Fictional Warships - Novels

[Graham1973]

This thread is effectively a relaunch of the "Fictional Never-Were" thread from Warship Projects 3.0.

It covers fictional warships in novels such as:

USS John F Kennedy (BCGN-???) (Joe Poyer: North Cape, 1969)

First up...

John Watson: The Final Act, 2000

Germany

Hindenburg
Bismark Class Battleship (Third member of class)
Has been converted into a monitor.
Hull dimensions are the same as the real ships.
Armament: 4 x 15inch Guns (Turrets 'Anton' & 'Bruno') & 16 3.7 cm guns (8 twin turrets)
Propulsion: 2 Diesel engines driving a single shaft, maximum speed 12 knots.
Armour has been greatly thickened compared to the Bismark and Tirpitz

United Kingdom

HMS Trent
York Class Cruiser (Third member of class.)
Details as per the real ships.

Plot Summary: Nazi Germany sends the Hindenburg to bombard Washington in 1945 (Unknown to the captain the real plan is to transport $89,000,000 worth of gold to the US.). The monitor battles with HMS Trent and sinks her by ramming. A mutiny then takes place after the crew discover the gold. The ship is abandoned in Greenland and lies abandoned until a Dot-Com millionaire salvages the ship so he can use it as the center-piece of a theme park he plans to build.

After arriving at Washington the ship is boarded by a 'Sovereign Citizen' who somehow manages to fire one of the main guns at the White House (He misses). A Harpoon missile is fired at the Hindenburg by USS Clark (FFG-11) (A real ship.), which explodes but does not damage the ship, however does it break apart after running aground after the tow ropes are cut.

Note: This is the authors second novel, the first novel 'The Iron Man' (1998) is also covered in this thread.

 

[Graham1973]

David Poyer China Sea, 2000

United States

USS Oliver C. Gaddis (FFG-1???)
Knox Class Frigate
Details as per the real ships.
Surface armament has been augmented as follows, in addition to the standard weapons fit out the following weapons have been equipped, a quad-40mm gun mounted on the fantail, two twin-40mm mounts on the boat deck (Port/Starboard), plus 20mm guns at unspecified locations.

USS Thomas S. Gates (CG-51)
Ticonderoga Class Cruiser
Real ship, details as in service.

China

Unnamed
Ex-IJN Katori Class
Stats as per the real ships, electronics have been modernized. The air craft catapult has been replaced with SSM missile launchers of an unspecified type.

Unnamed
Two Type 062 Class Gunboats
Details as per the real ships

Unspecified State (Ships probably belong to specific countries, but their identities/nationality are concealed, both from the hero and the reader.)

Unnamed
Underway Replenishment Ship
Smaller than the US Replenishment ships extant in the 1990s
Diesel Engines
Three Island layout
Can handle both fuel and ammunition replenishment.
No other details provided.

Unnamed
Nuclear submarine, class not specified
Not a US Submarine, possible nationalities are British, French or Russian.
No other details provided

Plot Summary: A beached USN captain is given the job of preparing a frigate for transfer to Pakistan during the buildup to Desert Storm. He instead finds himself sailing into stranger and stranger waters in the search for pirates in the South China Sea.

Note: This intrigue heavy plot is perhaps the authors wildest foray into naval action fiction, whenever I read it I cannot stop myself from thinking of Douglas Reeman's 'The Greatest Enemy' (1970), another novel set in the same region of the world and drawing upon similar fears about China.

 

[Graham1973]

David Poyer: The Passage, 1995

United States

USS Threadfin (SSN-???)
Thresher Class (or as later known Permit Class) Submarine
Details as per the real ships.

USS Barrett (DDG-998)
Kidd Class Destroyer (Fifth member of class.)
Details as per the real ships in regards to dimensions and armaments.
The difference between this ship and the actual members of the class is in the command and control hardware which incorporates a program called ACDADS (Automated Combat Decision and Direction System), or as named by the crew 'Elmo'. If the correct mode is selected the computer is capable of fighting by itself, having full control over the ships propulsion, steering and weapons...

Russia

Razytelny
Krivak Class Frigate
Details as per the real ships.

Plot Summary: The year is 1980, the USS Barrett (DDG-998), the newest ship in the US Navy has just entered service, provided the bugs can be worked out of her software, the ship may become the model for 21st Century warships, that is provided the Soviets don't interfere.

 

[Graham1973]

Now from David Poyer's more or less plausable creations to something a little less plauseable.

Charles D. Taylor, Silent Hunter, 1987

United States

USS Imperator

A rather vaguely described super-sub. Length is around 1500ft, the aft (two thirds of the distance from the bow) mounted conning tower tops out at most 120ft above the keel of the submarine. Hull width is unspecified.

