Fictional Warships - Novels

[Graham1973]

I had planned to do Alan Evans, "Thunder at Dawn" as the next set of fictional warship names, but a suggestion from a friend bought a change of plan.

C. J. Williams, Deep Trouble, 2012

Australia

HMAS Wivenhoe (ACPB-??)
Armidale Class Patrol Boat
Details as per the real ships

HMAS Redcliffe (ACPB-??)
Armidale Class Patrol Boat
Details as per the real ships

HMAS Forde (SSG-??)
Collins Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships

HMAS Augustine (SSG-??)
Collins Class Submarine?
Details as per the real ships

HMS Killarney (A-???)
3rd Lewin Class Survey Ship
Details as per the real ship

Plot summary: When a mysterious force starts attacking warships, and then coastal marinas, the Royal Australian Navy turns to a very unusual form of assistance.

Notes: This is a part of a three book series that seems to be very heavily inspired by an Australian childrens TV series that aired between 2006 - 2010 called "H2O: Just Add Water" (Wikipedia), although the content of the book seems a little darker than anything that would be shown to young children.

 

[Graham1973]

Alexander Fullerton, Patrol to the Golden Horn, 1978

United Kingdom

HMS Nile (First mentioned in The Blooding of the Guns)
6th Queen Elizabeth Class Battleship
Details as per the real ships

HMS Terrapin
Destroyer, class not mentioned
No other details provided

HMS Leveret
L Class Destroyer (WWI version)
Details as per the real ships.
Launched 1913

HMS Harwich
Town/Bristol Class Cruiser
Details as per the real ships.

HMS E-57
E Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships

France

Louve
Submarine, class not specified
No other details provided.

Plot summary: It is the last few months of WWI (October/November 1918) and a daring plan has been put into motion to sink the battlecrusier SMS Goeben (aka Yavuz Sultan Selim) at her mooring inside the Golden Horn.

Note: Another author who made use of the idea of a British submarine torpedoing the SMS Goeben (aka Yavuz Sultan Selim) at her Turkish mooring was John Margerison who used it in two separate books, first in the short story collection 'Periscope and Propeller,' (1917) and later the novel 'Torpedo Verses Gun: The Story of a Naval Bet' (1919).

 

[Graham1973]

A chance find...

Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis, Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater, 1971

United Kingdom

HMS Triton
SSBN, class not specified
Described as "...the first Royal Navy Poseidon carrier..."
16 "...multiple warhead..." Poseidon missiles
Crew 183
No other details provided


Plot summary: Something has gone very wrong with the worlds first bio-degradeable plastic...

 

[Graham1973]

Alan Evans, Thunder at Dawn, 1978

United Kingdom

HMS Thunder
7th Cressy Class Cruiser
Details as per the real ships.

United States

USS Kansas
3rd Pennsylvania Class Battleship
Details as per the real ships.
Note: In real life USS Kansas was the name of a pre-dreadnought battleship (Connecticut Class) that served in WWI as a training ship and later as a troop transport before being scrapped in 1923.

Germany

SMS Wolf
Scharnhorst Class Cruiser
Details as per the real ships.

SMS Kondor
Scharnhorst Class Cruiser
Details as per the real ships.

SMS Leopard
7th Iltis Class Gunboat
Details as per the real ships.

Japan

Kunashiri
3rd Ibuki Class Battlecruiser?
12 inch Guns
No other details provided
Note: Unsure as to correct identification due to lack of information author provides, however the members of this class were the only battlecruisers the Japanese had in WWI, all the others were built postwar. If Ibuki Class then details would be the same as the two constructed in real life.

Chile

Tocopilla
Destroyer
No other details provided.

Plot summary: It is March/April 1917, two German cruisers have broken into the Pacific Ocean, the only ship available is an ageing cruiser with an acting commander who was sent there because of defeatist remarks he made about the Battle of Jutland. This is one novel that can be very firmly dated, the final battle takes place the day the United States enters WWI (6th April, 1917), which (Spoiler) allows the USS Kansas to save HMS Thunder from the last surviving German warship.

 

[Graham1973]

Alan Evans, Ship of Force, 1979

United Kingdom

HMS Marshal Marmont
3rd Marshal Ney Class Monitor
Details as per the real ships.

HMS Sparrow
C Class Destroyer (WWI)
Details as per the real ships
Launched 1899

HMD Grimbsy Lass
Naval Drifter
1 3pdr mounted before the foremast
200 tons
Aft Wheelhouse
No other details provided.

HMD Judy
Naval Drifter
Details same as HMD Grimbsy Lass

Germany

SMS Siegfried
4th Derfflinger Class Battlecruiser
Details as per the real ships.
Note: In real life SMS Siegfried was the name of a Siegfried Class Coastal Defense Ship that was demobilised in 1915 and used as a barracks ship during WWI before being scrapped in 1920.

Unnamed
Several destroyers.
No other details provided.

Plot summary: Following his successful action in the Pacific Ocean, the hero of "Thunder at Dawn" finds his reward is... more work, this time off the coast of France and Belgium.

 

[Hood]

Agatha Christie, The Submarine Plans, 1923

Z Type Submarine

Hercule Poirot is urgently summoned to 'Sharples', the home of Lord Alloway, head of the Ministry of Defence and a potential future Prime Minister. Arriving with Captain Hastings, he is introduced by their host to Admiral Sir Harry Weardale, the First Sea Lord who is a guest at Sharples. The secret plans for the new 'Z'-type of submarine were stolen some three hours earlier. In the end it turns out Lord Alloway wanted the unnamed foreign power to receive the false plans, they subsequently attempt to build their own version which ends up a failure.

