Shipbucket

Greetings,

Here is the first of what I hope will be a series of ships from my alternate timeline where the United Kingdom of the Netherlands survives into the 20th Century. Enjoy!



Zeeland Class Armored Cruisers
Displacement: 10,055t standard, 10,803t normal, 11,402t full load
Dimensions: 135.0m wl, 137.3m oa x 20.0m beam x 7.7m draft (light)
Machinery: 3-shaft VTE; 12 Schulz-Thornycroft boilers; 23,437ihp = 22.0kkts. Coal = 1,347t. Range 5,500nm at 10kts
Armor: 75-150mm belt, 40-60mm deck, 90-180mm main turrets, 180mm barbettes, 50mm secondary turrets, 50mm casemates, 25mm 7.5cm gun shields, 150mm CT
Armament: 8-21cm/45 SK L/45 (2 x 2, 4 x 1), 10-15cm/45 SK L/45 (10 x 1), 12-7.5cm/55, 3-45.7cm TT (submerged).
Complement: 529-688
Ships in class: Zeeland, Overijssel, Gelderland, Drenthe
Commissioned: 1907-1908
History: These ships were the final incarnation of the Dutch armored cruiser. A progressive improvement on the previous Friesland class, the new ships carried four 210mm main guns in two twin turrets mounted fore and aft with four single 210mm wing turrets instead of the six single turrets of their predecessors. As with previous classes, all secondary guns were clustered amidships with four of the 150mm weapons installed in turrets for the first time with the remainder in casemate mounts.
As with previous classes, the guns were supplied by the Krupp Works in Germany while the ships were constructed in Dutch yards. They featured three-shaft propulsion for the first time – four cylinder triple expansion reciprocating engines providing a top speed of 22 knots. Coal bunkers were sufficient for a maximum range of 5,500 nautical miles at 10 knots.
After completion, these ships rotated between the Home Fleet and the East Indies Squadron – with two ships assigned to each at any time. Although powerful warships when first commissioned, they remained a credible deterrent to potential aggressors for only a few years. By 1912, intelligence on the new Japanese capital ships (Kongo class) then under construction had reached Holland and greatly alarmed the VKM Naval Ministry. Realizing the Zeeland’s would be completely outclassed by the new ships, the Ministry accelerated its program (begun in 1908) to develop similar heavy warships. The result was the Reinier Claeszen class of battlecruisers.
Although rendered obsolete by the introduction of true capital ships, the Zeeland’s nevertheless continued to serve in the Dutch Navy throughout the Great War – usually as flagships of independent strike forces or as heavy scouts for the battle fleet.
Two of the class was lost during the conflict; Overijssel sank on February 2, 1916 after striking a mine, and Drenthe was lost with most of her crew during the Channel Clash on June 22, 1917 while scouting ahead of the main German/Dutch combined force. Overhauled by the British battlecruisers HMS Tiger and HMS Queen Mary, which were screening the main Allied battle line, Drenthe was quickly overwhelmed by 13.5” gunfire but managed to send her location and information on the Allied fleet back to the German flagship before being sunk. Overall commander of the Combined High Seas Fleet; Admiral von Steinitz, later crediting Drenthe’s crew for providing the intelligence that helped ensure the win in the resulting battle that finally broke the British/American blockade – allowing the Central Powers access to the Atlantic and eventually securing, if not outright victory, the ceasefire that ended the war.
After the war formally ended in 1918, the two surviving ships continued to serve in the postwar fleet and despite obsolescence, were modernized during the early Twenties. Elevation was increased to 25 degrees on all main turrets – increasing the range of their guns, anti-torpedo bulges were fitted, and oil-fired boilers were installed. This bought them a few more years of service, but inevitably, both ships were placed in reserve following the commissioning of the first Dutch heavy cruisers (see Rotterdam class) and were finally broken up during 1932-1933.

Cheers!
StealthJester

I like the ship looks plausible, but the waffle raises a few points ? Why would anybody rebuild a AC at 22 Kn in the 20s ? (and how would you defeat RN/USN but that’s your AU).

JSB

You raise some good points, JSB; let me take a shot at addressing them.

As to the Great War (our timeline’s WWI):
Viewing the Channel Clash in context with the Great War as a whole, I look at it like I would if Japan had won the Battle of Midway; as a temporary strategic advantage which the Central Powers exploited.
They used the opportunity to disrupt and delay the deployment of US troops into France, reinforce their ships in the Far-East, and position heavy warships in the Mediterranean where they could back up their allies the Austro-Hungarian Empire and confront the French and Italian navies. With the fighting stalemated on land to a greater extent than in our timeline (Imperial Russia withdrew its forces to fight Lenin’s Communist Revolution a year earlier than historically – allowing the Central Powers to focus all their attention West), this conflict was much more a war at sea and it was France’s losses in the war (nearly half their active battleships) that forced them to realize their position was bleak and led them to put out peace feelers (in my timeline it was the French Navy that mutinied when confronted by the “Suicide Sortie”).

As to the modernization of the surviving Zeeland class ships, the United Netherlands’s postwar economy was not up to both replacing these ships with new units (which led to the cancellation of the Project 821 battlecruisers I will eventually post) and complete the Zeven Provincien class dreadnoughts which were still under construction at war’s end. The decision was quickly made to complete the battleships.
The reconstruction was a stopgap measure insuring some screening forces for the battle line until the funds became available for the Dutch to build Treaty cruisers later in the decade (the United Netherlands was a signatory in my timeline’s Washington Naval Treaty).

Cheers!
StealthJester

I don't get what you mean exactly, but:
- first japan was on the french/british side in world war one,
- second battle of midway was a world war two battle.......

_________________
"You can rape history, if you give her a child"
Alexandre Dumas

JE SUIS CHARLIE

Re my comment on modernization,

I don’t think keeping them is totally imposable but spending the money to modernize them probably is, they cant fight any WW1 dreadnought (lots of ships available and even with modernized guns they will lose badly) and cant outrun them (22Kn and old engines) this is just spending a lot of money to set them up to die (IMO).
If you want to keep them just keep them as colonial gunboats (cheap and accept they cant fight anything powerful).

JSB

A valid observation...

At this point my universe is not set in stone - I can easily see the Dutch (who retained a number of obsolete vessels after WWI in our timeline) sending these ships off to rot in the East Indies as "Colonial Defense Ships". You are right in pointing out that the VKM's limited budget (not as limited as in our timeline, of course) must be spent carefully.
With armored cruisers surplanted by battlecruisers they wouldn't modernize anything they didn't have to (at any rate, by this time several "real" capital ships would be available) and instead would more effort into improving their screening forces (light and scout cruisers and destroyers).

StealthJester