Henri IV French pre-dreadnought battleship

I really wasn't sure where to stick this thread sooo...I like checking out random ships and stumbled upon this freak. As built and perfectly to scale it would be 29.5in long, 6.1in wide, and have 1/4in of freeboard for most of it's length. It is playable in a couple of formats in this hobby. How would the minimum freeboard rules play into this one? Required to run at a light draft? Also it has probably the weirdest rudder arrangement. Three props two rudders however the rudders sit completely inboard of the outer props and actually forward of the center prop!
Mike Butts
MN2 USN

 

That's a good example of the monsters the French create! Not quite the freak that the Jargleberry and some other ships were, but still an oddball.

 

Not sure about big gun clubs, but it would be able to run in Treaty. The original plans do not have a lot of stations, but it should be possible to add some via cad or drafting methods.

 

The Henri IV does have a pretty simple hull form. I was looking at the French ship plans site and the plans are pretty worn out. Still workable though. It could run in most/ all big gun because it was in comission from 1903- 1921 or so. A token prop on the center and tweek the outer shafts and rudder locations and it should be dandy. Only two guns though. Kinda limits your options. It looks like it would potentially have a well set up haymaker though. the info I found on it said that it was Louis Emile Bertin's brainchild and was built to evaluate some ideas of his. Hence its crazy wraparound fantail, low freeboard, and lack of tumblehome. It would be a fun exercise in building technique due to its inevitably wet nature.

 

It would be a tough ship to hit anyplace other than the tall bow area.

I think in Treaty it is considered a PDN, though not sure how many units it would get. Treaty uses a version of the IRCWCC ship list which may not give the ship 3.5 units. If it was 3.5 units though, I'd probably go with a half unit pump, a 75 rd stern cannon for defense, and a 75 rd bow sidemount for offense.

 

I didn't realize you could split units like that in Treaty. way cool
Mike Butts
MN2 USN

 

In Treaty we have a minimum freeboard rule requiring half an inch above the waterline.
But we ruled that if the ship has less scale freeboard, then it is not a problem.
This is indeed a very interesting little boat.
3.5 unit pre-dreadnaught.
Mikey

 

The waterline on this ship is pretty open under Treaty rules. According to Treaty rules, class 4 and up have to float on the scale waterline, class 2 and below must have 1/2" of freeboard. So this class 3 ship is not covered. It's concievable, given the 10% displacement increase allowed by the rules, that it could have less than scale freeboard. Practically speaking, I think I would try and keep at least the scale freeboard. Otherwise everytime you went in reverse it would play submarine.

This one is on my to do list and I have generated a 3-d CAD file that allows me to slice ribs wherever needed. I just need the time

 

Lets see ... quick math would give us around a .5 inches scale waterline. heh.

Anything lower might not be desirable anyway. The ship will be relying heavily upon it's pump capacity to stay afloat after taking damage. It will have little reserve bouancy.

Hmm ... ok. Rethought the cannon arrangement. A 75 rd stern, a 50rd bow sidemount, and a full unit pump. It'll need the pump capacity.

 

I think your original arrangement is about right. Remember that it gets a battleship pump and it has practically no vulnerable area above the waterline. The aft deck would have to seal though.

 

Me Clark? Heh. You already have an idea of one of the coming winter projects, since you sent a set of plans for it.

 

Bulged or original?

 

Just to keep it on topic, the drawings off the French website are adequate enough to generate a hull for a Henry IV. I was planning to power all props - that way there is prop wash over the rudders in both forward and reverse.

 

What a delightfully strange ship. It seems like it'd steer better in reverse than it would in forward, with a rudder arrangement like that.

 

Any chance you will make that cad file or plans available to those who want them (but obviously, aren't as talented at CAD as you)?

--Chase

 

Rather than post plans, I think I'll just offer a kit for those interested in building one. I made a limited run of kits and will sell them for $40, including shipping to the continental US. The ship is so small, it only takes a single sheet of 8" x 24" x 1/4" ply.

Basic kit assembled - it took me 11 minutes to remove the pieces from the plywood and assemble the prototype to this point.

In case you were wondering how big it really is, a standard 3.5oz CO2 bottle will need to extend into the superstructure.

Stringers added, stuffing shafts and rudders temporarly added to show placement

Stern close up showing aft keel add-on.

If you are interested in a kit drop me an email. The kit is for experienced builders, there are no directions. Assembling the hull pieces will be very easy even without directions, but completing the ship under 6 pounds and stuffing all the equipment in... that's going to be hard.

 

Mark
That is too cool.
You sneaky dog.
Mikey

 

Cheeky really cheeky, is it available in big boy sizes? lol.. two arizona guns? 3/8" freeboard? lol... nice mark, build something German, the Schlesen, I will buy three just to combat the tide of frenchie predreads!!