feasibility of keeping WW I battleships around for WW II.

[Admiral Beez]

I'd love to see U.S.S. Olympia moved to a "dryer" dock myself.
I hope you're not disappointed by my stock choice of an RN ship for preservation, H.M.S. Warspite.

That's why I asked about your pick of those British battleships scrapped in the 1920s. Warspite is a given otherwise. Though berthing such a big ship in the UK would be an issue.

My favourite period of British battleships is the late Victoria period, starting with the genesis of all high freeboard pre-dreadnoughts, the Royal Sovereign class. In those days of the Pax Britannica the Royal Navy's battleships and cruisers were brightly painted in white and buff on black hulls. As such I would have liked to have kept Admiral Fisher's favourite flagship, HMS Renown, scrapped in 1913/14. She was smaller and lighter armed than the Royal Sovereign class, but at 200ft shorter and only 9ft wider than the museum ship HMS Belfast, Renown is ideally scaled for economical display in 2024 in her original Victorian colour scheme. And who wouldn't want to take a seat in Fisher's opulent cabin shown below?

I belong to a R/C model ship club and one day I will buy and build the pre-dreadnought HMS Magnificent from Deans Marine.

HMS Magnificent, Deansmarine

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlWfl28gVzg

 

[SaparotRob]

Beautiful model.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Beautiful model.

Agreed. One day I will get to visit the closest thing to a RN predreadought, the British-built IJNS Mikasa.

IJN Battleship Mikasa: A Photo Guide

Discover IJN Battleship Mikasa, Japan's hero of the Russo-Japanese war. Uncover the ship's history and its huge guns.

tokyo-in-pics.com

Mikasa is preserved in concrete. This is an interesting way to avoid corrosion while still supporting the hull.

It would not surprise if there are more British-built warship museums outside of the UK than in their country of origin. For example, the revolutionary turret ship Huascar in Chile would be very nice to visit. Here in Canada I can think of four British-built warship museums (HMCS Haida, Sackville, Ojibwa and Onondaga).

 

[SaparotRob]

Mikasa is on my bucket list.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Mikasa is on my bucket list.

I fear we may be disappointed, as access appears to be just the bridge and upper deck structure.


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NHFqITqVLP0&pp=ygULSWpucyBtaWthc2E%3D

 

[SaparotRob]

If I remember correctly, that's all I could see on U.S.S. Olympia.

 

[Admiral Beez]

If I remember correctly, that's all I could see on U.S.S. Olympia.

In that case it probably wasn't safe due to corrosion and risk of sinking. In Mikasa's case i believe she was stripped out in the 1940s, see below. I don't think there's anything left below the upper deck nor inside the turrets - assuming the turrets are not empty reproductions.

 

[Admiral Beez]

What of the Bayern-class? Had they both survived their visit to Scapa Flow (one was salvaged) and gone to Italy as reparations (to assuage their frustrations at Versailles, where many Italians felt that the concessions did not meet the promises made in the 1915 Treaty of London) what would they look like by the 1940s?

Of course we must set aside our contrarian tendencies that are now shouting that there's no way Britain, France, USA or even Japan would allow Italy to get Germany's super dreadnoughts in the Treaty of Versailles and later WNT. I chose Italy as they're the nation where such 15" armed ships would be a big impact of their otherwise 12" armed battlefleet. The question here isn't if Italy getting the Bayerns is feasible, but if they would be useful in WW2.

The Bayerns are rather short and wide battleships, so made for short ops - ideal for the MTO. Would we see the Italians lengthen the bows and replace the machinery in order to take these 21 knot ships to over 25 knots to sail alongside the modernized Cavours and Dorias? What about extending the stern to improve the Speed/length ratio? And lastly, thoughts on adding speed-killing buldges? The Italians skipped that on other dreadnought modernizations.