 

[Graham1973]

Alan Evans, Dauntless, 1980

United Kingdom

HMS Dauntless
C/Caroline Class Cruiser
3 x 6 inch guns (A, X, Y)
6 x 4 inch guns
1 x 3 inch AA gun
Vickers MGs (Caliber not specified)
4 21 inch torpedo tubes
Other details as per real ships.
Comissioned 1915
Note: Name is that of a 'D Class Cruiser launched in 1917. Author never mentions the secondary 4 inch armament.

HMS Blackbird
Seaplane Tender.
Converted cross channel packet ship.
Details probably identical to the HMS Ben-my-Chree.

France

Maroc
Pre-Dreadnought Battleship
4 x 12 inch guns (two twin turrets)
Three funnels, no tripod masts.
No other details provided
Note: Most of the pre-dreadnoughts built by France were 'one-offs' so its hard to determine a class from the limited information provided, though the best fit would be either the 'Republique Class' or the 'Liberte Class'.

Germany

SMS Walküre
2nd Blücher Class Cruiser
Details as per the real ships.

Plot summary: It is October 1917, Captain David Smith, following his successful actions off the Pacific Coast and the Coast of France has been given a task his higher ups consider perfectly suited to his talents, preventing enemy interference in General Allenby's plans to outflank the Turkish defences of Gaza.

 

[Graham1973]

Alan Evans, Seek Out and Destroy, 1982

United Kingdom

HMS Harrier
Destroyer, class not mentioned
4 inch guns
No other details provided

HMD Hercules
Naval Drifter
90ft length, 20ft beam
1 6pdr gun fwd
1 Vickers MG (Caliber not specified) aft
Maximum speed: 9 - 10 knots
Note: In the novel the some of the ships crew are assigned to operate a pontoon mounted 6 inch gun that is towed by HMD Hercules.

Italy

Unnamed
3 MAS Boats

'Flying Fish/Pesce volante'
Tracked torpedo boat
Fictional version of the 'Grillo' a tracked torpedo boat used in an abortive attack on the Austro-Hungarian Naval Base at Pola.

'Seahorse/Cavalluccio Marino'
Manned torpedo
Fictional version of the 'Mignatta (Leech)' the manned torpedo used to sink the Viribus Unitis.

Austro-Hungarian Empire

SMS Salzburg
"...a carbon copy of the German battlecruiser Seydlitz..."

Unnamed
Battleship
14 inch guns
No other details provided

Unnamed
Several destroyers

Plot summary: Fictionalised version of events in the Adriatic following the Battle of Caporetto. Captain David Smith, his talent for the unorthodox noted is assigned to help the Italians deal with the Austro-Hungarian Navies newest warship and the experienced German officer assigned to command her.

 

[Graham1973]

Alan Evans, Audacity, 1985

United Kingdom

HMS Audacity
Q-Ship
2 x 12 pdr (Concealed mounts fore and aft)
1 x 4 inch gun (Hidden in a fake deckhouse abaft the funnel)
4 torpedo tubes
Max speed: 15 - 16 knots
Built to resemble a "...three-island tramp..."
Draught is "...only four or five feet..."
No other details provided
Note: Additional armament prior to novel start included bomb throwers but these have been removed.

Germany

Unnamed
Armed Merchant Cruiser (Commerce Raider)
4 x 5.9 inch guns (2 a side mounted forward of the bridge)
1 x 4 inch gun (mounted aft of the bridge)
Torpedo tubes.
No other details provided

Unnamed
Several destroyers

Sweden

Unnamed
Gunboat
No other details provided.

Plot summary: It is April 1918. Captain David Smith, his talent for both the unorthodox and 'getting things done' well proven has been given his most difficult task yet, delivering a shipment of gold to parties in Russia who have stated they can sink the Russian fleet before the Germans can take control of it following the Russian Revolution.

 

[Graham1973]

Another failed film script...

George E. Simpson & Neal R. Burger, Ghostboat, 1972

United States

USS Candlefish (SS-284)
Gato Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships
Note: Hull number is that of the USS Tullibee (SS-284)

Plot summary: A submarine lost during World War II has just reappeared in 1974, why...?

Note: Unlike their later effort "Thin Air" this one did make it into film, albiet as a British mini-series with the action moved to the Baltic and the submarine renamed HMS Scorpion, which is remarkable enough in itself as usually it's the Americans taking someone elses script and reworking it to be more American centric. Wikipedia has a good summary of the British effort Wikipedia: Ghostboat.

 

[Graham1973]

A self-published(?) technothriller found on Kindle...

Don Menya, Down Deep and Out of Time, 2013

United States

USS Hunley (SSGN-777)
Ohio Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships converted to carry cruise missiles.
Formerly SSBN-777 before conversion. Pennant number clashes with Virginia Class Submarine USS North Carolina (SSN-777), launched 2007.

USS John Paul Jones (SSN-800)
Virgina Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships.
Pennant number is that of an as yet unbuilt Block V Virginia class submarine that has yet to be assigned a name.
Name clashes with Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) which was launched in 1993 and is as of this post still in service.

USS Daniel Boone (AS-44)
Submarine Tender (converted minesweeper of an unspecified class), Class not specified
2 50mm guns (fore and aft)
4 30mm guns at corners of second upper deck
Helipad capable of supporting a Sikorski SH-3 Sea King fitted aft
18,000 tons
750ft length (originally 690ft), 150ft beam
Twin diesel engines, 15 knots
Name clashes with James Maddison class SSBN, USS Daniel Boone (SSBN-629) that was scrapped in 1994.

Korea (Democratic Peoples Republic)

Several unnamed Frigates, Destroyers and submarines.

Plot summary: A mission to retrieve an intelligence gathering device from North Korean waters leads to a dangerous confrontation between the United States and North Korea.

