Two G3 'battlecruisers' instead of HMS Nelson, HMS Rodney and HMS Tiger (PoD 4pm 14/12/1921).

[Navigator]

During the discussions regarding the Five Power Treaty between 12 November 1921 and 6 February 1922, it became clear that the IJN were determined to retain Mutsu and that the British ships were, on average, the oldest. By 30 November 1921 the parties were in deadlock. To thrash out a compromise, the three main parties held a series of semi-clandestine meetings. Proceedings were recorded by Maurice Hankey, who was the only outsider present. On 14 December 1921 Charles Hughes (US), Arthur Balfour (UK) and Kato Tomosaburo (Jp) met in Hughes' home to debate the actual ships that would make up their agreed 5/5/3 ratio. One of their first agreements was to classify capital ships as pre-Jutland or post-Jutland, given that battle's effect on the appreciation of naval commanders to the threat of plunging shells fired at longer ranges.

Hughes proposed finishing USS Colorado and USS Washington. Balfour protested; the Royal Navy had nothing comparable and, even with all the changes during construction, HMS Hood wasn't the ship that would have been built to a purely post-Jutland design. If the US had their two new ships, he wanted two of the new battlecruisers that had just been laid down and a gradual replacement programme of older ships rather than a 10 year moratorium. Even Balfour wasn't aware that the 8" armour which had been openly ordered wasn't the ships' thick belt armour, but the deck plating. The belt was a massive 14" and the turret fronts 17½". The ships were armoured against 18" armour piercing shells, which were being developed by all three nations until the 16" calibre limit was agreed. These were not the battlecruisers they were being sold as. They were the very first modern fast battleships, as revolutionary as HMS Dreadnought had been 15 years previously but with the improvements well hidden below the skin.

Kato was impassive. He stated that he had received no specific instructions on that point but was personally in favour of adopting Balfour's counter-proposal.

Around 4pm Hughes insisted that the two new ships would disrupt his harmonious 'parity calculations' under the 5/5/3 agreement. Britain would have to scrap HMS Tiger, as well as those ships already agreed, or build to the 35,000 ton limit. Not knowing the true nature of the new design, Balfour considered the loss of HMS Tiger too great a sacrifice and reluctantly conceded.

 PoD

Balfour states that he is unable to do as Kato did and make that choice without consultation. The meeting adjourns. He receives a reply to the proposal from Beatty at the Admiralty.

"Sacrifice Tiger. Try to get incremental construction. No moratorium."

 Next

1) The further discussions around the "battleship holiday".
2) How the contracts with the shipbuilders changed after the PoD and what that meant for the costs of the G3 programme.

David.

 

[Navigator]

Fellow authors,

I'm sorry that it has been nearly a month since I updated this, but I'm glad to see that it's generated a healthy volume of (generally) friendly debate. Here's a recap of the PoD and the early story. The next scene will be along soon.

David.

Outline:

During the discussions regarding the Five Power Treaty between 12 November 1921 and 6 February 1922, it became clear that the IJN were determined to retain Mutsu and that the British ships were, on average, the oldest. By 30 November 1921 the parties were in deadlock. To thrash out a compromise, the three main parties held a series of semi-clandestine meetings. Proceedings were recorded by Maurice Hankey, who was the only outsider present. On 14 December 1921 Charles Hughes (US), Arthur Balfour (UK) and Kato Tomosaburo (Jp) met in Hughes' home to debate the actual ships that would make up their agreed 5/5/3 ratio. One of their first agreements was to classify capital ships as pre-Jutland or post-Jutland, given that battle's effect on the appreciation of naval commanders to the threat of plunging shells fired at longer ranges.

Hughes proposed finishing USS Colorado and USS Washington. Balfour protested; the Royal Navy had nothing comparable and, even with all the changes during construction, HMS Hood wasn't the ship that would have been built to a purely post-Jutland design. If the US had their two new ships, he wanted two of the new battlecruisers that had just been laid down and a gradual replacement programme of older ships rather than a 10 year moratorium. Even Balfour wasn't aware that the 8" armour which had been openly ordered wasn't the ships' thick belt armour, but the deck plating. The belt was a massive 14" and the turret fronts 17½". The ships were armoured against 18" armour piercing shells, which were being developed by all three nations until the 16" calibre limit was agreed. These were not the battlecruisers they were being sold as. They were the very first modern fast battleships, as revolutionary as HMS Dreadnought had been 15 years previously but with the improvements well hidden below the skin.

Kato was impassive. He stated that he had received no specific instructions on that point but was personally in favour of adopting Balfour's counter-proposal.

