The Colony/Fiji-class and Minotaur/Swiftsure/Tiger-class light cruisers

After the First World War, the Royal Navy had a large number of light cruisers, many of which were obsolete and/or worn-out. Many were scrapped under the terms of the Washington and London Naval Treaties and new designs were built, starting with the Leander-class and Modified Leander-class (AKA Amphion/Perth-class). These were followed by the smaller Arethusa-class light cruisers, which retained the twin 6-inch turrets of the Leanders.

HMS Orion, a Leander-class light cruiser.

HMAS Perth (ex-HMS Amphion), an Amphion-class light cruiser.

HMS Arethusa, an Arethusa-class light cruiser. She looks like a cut-down version of the Amphion-class light cruisers

The next design to come into service was the Town-class light cruisers, which were armed with BL 6-inch Mk XXIII guns in triple turrets. This gave them 150% more firepower without the ships needing to be proportionally heavier. (The first group of Towns had a displacement of 11,540 tons whilst the Leanders weighed in at 9,740 tons ... an increase of 1,800 tons or 18%.)

HMS Southampton, the lead ship of the Town-class of light cruisers.

The Town-class was a very successful design and was followed by a slightly more compact version that was closer in size to the Leander-class. The were known as the Colony or Fiji-class, and eleven ships were built in two groups:

HMS Fiji, the lead ship of the Colony/Fiji-class of light cruisers.

• Fiji group: HMS Fiji (Sunk), HMS Nigeria (Sold to India and renamed INS Mysore), HMS Mauritius, HMS Kenya, HMS Trinidad (Sunk), HMS Jamaica, HMS Gambia (Later HMNZS Gambia), and HMS Bermuda.
• Ceylon group: HMS Ceylon (Sold to Peru and renamed BAP Coronel Bolognesi), HMS Uganda (Later HMCS Uganda), and HMS Newfoundland (Sold to Peru and renamed BAP Almirante Grau).

The class's characteristics were:

• Displacement: 10,450 tons (full load)
• Dimensions:
• Length: 555ft 6in (169.32m)
• Beam: 62ft (19m)
• Draught: 16ft 6in (5.03m)
• Propulsion: 4 x Admiralty 3-drum boilers providing steam to 4 x geared steam turbines, each driving a propeller
• Speed: 31.5 knots
• Range: 10,100 nautical miles at 12 knots
• Complement: 920
• Armament:
• Fiji group: 4 x triple BL 6-inch (152mm) Mark XXIII guns in Mark XXI mountings; 4 x twin QF 4-inch (102mm) Mark XVI guns in Mark XIX mountings; 2 x 4 QF 2-pounder (40mm) Mark VIII anti-aircraft guns in Mark VII mountings; 2 × triple 21-inch (533mm) torpedo tubes (Four ships of this class [HMS Bermuda, HMS Jamaica, HMS Mauritius and HMS Kenya] later had one of the triple 6-inch turrets removed and replaced by a 1 x 4 QF 2-pounder anti-aircraft gun.)
• Ceylon group: 3 x triple BL 6-inch (152mm) Mark XXIII guns in Mark XXI mountings; 4 x twin QF 4-inch (102mm) Mark XVI guns in Mark XIX mountings; 3 x 4 QF 2-pounder (40mm) Mark VIII anti-aircraft guns in Mark VII mountings; 2 × triple 21-inch (533mm) torpedo tubes
• Armour: Belt: 3.5-inch to 3.25-inch (89mm to 83mm); Deck: 2-inch (51mm); Bulkheads: 2-inch to 1.5-inch (51mm to 38mm); Turrets: 2-inches to 1-inch (51mm to 25mm)
• Aircraft: 2 x Supermarine Walrus amphibious aircraft (Never fitted in HMS Fiji or HMS Kenya; removed from all surviving ships by 1944)

The Colony/Fiji-class proved to be very successful design, and the next class that was built was a modified version of it. It was named the Minotaur-class, and it was originally planned to build nine ships. However, in the end only three were build to the original design, three were cancelled and never built, and three were completed to a very heavily modified design ... the Tiger-class.