 

[Graham1973]

Another technothriller found on Amazon

Tom Jacobs, Sons of God, 2008

United States

USS San Pedro (SSN-747)
Los Angeles Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships.
Pennant number is part of an unnassigned bloc of numbers covering SSN 744 - 749.

USS South Dakota (SSBN-???)
Ohio Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships
Stated in the novel to be the final member of the Ohio Class to have been completed
Note: Construction of the Virginia Class Submarine USS South Dakota (SSN-790) was approved in 2008, but construction did not begin until 2016.

Plot summary: Extortionists hijack a nuclear submarine and make the usual "Do what we want or we launch..." demands.

 

[Graham1973]

A short break from the Technothrillers with another short story.

Anon., The Straggler, published in Leonard Matthews (ed.), Fantastic Adventure Stories for Boys, 1977 (Fourth printing, 1981)

United Kingdom

HMS Seahawk
Destroyer, class not specified
Sunk 1940
Name clashes with an RN shore establishment RNAS Culdrose (HMS Seahawk) opened in 1947.

Germany

Unnamed
U-boat, class not specified

Plot summary: The year is 1940. The crew of a torpedoed RN destroyer fight to turn the tables on the U-boat that sank their ship and protect the straggling oil tanker they were escorting.

Note: This was a chance find while cleaning my bookshelves, none of the stories in the collection have authors listed or any details of prior publication, if any. The cover depicts the Captain of HMS Seahawk using the AA weapons on the just captured U-boat to fight off a FW 200 'Condor'.

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

IJN Yonaga- enlarged Shinano-type aircraft carrier.

From THE SEVENTH CARRIER book series by Peter Albano

Plot summary: IJN Yonaga, the seventh carrier assigned to the Pearl Harbor strike, is trapped in Arctic ice while awaiting the strike order. 42 years later, the ship emerges, hell-bent on finishing their mission. Soon after, a Chinese orbital defense system renders all jets and rockets useless. With Libya leading a global war of terror, Yonaga and her antique planes are now the free world's best hope.....

 

[Graham1973]

Thanks for adding that one, I've got the Kindle version of that one on my 'future to-do' list.

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

Funny what you remember this late at night! I haven't read those books in ages!

 

[Graham1973]

Funny what you remember this late at night! I haven't read those books in ages!

Indeed, half the fun is checking to see if you still have them. That said I've been amazed at some of the things that have become available on Kindle.

But, now back to the technothrillers...

Tom Jacobs, Ship, Captain & Crew, 2012

United States

USS Moray (SSN-570)
Thresher Class Submarine?
Details as per the real ships.
Note: Author never specifically identifies the class, but the internal references, such as a mention of the fact that the submarine is twenty years old in 1983 strongly suggest that she is a Thresher. The Pennant number was going to be assigned to USS Mackerel (SST-1), but was ultimately not assigned.

USS Jack Clay (DD or DDG)
Destroyer, class not specified
No other details provided

USS Manassas (CG-??)
Ticonderoga class
Details as per the real ships
Referred to in the novel (set in 1983) as "...one of the fleet's newest Aegis cruisers."

Plot summary: An attempt in 1983 to destabilize Iran goes wrong.

 

[Hood]

John P. Marquand, Repent in Haste, 1945

USS Rogue River - escort carrier of unknown class
Attack Transport 240 - USS Harnett (APA-240) was a cancelled Haskell Class transport

Plot: the story revolves around a demobbed sailor from the Rogue River in 1945


John P. Marquand, Last Laught Mr. Moto, 1942

USS Smedley - destroyer

Plot: the Japanese and Vichy French are trying to get their hands on an aircraft abandoned on Guadeloupe after the fall of France equipped with secret night-vision equipment.


John P. Marquand, It's Loaded Mr. Bauer, 1949

Sieglinde - German merchant raider
HMS Artemis - destroyer

Plot: Set in 1941/1942, a German agent in a South American nation attempts to acquire gold to buy oil fuel to replenish the Sieglinde's bunkers before the Royal Navy closes in.


Nevil Shute, Most Secret, 1945

Genevieve - requisitioned French fishing vessel, 70ft long, armed with a large-calibre flamethrower and the crew have a few Thompson sub-machine guns
HMT Grimsby Emerald - armed trawler, 1940
HMT Harebell - armed trawler, sunk 1940
HMT Gracie Fields - armed trawler, 1940
MGB-161, MGB-168 - motor gun boats, armed with two 20mm Oerlikon and DC, 40kts - pennants clash with MTBs

Plot: in late 1941 a daring officer plans to use a French fishing vessel to destroy a Raumboote and ends up supporting a French uprising against the Germans and sinks two R-Boots and damages a destroyer.


Nevil Shute, In the Wet, 1953

HMAS Gona - class and type unknown

Plot: In a dystopian 1983 the British Royal family flee to the Commonwealth.


Percy F. Westerman, Under the White Ensign, 1918

Great Britain
HMS Portchester Castle - liner converted into a merchant cruiser, armed with 4.7in QF guns and two 6pdr AA guns, sunk by a German U-Boot in the Med
HMS Fleetwings - Royal British & Pacific Company liner converted into seaplane carrier, very similar to Campania conversion, carries undefined number of seaplanes and four Kite Balloons
HMS Paradox - destroyer, 25kts
HMS Scragger - destroyer
HMS Grunter - destroyer
HMS Tarbox - destroyer
HMS Zealous - armed trawler
0916 + 2 more unnamed - US built motor patrol boat, three 160hp V-8 petrol engines, 26kts, 8 crew

Mention must be made of Fleetwing's seaplanes: 200ft wingspan triplane, powered by six 200hp engines with 15ft diameter propellers, 180mph max speed, 40mph stalling speed, 10 crew, armed with a 3in non-recoil gun firing mini 3in calibre torpedoes!

