Reasonable ATL - best RCN counter for SMS Leipzig?

There was real concern that SMS Leipzig or other units of the German Pacific Squadron would attack the British Columbia coast. The only counter was the old, small and slow HMCS Rainbow, commissioned in 1910 as the RCN's first warship.

Let's have Canada foresee this risk, consider this a priority RCN role, and in 1910 buy the best reasonably possible cruiser for its Esquimalt base. Due to resource and other limitation it's still a single ship role. So, what replaces Rainbow in Aug 1910 as a counter to the risk of German attack on British Columbia?

My suggestions:

Challenger class, like that sold to Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger-class_cruiser

Unlikely - new Town class. Unlikely as Britain wants these for itself, so 1910 purchase for RCN is not possible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town-class_cruiser_(1910)
 
Do you need anything like that big a ship to fight SMS Leipzig ? (she only has 10x 105mm guns) apart from speed Rainbow should be equal.

So if you only want to fight rainbow then I would just buy a cheaper Topaze class ? (Leipzig cant afford to fight a equal battle without any bases nearby and Topaze is much cheaper and a little faster than a Challenger class)

The problem is do you know it will only be Leipzig or might you have to fight all of SMS Scharnhorst and friends? (buy an early BCs ?)
 
What the RN really wanted was for the RCN to operate a Fleet Unit of one battlecruiser, three light cruisers and six destroyers out of Esquimault. The Australia and New Zealand were intended to be the core of their respective countries' Fleet Units, so a Canadian battlecruiser ordered in 1909 and commissioned in 1911 is just about plausible on timescales - though not politically.

Something akin to the New Zealand situation where the Dominion supplied the lighter ships and the Royal Navy the battlecruiser is more palatable. That would require the Canadians to procure three Town-class cruisers and six destroyers.

The intent was, of course, to form an effective counter to large surface raiders. The one time the Fleet Unit concept was implemented - the Australia and her consorts in 1914 - it proved highly effective at constraining the movements of the German East Asia Squadron and driving them east. A Canadian Fleet Unit to the east could conceivably have cut them off in the Eastern Pacific, averting the disaster of Coronel.
 
What the RN really wanted was for the RCN to operate a Fleet Unit of one battlecruiser, three light cruisers and six destroyers out of Esquimault.
British Columbia was still considered very much a low priority for the new RCN, so if the RCN has a battlecruiser and a quarter dozen light cruisers, they're not going to be based in the Pacific. Destroyers are needed for convoy work in the Atlantic.

What we're looking for is the best reasonable protected or light cruiser to counter possible attack from the German Pacific Squadron.
 
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The problem is do you know it will only be Leipzig or might you have to fight all of SMS Scharnhorst and friends? (buy an early BCs ?)
I suppose if the armoured cruisers arrive, Rainbow or our new cruiser would need to withdraw to coordinate with the shore batteries.

However, I'd think it would be unlikely to send the heavies or a larger force to British Columbia when a single or two light cruisers could do the same job, that of distracting Canada's Atlantic and ETO focus.
 

cpip

Gone Fishin'
Well, first you have to (a) confirm that the RCN is going to be a thing which exists (as it's being debated intensively during this period -- see the various Naval bills of the period, including the failed Naval Aid Bill of 1913), and then (b) actually get the RCN some funding.

Assuming those things as a handwave -- including crewing the ship, as Rainbow and Niobe both went undermanned on occasion, to the point where it was alleged at certain points that they simply could not go to sea - then I suppose they could've bought Challenger as a match for Australia's buying Encounter.

Failing that, there's not too many options available at the moment: one of Niobe's sisters in the Diadem class would be about the only other easily available option.
 

CalBear

Moderator
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Going a bit out of the box, how about an American built Armored Cruiser of the Tennessee class?

22 knots, 2x2 10" (254mm) main battery, 16x1 6" (152mm) secondary battery 22x1 3" (76mm) quickfire guns and 4 21" torpedo tubes or a ship of the earlier Pennsylvania class which was less well armed but still an overmatch for Leipzig.
 
Tennessee class will be more than a bit expensive 887 officers and men and 23,000 ihp.

by comparison,
SMS Leipzig 288 officers and enlisted men 10,000ihp 22Kn
HMCS Rainbow 273 to 300 (Officers and Men) engine ? 19.75Kn
HMCS Niobe 760 men 16,500–18,000 hp 20–20.5 knots
Challenger-class 490 men 12,500ihp 21Kn
Topaze with 318 men and 9,800 ihp 21.75-23.4 knots

Personally the only thing wrong with Rainbow is its speed I don't think you need to be any better than Leipzig to force her not to fight you when she is 1000s of miles from a base, resupply or help (and she will not be running at full speed due to lack of coal and fouling anyway)
I therefore like the Topaze class as cheaper but still likely to draw with SMS Leipzig.
HMCS Niobe would have destroyed Leipzig but she is too slow and damaged and on the other side of Canada....


Having looked closer a few options that might be attractive to Canada in 1910 ?

Cheap and crap ?
Pelorus-class 224men 7,000ihp 20Kn could be got cheap as the RN disliked them ! They are useless but I don't think SMS Leipzig can realistically beat two (or one without taking too much damage to carry on raiding) and you might be able to buy 2 for the price of any other ship ;).

Money no object ?
Town class 310–480men 22,000–25,000ihp 25-27Kn
I sure they could have build more if Canada was willing to pay GB had a huge shipbuilding industry and pre war it was exporting widely any dominion would have preference over selling to south America, Europe or Japan.
You could have manned 3 for the crew of the 2 OTL ships she will likely win v SMS Leipzig.

Hindsight ?
Cressy, Hogue and Aboukir could all be given to Canada and the RN would be better off than OTL all would easily kill SMS Leipzig and 21Kn might be sufficient if they have more coal and cleaner hulls.

Go large/revenge ?
HMS Monmouth or Good Hope would be faster and way more powerful.
 
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