Armament: The usual stuff for an attack submarine, in larger quantities, plus a marine contingent with tanks and helicopters (no mention if the bow opens to deploy the tanks via a ramp or they deploy via heli-lift).

Speed: Submerged: 25 knots(+). Surfaced: Unspecified

Plot: The Russians try to make the entire Arctic Ocean their own lake.

 

[Graham1973]

Now to an altogether more bleak place...

David Mace, DEMON-4, 1984

DEMON-4

Autonomous underwater combat vehicle. Control system comprises a computer linked to a suitably conditioned human brain.

Length: 15m
Beam: 3.2m
Height: 2.6m

Speed: Max: 30knots (+) (submerged), surface speed not mentioned.

Armament: Torpedos and hypervelocity weapons referred to as 'Darts' and 'Bolts'. Also carries various decoys and can be fitted with manipulators and a pod to carry one human occupant at the expense of the weapons load.

Plot Summary: WWIII ended after 65 days. The struggle to survive has begun, but the machines built to protect resource areas are too paranoid to be shut down, they can only be killed...

(Later:I've added a scan of the Tony Roberts cover of the novel, which also seems to be based on the authors description.)

 

[Rhinocrates]

Hmmm, really scraping the depths of my memory here. A novel I think was called 'Fathom'. An optionally-manned minisub/UUV developed by the French code-named Green Dolphin. Standard techno-thriller plot: hijacked equipment, nuclear terrorism, race against time etc. Published some time in the first half of the 1980s? Google's not helping, so is anyone else's memory jogged?

It's of interest because the Green Dolphin seems to anticipate a lot of current thinking. As mentioned, it is designed for covert military operations, large enough to carry one person if required (largely during testing and development), it can operate unmanned, autonomously for long periods, it has an internal pumpjet propulsor and an anechoic coat.

Also, John Birmingham's trilogy beginning with 'Weapons of Choice' presents a whole fleet of futuristic but reasonably extrapolated vessels, too many to name and describe in one post.

 

[Graham1973]

Hmmm, really scraping the depths of my memory here. A novel I think was called 'Fathom'. An optionally-manned minisub/UUV developed by the French code-named Green Dolphin. Standard techno-thriller plot: hijacked equipment, nuclear terrorism, race against time etc. Published some time in the first half of the 1980s? Google's not helping, so is anyone else's memory jogged?

Mine is, I've actually read it, but I don't have a copy. The only thing I can remember from the plot is that when the agent sent to stop it finds the submarine the coating on the outside feels like flesh and the person manning it is found to be very dead.

I'm wondering if those ideas were floating around (no pun intended) at the time.

Demon-4 has a ducted water jet propulsion system and is also optimised to minimise noise (internal weapons bays, a conformal shape, anechoic coat, etc)

Much of the novel (after giving the backstory) is a series of slow, silent approaches to weaken the defenses of the target.

Between pages 49-51 of the 1984 Panther edition (which may have been the only one) there is a pretty detailed 'data-dump', it might be enough for someone to run up an illustration.

 

[_Del_]

"Steel Albatross" of the book by the same name. Scott Carpenter

It's in a box somewhere, but it's been ages since I read it, and I don't remember the specs beyond it being a manned Slocum glider. The concept has definitely stuck with me.

 

[TomS]

USS Cunningham, from Choosers of the Slain by James H. Cobb

Stealth design with a clipper bow and a well deck.

Length: 580 feet
Displacement: unclear (stated once as 80,000 tons, but also as less than a WW2 heavy cruiser, which means less than about 18,000 tons)
Propulsion: gas turbine electric with podded propulsors, 2 x 45,000 hp motors
Speed: officially "greater than 30 knots" but we see the ship making 42 knots in Sea State 5

Armament: two 76mm OTO Melara Super Rapid guns, advanced Phalanx CIWS (4 x 25mm Gatlings plus 2 x quad Rolling Airframe Missile), torpedo tubes, and 196 cold-launch VLS tubes.

Missiles: (initial load out)
Surface-to-surface: 36 Harpoon Two, 12 Standard HARM, 12 Sea SLAM, and 12 Strategic Cruise Missiles.
ASW: 36 Vertical Launch ASROC, 4 Aquahawks (ASW Tomahawk).
Surface-to-air: 48 LORAIN, 28 ESSM quad packs (112 missiles).
Special-mission loads: 4 BRAVE 2000 drones and 1 Zenith anti-satellite round (this is stacked on deck for launch and said to take up 4 VLS cells).

