Donald Featherstone’s NAVAL WAR GAMES: FIGHTING SEA BATTLES WITH MODEL SHIPS was published in 1965 and I bought my copy in the late 1960s.
One battle that stood out at the time was the one described in the chapter devoted to fighting naval wargames set during the later nineteenth century. It was fought using rules written by Walter Gurney Green and saw the fictional Empire of Scandinavia take on the Empire of the Baltic … and win (just!) after a flurry of ships ramming each other.
The ships involved were as follows:
The Empire of Scandinavia
- Battleship Denmark: 4 x 12.5-inch Rifled Muzzle-loading guns; 20-inch armour; 12 knots
- Battleship Sweden: 4 x 12.5-inch Rifled Muzzle-loading guns; 20-inch armour; 12 knots
- Battleship Hotspur: 1 x 10-inch Rifled Muzzle-loading gun; 3 x 64-pounder Rifled Muzzle-loading guns; 10-inch armour; 12 knots*
- Battleship Huascar: 2 x 10-inch Rifled Muzzle-loading guns; 3 x 64-pounder Rifled Muzzle-loading guns; 10-inch armour; 12 knots*
The Empire of the Baltic
- Battleship Latvia: 2 x 12.5-inch Rifled Muzzle-loading guns; 2 x 64-pounder Rifled Muzzle-loading guns; 18-inch armour; 10 knots
- Battleship Lithuania: 2 x 12.5-inch Rifled Muzzle-loading guns; 2 x 64-pounder Rifled Muzzle-loading guns; 18-inch armour; 10 knots
- Battleship Devastation: 4 x 10-inch Rifled Muzzle-loading guns; 14-inch armour; 14 knots*
- Battleship Dreadnought: 4 x 10-inch Rifled Muzzle-loading guns; 14-inch armour; 14 knots*
- Screw-sloop Crown Prince: 28 x 11-inch Smoothbore Muzzle-loading guns; No armour; 10 knots
Some of the ships were based on real warships (indicated above by *) and the others were imaginary designs. I’ve long hankered after recreating this battle … and it might be a nice little project for me to undertake in the near future.
The ‘real’ ships that took part
- HMS Hotspur
- Huascar
- HMS Devastation
- HMS Dreadnought
The fleets in action
The Empire of Scandinavia's fleet (the light grey ships) under attack by ships of the Empire of the Baltic's fleet (the dark grey ships).
Both sides engage each other at short range. The Hotspur was heavily damaged but managed to torpedo and sink the Latvia and Lithuania. She was then sunk by a torpedo fired by the Crown Prince.
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Bob,
ReplyDeleteThis really brings back memories – the first wargame book I ever saw or read, borrowed from the library where I found it by chance in, I guess, 1965 or 1966. It inspired the first (with actual rules that is) real wargames I ever fought. In fact, I still have the small fleet of galleys I built to the design on page 53. Though not historically realistic I still think that the individual oars make them look better than most more modern versions.
It also reminds me how useful fuse wire proved to be for the modeller, and in those days almost every house would have a supply. It seems that one can still buy it, but maybe not the 10amp version I used for oars.
Of course, the back cover of “Naval War Games” told me of the existence of Don’s “War Games” and, once I’d scraped the 21 shillings together, and waited the month or so for my order to be processed via the local bookshop*, I started to learn about land wargames and found a new use for the Airfix Infantry Combat Group, my 1/72nd scale military vehicle kits and all the ACW figures.
I later decided that I couldn’t just keep renewing the library loan of "Naval War Games" and saved up the 30 shillings for my own copy, and both books still take pride of place on my wargaming bookshelves.
* I suspect that many younger readers don’t realise just how slowly the book business operated in the days before Amazon turned the market upside down.
All the best,
Mike
A very interesting post Bob, not a book in my collection but it should be I think! I would be very interested if you do turn this into a project, very doable and very entertaining I would think
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