Shipbucket

Thanks to Smurf and the information provided by him I have been able to draw and make notes for this upload.

In September 1916, a proposal to modify some of the remaining D class cruisers to extended range ships was investigated. The standard D had a range of 5000 nautical miles (knots), the Admiralty wanted to increase this range to 7000 nmi to make the ships more useful on overseas stations. The main feature would be to increase the hull length from 471 to 487 feet to enable the space for the extra fuel tanks. The standard maximum fuel load on a D was 1000tons, the Admiralty wanted to increase this to 1350 tons.



As can be seen from the drawing a lot of changes were made to the ships layout to fit the new tanks into areas that would not affect the balance of the ships. The C mounting is removed from behind the bridge to in front of the bridge. The bridge and forecastle break then being moved further aft into the space provided by moving the C mounting.

With the later D class I have been drawing they have had the trawler bows and the three 4" AA guns. The older D design had the zero degree bow and only two 3" AA guns.

The proposal did not proceed past the first stage of line drawings.

Thanks for this - excellent and very quickly done, too.
"The proposal did not proceed past the first stage of line drawings."
As Krakatoa says, the design was requested in September 1916. I sent him information from the Admiralty Specifications Form A and the notes with it prepared by the DNC that December. There was also a draft for the DNC in October, and a very simple line drawing of the new gun layout. The drawings in December included 1/16in = 1ft profile and deck plans of the ship Krakatoa has portrayed, and a simpler layout with the third gun still abaft the bridge. These quite detailed drawings mean that the design was by December at the 'sketch design' stage with calculations done to ensure she would float level and be stable. Quite a lot of work in three months, but the result was that either such ship would have needed a completely new set of drawings before they could be built, while repeat Ds could use existing drawings, which I guess was the reason they were not built. Cruisers for overseas stations were not top priority in 1916/17 but they would have been valuable from 1920 onwards. As it was, the older 25knot Towns had to soldier on until the Counties appeared.

An excellent piece of art and research.

A very interesting design, I wonder if the strange layout of the early 1929 studies I drew were partly influenced by this design?

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Very interesting and well done addition!

@Hood " I wonder if the strange layout of the early 1929 studies I drew were partly influenced by this design?"
I wouldn't be too surprised, but given that the Post War Questions Committee recommended a 4x2 6in cruiser based on Emerald, and that there were several designs for 4x2 6in cruisers of 6000 to 8000tons in 1926, I think that the 4x2 'pre-Leander' was a foregone conclusion, and the other designs were very much 'fall-backs' in case smaller cruisers were wanted. I can't see single 6in in open shields in a 1930s RN cruiser, even though some such designs appeared as late as 1935.