The Zealandian Navy was short of Capital ships that could be used as fire support vessels. The Navy had never built monitors in the First World War as the examples they had seen were either two slow or too much (Courageous Class). What was needed was a cruiser sized ship with less speed and extra breadth to fit a pair of twin 14" turrets. An updated pre-dreadnought.
The two Rivendell class battleships were still in existence but were useless for anything other than what they were being used for - accommodation ships. Other ships had been canibalising them for spares for some years. Six barrels had been removed to replace the worn guns on the Numenor. There was, however, a complete set of guns and turrets on board the Alqualonde which could be removed, refurbished and placed aboard a pair of Fire Support Ships (monitors).
The hull was to be of high freeboard with a fairly low draught to aid in getting the ships as close to the target as possible. To keep the ship as stable as possible a beam of 88 feet was specified which gave plenty of breadth to support the barbettes for the twin 14". The turrets were to be fitted one forward and one aft in a conventional layout . The other possible layout given thought to was to have both turrets forward which would have shortened the ship and the armoured belt, but would have required a larger propulsion system to attain the same speed.
Tried a new layout with the 14" guns all forward. Certainly gives it a more 'sawn off' battleship look.