Greece
Pyrgos - yacht, armed with at least two concealed 7pdr guns, one on each beam forward; operated by a pro-German Greek faction, sunk by HMS Scragger and Grunter

Turkey
Unnamed destroyer, sunk by Portchester Castle

Plot: Adventures of the crew of the Portchester Castle in the Aegean in 1918.

 

[Graham1973]

Welcome back Hood!

Now back to WWII...

Alan Evans, Orphans of the Storm, 1990

United Kingdom

HMS Saracen
Destroyer, class not specified

HMS Lancer
Destroyer, class not specified

Germany

Brandenburg
Fourth Leipzig Class Cruiser
Details as per the real ships
Launched 1935

Plot summary: The year is 1939, David Smith now working as an agent for British Military Intelligence finds himself trying to prevent a German cruiser coming to the aid of the Deutschland Class Cruiser Admiral Graff Spee following the Battle of the River Plate.

 

[Graham1973]

Alan Evans, Sink or Capture!, 1993

United Kingdom

HMS Cassandra (Real Ship)
C Class Cruiser
Details as per the real ships.
Launched 1916
In real life HMS Cassandra was sunk in 1918

HMS Calliope (Real ship)
C Class Cruiser
Details as per the real ships.
In real life HMS Calliope was scrapped in 1931

HMS Hornet
G & H Class Destroyer?
Details as per the real ships
Sunk 1940

Ailsa Grange
Transport Ship (ex-Merchant ship)
No other details provided

Germany

Brandenburg
Fourth Leipzig Class Cruiser
Details as per the real ships
Launched 1935
Sunk 1940 at the 2nd Battle of Narvik.
Note: Ship first appears in the authors previous novel "Orphans of the Storm"

Wilhelmina
Transport Ship
"...around ten thousand tons with a single funnel and a long superstructure amidships... she had probably been an ocean liner before the war. One of those giving "Strength through Joy" cruises..."
Noted to be carrying a surgical team to support the German Invasion of Norway but is not a Hospital ship.
No other details regarding armament/speed provided.
Captured by the British.

Plot Summary: It is 1940. David Smith has been returned to command a cruiser following his success in preventing Admiral Graff Spee escaping but finds himself and his new ship confronting the same enemy cruiser he faced in South America during the German invasion of Norway.

 

[Graham1973]

Now, back to pulp fiction...

J. E. MacDonnell, The Coxswain, 1960

Australia

HMAS Bantam
Destroyer, class not specified
Sunk in the Mediterranean Sea before the start of the novel.

HMAS Pelican
Destroyer, class not specified
4 inch guns
Stated to be a member of a class older than the V & W Class Destroyers given to the RAN in 1933.
Note: There was an HMS Pelican which was an Admiralty M Class Destroyer scrapped in 1921. It is possible, though unlikely that this was the ship the author had in mind, certainly it fits the limited details he gives.

HMAS Wind Rode
J, K & N Class Destroyer?
Details as per the real ships
Note: Only specific details author gives are 200 crew, 6 x 4.7 inch guns (A, B, & X twin mounts), speed 35knots. The above class is best fit for those details and for the rough date the author provides (August 1942).

Plot summary: Around the start of the Guadalcanal Campaign the coxswain of an Australian 'fleet destroyer' finds himself having to deal with a couple of 'bad apples' who came aboard as replacements for men lost in a recent action.

Note: I've included a scan of the cover which is by an unknown artist. However whoever they were they obviously did not read the book as the cover depicts what appears to be an L & M Class destroyer under attack rather than what I suspect the author intended HMAS Wind Rode to be, still not a bad 'action' image

 

[Hood]

Captain W. E. John, Biggles in the Baltic, 1940

Great Britain
Unammed submarine

Germany
U-159 - U-boot, sunk by Biggle's 'Z' Squadron. The real U-159 was a Type IXC launched in July 1941, it was laid down some six months after the story was written.
Leipzig - German liner converted into a troopship, sunk by Biggle's 'Z' Squadron

Plot: Biggles, Algy and Ginger and chums form a secret 'Z' Squadron and operate from a secret underground cave lake base on a small island called Bergen Ait in the Baltic Sea, purchased by Britain from a neutral Baltic country. They are flying what look to be monoplane Fairey Swordfish on the front cover. The four aircraft are all given Australian names; Dingo, Didgeree-du, Willie-Willie and Duck-billed platypus. The sink the U-159, capture its codebook and after several escapades they blow up their secret base and drown the Germans who have captured the island.

 

[Graham1973]

Douglas Reeman, The Last Raider, 1964

Germany

Vulkan
Armed Merchant Ship (Commerce Raider)
Converted banana carrier
Three-island hull.
4 x 5.9 inch guns (2 a side mounted forward of the bridge)
1 x 22pdr aft
300 mines
Torpedo tubes
16 knots

United Kingdom

HMS Vole
Armed Boarding Steamer
Ex coastal steamer
No other details provided

HMS Waltham
Cruiser, class not specified
12 x 6 inch guns
12 x "smaller weapons"
21 knots
Launched 1915
No other details provided.

Unnamed
Cruiser, class not specified
23 knots
No other details provided.

United States

Unnamed
Destroyer, class not specified
Four funnels
No other details provided

Plot summary: It is the last days of 1917, Imperial Germany decides to send one last raider into the Atlantic in an attempt to divert Allied naval units into distant waters.

Note: The attached cover is that created for the 2022 eBook edition and has no connection with the contents of the novel.

 

[Graham1973]

J. E. MacDonnell, Not Under Command, 1963

Australia

HMAS Roper
River Class Frigate (RAN Group II)
Details as per the real ships.