Aircraft: two SAH-66 Sea Commanche helicopters (nose-mounted APG-65 radar plus optional Clearwater III AEW radar or dipping sonar and sonobouys)

Sensors: AN/SPY-2A Augmented AEGIS, Mast-Mounted Sights, sonar

 

[Graham1973]

Richard Thompson, The Tiger Cruise, 1999

United States

USS Woodbridge (SSN-349)
Los Angeles Class Submarine (688i Subclass)
Details as per the real ships.
Note: Pennant is well outside the range of the Los Angeles Class (SSN-688 to 773 with gaps at 726 to 743 (Ohio Class) and 744 to 749 (Unassigned)). The number clashes with that of USS Diodon (SS-349) a Balao Class Submarine in service 1946 - 1971.

Russia

K-387
Russian Submarine. Class unspecified in novel
Capable of carrying a mini-sub (See below)

Experimental Submarine Observatory (ESO)
Mini Sub (French Designed)
Comissioned: June 1997
Length: 20.15ft (6.14m)
Beam: 10ft (3.05m)
Crew: 3
Armament: 1 324mm torpedo tube (Mk32, Mod14)
Nuclear powered
Speed: 24 knots

Note: Undetectable by all but the most modern passive sonar systems, exactly how is not specified by the author.

Plot Summary: Renegade Russians and agents of Saddam Hussain attempt to launch a bio-weapon attack on the United States, attempts to intercept them are made much harder by a massive offshore earthquake which causes a devastating tsunami to strike the east coast of North America. In the end it comes down to one submarine, which was carrying out a 'Tiger Cruise' taking friends and family of the crew out for the experience of a lifetime...

 

[Tony Williams]

Ahem - if I may be allowed to mention my own book - The Foresight War http://quarryhs.co.uk/TFWreviews.htm B) - this describes a number of fictional WW2 RN warships, including:

KGV class designed around reused 15" turrets (from R class battleships as well as surplus) to save time and money;

A new "frigate" light cruiser/fleet escort of around 4,500 tons with four twin 4.7" L/50 DP, instead of Didos;

Different destroyers and convoy escorts.

 

[uk 75]

This series fits well here

http://www.writingshop.ws/html/kirov_series.html

 

[Graham1973]

Douglas Reeman, The Deep Silence, 1967

United Kingdom

HMS Temeraire (S.191, Callsign: BLUEBOY)
Valiant Class Submarine (Third member of class, her sister ship HMS Phoenix is the fourth...)
Details as per the real ships.

United States

USS Pyramus (SSBN-???, Callsign: SUNRAY)
Nuclear Submarine, class not specified.
Class unspecified, but clearly not the same class as the '41 for Freedom' Polaris submarines as it is explicitly stated that she carries 18 Polaris missiles. Torpedo armament is not specified but probably the same as the other US SSBNs 4 x 21 inch bow tubes. (This could be another one worthy of an attempt at doing an illustration.)

China (Peoples Republic)

Unnamed
Chinese submarine, class not specified, but may be a Type 033 (Romeo Class) or Type 03 (Whiskey Class).

Unnamed
Chinese covert Anti-Submarine Warfare vessel built around a trawler hull (Implied to be similar to 1960s commercial trawlers in appearance.) Armament includes one heavy caliber gun (Min:3in - Max:5in) mounted in a fake deckhouse aft of the bridge along with depth charge throwers. Sensors include a variable depth sonar system. (This is another 'never-where' that might be illustratable.)

Plot Summary: The Royal Navy's newest submarine finds itself in the middle of an undeclared war between the United States Navy and the Peoples Liberation Army Navy.

Later: Two covers are attached. The first, a 1973 cover by Chris Mayger clearly making an attempt to depict the main ship featured. The second is a circa 2004 cover by Geoffrey Huband featuring on an omibus editon pairing 'The Deep Silence' with 'Rendezvous-South Atlantic'. As with several of the other covers by this artist for this author he is depicting a scene from close to the end of the story.

 

[Graham1973]

Brian Callison, A Frenzy of Merchantmen, 1977

United Kingdom

HMS Afghan
Type 81 (Tribal Class) Frigate
Details as per the real ships.

MS British Venturer
Armed Merchant Cruiser operated by the Royal Navy's covert operations wing, the BMSNC (British Mutual Steam Navigation Company). Armament varies depending on mission, but can include guns, missiles torpedos and mines. For this operation the armament is a single 50-Mt nuclear bomb.

Russia

Unnamed
Skoryy-class destroyer
Details as per the real ships.

Plot Summary: An attempt to respond to Soviet provocations at sea goes badly wrong....

Later:I've added a scan of the front cover of the 1981 paperback release of this novel. A rather impressive image of a Soviet Destroyer by Paul Wright. The full cover is linked below.

