All-big-gun mixed-caliber ships
An evolutionary step toward building more powerful battleships was to reduce the secondary battery mounted in barbettes and substitute additional turret-mounted heavy guns, typically 9.2-inch (234 mm) or 10-inch (254 mm). These ships have been described as ‘all-big-gun mixed-caliber’ or later ‘semi-dreadnoughts’. A distinguishing feature of semi-dreadnought ships was the large number of heavy secondary guns in wing turrets near the center of the ship instead of the large number of small guns mounted in barbettes with earlier pre-dreadnought ships.
Semi-dreadnoughts classes included the British King Edward VII and Lord Nelson; Russian Tsesarevitch, Borodino and Andrei Pervozvanny; Japanese Katori, Satsuma, and Kawachi;[15] American Connecticut and Mississippi; French Danton; Italian Regina Elena; and Austro-Hungarian Radetzky.
The design process for these ships often included discussion of an ‘all-big-gun one-caliber’ alternative.[16] The June 1902 issue of Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute contained comments by the U.S. Navy’s leading gunnery expert Prof. P.R Alger proposing a main battery of eight 12-inch (305 mm) guns in twin turrets.[17] In May 1902, the Bureau of Construction and Repair submitted a design for the battleship with twelve 10-inch guns in twin turrets, two at the ends and four in the wings.[17] Lt. Cdr. H. C. Poundstone submitted a paper to President Roosevelt in December 1902 arguing the case for larger battleships. In an appendix to his paper, Poundstone suggested a greater number of 11-inch (279 mm) and 9-inch (229 mm) guns was preferable to a smaller number of 12-inch and 9-inch.[2] The Naval War College and Bureau of Construction and Repair developed these ideas in studies between 1903 and 1905. Wargame studies begun in July 1903 “showed that a battleship armed with twelve 11-inch or 12-inch guns hexagonally arranged would be equal to three or more of the conventional type.”[18]
In the Royal Navy, the same trend occurred. A design had also been circulated in 1902–03 for “a powerful ‘all big-gun’ armament of two calibres, viz. four 12-inch and twelve 9.2-inch guns.”[19] However, the Admiralty decided to build three more King Edwards (with a mixture of 12-inch, 9.2-inch and 6-inch (152 mm)) in the 1903–04 naval construction program instead.[20] The concept was revived for the 1904–05 program, the Lord Nelson class. Restrictions on length and beam meant the midships 9.2-inch turrets became single instead of twin, thus giving an armament of four 12-inch, ten 9.2-inch and no 6-inch. The constructor for this design, J.H. Narbeth, submitted an alternative drawing showing an armament of twelve 12-inch guns, but the Admiralty was not prepared to accept this.[21] Part of the rationale for the decision to retain mixed-caliber guns was the need to begin the building of the ships quickly because of the tense situation produced by the Russo-Japanese War.[22]