Around 4pm Hughes insisted that the two new ships would disrupt his harmonious 'parity calculations' under the 5/5/3 agreement. Britain would have to scrap HMS Tiger, as well as those ships already agreed, or build to the 35,000 ton limit. Not knowing the true nature of the new design, Balfour considered the loss of HMS Tiger too great a sacrifice and reluctantly conceded.

  PoD

Balfour states that he is unable to do as Kato did and make that choice without consultation. The meeting adjourns. He receives a reply to the proposal from Beatty at the Admiralty.

"Sacrifice Tiger. Try to get incremental construction. No moratorium."

 Next

1) The further discussions around the "battleship holiday".
2) How the contracts with the shipbuilders changed after the PoD and what that meant for the costs of the G3 programme.

Continuation of ATL:

Next morning Kato and Balfour arrived at the Hughes residence. Once seated with refreshments, Arthur Balfour opened proceedings.

“Thank you for providing us with a way to resolve our impasse, gentlemen. Their Lordships would like me to accept your generous offer of completing two of our new battlecruisers. They agree not to lay down any other ships exceeding 35,000 tons standard after 31 December. It just remains for us to determine a timetable for future construction. Charles, I understand that your Colorado and Washington are currently fitting out and that you will pledge not to complete West Virginia?”

“That's right, Arthur, even though she's three-fourths done.”

“I believe Mutsu is similarly close to completion?“

“Yes.” responded Kato.

Balfour looked briefly into the eyes of his two counterparts. “We are prepared to slow our construction schedules and, indeed, defer entirely the advanced construction of one ship for a period of two years if your governments are able to offer the same. Following the completion of the last of these five ships around 1928, we propose that design work and preparation of materials for future ships be restarted but that no other capital ships are laid down before the end of 1931.”

Hughes gave an odd kind of cough, whilst Kato looked as inscrutable as ever. Slowly and imperceptibly, the Japanese nobleman nodded. The two visitors looked across the table at Charles Hughes.

“Slow the fitting out of Colorado and halt all work on Washington for two years before resuming at that slow pace?”

“Yes, Charles. Do we have an agreement?”

Hughes looked strained for a moment, then his face cleared and in a determined voice he replied, “Goddamnit, Arthur, I think we do.”

Committee room of the Board of the Admiralty, 11am Tuesday 20 December 1921.

“There is possibly an agreement at the international conference,” stated the tall admiral. “DNC needs to do a little more work next week but we think the overall payments to the shipbuilders are going to total just over half the figure that we gave you in October.”

The treasury official looked unimpressed. “Eight million pounds? Plus your own costs, which will bring the total to fifteen million for two ships. You changed Hood's design a score of times and we didn’t pay much over just six million.”

“It won't be quite that much and it will be 14½ million over seven years instead of 29 million over four years. I'm sure you can sell that to the Chancellor.”

“Let me see the detailed workings.”

“I've told you, DNC hasn't finished them yet. What we're doing is pairing the firms. One pair completely on the Clyde and one pair with a Clydebank yard working with a Tyneside yard. When we looked at their capabilities, it was a natural fit which, coincidentally, puts the lowest tender with the highest. There will need to be some allowance for transportation of components, but the average tender of the separated pair was lower than that of the pair in proximity. Those are the matters that DNC will consider next week, but if I had to give you a guess then I'd say it's an extra £8,000 spread over seven years to save me from having smaller and slower ships in the fleet and you from the consequences of the companies laying off half the men in the shipbuilding industry in 1926 or 1927.”

“Hrrmnph,” grunted the treasury official. “Now you're just being melodramatic.”

Notes:

In OTL, completely new (O3) designs were needed. The two ships were laid down in 1922 and commissioned in 1927. In TTL, the ships are already laid down and HMS Invincible will be commissioned in 1926, HMS Indomitable in 1928.

DNC was the shorthand for Director of Naval Construction, at this time Sir Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt.

Chancellor is short for Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister), at this time Sir Robert Horne.

Next:

The reaction in the shipyards.

<Author's Note>

Fellow authors,

One of the first few comments that I ever read on AH is one that I espouse wholeheartedly and try to remember if a poster makes my heckles rise.

I may have paraphrased, or concatenated two posts, but the plea was:

"We're here to have fun. This is entertainment, not warfare. Let that only be engaged in by our characters and their nations, not ourselves."

Please read the story in the spirit in which it is offered and, although I know it can be difficult, without your educated knowledge of the G3 design and without your 100 years of hindsight. Only their Lordships of the Admiralty, a few senior Fleet Admirals, the Directorate of Naval Construction and the senior management at the shipyards knew what the G3 design really was. Everyone else, including Balfour himself, thought it was a state-of-the-art battlecruiser and nothing more.

David.