A Frenzy of Merchantmen: Full Cover

A Frenzy of Merchantmen: Full (1981) Cover

 

[Michel Van]

Phillip E High The Time Mercenaries, 1968

The British Submarine Euphrates

in Story it sank after collision with a Destroyer
it's dead crew and wreckage were recover and put in storage.
Centuries later the pacified mankind resuscitated the crew and repair the Submarine.
The Euphrates and it's crew are now last line of defense of Mankind, on a colony planet under Invasion of pitiless Aliens

 

[Graham1973]

Hammond Innes, Medusa, 1988

United Kingdom

HMS Medusa
Type 12 (Leander Class) Frigate
Details as per the real ships.

Plot Summary: An ageing Royal Navy frigate with a scratch crew finds itself caught up in an attempt to seize Majorca for the Soviet Union.

Note: Hammond Innes (1913 - 1998), while being considered one of the post-WWII crop of adventure writers like John Fleming, Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley or Douglas Reeman, actually began his writing career before World War Two with a quartet of action novels he later suppressed. Three novels ('The Trojan Horse' (1940), 'Wreckers Must Breathe' (1940) & 'Attack Alarm' (1941)) were written and published during the opening years of the war. Military service ended his pre-war writing career, but he resumed it as soon as the war ended. Several of his early novels were filmed, and his final novel 'Delta Connection' came out in 1996.

The cover of this book, while quite nice is also inaccurate, the artist (Kevin Tweddell) depicts the HMS Medusa as a Type 21 Frigate rather than the Type 12 Frigate the authors description clearly makes her out to be. The cover for the 2003 re-issue of the story paired with the authors 1960 novel The Doomed Oasis by artist Larry Rostant, is also inaccurate, while it depicts a scene from the novel, the ship depicted seems to be mix of several different country's warships, unless someone knows otherwise.

 

[Graham1973]

Geoffrey Jenkins, The Unripe Gold, 1983

Libya
MS Beryte
Armed Merchant Cruiser
Displacement: 12,000 tons
Armament: 4 x 130mm guns (Twin mounts), 8 x 57mm guns (twin mounts), SS-N-2 (triple mount), plus unspecified number of 20mm weapons (All weapons concealed under fake deck cargo.)
Also carries 2 x Ka-25 'Hormone' Helicopters
Hull form: Implied to be Three-Island rather than All-Aft.

MS Bachir
Armed Merchant Cruiser
Details as per MS Beryte

Plot Summary: Colonel Gaddafi tries to get his hands on a large quantity of iridium, the key to a new form of fuel cell.

 

[Graham1973]

Antony Trew, Two Hours to Darkness, 1963

United Kingdom

HMS Retaliate
'Missile' (George Washington) Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships.
Note: One of six American George Washington Class Submarines sold to the United Kingdom, other class members named in the novel are HMS Deterrant and HMS Massive.

Plot Summary: The year is 1964. A British SSBN captain decides to carry out a live fire test of his submarines Polaris missiles. This one is definitely worth finding as it was born out of the controversies surrounding the cancellation of Skybolt and the American demands for a 'Dual-Key' system for Polaris.

Cover for the 1979 paperback, which depicts an image that is probably quite disconcerting for American readers (Note the flag on the sub...) was by Paul Wright.

The cover for the 1963 hardback release by John Rose, rather oddly, depicts the USS Nautilus (SSN-571). It appears to be based off a photograph taken during the Nautilus's sea trials in 1955. (Navsource: USS Nautilus during Sea Trials (1955)

 

[Graham1973]

Now for something completely different....

Geoffrey Jenkins, The Watering Place of Good Peace, 1960 (Rev 1974)

United Kingdom

HMS Plymouth Sound
Sixth-Rate Frigate
Details as per the real ships. Aside from this detail, whoever designed the ship got the hullform right, she is one of the fastest sailing ships in the world, given that in the book she is chasing a ship capable of an average speed of 10.5 knots (Reasoning available on request) her average speed is probably pretty close to that.

 

[Graham1973]

Now back to a regular service....

Geoffrey Jenkins, A Twist of Sand, 1959

United Kingdom

HMS Trout
T-Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships.

Germany

NP-1
Experimental U-boat.
Weight: 3000 tons
Power: Nuclear
Propulsion: Water-Jet (Surface speed: 25 knots. Submerged speed: 22 knots.)
Armament: Probably the same as U-boats in the later stages of WWII. No surface armament.
Appearance: Hullform probably not much different to a standard U-boat. Conning tower looks like an airplane wing.

Plot summary: In 1941 a British submarine is given orders to hunt down and destroy a prototype U-boat that has the potential to win the war for Germany should it prove successful in combat. In 1959 the British submarines captain returns to the region seeking answers to events that occurred when he completed his mission.

Note: As written above the novel indicates these events involving HMS Trout & NP-1 take place in 1941 or 42 at the latest. The novels briefing scene however contains references to Type XXI U-Boats and Walther propulsion experiments neither of which existed until 1943. It is of note that the film version of the novel released in 1968 moves the events to 1943.

