Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "The Drydock - Episode 203" video.

  1. With regard to cannibalizing pre-dreadnoughts to built speed up the construction of 1st-generation dreadnoughts...that's more viable for other nations besides the UK. The US Navy, for example, had a total of 8 pre-dreadnoughts that used the same 12"/45 twin turrets as the South Carolina, Delaware, and Florida classes. And the Mississippi-class despite being the newest of America's pre-dreadnoughts were quite bad ships due to being seriously undersized, so stealing their turrets to build a 3rd South Carolina (or perhaps also stealing their 9" belt armor and making a battlecruiser version of the South Carolinas, to help with the US Navy's critical shortage of any real scouting force) seems like it could've been a good idea. Similarly, when Japan was building the Satsuma-class as semi-dreadnoughts because of their shortage of 12"/45 guns, there were a total of 4 armored cruisers and 3 pre-dreadnoughts either in service or under construction that each had a pair of 12"/45 twin turrets of their own. It seems to be that at the very least Aki (Satsuma's turbine-powered sister ship) should've been built as a proper dreadnought by cancelling Mikasa's upgrade to 12"/45s and delaying the armored cruiser Kurama in the same way that the British did with Lord Nelson and Agamemnon.
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  2.  @stevevalley7835  Particularly since a heavier 2,250 lb shell was designed for the Nelsons' guns, just never implemented because that would cost more money that just going through all the already-built lightweight shells. It probably wouldn't have been hard to adapt the Nelsons' 16"/45 Mk I guns to fire the 2,375 lb shell that was planned for the Lions' 16"/45 Mk IV. As for old 13.5" twin turrets...the best use for those would be if you were going to build a small battlecruiser to server as a "cruiser-killer". Instead of using the old 13.5" guns, instead adapt the turrets for any spare 14"/45 Mk VII barrels (like the pair of coastal guns at Dover) for ammunition commonality with the KGVs. IIRC, the 14" Mk VII was actually designed to be able to drop into those turrets, because originally they planned to use Iron Duke (then demilitarized as a gunnery training ship) to test the guns at sea while the KGVs were still under construction.
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