The three ships that were built to the original design were HMS Minotaur (which later became HMCS Ontario), HMS Swiftsure (which became the name-ship of the class after HMS Minotaur was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy), and HMS Superb.

HMS Swiftsure of the Minotaur/Swiftsure-class light cruisers.

The class's characteristics were:

• Displacement: 11,130 tons to 11,560 tons* (full load)
• Dimensions:
• Length: 555ft 6in (169.32m)
• Beam: 63ft to 64ft* (19m to 20m*)
• Draught: 17ft 3in (5.26m)
• Propulsion: 4 x Admiralty 3-drum boilers providing steam to 4 x Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving a propeller
• Speed: 31.5 knots
• Range: 8,000 nautical miles at 16 knots
• Complement: 867
• Armament: 3 x triple BL 6-inch (152mm) Mark XXIII guns in Mark XXI mountings; 5 x twin QF 4-inch (102mm) Mark XVI guns; 4 x 4 QF 2-pounder (40mm) Mark VIII anti-aircraft guns; 5 x single 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns; 2 × triple 21-inch (533mm) torpedo tubes
• Armour: Belt: 3.5-inch to 3.25-inch (89mm to 83mm); Deck: 2-inch (51mm); Bulkheads: 2-inch to 1.5-inch (51mm to 38mm); Turrets: 2-inches to 1-inch (51mm to 25mm)

(All characteristics with an asterix (*) refers to HMS Superb.)

The three suspended Minotaur-class ships were left incomplete until 1954. It was then decided to complete them to a heavily modified design that incorporated new weapons. The ships were HMS Tiger (ex-HMS Bellerophon), HMS Lion (ex-HMS Defence), and HMS Blake (ex-HMS Tiger, ex-HMS Blake).

They came into service between March 1959 and March 1961, and the last (HMS Blake) remained in service until December 1979. During that period HMS Tiger and HMS Blake were rebuilt as helicopter/command cruisers, and enabled the Royal Navy to maintain large, aircraft-carrying warships in service in the period between the scrapping of HMS Ark Royal (the last of the post World War Two aircraft carriers) and the commissioning of the Invincible-class light aircraft carriers.

HMS Tiger as built.

HMS Tiger after her conversion into a helicopter/command cruiser.

The class's characteristics were:

• Displacement: 11,700 tons (full load) (12,080 tons after conversion)
• Dimensions:
• Length: 555ft 6in (169.32m)
• Beam: 64ft (20m)
• Draught: 23ft (7m)
• Propulsion: 4 x Admiralty 3-drum boilers providing steam to 4 x geared steam turbines, each driving a propeller
• Speed: 31.5 knots
• Range: 8,000 nautical miles at 16 knots
• Complement: 716 (855 after conversion)
• Sensors & processing systems (after conversion): Type 965 air-surveillance radar; Type 992Q target-indication radar; Type 903 gunfire-control radars; Type 904 Sea Cat fire-control radars
• Armament:
• Before conversion: 2 x twin 6-inch (152mm) Mark N5 guns; 3 x twin 3-inch (76mm) Mark N1 guns
• After conversion: 1 x twin 6-inch (152mm) Mark N5 guns; 1 x twin 3-inch (76mm) Mark N1 guns; 2 x quadruple Sea Cat GWS-20 surface-to-air missile launchers
• Armour: Belt: 3.5-inch to 3.25-inch (89mm to 83mm); Deck: 2-inch (51mm); Bulkheads: 2-inch to 1.5-inch (51mm to 38mm); Turrets: 2-inches to 1-inch (51mm to 25mm)
• Aircraft (after conversion): 4 x Westland Wessex helicopters; later replaced by 4 x Westland Seaking helicopters

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The Triang Minic range of 1:1200th-scale model ships included the HMS Swiftsure and HMS Superb ... and they could easily be used to represent the Ceylon-group ships and the four modified Fiji-group ships of the of the Colony/Fiji-class.