Note: I've managed to locate a copy of the 5th printing of the 1959 hardback edition, cover artist as for the first printing of 'Two Hours to Darkness' is John Rose.

 

[Graham1973]

Douglas Reeman, The Greatest Enemy, 1970

United Kingdom

HMS Electra
Submarine (SS), class not specified
No other details provided.
Note: Appears in a characters backstory only. The submarine accident in the backstory (A fire in a torpedo room caused by a faulty flare.) appears to be drawn up from the whole cloth, rather than based on a specific incient, unless a reader knows otherwise. The name was last used in WWII for an E Class Destroyer sunk during the Battle of the Java Sea.

HMS Terrapin
Type 16 Frigate (ex T-Class destroyer)
Details as per the real ships.

HMS Harrier
'Destroyer' class not specified
No other details provided

HMS Implacable
Aircraft Carrier, class not specified (Probably Audacious Class.)
Details as per the real ships
Note: I have tentatively identified this ship as Audacious Class because none of the Majestic Class Carriers entered British service. The Implacable Class Carrier of the same name was scrapped in 1955.
Note: Both ships above appear in a characters backstory. The 1968 incident in which they appears to be based largely on the 1964 HMAS Voyager/HMAS Melbourne collision, with the event relocated to the Mediterranean.

HMS Rokesmore
'Coastal Minesweeper', class not specified
No other details provided.

United States

USS Sibuyan
Iwo Jima Class Amphibious Assault Ship
Details as per the real ships.
Note: The class is not explicitly identified as such by the author, but the limited details provided strongly suggest a ship of this class. The name does not fit the class, all of which were named after famous battles of the United States Marine Corps.

China (Peoples Republic)

Unnamed
Chinese submarine, class not specified, but may be a Type 033 (Romeo Class) or Type 03 (Whiskey Class).
Details regards dimensions as per the real submarine classes (Whichever one the author intended.) The armament adds a retractable surface-to-surface rocket launcher mounted forward of the conning tower.

Plot Summary: The year is 1971. A disgraced RN captain tries to find redemption by bringing new purpose to the dispirited crew of an ageing frigate nearing it's pay off date.

Note: This is the novel I always think of when reading David Poyer's 'China Sea' (2000). The authors note at the start of the novel indicates he was inspired by the 1965/66 'Arnheiter Affair' a curious event in which people enacted a drama similar to that contained in Herman Wouk's 'The Caine Mutiny' (1951) in real life. I have located a picture of both the cover of the novel when it was first released in America and the cover by Geoffrey Huband for the 2003 re-issue which is the last artwork cover created for the novel. The final cover is the one created for the 2022 eBook edition of the novel, which appears to be a photograph of a physical model that has no real connection with the contents of the book, unlike the earlier artwork covers.

 

[Hood]

Thanks for sharing these again, I've long missed the original thread, and the rest of, Warship Discussion 3.0.

Over at Shipbucket I've collected a list of fictional ships from books and film from a wide variety of sources, from old children's books available on Project Gutenberg, other maritime fiction sites, Wikipedia (the list there is now somewhat shorter due to over-zealous editing) and films I've come across over the years.
The sources are not recorded in my list. Instead I've offered it as a "whatifian" library of names to show how these ships might fit into a 'real/alt-world' scenario and noting name clashes or naming conventions they don't meet and some basic descriptions where available and 'best guesses' to allow them to be slotted in for alternate history purposes. Generally I don't record obviously sci-fi vessels (1000ft long submarines etc.) or names like HMAS Bondi Beach for a carrier. There are no sailing ships either, that genre would add some considerable length! Interesting inventions like 1910 conceptions of what cruisers might be like in 1925 are listed and sometimes the odd aircraft concept gets thrown in too.

http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5756&p=134373#p134373

 

[Graham1973]

Hood, thanks for linking to that and for preserving the contents of Wikipedia's list of Fictional Ships. If there are any on this list that have not appeared on yours feel free to add. BTW, do you know if anyone on Shipbucket has tried to do an illustration of any of the ships on the list?

You may wish to amend the USS Barrett entry, it's definitely a Kidd Class.

Now to end the year with a little panache....

Tom Clancy, Clear and Present Danger, 1989

United States

USCGC Panache
Coast Guard Cutter
Length: 280ft (76.2m)
Power: Diesel
Propulsion: Twin screw? (Speed 25 knots.)
Armament: 1x 40mm, Unspecified number of .50 mgs (Most likely somewhere between 2 & 6, based on real life examples.)
Fitted with a helipad large enough to take a Sikorsky MH-53.
Note: Only ship in class, others cancelled by budget cuts.

