BB 1915 HMAS New South Wales

I always retain the ex Canada for the Commonwealth navies. It is too good a partner for the fast carriers to let it go back to Chile. In place of Canada (& Eagle or money) I give the Chileans the 3 remaining ships of the King George V class completed in 1912/13 and an Invincible class BC with some light cruisers of the same vintage and either L or M class destroyers to go with the Botha class leaders. This gives Chile a force to be reckoned with and binds the Chileans to the UK sphere of influence.

HMS Canada was purchased from the Royal Navy to partner the other 14" ships in Australis service, (HMAS Australis, HMAS Queensland). This gave Australis a nice set of matched squadrons. Three Queen class (8x15"), three 14" BB/BC's and the four 13.5" BB/BC's. The ship arrived in Australis waters in 1924 and was commissioned into the Australis Navy as HMAS New South Wales.

Canada's biggest problem was the side armour. A belt armour of 9 inches put it in the battlecruiser class of armour. The easiest answer to this was to replace it with the 11 inch armour removed from the Australis Neptune class ex-battleships when they were converted to training ships/ADV's. The 9 inch belt being placed above the 11 inch belt.

HMS Canada as originally completed.

This re-armouring took place during the 1937-39 rebuilding that the older battleships went through during the 1930’s. New superstructure, new engines (changed from coal to oil firing), newish side armour, new deck armour, new dual purpose secondary armament, replaced the old broadside 6 inch guns which were plated over, the removal of Q 14 inch turret, new bow structure. All these changes gave the ship a complete new look. The Australis ship New South Wales (ex Canada) had the largest rebuilding undertaken by the Australis Navy.

Displacement	25,000 tons standard, 32,000 tons full load	28,000 tons standard, 34,890 tons full load
Length	661 feet	705 feet after rebuilding
Breadth	93 feet (105 feet over bulges)
Draught	32 feet
Machinery	4 shaft, steam turbines, 40,000shp	geared turbines, 4 shafts, 130,000shp
Speed	23 knots	29 knots
Armour	9" belt, 1.5" deck, 10" turrets	11”-9” side, 5” deck, 10"/7"/5" turrets
Armament	As completed 8 x 14” (4x2) 16 x 6” (16x1) 2 x 3" AA (2x1) 4 x 2pd (4x1)	As rebuilt to 1941 8 x 14” (4x2) 20 x 4.5” (10x2) 48 x 2pd (6x8) 20 x 20mm (20x1)
Aircraft	nil	3
Torpedoes	4 x 21" submerged	nil
Complement	920	1140 as flagship
Notes:	HMAS New South Wales (ex Canada) 10/1915.

Previous drawings of the Canada.

As the ship is to be paired with Eagle on operations the aircraft handling facilities were never fitted, the hangar area being used as extra offices and accommodation for the extra staff that being a fleet flagship entailed. The catapult area was built in and used for the ships boats.

In that other Universe the Canada was returned to Chile in 1920 and spent the next 40 years with little alteration.