Hello, I am trying to track down a full set of plans for the USS Virginia. If I find plans elsewhere I will post them here, but if someone already has them I'd appreciate the share.
The best place to get plans for the Virginia Class pre-dreadnoughts is The Maryland Silver Company. Don't let the odd name fool you... they sell copies of original plans from the National Archives. The have most (but not all) of the pre-dreadnought battleships and cruisers as well as the later dreadnoughts. I have the Virginia class plans... they are enormous.... far too big to scan. They have more detail than you could possibly ever need to build a ship. The cost for most is very reasonable.... less than $100 for most ships.
Don't be discouraged if it takes a bit of time to get a response. The gentleman that runs the business is sometimes slow to respond, it is his side job/hobby. It usually takes 4-6 weeks to get plans, but I've ordered plans from them many times in the last 10 years and they always arrive.
I used to be, but not anymore. RL got too busy about 7 years ago and hasn't slowed down enough so I'm rusty on just about anything fun. Where did you get that print? A nice smooth version of that would be a great start. I always like having deck by deck plans too because it helps to fill in the gaps between the hull lines, but I could work with that.
Yeah it is. It is an American pre-dreadnought so it is before they figured out what a Battleship should be. They just jammed guns wherever they could stick them.
I'm throwing everything I find that is or appears to be Virginia Class into: https://www.pinterest.com/burkej4/bb-17-uss-virginia/ Makes it easy to keep track of my finds. If I discredit images I remove them from this folder. There are also duplicate images because many articles use the same pictures but have different information.
That is not entirely accurate... most navies at the late pre-dreadnought period built ships with heavy secondary batteries. IMO, the Virginia's were some of the best as they retained their 6" guns for defense against torpedo boats and destroyers... where other navies (particularly the English) fitted their ships with puny 12 pdrs. In the Spanish American war the battleships scored far more hits with their 4-8" guns than they did with 12 & 13 inchers. IIRC, the Virginia's were laid down before the Kearsarge class ships were complete... and the issues with the two story turrets were not fully understood. The biggest issue with the Virginia's was that the ROF of the 12 inch guns had increased to the point that the 8 inch guns could no longer fire twice while the 12s reloaded... The eBay plans listed above look to be the Wiswesser plans available from several sources.... you get 9 cross sections for probably $15-20. The original body plan shows probably every other frame in the hull and is included with the $68 plans from Maryland Silver.
True enough but the Virginia class had a major design flaw which meant using their big guns rendered their smaller armament largely unusable and vice versa.
Yes they did, but that flaw was not unique to them nor was the two story turret entirely to blame. The extensive debate during their design and construction makes for quite interesting reading, they were well aware of the problems other navies were facing at the time with blast interference (mentioning that the French had to come up with a system of bugle calls to warn gun crews of blast of other weapons, etc.). The decision to adopt the two-story turret was not a unanimous one, and some admirals had "buyers remorse" before the ships were completed (although I suspect hindsight may have influenced this in later memoirs). The mounts themselves worked just fine (as they did in the Kearsarge Class) and I have read no references to blast issues (the sighting hoods are well back on the turrets). Director fire control (vs. individual gun aiming) would have solved most of their issues had they not been already obsolete. The largest complaint of the class (that has been recorded) was that they were miserable to serve on due to poor ventilation and were wet forward. PS. Did you here back from Maryland Silver? I am planning a big order from them myself...
Just as heads up to anyone following this thread.... Maryland Silver is still in business. I ordered 3 sets of plans from them about a month ago and received them yesterday