Plot Summary: A routine interception of an attempt to smuggle cocaine into the United States discovers a massive money laundering operation and leads to attempts to take a 'gloves off' approach to the Columbian Cartels.

 

[Tony Williams]

Ahem - if I may be allowed to mention my own book - The Foresight War http://quarryhs.co.uk/TFWreviews.htm which describes a number of fictional WW2 RN warships, including:

KGV class designed around reused 15" turrets (from R class battleships as well as surplus) to save time and money;

A new "frigate" light cruiser/fleet escort of around 4,500 tons with four twin 4.7" L/50 DP, instead of Didos;

Different destroyers and convoy escorts.

I was intrigued to read in Friedman's new book on British battleships that the Admiralty did in fact suggest in 1937 not just modifying the KGV design to take the four surplus 15" turrets, but also building more such ships and arming them with turrets taken from the obsolescent R class battleships as they were retired. Which is exactly what I proposed in my novel. B)

 

[Grey Havoc]

Truth is indeed often stranger than fiction!

 

[Arjen]

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't - Mark Twain

 

[Graham1973]

Due to the surge of interest...

Laurence Delaney, The Triton Ultimatum, 1977

United States

USS Lewis & Clark (SSGN - 999)
Triton Class Submarine
Armament: 24x Posedion (? Description sounds more like Tridents...) Missiles, 6 Torpedo tube launched cruise missiles (Tomahawk?), Unspecified number of torpedo tubes (Probably 21in)
Single Shaft propulsion. Speed not specified.
Note: Name clashes with USS Lewis and Clark (SSBN-644), a Benjamin Franklin Class Submarine in service 1965 - 1992.

Plot Summary: Extortionists steal a nuclear submarine and make the usual 'pay me or I launch' demand.

 

[Graham1973]

For my first post of the year, a novel featuring fictional ships from two eras.

Geoffrey Jenkins, A Grue of Ice, 1962

Fictional Warships (WWII)

United Kingdom

HMS Scott - Destroyer(?)

Germany

Meteor - Commerce Raider (Details/Armament much the same as the others of her type save that one 5.9in gun was left at her crews secret base.)

Fictional Warships (1961)

Norway

Thorshammer

Ninth(?) Type 12 (Whitby Class) Frigate (Referred to as a 'Destroyer' throughout the novel.)

Details much as the original ships, save that she carries a flying boat (Described as an He-114), presumably aft, meaning that some armament located there may have been deleted to make room for the handling equipment. Only armament mentioned in the novel are the 2x 4.5in in the forward turret, 2x 40mm (STAAG?) aft of the emergency conning position, and at least 8 torpedo tubes of a size not specified but probably 21 in.

Plot Summary: An amateur ocean scientists attempt to prove the existence of a warm current in the South Atlantic becomes tangled in a madmans attempt to find a long lost island and the mineral wealth it contains.

 

[Graham1973]

An appearance of a fictional warship in a non-war novel loosely based on the Donald Crowhurst saga.

Antony Trew, Sea Fever, 1980

USS Skippack (SSN-???)
Skipjack Class Submarine?
Details as per the real ships.
Note: Class has been determined solely from the name. No specifics are provided by the author.

Her role in the story is as follows, while on a transit to Guantanamo Bay her crew takes some R-rated photographs of a yacht through the attack periscope. Interestingly the boat in question is only supposed to have one person aboard...

As that person puts it when he reaches England, "Peeping Toms, aren't they - these submariners."

 

[Graham1973]

Clive Cussler, Iceberg, 1975 & Deep Six, 1984

USCGC Catawaba

Referred to in the first novel as "...the Coast Guard's newest supercutter..." and in the second simply as a 'cutter' the ship is diesel propelled and has a helipad aft, but few other details provided save that the crew strength is 177 (17 officers, 160 men).

MS Hobson (Mentioned in Deep Six)

Armed Merchant Cruiser (AMC) operated by the CIA, converted from an Attack Cargo Transport (AKA), armament included unspecified missiles.

HMS Pathfinder (Mentioned in Deep Six)

British 'Missile Destroyer'

Aircraft mavens may be interested to know that in the first novel the Coast Guard has been given what are implied to be KC-135s for iceberg spotting...

 

[Graham1973]

Christopher Nicole, The Ship With No Name, 1987

British

HMS Erebus
Tenth E-class destroyer

Details are as the actual ships circa 1942. Author probably not aware that a Monitor of the same name existed in WWII.

HMS Bombast
Cruiser - Class unspecified only detail provided by the author is that the ship is 500ft (150m) long.

German

Atlas - German Commerce Raider (Details as per the historic ships)

Colossus - German Commerce Raider (Details as per the historic ships)

Nemo - German flat-top aircraft carrier

Length - 820ft (250m)
Displacement - 20,000t (Empty)
Speed - 40 knots
Aircraft - 20 JU88 bombers
No other armament or armor.