Japan

Unnamed
Submarine, class not specified

Plot summary: It is late 1943 (Book refers to the Glowworm's ramming of the Hipper, Operation Chariot (St Nazaire Raid) & Operation Source in the past tense, so no earlier than October 1943.), an RAN frigate traveling to Espiritu Santo loses her senior officers due to a lucky (Or unlucky depending on your point of view...) hit while under attack from the air. Can the Non-Commissioned Officers get her to port safely...

 

[Graham1973]

Alan Evans, Deed of Glory, 1984

United Kingdom

HMS Saracen
Tribal Class Destroyer
Details as per the real ships
Note: Details provided by the author imply this is the same ship that appeared at the beginning of "Orphans of the Storm"
Sunk 1940

HMS Boston (ex-USS ?)
Town Class Destroyer
Details as per the real ships.
Note: Author never gives the name of the US 'Four stacker' that became HMS Boston.
Sunk 1942

Plot summary: Fictionalized account of the events leading up to Operation Chariot (St Nazaire Raid)

 

[Graham1973]

J. E. MacDonnell, Operational Immediate, 1975

Australia

HMAS Wind Rode
J, K & N Class Destroyer?
Details as per the real ships
Note: Also appears in several other of the authors many novels.

HMAS Swift
J, K & N Class Destroyer?
Details as per the real ships
Note: Author explicitly states that this ship is a member of the same class as HMAS Wind Rode.

HMAS Sabre
Destroyer, class not specified
6 x 4.7 inch guns (A, B, & X twin mounts)
Note: Name clash with HMS Saber, a WWI S Class Destroyer that was scrapped in 1946.

HMAS Whelp
Destroyer, class not specified
6 x 4.7 inch guns (A, B, & X twin mounts)
Note: Name clash with HMS Whelp, a W Class destroyer launched in 1943, which was later transferred to South Africa and scrapped in 1976.

HMAS Witch
Destroyer, class not specified
6 x 4.7 inch guns (A, B, & X twin mounts)

United States

Unnamed
6 x 'Four Stacker' Destroyers
No other details provided.

Japan

Unnamed
Aircraft Carrier, class not specified

Unnamed
2x Submarines

Unnamed
5 x Destroyers

Plot summary: It is sometime between the Gilbert Islands Campaign and the Marianas Campaign, and a convoy transporting ammunition for the United States Seventh Fleet comes under heavy attack. The attached cover depicts the novels climactic action as three RAN Destroyers charge a Japanese Aircraft Carrier.

 

[Hood]

Percy F. Westerman, The Salving of the Fusi Yama, 1920

Mainly non-naval ships in the this tale.

Titania: auxiliary schooner, 260 tons, built 1900 with triple expansion engines but retfitted with diesels later, 12kts, used as a minelayer during the war, carries two 'Cormorant' seaplanes during the events of the book.

Other ships:
Fusi Yama: Japanese-built steamship sold to a British company operating from Shanghai, 4,500 tons, built 1914, sunk on her maiden voyage by the German cruiser Nurnberg in 1914.
Zug: ex-interned German merchant Geier, built 1904
Cite d'Arras: French liner than sinks following a collision with an unnamed Belgian tramp steamer.

Plot: a treasure hunt to locate the wreck of the Fusi Yama and salvage her gold bullion cargo.

 

[Graham1973]

Philip McCutchan, Secret Mission (Originally): Cameron's Commitment, 1989

United Kingdom

HMS Castile
C Class Cruiser
Launched 1917
Details as per the real ships

HMS Dionysus
Destroyer, class not specified.

Plot summary: Following the events of 'Against All Odds' & 'On Land And Sea' the series hero is given a new ship and a special mission...

 

[royabulgaf]

Here's one, although it is a fictional airship. However, it belongs to the German Navy so I gues it is a warship.

I don't recall the novel, but it takes place around 1916 when the army's R-Planes are crowding out the airships. The navy does one last raid to show the airship's ability, and it is a clusterfuck. The British are congratulatig themselves, but it slowly dawns on them that there is one remaining airship on the prowl over England.

Ring any bells?

 

[Graham1973]

Harrison Jones, Equal Time Point, 2009

United States

USS Karuk (T-ATF-???)
Powhatan Class Oceangoing Tug?
Details as per the real ships

United Kingdom

HMS Integrity
Aircraft carrier, class not specified.
Carries Sea King Helicopters
No other details provided

Plot summary: Sabotage forces an airliner to ditch at sea.

 

[Graham1973]

R. Cameron Cooke, Dive Beneath The Sun, 2016

United States

USS Wolffish (SS-434)
Balao Class Submarine, Real ship, cancelled prior to start of construction June 1944

Task Group Antietam

USS Antietam (CV-36)
Essex Class Aircraft Carrier, Real ship, launched August '44, in service January '45 - May '63

USS Reprisal (CV-35)
Essex Class Aircraft Carrier, Real ship, construction cancelled August '45

USS Salem (CA-139)
Des Moines Class Cruiser, Real ship, launched March '47, in service May '49 - January '50

USS Newport News (CA-148)
Des Moines Class Cruiser, Real ship, launched March '48, in service January '49 - June '75

USS Vicksburg (CL-86)
Cleveland Class Cruiser, Real ship, launched December '43, in service June '44 - June '47

USS McKean (DD-784)?
Gearing Class, Real ship, launched March '45, in service June '45 - October '81
An earlier USS McKean was a former Wickes class destroyer converted to a Fast transport in WWII and sunk on the 17th of November, 1943. On the basis of what the author appears to have done (See note below.) I am assuming that the McKean in the novel is the Gearing Class ship.