<end Author's Note>

Summary so far:

Hughes, Balfour & Kato meet at Hughes' home.
They agree to divide capital ships pre- or post-Jutland. HMS Hood is, uniquely, considered trans-Jutland.
The RN have no post-Jutland ships.
The RN have four new ships on order which are called battlecruisers and are similar in length, beam, displacement and (design) speed to HMS Hood. Armour has been ordered with a thickness similar to battlecruiser belt armour.

Kato (Jp) will not give up Mutsu, but is prepared to offer Settsu instead.
Hughes (US) demands Colorado and Washington if Mutsu survives.
Balfour (UK) protests that these three ships are all post-Jutland designs.
Hughes offers two of the new RN design, then hesitates and says HMS Tiger must be scrapped with other agreed tonnage or RN will have an excess.
At the design displacement, the RN would have 46,000 long tons excess over the 5/5/3 relationship, but in far older ships. If the new ships were reduced to 45,000 tons the excess would only be 40,000 long tons, less than the displacement of trans-Jutland HMS Hood.
Hughes puts a firm offer on the table: Britain can build two 35,000 ton ships and keep HMS Tiger, or two 45,000ish ton ships but lose HMS Tiger.
Kato indicates he wouldn't object to Hughes' offer if Balfour took it.

Point of Divergence:

OTL: Balfour alone makes the decision to keep HMS Tiger. ATL: Balfour consults the Admiralty that afternoon (evening in Britain) who tell him to sacrifice HMS Tiger.

 

[Navigator]

The thin faced man folded the newspaper he had bought and turned away from the small kiosk just outside the station entrance on Hope Street. An open motor carriage pulled up to the pavement alongside and the occupant spoke in a deep brogue, “Thomas, are you going to London?”

“Why, William, I am. I imagine that you're travelling to see Frederick too?”

“Yes, these new ships no doubt. There must be a major change if he wants to see you and me personally rather than just sending the new drawings or instructions up.”

“If it is something really fundamental, then Alexander ought to be travelling with us. The eight hours won't be so tedious if the three of us are in company for the journey.”

The two old friends, but industrial rivals, strode beneath the ornate portico and into the Caledonian Railway's Gordon Street station. Invernairn glanced to the right and burst into laughter, startling Bell for a moment.

“Whatever is the matter, William?”

“Our locomotive today is brand new, she only left my works last week. The London and North Western gave me an order for ninety of their Prince of Wales class.”

Bell glanced at the head of the train, noting the gleaming black engine with its gold number 557. “Is building railway engines really a substitute for ships?”

“Not a substitute, but it keeps some of the men in work between hulls.”

“William, Thomas,” said a third voice behind them. “A meeting at the Admiralty tomorrow, perchance?”

“Good morning, Alexander, shall we board gentlemen?”

As they moved towards the first class carriage, a porter who had been hovering discreetly nearby stepped forward. “This way, my Lord, I kept a compartment locked for you.”

“Thank you, young man,” replied Baron Invernairn.

The three settled down for their long journey to London. In accord with the 1896 agreement, the train ran at the same pace through the Glasgow suburbs towards the start of the climb to Beattock as that of the service of 1889. The 401½ miles to Euston would take no less than eight hours.

“Surely this fine locomotive of yours is being held back?” asked Thomas Bell.

“Yes,” agreed Invernairn, “she's more powerful than those built before the war but there's still plenty of potential for development in the boiler. There's no point exploiting that, though, as long as the railway companies keep them on a tight leash when they're in service.

“What's the pressure?”

“Quite low, only 180psi. That's a Stephenson, of course. The marine boiler in one of the fast merchantmen we're building as a war replacement is up to 240. These big cruisers will run at 200, although the design has been tested at 225 and 250 without any problems.”

“The Yarrow design?” enquired Kennedy.

“Yes, Alexander.”

“Is there scope for refining that any further than it has been?” wondered Bell.

“Not too much,” Invernairn agreed, “but I've heard that there's advanced research on a replacement type.”

“Has that actually had some finance? I've heard that numerous promises have been made without the Treasury having any intention of funding the work.”

“Might that be why we've all been invited to the Admiralty, William?”

“I doubt it, Thomas, cancellation would be a curt telegram.”

The discussion continued as 557 ran south through the open countryside beyond Beattock, dropping to the Dumfriesshire lowlands and across the border into Cumberland, whilst the air in the compartment slowly acquired the fug of pipe and cigar smoke.

Next morning, the three met by the Whitehall gate of Admiralty House. As they made polite greeting conversation, they were joined by a fourth gentleman.

“George. I won't say this is a surprise.” Invernairn had clearly been expecting their new companion.

“Good morning, William, Thomas, Alexander,” acknowledged Hunter. “Shall we enter?”

Their wait inside was brief. A junior showed them along a corridor and, opening the Third Sea Lord's door, announced: “Lord Invernairn, Sir Thomas, Sir Alexander and Sir George.”