Plot summary: Following the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and the Battle of Midway, Japanese pilots travel to Germany to train for a one-way strike against New York City. The attached cover picture depicts the moment the strike is launched.

 

[Graham1973]

Now for something a little pulpier...

J. E. MacDonnell, Operation Octopus, 1968

German (WWII)

U-497

Type XXIII Submarine (Number however is that of one of the cancelled Type XIVs...)

Details as per the actual ships presumably.

United States (1968?)

USS Undaunted (SSBN-???)

Class name is not given. From the limited description provided, this ship would look somewhat like a cross between an Ethan Allen and a Typhoon, all the missile silos are on the forepart of the ship.

Armament: 16 Polaris missiles. Unspecified number of torpedos (Some have nuclear warheads.) assuming usual SSBN practice only four forward facing tubes are fitted.

Plot Summary: Nazi holdouts operating from an underwater city hijack a US nuclear submarine with the aid of weird science...

 

[Graham1973]

Geoffrey Archer, Eagle Trap, 1993

English

HMS Eagle
Invincible Class Carrier

Details as per actual ships, book notes that the mission that opens the novel was her first time in combat (November 1993)

Russia

Korund
Tango Class Submarine

Details as per the actual ships.

United States

USS Carl Jackson (CVN-??)
Nimitz Class Carrier

Details as per the actual ships.

USS Stevens (FFG-???)
Oliver Hazzard Perry Class Frigate

Details as per the actual ships.

Plot Summary: When a Lebanese gangster determined to get revenge for a British carrier strike on his headquarters manages to come into posession of two stolen Soviet nuclear weapons, the race is on to prevent their use.

 

[Graham1973]

Mike Lunnon-Wood, King's Shilling, 1998

HMS Beaufort
Type 23 (Duke) Class Frigate (Seventeenth member of class.)
Details as per the actual ships.

Plot Summary: The year is 1996. When one of the factions in the Liberian Civil War decides to specifically target Westerners, the Royal Navies newest warship finds itself fighting a battle more akin to those fought by the Navy on land in the 19th C.

 

[Graham1973]

Charles Ryan, The Capricorn Quadrant, 1990

French

D'Estienne d'vois
Ex-US Brooke Class Frigate
Details as per the real ships.
Armament has been augmented with twin Exocet launchers aft of the stack.

Russia

Troikiska
Alfa Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships.

Asov
Slava(?) Class Cruiser
Details as per the real ships.

Izentzi
Slava(?) Class Cruiser
Details as per the real ships.

And for the aircraft mavens.

Yakolev ICF-1 'Saber'
Stealth Aircraft (Spy/ASAT plane)
Crew: 2
Avionics: The aircrafts avionics system is highly automated and controlled by two computers. The first handles flight/avionics functions. The second computer is a Kamov T-VAC an AI system that controls all armament related functions in normal operation, but which can in an emergency situation control the aircraft independent of a human pilot.
Engines: 3 x Lyul'ka FL-30P Tubofans (Fictional engine, intakes and exhausts are baffled to minimize the IR signature.)
Cruising Altitude: 280,000ft (85.3 km)
Cruising Speed: 0.9Mach
Description: "Totally black, it had no fuselage as such, but was one continuous wing curved like a boomerang. It spread 188 feet (57.3m), and the tips nearly touched the walls of the hangar. Astern of the root frame, two vertical stabilizers towered thirty-five feet (10.7m) into the air."
Armament: The aircraft is armed by a directed energy weapon referred to as a 'Fusion Beam'. The weapon is powered by a miniaturized cold fusion reactor (Note: Cold fusion was a thing that was 'big' at the end of the 80s, it does not work.). As described in the novel the turret (mounted behind the cockpit) the weapon is mounted in can hit any target except for those in "...a six degree arc directly astern...", over-the-horizon targets can be hit by reflecting the beam off of a suitable surface.
Note: The aircraft is a prototype of a class of aircraft intended as a 'stopgap' response to the American SDI program until large scale deployment of satellites armed with directed energy weapons is completed. The strategic reconnaissance capability is a secondary capability.

United States

USS Scorpionfish (SSN-???)
Sturgeon Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships

Plot Summary: A Soviet stealth aircraft fitted with an experimental AI and an equally experimental beam weapon comes down in the Pacific Ocean after being attacked by a computer virus. Now on a war footing, the AI proceeds to defend itself against all comers.

Note: Not the best of novels as the author has some strange ideas, notably that Exocets are AAW capable... The two Soviet cruisers are described as 'Slavas Class', I've made an editorial decision and assumed he meant Slava Class.