Two unnamed Destroyers

Four unnamed Destroyer Escorts

Japan

Yokaze
Destroyer, class not specified
Main Armament 6 x 5 inch guns (A, X & Y)
Insufficient details provided to work out just which of several classes of destroyer using the same armament layout this ship is a member of.

Kiku
Mikura Class (Kaikoban)
Details as per the actual ships

Enoki
Mikura Class (Kaikoban)
Details as per the actual ships

Plot summary: A Japanese freighter carries materials that could affect the outcome of the war (The novel takes place during September and October of 1944.) can the United States navy stop it from reaching it's destination.

Note: The author has done something a little unusual here, rather than use fictional members of existing classes (US ships only.) he appears to have 'bought forward' the construction of several ships that were in fact completed post war. That's not to say that the Anteitam Task Group would not make a fine illustration.

 

[Hood]

Percy F. Westerman, The Stolen Cruiser, published 1913

Great Britain

HMS Impregnable
A modified Indefatigable Class battlecruiser. 18,000 tons displacement; four twin 12in turrets (fore, aft and two en échelon amidships) and 25x1 4in QF; 26kts top speed. Being towed to Holland for scrapping but engines in good condition to be re-used. Hijacked by band of anarchist pirates and renamed Independencia and re-armed with 25x1 7pdr QF guns.

HMS Indefatigable
The real battlecruiser, in the book she is a "sea-going instructional vessel for naval cadets".

HMS Frome and HMS Calder ("New River" Class): destroyers
120 feet long with turtle decks fore and aft, a fine bow and a pointed cutaway stern. Diesel engines driving four propeller shafts providing a speed of 43kts (can do 21kts astern too!). No funnels. At the aft end of the fore turtle deck were two 11 pounder automatic guns, arranged to cover an arc of 210 degree and with 80 degree elevation, another mount was mounted aft. Other armament was two 7pdr QF amidships and two 21in torpedo tubes with "improved Whitehead" torpedoes with 5 miles range. Has a small conning tower (with another aft) and a light telescopic mast (no radio aerials as has some form of internal receivers) and two searchlights. Crew of 90, only 15 needed to man the engine rooms.

HMS Indus
Cruiser, 22,000 tons

HMS Cerberus
Scout cruiser, diesel powered with no funnels, carries four seaplanes.
Seaplanes describes as having an aluminium hull/fuselage 35 ft long, 6ft width and 9in draught. Has a small observation turret which supports the propeller shaft, folding biplane wings, armed with a 1pdr automatic gun and small bombs.

HMS Vindictive
A "second class cruiser", the real Arrogant Class ship completed in 1899.

HMS Khartoum
A cruiser, no description.

HMS Trincomalee
Armoured cruiser, no description except armed with 9in, 6in and QF guns.

HMS Blackadder
A destroyer, no description.

Desaix
French cruiser, possibly the real ship.

Chanzy
French armoured cruiser, possibly the real ship.

Tréhouart
French cruiser, 19,000 tons, a fictional ship as the real Amiral Tréhouart was a Bouvines Class coast defence ship

USS West Virginia
This is the real cruiser (ACR-5).

USS Denver
This is the real cruiser (CL-16).

SS Wontwash
American tramp steamer.

SS Steephill Castle
Hull-registered tramp steamer. Vessel used by the pirates to board Impregnable.

SS Yosen Maru
Japanese steamer attacked by Independencia.

SS L'Égalité
French transatlantic liner attacked by Independencia.

SS Duke of Negropont
American steamer, attacked by Independencia.

Hetty
Boston-registered whaler

Serena
300 ton pleasure craft owned by a wealthy Canadian.

Vulkan
Leading tug towing Impregnable. Scuttled by the pirates.

Hekla
One of the Dutch tugs towing Impregnable. Scuttled by the pirates.

Plot Summary: HMS Impregnable is towed to Holland but is hijacked by band of international band of anarchist pirates and renamed Independencia goes on a piracy raid across the Atlantic and into the Arctic in an attempt to escape her pursuers. The book was published in 1913 but is set in an undefined future time, possibly the 1920s, when the Indefatigable Class is being replaced by newer vessels. Many of the newer ships in this tale have diesel engines and the ships and aircraft show an interesting technical progression from 1912. Impregnable is said to have never fired her guns in anger, implying no war in Westerman's future. However, curiously for a 1913 British naval/military adventure story there is no mention of Germany at all and no German characters, instead there is a cast of Greeks, Spaniards, Dutch, French and Japanese.

 

[Graham1973]

J. E. MacDonnell, First Command, 1971

Australia

HMAS Reaper
WWI R Class Destroyer
Details as per the real ships.
AA armament has been augmented with 'scrounged' machine guns of various makes (Bren, Browning, etc).

Plot summary: The year is 1941. Badly damaged fighting an Italian submarine, an Australian destroyer struggles to make her way back to Alexandria and safety. This story is pretty precisely date-able as the ship returns to Alexandria the day after the Italians crippled HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant with a human torpedo attack on the 19th of December 1941.

 

[Graham1973]

J. E. MacDonnell, Fire Storm, 1973

Australia

HMAS Pelican
Destroyer, class not specified
4 x 4 inch guns (Two twin turrets, A & X), 6 TT (Three twin mounts), Depth charges (Port Starboard launchers on the quarterdeck, rails aft) 1 'pom-pom' gun.
AA augmented with 'scrounged' MGs, 6 x Bren Guns (Mounted three a side midships), Browning mounted on motor boats forward davit.
Launched 1918
1300 tons
300ft long
Single funnel
30knots
Fitted with radar and sonar.
Note: If this is the same ship as the one that appears in the novel "The Coxswain" (1960), then her "...experimental..." design predates the V & W class, which started construction in 1916. I will be trying to track down further novels where this ship is the vehicle of focus to see if any more details are included.

