Gallia- wrote:Why re-engine a shitty old battleship when you can just make new ones though? Which is what the US actually did.
Anyway real fast battleships are 30 knots.
In actual fact, to one degree or another the majority if not all the Dreadnoughts built by the major nations that remained in service post signing of the
WNT had undergone propulsion modifications in the 1920s and 1930s. Sometimes that meant just replacing the coal-fired boilers for newer more powerful oil burning ones other times it meant a complete revamp of the propulsion system of the ship from the boilers to the propellers themselves.
As to why, as it concerns what I'm thinking doing historically for my nation, hence what prompted the question, an increase in speed would offer an increase in the overall battleline maneuver speed which in turn would in theory allow additional tactical options in battle.
Correction: I think you meant that real fast battleships are 33+ knots.
Dtn wrote:how do you re-engine a ship without replacing the engines
Joking aside, depending on how into semantics you wish to get one could reengine a vessel without replacing the engines. For example, if you just replace the propellers, a key part of a vessel's propulsion system, that could technically be considered reengining without you know replacing any part of the engines.
Dtn wrote:Getting a Standard battleship up to 25 knots would mean replacing everything and probably lengthening the ship considerably.
Any cost savings would be from using an identical plant to whatever contemporary battleship or carrier is under construction at the time if possible.
28 knots is pretty lol
Depending on the specific year, a lengthening of the vessel might not be required especially if one is willing to accept a slightly lower speed upgrade, say to 25 knots from 21 knots vs trying to achieve 27/28 knots.
If in this alternate timeline I have in mind multiple classes of Standard battleships will undergo this propulsion modification, even if some of the machinery is different from the contemporary battleship/carrier currently under construction, some cost savings should still be possible. I'm just not sure which would be more cost effective.
So for the Standards, besides identical replacement of the boilers, would it be better or more cost effective to replace the turbo-electric drive system with a newer more powerful turbo-electric drive able to handle the increase power output of the newer boilers or just completely replace the turbo-electric drive for a geared turbine system like that found on the North Carolina and Yorktown classes?