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TzoliIn early part of 1908 Sir John Arbuthnot Fisher, First Sea Lord of the Admiralty tried again to introduced the fast battleship into the fleet after the failure of HMS Fusion in 1905. Numerous letters between him and Sir Philip Watts as well as Reginald McKenna, First Sea Lord shows what is fisher wanted for the next construction programme: A Fast capital ship of 28knots (52km/h) eight 13,5" cannons arranged as in Neptune so superfiring pair forward with the rest on the centreline midship and aft. He thought that by using small tube boilers, considerable space could be freed up by a heavily reduced machinery space and thus quite a shortened citadel to around 98-110meters (Lion had 151meters of armoured citadel length). The resulting compact citadel as well as the use of the much more effective and reduced number of small tube boilers created a ship with long sheer forward, long quarterdeck, closely spaced turrets (Compared to Lion) and a single funnel. Fisher named her Nonpareil because it is unparalleled, without equal among the capital ships afloat, it is both as fast as a battlecruiser and as armed as no other battleship!
The second drawing shows Fishers preferred ideas of single mast and Linoleum deck
The design had the following characteristics:
Dimensions: Unknown, Likely around Lion sized so 213,4 (oa) x 27 x 7,4m
Displacement: Around 22.000tons (standard)
Armour: 229mm Belt, 25-51mm Deck
Engines: Around 70-75.000shp Parsons Steam Turbines, 4 shafts
Speed: 52km/h (28knots)
Armaments:
4x2 13,5"/45 (343mm/45) BL Mark V Light Cannons,
12x1 4"/50 (102mm/50) BL Mk VII Guns,
2-4x1 457mm Underwater torpedo tubes
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