The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range, high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 203mm calibre (8 inches). The heavy cruiser can be seen as a lineage of ship design from 1915 until 1945, although the term 'heavy cruiser' only came into formal use in 1930. The heavy cruiser's immediate precursors were the light cruiser designs of the 1900s and 1910s, rather than the armoured cruisers of before 1905.

Evolution and definition

At the end of the 19th century, cruisers were classified as First, Second or Third Class depending on their capabilities. First class Cruisers were typically armoured cruisers, with belt side armor, and they were hard to distinguish from a small pre-dreadnought battleship. The lighter, cheaper and faster Second and Third Class cruisers tended to have only an armoured deck and protective coal bunkers, rather than armoured hulls, and hence were known as protected cruisers.

In the first decade of the 20th century, the First Class Armoured Cruiser metamorphosed into the battlecruiser, and increased markedly in size and cost. At the same time, the Third Class Cruiser started to carry thin steel armour on the outside of its hull and became known as the light cruiser. The wide gap between the massive battlecruiser of perhaps 20,000 tons and 305 mm (12-inch) guns and the small light cruiser of up to 5,000 tons and 100 mm (4-in) or 155 mm (6-inch) guns naturally left room for an intermediate type.

The first such design was the British 'Atlantic cruiser' proposal of 1912, which proposed a long-range cruiser of about 8,000 tons displacement with 190 mm (7.5-inch) guns. This was a response to a rumour that Germany was building cruisers to attack merchant shipping in the Atlantic with 170mm guns. The German raiders proved to be fictional and the 'Atlantic cruisers' were never built. However, in 1915 the requirement for long-range trade-protection cruisers resurfaced and resulted in the ''Hawkins'' class. Essentially enlarged light cruisers, the ''Hawkins'' class each carried seven 190 mm (7.5-inch) guns, and had a displacement just under 10,000 tons.

Comparison to armored cruisers

The old armoured cruiser was not a close ancestor of these heavy cruiser models, even though the name sometimes suggests this. By 1905 the armoured cruiser had grown in size and power to be very close to the pre-dreadnought battleships of the day, with a displacement of around 15,000 tons: considerably larger than the 10,000 tons of the heavy cruiser. This trend resulted in the battlecruiser, which was initially conceived as an armoured cruiser on the same scale as the dreadnought battleship. By 1915, both battleships and battlecruisers had grown markedly; HMS ''Hood'', for instance, designed at around that time, displaced 45,000 tons. The great gap between heavy cruisers and the capital ships of the same generation meant that, unlike the armoured cruiser, the heavy cruiser could not be expected to serve as a junior battleship.

There were also important technical differences between the heavy cruiser and the armoured cruiser, some of which reflected the generational gap between them. Heavy cruisers, like all contemporary ships, were typically powered by oil-fired steam turbine engines and were capable of far faster speeds than armoured cruisers had ever been (propelled by coal-fired reciprocating steam engines of their era). The main armament of a heavy cruiser at a maximum 203 mm (8-inch) was smaller than the typical 233 mm (9.2-inch) guns of later armoured cruisers. Nonetheless, heavy cruisers often had a larger number of main guns (some armoured cruisers had a mixed instead of uniform complement of main guns), discarded the mounting of main guns in casemates in favor of center-line superfiring turrets (saved tonnage and enabled the ship to fire all guns on one broadside), and benefited from the introduction of fire control in the 1920s and 30s, meaning that the heavy cruiser was considerably more powerful.

Washington Treaty

The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 introduced very strict limits on the construction of battleships and battlecruisers, defined as warships of more than 10,000 tons standard displacement or with armament of a calibre greater than eight inches (203 mm). Under this limit, far fewer restrictions applied. The 10,000 tons and 203 mm (8-inch) level was set with reference to the British ''Hawkins'' class, but both Japan and the USA were also considering designs on a similar specification. The Japanese model became the ''Furutaka'' class.

The emergence of these new, powerful cruiser classes sparked off something of a cruiser arms-race. The Japanese navy had a doctrine of building more powerful ships in every class than its likely opponents, which led to the development of several very impressive heavy cruiser classes. British and American building was more influenced by the desire to be able to match the Japanese ships while keeping enough cruisers for their other global responsibilities. With battleships heavily regulated by the Washington Treaty, and aircraft carriers not yet mature, the cruiser question became the focus of naval affairs. The British, with a strained economy and global commitments, favoured unlimited cruiser tonnage but strict limits on the individual ships. The Americans favoured the opposite: strictly limited numbers of powerful cruisers. Disagreements between the British and Americans wrecked the 1927 conference on naval affairs.

