Any unrealistic battleship designs?

[Stormnet]

I made this post out of curiosity. Edits are highlighted.

So you likely know of those likely written in a napkin super-battleship designs the Japanese and Germans did? The A-150 and H-39 were possible to do (and one of them was partially built), but the bigger ones (looking at you, 130,000 ton H-44) were just delusional fantasies at the time.

But that got me wondering.

We know about the WW2 fantasy ship wet-dreams (we even have them in the game) but what about WW1 super-super-dreadnoughts? Forget the WWI stuff. Tillmans were a concept. I really want to know about similar plans for "super-pre-dreadnoughts"? Weren't any overly sized designs for battleships back in those times for dreadnoughts and pre-dreadnoughts? I cant find any stuff like that, but I'm curious about it.

Do any of you got a picture or a name or anything about a overly sized project in the pre-dread/ironclad era?

EDIT: So, thanks for some of the designs, but I am really looking for big stuff in the pre-dreadnought era. Even if it isnt fantasy stuff, I wanted to what is the biggest pre-dreadnought. While Im not agaist post-dreadnought stuff, Im really just after pre-dreads. Even semi-dreadnoughts will do.

Edited May 8, 2021 by Stormnet

[SonicB]

Well, let me be the one to throw in the Tillman Battleships... Drach did a great tl;dr video on them too.
 

 

[Stormnet]

38 minutes ago, SonicB said:

Well, let me be the one to throw in the Tillman Battleships... Drach did a great tl;dr video on them too.
 

 

I did happen to know about them just before reading this. Thanks anyways.

But I am particularly interested if any pre-dreadnought or iron clad stuff like this was ever squetched.

[SPANISH_AVENGER]

8 hours ago, Stormnet said:

the bigger ones (looking at you, 130,000 ton H-44) were just delusional fantasies.

Why do you find 130,000 ton ships to be "delusional fantasies" when there are 650,000 ton ships saioling out there?

[russellmz]

3 hours ago, SPANISH_AVENGER said:

Why do you find 130,000 ton ships to be "delusional fantasies" when there are 650,000 ton ships saioling out there?

did they even have a drydock big enough for that? reminds me of one of the out of the box ship design for the new us carriers: it was a reverse wedge shape due to two landing decks angled outwards and could hold 200 planes. no existing drydock could fit it.

 

 

[Stormnet]

13 hours ago, SPANISH_AVENGER said:

Why do you find 130,000 ton ships to be "delusional fantasies" when there are 650,000 ton ships saioling out there?

Fine. They were fantasies at the time. 

You weren't gonna find anybody that was a serious naval designer taking you seriously if you proposed a 300k ton Semi-Dreadnought.

But what I am looking for was, even if not proposed, a design that was pure fantasy at the time. Like the Tillman Dreadnoughts in WW1 and the H-Class (H-39 and H-40 get an excuse as they were partially built) in WW2. Or even the 2,000k ton frozen wood carrier the british wanted...

 

Edited April 25, 2021 by Stormnet

[ThatZenoGuy]

Kaneda's 500 thousand ton battleship anybody? Basically his idea was instead of having a huge navy with various ships, just put all their weapons and armor on the same ship. This resulted in...That...Thing.

Edited May 7, 2021 by ThatZenoGuy

[SonicB]

On 4/25/2021 at 10:35 AM, Stormnet said:

Or even the 2,000k ton frozen wood carrier the british wanted...

 

Ah, Project Habakkuk... a very elaborate British excuse to just shoot Admiral King.

[Stormnet]

4 hours ago, SonicB said:

Ah, Project Habakkuk... a very elaborate British excuse to just shoot Admiral King.

Oh yes.

The 2 milion ton frozen wood carrier that hits only 7 knots, cannot operate for a decent ammount of time outside the arctic/antartic oceans, and would have likely taken the resources of the entire british navy to build. Because we all know making more carriers or antisub destroyers to escort merchant ships with all those resources is silly.

 

I already knew that one, but thanks for reminding me.

[SonicB]

19 hours ago, Stormnet said:

Oh yes.

The 2 milion ton frozen wood carrier that hits only 7 knots, cannot operate for a decent ammount of time outside the arctic/antartic oceans, and would have likely taken the resources of the entire british navy to build. Because we all know making more carriers or antisub destroyers to escort merchant ships with all those resources is silly.

 

I already knew that one, but thanks for reminding me.

There's a book on amazon called Code Name: Habbakuk - can absolutely recommend.

Your original question intrigued me, and to be honest I can't think of any really outlandishly large pre-dreadnought designs, possibly because the engine technology of the day simply didn't allow it (triple-expansion engines weren't as simple to scale up as turbine machinery) and also because armour schemes of the day weren't exactly well thought-out in terms of structural strength.

In terms of main battery, you've got the ridiculous 1880s 110-ton (16.25in) Armstrong guns on Benbow and the Victoria-class, which carried two, and the Andrea Doria which carried four in two turrets. If the Royal Navy had straight-up matched Doria and built an enlarged Admiral-class ship to carry twin turrets fore-and-aft, rather than the single mounts on Benbow, it would probably have been by some measure the largest battleship in the world... for ten years or so.

[Stormnet]

3 hours ago, SonicB said:

There's a book on amazon called Code Name: Habbakuk - can absolutely recommend.

Your original question intrigued me, and to be honest I can't think of any really outlandishly large pre-dreadnought designs, possibly because the engine technology of the day simply didn't allow it (triple-expansion engines weren't as simple to scale up as turbine machinery) and also because armour schemes of the day weren't exactly well thought-out in terms of structural strength.

In terms of main battery, you've got the ridiculous 1880s 110-ton (16.25in) Armstrong guns on Benbow and the Victoria-class, which carried two, and the Andrea Doria which carried four in two turrets. If the Royal Navy had straight-up matched Doria and built an enlarged Admiral-class ship to carry twin turrets fore-and-aft, rather than the single mounts on Benbow, it would probably have been by some measure the largest battleship in the world... for ten years or so.

Thanks for responding to the original question.

[Worry_Rock]

This guy isn't really unrealistic, but the turrets definitely are, they're quintuple with a triple set superglued to a twin set above. Really an odd design, especially out of Italy, who had mostly rather typically designs.