More Ship Building

We interrupt the Little Great War narrative with the announcement from the Admiralty that the Ruberian Navy has commissioned 3 more line-of-battle ships, expanding the fleet to three battle squadrons. These are:

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  RMS Centurion

  
  



RMS Majestic

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RMS Canopus. I used a different construction method
for the masts and fighting tops for this one.

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The three battle squadrons will now comprise:

Commanding in Chief: Admiral Sir Jno Jellibene

First Battle Squadron - Weatherby Jack, Vice-Admiral of the White 

RMS Thunderer  Devastation

RMS Sans Pareil Victorious

RMS  Admiral Hood  Admiral Hawke (flag)

Second Battle Squadron - Lord Galesforth Mower, Rear-Admiral of the Blue
RMS Royal Sovereign
RMS Centurion
RMS Majestic (flag)

Second Battle Squadron: Royal Sovereign (leading),
Majestic, and Centurion

Third Battle Squadron - Sir Windermere Auger, Vice-Admiral of the Red
RMS Canopus
RMS Commonwealth (flag)
RMS Agamemnon

There is a chronology to these: 1st Sqn 1870s-1880s; 2nd Sqn early to mid 1890s; 3rd Sqn late 1890s - early 1900s. Second Squadron features side-by-side pairs of funnels; 3rd Sqn fore-and-aft pairs. Third Squadron is slightly more powerful than the 2nd; both much more powerful than the 1st.

There will be added 17th Destroyer Flotilla: S17, R21, R30

Of course, there will have to be a commensurate increase in the establishment of the Azurian Navy.  The Azurian Admiralty is thinking of more powerful units than it already has, something like Suffren and Republique, which might be a match, more or less, with some of the more modern Ruberian vessels. A couple more or so torpedo boats will have to be built, too, of course. So the Azurian navy will comprise 7 battleships, 1 armoured cruiser (a small one), 6 torpedo boats (or possibly 8) and 2 inshore gunboats.

A note on the names of the commanders of the battle squadrons. 
Have you ever heard of Sir Cloudesley Shovell? He served in the Royal Navy from 1663 to 1707, rising from cabin boy  to Admiral of the Fleet. He was killed in a shipwreck.
His is a name to conjure with, hence the names of my Ruberian admirals.

 
A couple of ship captains also enter my Ruberian dramatis personae navalis:
Captain Horatio Trumpeter - Protected cruiser Endymion Eurybia
Captain Richard Trevanion - Armoured cruiser Warrior

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Meanwhile - the narrative of the Norromandy Beach Landing - Operation Archduke - is taking rather longer to get itself written. The pics have been uploaded, and one of them labelled; and the landing map also done. It remains to write up the D-Day action.