Italy

Spiride
Fifth Ammiraglio Cagni Class Submarine (Also known as the Cagni Class)
Details as per the real ships.

Plot summary: It is March 1942. A destroyer assigned to locate a base the Italians have established for MT Explosive Motor Boats (EMB) (Wikipedia) finds herself in a duel with an Italian submarine with a very competent captain and crew.

Internal references in the book imply that the events of this novel take place around about the same time as convoy MW10 which left Alexandria for Malta on the 21st of March 1942. The attached picture depicts the eventual destruction of the EMBs when they are lured into a patch of floating fuel oil which is ignited as they enter it.

 

[Graham1973]

Brian Callison, A Flock Of Ships, 1970

United Kingdom

HMS Mallard
Corvette, class not specified
1100 tons
4 inch gun
Name clash with a Kingfisher Class Sloop in service 1936 - 1945.

Unnamed (1966)
Survey Ship, class not specified.
No other details provided

Germany

Unnamed
Three U-boats, class not specified
No other details provided

Plot summary: The year is 1966, a British survey ship has just arrived a remote island in the South Atlantic, there she finds an abandoned freighter that was reported sunk in 1941. Aboard the abandoned ship, the evidence points to a journey of madness and terror.

 

[Hood]

Two more Westerman nautical tales.

Percy F. Westerman, The Sea-Girt Fortress, published 1914

Germany

Hannover
Real battleship of the Deutschland Class

Several destroyers, most are unnamed except for;
S167, probably the real destroyer, the 1911 built ship to replace the original S167 sold to Turkey in 1910 as Muavenet-i Milliye.
S174, there was no real S174, the nearest real ship was the Germania-built G174 of the 1909 Programme.

Twenty U-Boots, described as a Krupp-Germania design of 1,200 tons displacement, 1,000 mile range, armament of 4x TT, 2x 14pdr (77mm?) guns on disappearing mounts and 2x pom-poms; the conning tower has two periscopes and oddly the subs have four sloped cylinders and different angles but no explanation is given of these.

Great Britain

Real battleships: HMS Royal Sovereign, Barham, Orion, Collingwood, Bellerophon, Ajax, Agamemnon, Centurion and Formidable. Also the real battlecruiser HMS Invincible.

HMS Repulse
Probably the planned Royal Sovereign Class battleship completed in the story by/in 1914

HMS Impregnable
Battlecruiser, could be the same vessel as featured in The Stolen Cruiser.

HMS Beresford
Fast cruiser, no description

HMS Boxer
Name matches that of Ardent Class destroyer of 1894 but illustration better matches a River/ M Class destroyer of the immediate pre-war era.

HMS Lynx
Real Acasta Class destroyer

HMS Onyx
Fishery Protection Gunboat, could be the real torpedo gunboat launched in 1892 but she became a depot ship in 1907.

United States
Real battleships USS Kentucky and USS Wyoming

Plot: Very much a Riddle of the Sands type tale. The Germans have set up a secret subterranean Zeppelin base on Helgoland, a daring Englishmen and an American aboard their small ketch, Diomeda, and discover the base accidently and that the Germans have invented a method of making Zeppelin gasbags self-sealing from bullet holes. They manage to escape in one of the Zeppelins and forewarned the British defeat a surprise Zeppelin and seaplane attack and defeat the German Navy at sea and eventually destroy the secret base.
There is one notable historical fact in the book, Westerman makes reference to the Empress of India trials of 1913 which found that although armour protection kept out shells out of the citadel but water flooded in on the deck above, disturbing the stability and leading to a capsizing. D.K. Brown makes a good account of the trials and the design changes made in the Royal Sovereigns deck armour scheme to raise the armoured deck. In the book HMS Orion succumbs to such damage above the main armour deck and capsizes, this foretells the similar faults which led to HMS Agincourt sinking in September 1914 (albeit from a torpedo hit).


Percy F. Westerman, The Third Officer, published 1921

Malfilio
An ex-Russian light cruiser, originally called Zarizyno. 4,000 tons; armament 8x1 6in & 4in guns (the description hints at 6in fore and aft and 6 beam 4in guns), 4x underwater torpedo tubes (not loaded) and one seaplane; speed 22kts.

Australia
"HMAS" Titania
A 400 ton schooner which pretends to be a submarine tender to avoid the Malfilio

HMAS Armdale and HMAS Rockhampton
Light cruisers, armed with 2x 9.2in fore and aft and QF guns and MGs

HMAS Brisbane
The real modified Town Class light cruiser

One unammed seaplane carrier

Three unnamed destroyers

Great Britain
SS Donibristle
6,200 ton tramp steamer belonging to the fictional British Columbian & Chinese Shipping Company

HMBS Adventurer
Cruiser, no description (note archaic His Majesty's Britannic Ship prefix, unlikely to be His Majesty's Burmese Ship)

Japan
HIJMS Kanazawa
Cruiser, no description

United States
USS Yosemite
Cruiser, no description

Two merchants captured by the pirates of possible Spanish and American flags are Alvardo and Kittiwake.

Plot: A band of international pirates acquire an ex-Russian cruiser and find a base on a secret fortified pre-war Pacific German anchorage. The plucky British crew of the Donibristle escape and ultimaly the Malfinio is sunk by HMAS Armdale and the island base recaptured.

 

[Graham1973]

J. E. MacDonnell, Breaking Point, 1979

Australia

HMAS Tempest
Crown Colony/Fiji Class Cruiser
Details as per real ships.

HMAS Jackal
Battle Class Destroyer
Details as per real ships.
Note: There was a J Class destroyer named HMS Jackal that was sunk in May of 1942. A reasonable assumption is that this ships name has been changed from a 'Battle' name in honor of the ship sunk.