“Thank you, Gilsome. Come in, gentlemen, come in and be seated.” effused Sir Frederick Field.

The two shipyard owners and two managers took the chairs across the desk from the admiral and waited for a hint of the day's business. It wasn't long in coming.

“As you know, there has been three months of diplomatic activity regarding new warships and the agreement which appears likely to be formally accepted next week will severely limit new construction. At one point in the negotiations we believed that we wouldn't be able to continue with any of the ships that we ordered from you. Thankfully, we have saved two of them.”

Glances were exchanged between the civilians as Sir Frederick took a breath.

“What we're proposing is a joint scheme to ensure that all of you have work for your men, but unfortunately you are not going to have a full ship each.”

“Joint?”

“Not a full ship?”

Invernairn and Hunter's questions overlapped, as Bell and Kennedy shared another meaningful look across the room.

“We would like you to work together. How exactly you wish to do that is up to you to determine, but the Treasury have agreed an extra sum to partly cover transporting materials and completed parts or sections of the ships. For the two shipyards working together on the Clyde that would present minimal problems, but for materials travelling from William's yard to George's we envisage sea passage to be preferable to rail, except for certain smaller consignments.”

Bell spoke up, “That means Alexander and I share the other.”

“Yes, I'm sure floating barges can bring consignments downriver quite easily. That's why the bulk of the extra money will go to William. With the additional funding, the Treasury have authorised £3,889,610 for each ship's hull, superstructure and machinery. Each of the companies providing the barbettes, including yours Thomas, the turrets and guns, including yours William, will supply half the original number.”

Invernairn grunted and then said, “I have the feeling of being shafted and it will be quite a feat to produce half of nine guns.”

“I'm sorry, William.” replied Field. “I understand the Chancellor was quite keen that Balfour should accept the Americans' proposal that we build none of them. In the circumstances, to have kept the option of building two seems quite fortuitous and DNC and I believe that this is the fairest way of sharing the work to make sure that none of you are left without any capital ships on your books. I can tell you that another part of the agreement is that no more are laid down until 1931.”

Kennedy's maiden contribution to the meeting was blunt. “That will hurt us as badly as losing all four of these current ships. Men will retire, or go to other construction industries, if there's no work for ten years. When we start building again, it will be with inexperienced hands.”

“There will be work. Balfour argued for a five year pause, but had to offer ten years with one hand whilst taking the two larger ships and a number of large cruisers with the other. Diplomatic horse-trading I'm afraid, gentlemen. DNC has been given the outline for the treaty cruisers, 10,000 tons, 8” guns, 32 knots, 12,000 to 15,000 miles cruising range and you'll all be getting some of those. In the meantime, work can continue at the Clydebank slip and necessary material be gathered at Wallsend. Your five guns can be made, William, but the ship itself won't see substantial progress until 1923. That's another diplomatic trade-off. Thomas and Alexander, we expect to commission your vessel in 1926 whilst William and George continue on until 1928, having spent the next year or two developing a practical system for building a ship in two places at once.”

Invernairn still looked unimpressed. “Three 10,000 ton cruisers is small recompense for losing half the work on a 48,000 ton battlecruiser.”

“It won't even be that, William. We think there will be around twenty to the treaty design and another thirty to forty of 8,000 tons for the colonies. You'll probably only have two of the treaty cruisers and three of the colony type. There just isn't the will for building the fleet up like we did before. Those Edwardian days are gone for ever. Women wear skirts that barely cover their thighs and want to vote at 21, there's insurrection in Ireland and my own command at Jutland is going to be scrapped under the terms of this treaty. Even Prince Louis is dead. The world is changing, gentlemen, and we have to accept that.”

“It's going to be hard for all of us,” acknowledged Alexander Kennedy, “but I'm prepared to work with Thomas on this.”

“Aye,” said Bell, “we'll give it a go, eh? Even those two old companies whose lines we travelled along yesterday are going to have to put aside any differences they may have and join together next year. I'm sure William and George can overcome the obstacles that will arise between Clyde and Tyne and show the world that we are as united in peacetime as we were in war.”

“What do you say, William?” asked George Hunter, “can we make this work?”

Next:

The treaty in TTL.

David.

Ooops 😊 Just noticed a tiny little word missing. Who proofread this?

 

[Navigator]

I'm still trying to work out how to present this timeline's Five-Power Treaty in narrative prose, in order to reduce the number of comments similar to the above:

"...that wasn't agreed at Washington..." "...things didn't happen like that..." "...that was done at London..." "...that'll provoke a reaction, <insert> class is going to get built..."

Until I have the narrative clear in my own head, this TL is  paused. To reassure all of you supportive readers/posters: the story isn't finished yet, it's just on hold.