 

[Graham1973]

David Poyer, The Circle, 1992

United States

USS Reynolds Ryan (DD-768) (Hull number is that of the USS Hoel which was scrapped incomplete in the 1950s)
Gearing Class Destroyer
Details as per the real ships
Note: FRAM I conversion (AN/SQS-35 VDS system fitted is described as experimental.)

Russia

Unnamed
Yankee Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships.
Described in the novel as "...a second flight Yankee boat... with a patrol loadout of SS-N-6 mod threes."

Plot Summary: A newly graduated US Navy ensign experiences both triumph and tragedy aboard an aging destroyer in the 1970's (The author never specifies the year, but probably after 1973.) The attached image is an artists impression of the USS Reynolds Ryan (DD-768) from the inside pages of my copy of the novel.

 

[Graham1973]

Moving on to one of the more obscure technothrillers...

Richard Moran, Cold Sea Rising, 1985

United States

USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-???)
Ohio Class SSBN

Details for weapons as per the actual ships. Novel describes her as being fitted with some modifications to increase underwater stealth. Firstly the hull has been coated with a 'sound absorbing paint'. Secondly the sub has the ability to alter its hull contour with the aid of "...computer-controlled sheathing built into the exterior plates." Thirdly the conning tower has been reprofiled. Supposedly she can sail to within 500yards (460m) of an active sonar and not be detected. Gives speed (Not specified as surfaced or underwater) as "...over fourty knots."

Russia

Mezen
Oscar Class Submarine

Details as per actual ships if you go by the class name. Armament adds anti-aircraft laser weapons. Author seems to have believed Oscar Class was an SSBN armed with 'SS-N-34' ballistic missiles.

Plot Summary: In 1999 a massive underwater eruption causes the Ross ice shelf to break free of the Antarctic mainland and drift north.

Note: This is another one where the author has strange ideas, aside from his ideas about the Oscar Class. In this case when the USS George Washington Carver is first encountered she is performing a task more suited to an SSN, namely tailing Russian submarines. Supposedly this is to test the stealth modifications, but there are other and more obvious ways to go about doing that...

 

[Graham1973]

Craig Thomas, Sea Leopard, 1981

British

HMS Proteus

SSN, class not specified, referred to as "...the latest British nuclear submarine."

Length: 250ft (76m)

Fitted with an experimental anti-sonar system codenamed "Leopard".

Weapons fit probably not much different from actual British classes of the period.


Russia

Grishka
Victor II class SSN

Details as per actual ships. Torpedo mix includes an experimental MIRV warhead designed to disable an opposing submarine by the use of cables to disable the propeller and a reduced charge warhead also intended to disable rather than destroy.

Karpaty
Submarine Rescue Ship

Plot Summary: The Soviet Union succeeds in capturing a British submarine fitted with a revolutionary anti-sonar system, can she be recovered before it's secrets can be revealed.

 

[Graham1973]

One of several novels I know of that were inspired in part by the 1976 Fort Dix Swine Flu outbreak.

Neil Bayne, Innoculate!, 1979

USS Avenger (SSBN-???)

USS Liberty (SSBN-???)

USS Retribution (SSBN-???)

USS Swordfish (SSBN-???)

'Trident' Class SSBN

Four reactor powerplant, speed unspecified.
Armament: 24 Trident Missiles, Unspecified number of torpedos, but probably only four forward tubes if standard practice is followed.

As to what they look like, the only clues are as follows, their names are painted on the bows and this description of the USS Avenger at the start of her mission:

Looking like the mother of all sharks as her two-story dorsal sail parted the waters, the nuclear submarine shot forward.

Plot Summary: The year is 1992 and a cabal in the United States Government attempts to use a genetically engineered plague to take control of the worlds resources.

 

[Graham1973]

A guilty pleasure...

Clive Cussler, Pacific Vortex!, 1983

United States

USS Starbuck (SSN-989)
SSN, Class unspecified.

Length: 320ft (98m)
Propulsion: Nuclear power (two reactors) - Twin shaft
Armament: 'Hyperion' missiles (number unspecified), Torpedoes (Number of tubes unspecified)


MS Martha Ann
US Navy covert underwater salvage ship
Converted 12,000 ton freighter, three island design.
Highly automated. 15 man crew.
Helipad

USS Monitor (FFG-??? or CG(N)-???)

Armed with 'Hyperion' missiles, other armament and details not specified. Referred to as both a 'Frigate' and a 'Cruiser' in the book.

Russia

Andrei Vyborg
Oceanographic 'research' ship (eg Spy ship..)

Plot Summary: When the United States Navies newest nuclear submarine goes missing, who do you call...?

Note: Finally managed to find the hull number for the USS Starbuck after 33 years, though I've always been amused by the depiction of the Submarine as a Skipjack with hull number SSN-107 on the cover.