USS Scranton - City class Bombardment Monitor

[proditor]

I was chugging along at a decent clip on my German V/TOL carrier, when I got distracted by a shipbucket pic of a vastly truncated USS Arizona. The topic is here: http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3679&hilit=monitor+arizona#p76969

Now that was darn near an anime Super-deformed version, but it set the wheels turning...

I'll show you what spun up in a few once I got to the plastic bits.

[proditor]

Okay, here was the inspiration.



And then I grabbed a model of the Arizona and took my Dremel to it. When I was done, I had three nice hull pieces. A dry fit got me this:



Then came the putty!



And that's where we are right now. The idea is an improvement over the previous Wyoming/Cheyenne, built around the 1920's. It is a true Ocean going Monitor, with it's own scout plane for artillery spotting.

Armament is a triple 14" turret, with light supporting cannons. Armor is about Heavy Cruiser level, Speed is slow, probably topping out at 16 knots, but it would be a really nice stable gunnery platform.

[nighthunter]

I like it!

[NARSES2]

I've always like monitors ever since Dad told me about the one he'd seen in action on D-Day. Never really thought of an ocean going one before, she's going to look good.

[Captain Canada]

Neat stuff !

[DogfighterZen]

Big guns!!

[zenrat]

I like the look of this.

[proditor]

Holy crap, another update? What is the world coming to?!?!?

Proceeding along slowly, but I really like where this going. PSR has occurred, though there will almost definitely be more of that. I started pulling together the other parts; superstructure, main guns, spotting tower, and I attached the main deck base. I'm happy with the look so far, but there is a new question.



So that back section. The plane catapult will go where it normally goes on an Arizona/Pennsy, in that hole about an inch forward of the crane, at the extreme aft. Now normally, those cleats you can see (Three sets of 2) next to the small AA tubs before the break in deck levels would be more boats. But if you look up a deck, you can see we'll already have a ton of boats on that level, and two whomping big cranes to handle them. So I'm pondering some form of aircraft management, like maybe a trolley type of setup for an additional spotter plane?

Thoughts appreciated.

[NARSES2]

So she would be mounting a "spare" aircraft ? Once one is launched the spare could be set up on the catapult ready for use type of thing ?

If so, good idea

[TallEng]

Would there be room for a Hanger as well?
And why can't it go faster than 16Knots? if its got the
engine(s) from an Arizona, Surely it would be a Tad faster?

Regards
Keith

[Mossie]

Lot of boom in little package.  Should be great.

[proditor]

Answering in the order asked:

Yes, I'd be putting another Aircraft in the back section, on either a dolly or track system, or possible just "up on blocks" so that Scranton would have 2 scout Aircraft embarked at all times.

As to a hanger, yes, there probably is space, but the aesthetic of the time doesn't really embrace them. We don't start seeing hangers until the first "modern" BBs like the North Carolina etc. Now the time frame is right for interwar cruisers,  as the Omaha had hangers, but see the next point.

I don't think she has the Arizona's machinery. The chunks I pulled out represent more than just the main battery and the associated ammunition. Also, the beam to length ratio is less than on a Standard type Battleship, so it's going to be slower. Scranton is 505' (154 m) in length and 98' ( 29.8 m) wide. Basically, a 5:1 ratio. Pennsy and Arizona were both 6:1, had more shaft horsepower, and they topped out at 21 knots on trials. So we'd have roughly 8-10 boilers, producing between 21-26,000 horsepower on a 5:1 length to beam ratio.  I am not good enough to figure out the Froude Number as I suck at anything past simple math, but I might actually be over estimating to say we can get 16 knots out of this hull form with this powerplant. But, I also figure that USS Cheyenne was also 5:1 and topped out at 12.4 on 2400 shp, and you basically double the required shp for each knot you want beyond that, so yeah, 4800 at 13.5, 9600 at 14.5, 19200 at 15.5, and 16.5 would be 38400. I think we're in the right ballpark.

[NARSES2]

Yes, I'd be putting another Aircraft in the back section, on either a dolly or track system, or possible just "up on blocks" so that Scranton would have 2 scout Aircraft embarked at all times.

As to a hanger, yes, there probably is space, but the aesthetic of the time doesn't really embrace them. We don't start seeing hangers until the first "modern" BBs like the North Carolina etc. Now the time frame is right for interwar cruisers,  as the Omaha had hangers, but see the next point.

As said above, two aircraft is a good idea and I agree re the hangar it didn't really start to appear until latter.

Can't comment on the speed issue but most monitors tended to be slow beasts, it was all about the gun. Indeed at least one of the Royal Navy ones used on D-Day was towed over as they'd removed the engine.

[proditor]

More progress!

[nönöbär]

Looks good!