Comments by "Vikki McDonough" (@vikkimcdonough6153) on "A ship that refused to die - USS Marblehead, her crew and a voyage around the world" video.
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Could/would semidreadnoughts have been made more useful by converting them into dreadnoughts, where possible (AFAICT, this would've been possible for four classes: the Lord Nelsons, Radetzkys, Dantons, and Satsumas, giving broadsides of six, six, seven, and eight 12" guns, respectively), or else into second-class dreadnoughts (replacing a mixed battery of twelves and eight-to-nineishes with a uniform 10-inch battery)? For instance, would a Lord Nelson be more useful with a broadside of six 12" guns (replacing the twin 9.2s with single twelves) or eleven 10" guns (replacing the 9.2s one-for-one with tens and swapping out the twin twelves for triple tens), or a Danton more useful with a broadside of seven 12-inchers (replacing the twin 9.4s with single twelves), or a Connecticut more useful with a broadside of eight 10-inchers (replacing the twin twelves with triple tens and the twin eights with single tens), than in their original forms? All of these conversions would've exchanged a mixed-caliber broadside (with its attendant shell-spotting, etc., difficulties) for a uniform all-big-gun main battery, and any decrease in broadside weight would've been (a) slight, and (b) easily-countered by using slightly-heavier shells (in none of the cases I've examined would the shells've had to've been even as much as 10% heavier).
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