Mark XII guns on the centre-line with a maximum elevation of 30 degrees.[2]
- Two 3-in 20cwt QF on HA mountings
- One 13-pdr
Torpedoes
- Two Service Bar 21-in submerged broadside tubes amidships depressed 4 degrees and bearing 90.[3]
These were to be the last Royal Navy light cruisers to feature submerged torpedo tubes.
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.[4]
Evershed Bearing Indicators
This class was the first light cruiser class to feature Evershed installations, possibly upon their very completion. Such equipment became standard from here on out.[5]
Gunnery Control
Control Positions
Control Groups
Directors
Both were completed with gunnery directors in place.[6]
The director was in a tower on a pedestal mounting and was probably augmented by use of their 'X' gun as a directing gun.[7][Inference]
Transmitting Stations
Dreyer Table
These ships had no fire control tables.[8]
Fire Control Instruments
[TO BE CONTINUED - TONE]
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]
Additionally, all light cruisers with submerged tubes were to receive torpedo order and gyro angle instruments between torpedo flats and both control positions. The C class (which may or may not encompass the Centaur class) was to receive Chadburn Torpedo Telegraphs to meet this need. Otherwise, Barr and Stroud would be a likely choice.[10]
See Also
Footnotes
- ↑ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906-1921, p. 60.
- ↑ Progress in Naval Gunnery, 1914-1918", p. 10.
- ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1915, p. 36.
- ↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1917, p. 199. (possibly pertinent: C.I.O. 481/17)
- ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, p. 29.
- ↑ The Technical History and Index: Fire Control in HM Ships, 1919, p. 11.
- ↑ 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. - ↑ absent from list in Handbook of Capt. F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, p. 3.
- ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1916, p. 146.
- ↑ Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1916, p. 146.
Bibliography
- Template:BibUKARTS1915
- Template:BibUKDirectorFiringHandbook1917
- Admiralty, Gunnery Branch (1910). Handbook for Fire Control Instruments, 1909. Copy No. 173 is Ja 345a at Admiralty Library, Portsmouth, United Kingdom.
- Template:BibUKDreyerTableHandbook1918
- Template:BibUKFireControlInHMShips1919
