Template talk:Leander class cruiser 1931

Cruiser timeline

There is a rationale for which I feel that York should be the preceding class for Leander;

• The Yorks and Counties were built to the terms of the Washington Naval Conference of 1921, which put down the limit of 10,000 tons standard displacement and 8 inch guns for cruisers. However, they are pre-London Naval Conference 1930, where the distinction between light (6" gun) / heavy (8" gun) cruisers was put down on paper. They are therefore "retrospectively" put in the heavy cruiser pigeonhole.
• The Royal Navy only built 2 classes of Washington treaty cruisers, which they called 'A' (the Counties) and 'B' (York). As a result of London 1930, they switched to building more, smaller 6 inch cruisers instead. Therefore this is something of a dead end in the RN cruiser family tree.
• The Leanders were ordered as a direct consequence of cancelling the 2 planned County-type ships Surrey and Northumberland in favour of a smaller, 6-inch gun type.
• There is little direct link between Emerald and Leander. The former was the ultimate expression of the C / D classes of World War I. They were not built to treaty restrictions. They were only classified as "light" cruisers retrospectively, in light of later treaties.
• The Leander design borrowed heavily from that of York.

Therefore, in my opinion, and in terms of the progression of orders, technology and British cruiser development, the Leander follows York, and not Emerald. The only reason I can see to put Emerald there is that it is the previous "light" cruiser class. However, there is really no other connection between the designs, and this is in my opinion is a false progression based only on 1 later treaty. For the same reason, I feel it incorrect to put Hawkins in as a heavy cruiser; as it was developed from (what was called at the time) a "light armoured cruiser" and was only given the former classification retrospectively.

Does that make sense? Please let me know your thoughts if you disagree.

I don't particularly mean to debate the essentials of what class comes first, or what class can be considered just a run on from a preceding class, but I strongly feel that we should be consistent. At the moment, our List of cruiser classes of the Royal Navy lists light cruisers together in the order that they developed, and the heavy cruisers in the same style, but seperate from an independent to the other classes. I feel it would be a mistake to try and link across these divides. If they were originally classed as light cruisers, then they should be listed together as such and the links made within the wider class. If we try and link between a light cruiser class and then a heavy cruiser, then back to a light cruiser, etc. then we are creating a confusing situation and where really do you draw the line, in that it's a short step from linking from light cruiser to heavy cruiser to battleship to minesweeper to submarine classes which I definately think is too confusing, so I'd be in favour of changing it back to how it was before. Benea 17:31, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Emoscopes ^Talk 17:11, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

RAN Amphion Class

Amphion & Apollo were briefly commissioned into the Royal Navy; Sydney was laid down as Phaeton, but commissioned directly into the RAN. Socrates2008 (Talk) 11:46, 3 April 2008 (UTC)