Comments by "Doug JB" (@dougjb7848) on "The Drydock - Episode 256" video.

  1.  @lord-OdinClaw  Fastest way? Increase the length:beam (most likely by cutting 3m off the beam), downgrade the main guns to triple 16”, and shave half inch off the main belt and deck, put that weight into propulsion, and improve the hull form — a lot — and you might exceed 30kts. But I assume your question assumes we’re not reducing the main gun and armor size, since that was the Yam’s claim to fame. In that case, downgrade the secondary battery to 5” (127mm) guns in dual turrets, five turrets per beam, reduce main gun ammo load by 5 rounds/gun, reduce float plane stowage to 3. The reduction in ship mass, plus reduction in crew needed (which yields its own reduction in mass and volume needed for berthing and stores) gives more room for machinery. And you’d still have to really, really improve the hull form.
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  2.  @Thirdbase9  I think not. The 1908 Blucher showed there was no point to a capital ship with even a crazy number of <capital ship-size guns. Sure they might be pretty good at beating up cruisers and smaller — given the greater volume of outbound kaboom — but they would be useless against capital ships, and the whole point of capital ships is to fight against other capital ships.
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  3.  @Thirdbase9  The naval world saw what happens when you force a ship intended and designed to “kill the weaker and flee the stronger” to fight the stronger, which is what inevitably happens to battlecruisers. They’re usually the same cost as a battleship of same era. No navy could guarantee their battlecruisers would only-ever fight the weaker, and no navy could afford to have an entire class-group of capital ships as expensive as the strongest, but which would always have to flee the strongest.
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  4.  @nowthenzen  Unless you’re way faster, or somehow achieve an outlier level of tactical surprise, by the time you’ve closed to your guns’ effective range you’re already getting hit by larger guns doing more damage.
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  5. Wrought / forged. Casting steel pieces that large was a long ways off yet.
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