The Ridderschap van Holland-class battlecruisers were a two-ship class of battlecruisers (Dutch: slagkruiser) ordered by the Netherlands immediately prior to the First World War as part of the ambitious Battleshipplan 1912 fleet expansion program.The ships were laid down by the shipbuilding division of the Bethlehem Steel corporation, but before final fitting-out could be completed, both hulls were nationalized by the United States government following American entry into the war in April 1917, and the ships were provisionally commissioned as USS Alliance and USS Merrimack in early 1918. They were not particularly well-liked by the United States Navy, as the high-speed capital ships did not fit well into established fleet doctrine and had a number of peculiarities (such as entirely metric fittings and gauges) that necessitated considerable retraining for the officers and crew. As a result, they were retained in home waters for training instead of being sent with Battleship Division Nine across the Atlantic to serve with the Royal Navy. Following the end of the war, both ships were quickly placed in reserve, and became the subject of a prolonged international legal battle that dragged into the early 1920s. The Dutch-American Mixed Arbitral Tribunal awarded both ships to the government of the Netherlands as partial settlement for lost payment, interest and damages accrued when the ships were seized, and they were commissioned into the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1926 as Hr.Ms. Ridderschap van Holland and Hr.Ms. Gouden Leeuw.
Background[]
Design[]
Description[]
S&CB No. 00918, B. Cruiser, Preliminary - "Holland" (which would eventually become the Ridderschap van Holland-class battlecruiser) was broadly similar to the New Mexico-class superdreadnought design that had immediately preceded it. At 615 feet (187.45 m) between perpendiculars, it was 15 feet (4.57 m) longer than the New Mexico-class despite a lower design displacement. Reflecting the requirement for higher speed than the American standard type, the hull was both narrower than the older ships at 82 feet (24.99 m) waterline beam, and had finer lines with an overall block coefficient of 0.636 at normal load. The ship would displace no more than 27,500 long tons as designed - a figure selected to match but not exceed that of the Kongō-class battlecruiser supplied by Vickers to Japan - and would draw a maximum depth of 31 feet 3 inches (9.53 m) at full combat load. Like the New Mexico-class, it was designed with a raked clipper bow to keep the forecastle dry in rough weather, and below the waterline a prominent "Taylor Bow" protrusion was included to improve hydrodynamic efficiency.
Propulsion[]
Each of the four propeller shafts was powered by a 14,920 kilowatt electric motor, fed by five Westinghouse two-phase turbo generators rated at 5,000 volts each. Sixteen oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers, arranged in eight separate watertight compartments, provided steam for the generators. The ship's power plant was rated at 80,000 electrical horsepower (EHP) to provide a maximum flank speed of 26.5 knots (31 mph; 49 km/h). With a bunker capacity of up to 3,093 long tons No. 6 Fuel Oil, the Ridderschap van Holland-class could steam without refueling for 8,500 nautical miles (9,782 mi; 15,742 km) at the required cruise speed of 12 knots (14 mph; 22 km/h). With turbo-electric transmission, the turbines were always run at optimum speed regardless of speed of the ship, resulting in greater fuel economy and range, and the lack of a mechanical connecting shaft between the turbines and propellers allowed greater subdivision of the machinery spaces, improving resistance to underwater damage. This system was widely employed on American capital ships starting with USS New Mexico and continuing through the Tennessee-class and Colorado-class.
Armament[]
The primary armament of the Ridderschap van Holland-class consisted of eight 50-caliber 14-inch Mark 4 guns, mounted in four superfiring two-gun turrets. The turrets had an elevation capability of −5/+15 degrees as originally designed, which was later increased to −5/+30 degrees by countersinking the guns deeper into the barbettes, similar to modifications performed on the Tennessee-class while under construction. These turrets represented a considerable improvement on the previous American style used for the Pennsylvania-class and earlier ships - the guns were mounted on independent slides (although they could be locked together to elevate) and were more widely spaced to minimize blast interference. Each turret had its own 50 horsepower hydraulic training motor, 50 horsepower hydraulic elevation motor, and two 90 horsepower ramming motors. Although the swash-plate hydraulic motors allowed smoother and more precise control than the electric motors commonly used on European capital ships, the rammers were considered somewhat underpowered and required the guns to be returned to zero-degree elevation to load. Two electric upper and lower hoists supplied each turret, one per gun, allowing a loading cycle of 35-45 seconds at maximum elevation. 46 shells were stored on their bases in the rotating structure below the turret, with 22 "ready rounds" in the turret itself. 132 additional shells were stored in the ring bulkhead on the same level as the shell room, with shells and powder passing through an armored tube to the turret proper.