HMAS Wind Rode
J, K & N Class Destroyer?
Details as per the real ships
Note: Also appears in several other of the authors many novels.

HMAS Sabre
Destroyer, class not specified
6 x 4.7 inch guns (A, B, & X twin mounts)
Note: Name clash with HMS Sabre, a WWI S Class Destroyer that was scrapped in 1946. Also appears in 'Operational Immediate'

Unnamed
3 x Destroyers, class not specified

Unnamed
2 x Corvettes, class not specified

Unnamed
Boom Defense Ship
No details provided

United States

Unnamed
Several Destroyers

USS Blakely (DD-150) (Real Ship)
Wickes Class destroyer
Details as per the real ships

USS Mercy (AH-8) (Real Ship)
Comfort Class Hospital Ship
Details as per the real ships
Sunk during course of the novel

USS Refuge (AH-11) (Real Ship)
Hospital Ship
Details as per the real ship
Sunk during course of the novel

Japan

Mikuni
Sixth Myoko Class Cruiser
10 8 inch guns (Twin turrets A,B,C,X & Y)
6 4.7 inch guns
8 47mm guns
'Many' 25mm guns
8 24 inch torpedo tubes
32 knots
Note: Class not given in novel, assumed on basis of armament. Description of this ship in novel states that she carries 21 inch torpedo tubes firing 'Black Lance' torpedos. I am assuming this is a mistake and have corrected for the actual weapons.

Unnamed
9 Hatsuharu Class Destroyers
5 5 inch guns, 6 torpedo tubes
Note: The real Hatsuharu Class consisted of 6 ships. For the torpedo armament see Mikuni entry above.

Unnamed
Junsen Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships.

Plot summary: It is the latter half of WWII, as MacArthur gears up for his next big offensive, the Japanese slip a raiding force into the trans-Pacific supply lines.

Notes: This novel is very hard to pin down to a specific time period, but it cannot be earlier than September 1944, that is when the first Battle Class Destroyer (HMS Barflur) reached the Pacific Theater. That also assumes the 'big offensive' is the assault on the Philippines which began in late October 1944. This novel was the first by this author that I'd encountered in hardcover. The un-credited cover depicts one of the Japanese attacks.

 

[Graham1973]

J. E. MacDonnell, Repel Boarders, 1963

Australia

HMAS Wind Rode
J, K & N Class Destroyer?
Details as per the real ships
Note: Also appears in several other of the authors many novels. On the two covers I have (1963 & 1967) the destroyer is depicted as having pennant number G46. In WWI this pennant number was held by HMS Stuart (Later HMAS Stuart (F00)). In WWII the pennant number was held by two ships, HMS Juno, a J Class destroyer sunk in 1941 and HMS Swift an S Class destroyer sunk in 1944.

Japan

Unnamed
Junsen Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships.

Unnamed
Junsen Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships.

Plot summary: In the lead up to Operation Oboe 6 (The Brunei landings, 10 June 1945) a botched attempt to sink a Japanese submarine by ramming leads to a wild boarding action and the loss of the captain overboard. Captured by another Japanese submarine, can he keep quiet long enough for the landings to take place.

 

[Graham1973]

J. E. MacDonnell (Pen name: James MacNeil), Mettle at Woomera, 1962?

United Kingdom

HMS Scorpion
Destroyer, class not specified, described as 'experimental'
3000 tons
6 4.5 inch guns (Twin turrets A,B & X)
Unspecified anti-aircraft weapons
Torpedoes
Depth charges
Steam turbines, 60,000 horsepower
48 knots
Note: Not fitted with guided missiles or helipad. Appearance probably not too different from a Daring Class Destroyer

HMS MTB-445
Motor Torpedo Boat
Details as per actual ships
Note: HMS Scorpion's ships boat

'Communists' (Russia?)

Raratonga
Armed Merchant Cruiser
10 'guns' (Five a side)
No other details provided

Plot summary: In this 'Boys Own Adventure' someone is diverting missiles fired from Woomera from their intended splashdown point, looks like a job for the Royal Navy's Special Service Division...

Note: This book is the third in a series ('Captain Mettle, V.C.'/'Mettle Dives Deep'/'Mettle at Woomera'). When I stumbled across this at a charity shop, this was the only book of the three on the shelf. There is no publication date on the book, but a handwritten note on the inside cover wishes a past owner "Happy Christmas 1962'.

Later: Recently I've discovered that in 1979 Australian pulp fiction publisher Horwitz re-issued the first novel in the series 'Captain Mettle V.C.' and this novel in both hardback and paperback under the true authors name and in the case of this novel an altered title 'Weapon Raid'. The second novel was not re-issued, which does suggest that more than one author may lie behind the 'James MacNeil' pen name.

The attached cover is from the 1979 paperback re-issue of the story.

 

[Graham1973]

John Wingate, Jimmy-The-One: A Submariner Sinclair Story, 1960

United Kingdom

HMS Rugged
S Class Submarine
Details as per the real ships.

HMS Rapid
S Class Submarine?
Details as per the real ships.
Name clash with an R Class Destroyer launched in July 1942.

Germany

U-93
Type VIIC U-Boat
Details as per the real ships.
Note: Name of a Type VIIC that was sunk by a destroyer on the 15th of January 1942. In the novel she is captured by HMS Rugged off Taranto in the weeks leading up to the Second Battle of El-Alamein. After being renumbered 'U-679' by the British the submarine is used for covert operations.

Plot summary: A newly promoted officer finds himself involved in intrigue in the weeks leading up to 2nd El-Alamein. This is another 'Boys Own Adventure' book, however, unlike the previous one, this book feels much more grounded in reality.