Mid-London Naval Conference USN sketches (1930)

[awhalen61]

Hello, I have some files from NARA to share. These are a selection of sketches and tables taken mostly during the conference itself in 1930, which were kept in a miscellaneous folder at NARA. There were also battleship and aircraft carrier sketches mixed in the "light cruiser" papers which I will be sorting out.

Here is the light cruiser information.

 

[awhalen61]

Battleships part 1

 

[awhalen61]

Battleships part 2

 

[Tzoli]

Thank you for all of these!
Great finds!
Saved them all and will update my database accordingly!

 

[Roodbaard1958!]

Hello, I have some files from NARA to share. These are a selection of sketches and tables taken mostly during the conference itself in 1930, which were kept in a miscellaneous folder at NARA. There were also battleship and aircraft carrier sketches mixed in the "light cruiser" papers which I will be sorting out.

Here is the light cruiser information.

Thx for sharing!

 

[ptdockyard]

WOW. Please share the BB and CV ones too! This is a goldmine!

 

[Rainbow1910]

Excellent find, I have never seen any of this before. Please share more when you can!

 

[awhalen61]

Here's the google drive link to the files I was able to scan.

I unfortunately did not have time to scan all or even most of it. There was a TON of loose leaf notes from the USN delegation to the London Naval Conference, but I was at least able to scan every sketch or table I saw.

 

[alexi]

Chilean navy light and heavy cruiser bid is pretty interesting, Finnish shipyard Crichton-Vulcan said if cruiser could be built in their yard, is possible she'll armed with Krupp-made 8" guns and since Chile referred two triple turrets (British firm offered 3x2 layout) which might led to theory that the 8" triple turret plan on German archive is intended for export only (since i wasn't sure).

 

[awhalen61]

Chilean navy light and heavy cruiser bid is pretty interesting, Finnish shipyard Crichton-Vulcan said if cruiser could be built in their yard, is possible she'll armed with Krupp-made 8" guns and since Chile referred two triple turrets (British firm offered 3x2 layout) which might led to theory that the 8" triple turret plan on German archive is intended for export only (since i wasn't sure).

From what I and others have pieced together from various attache reports from the UK + US, as well as Chilean articles and Argentine naval bulletins, the final plans seemed to be a pair of Eendracht-type ships, but upgunned with Bofors 8" twins replacing the 6" turrets. Chile's naval plan in the event of war with Argentina or Brazil was for Almirante Lattore to defeat one Minas Gerais/Rivadavia, and for a pair of heavy cruisers to distract the other until Lattore could come finish it off.

The British, of course, did not want to create any sort of heavy cruiser arms race, and used political dealings to stall the project and shrink it down until war broke out. This led to Chile pursuing light cruisers, of which the Vickers offered designs 1111 and 1113. But this is probably best served in its own thread.

"Suecia también entró en la competencia y, en este caso, la dificultad parece haber estribado en los excesivos costos. Completada la gama de ofertas recibidas por la Armada de Chile a fines de los años '30, la alternativa holandesa pareció ser la más plausible. Esta consistía en unidades similares a la clase De Zeven Provincien, con la opción de adaptarlas a cañones de 203mm (8 pulgadas), proporcionados por la firma sueca Bofors"
Translation: "[About Chile in the purchase of cruises] Sweden also entered the competition and, in this case, the difficulty seems to have been the excessive costs. Having completed the range of offers received by the Chilean Navy in the late 1930s, the Dutch alternative appeared to be the most plausible. This consisted of units similar to the De Zeven Provincien class, with the option of adapting them to 203mm (8-inch) guns, provided by the Swedish firm Bofors"

Wilson, Lazo - 2005 - Cruceros para Chile
Argentine Naval Bulletin, circa October 1938
British Naval Attache, 4 April 1939, ADM 116/3921
Buques de Guerra Chilenos, pages 436 and 438

 

[ptdockyard]

So I have been able to cross reference two of the light cruiser drawings but this one has me a little stumped. Is it one of the 6" projects or one of the 8" projects listed in the charts?

 

[David Chessum]

Hello, I have some files from NARA to share. These are a selection of sketches and tables taken mostly during the conference itself in 1930, which were kept in a miscellaneous folder at NARA. There were also battleship and aircraft carrier sketches mixed in the "light cruiser" papers which I will be sorting out.

Here is the light cruiser information.

Thank you for posting these.

Do you have the NARA File Reference Number for the folder that you copied these from?

Best regards

David

 

[awhalen61]

Thank you for posting these.

Do you have the NARA File Reference Number for the folder that you copied these from?

Best regards

David

Light Cruiser - Studies for General Board - NAID 1631884

Misc. Design Book - New Type Capital Ship - NAID 1632035

The files in question were found in folders in these boxes in RG19.

 

[ptdockyard]

I could see a really good article in Warship 2026 coming from all this.

 

[Archdude]

Agree!