Even during the 1920s, the 10,000 ton limit was not strictly observed. British, French and American designers generally worked to the limit with precision. The Japanese ''Myoko'' class, however, grew during its construction as the naval general staff prevailed on the designers to increase the weapons load. As well as a breach of the Treaty, this was a poor decision from the design point of view and the ships had to be reconstructed in the 1930s to reduce weight. The German ''Deutschland'' class, was classified as armoured coast defence ships under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. They superficially resembled contemporary battleships due to their massive main gun turrets and unusually high conning tower/bridge. However, they were in effect a heavy cruiser being upgunned to 11-inch batteries at the cost of slower speed; their displacement was declared at 10,000 tons but was in practice considerably greater.

The ''Pensacola'' class cruisers were the US Navy's first "treaty cruisers", adhering to the Washington Naval Treaty restrictions. Their main battery consisted of the maximum 8" guns permitted by the treaty. However, they had a thin armor belt (varying from 2.5 to 4 inches in thickness) and deck (1.75 inches), no thicker than the armor on 6" gun cruisers, being inadequate to protect their vitals from enemy 8" shells. The two vessels in this class, ''Pensacola'' and ''Salt Lake City'', were originally classified as light cruisers due to their minimal armor until re-designated in July 1931 as heavy cruisers in accord with international practice of designating all cruisers with guns larger than 6".

London Treaty

In 1930 the Washington Naval Treaty was extended by the London Naval Treaty, which finally settled the arguments on cruisers which had raged in the 1920s. The treaty defined limits on both ''heavy cruisers'' - those with guns larger than 155 mm (6.1 inches) - and ''light cruisers'' - those with smaller-calibre guns. The limit of 10,000 tons displacement still applied to both. This was the point at which the split between 'heavy' and 'light' cruisers finally became official and widespread.

The Treaty satisfied Britain and America. However, it deeply offended Japan, as this severely limited the numbers of heavy cruisers that the Imperial Japanese Navy could have, as they considered heavy cruisers as key warships in a line of battle with their 8-inch guns and heavy torpedo armament. The IJN placed less priority on purpose-built light cruisers, most of their existing types dating back to the 1920s (the five WWII-era light cruisers that the IJN commissioned were less well-armed than light cruisers of the US and Royal Navies), which were largely relegated to leading destroyer squadrons. The solution the Japanese adopted was to build the ''Mogami'' class, which was declared as a 10,000 ton light cruiser with fifteen 6.1-inch guns. In practice, they displaced over 12,000 tons, and it was always intended to replace her turrets to give a final armament of ten 203 mm guns, making something of a nonsense of the light and heavy cruiser classifications.

The German navy also paid lip-service to the treaty limitations, with the ''Admiral Hipper'' class weighing in at 14,000 tons.

In the mid 1930s, Britain, France and Italy ceased building heavy cruisers. It was felt that in a likely cruiser engagement, a larger number of 155 mm (6-inch) guns would be preferable to a smaller number of 203 mm (8-inch). The heavier shell of the 203 mm weapon was of little advantage, as most ships that could withstand a 6-inch hit were also well-protected against eight-inch shells. This led to the construction of cruisers up to the 10,000-tons limit, with twelve to fifteen 155 mm guns. While these ships fell into the 'light cruiser' classification by virtue of the calibre of their main armament, they were designed to fight a heavy cruiser on equal terms again making something of a nonsense of the classifications.

The 1936 London Naval Treaty, principally negotiated between Britain and the United States but never ratified, abolished the heavy cruiser entirely by restricting new construction to 8,000 tons and 155 mm (6.1-inch) guns. This suited Britain's needs very well, but was largely a dead letter. The U.S. continued to build heavy cruisers, culminating in the ''New Orleans'' class and USS ''Wichita''.

Second World War

Heavy cruisers were still being built, and they could be balanced designs when nations decided to skirt the restrictions imposed by the London Naval Treaty.

The Germans built their ''Hipper'' class heavy cruisers of 14,000 tons, although the Anglo-German Naval Agreement was supposed to limit their shipbuilding.

The U.S. built the ''Baltimore'' class of heavy cruisers during the war. While earlier heavy cruisers were noted for their powerful torpedo armament (especially Japanese heavy cruisers), later ships built by the USN concentrated mainly on anti-aircraft armament as their main role was escorting aircraft carriers instead of engaging in surface actions. Interestingly, most Japanese heavy cruisers were sunk by aircraft or submarines, instead of during surface engagements.

The U.S. built the last heavy cruisers, which were finished shortly after the war. The Baltimore class consisted of seventeen ships, including three of the slightly different ''Oregon City'' class. The ''Des Moines'' class were the last heavy cruisers built, though based on the Baltimores, they were considerably heavier and longer due to their new rapid-firing 203 mm (8-inch) guns. Additionally, two aircraft carriers were built on a ''Baltimore''-derived hull, the ''Saipan'' class.

The largest heavy cruisers were the ''Alaska'' class of "large cruiser". Though they resembled contemporary battlecruisers or battleships in general appearance, as well as having main armament and displacement equal or greater than that of capital ships of the First World War, they were actually upscaled heavy cruisers. The ''Alaskas'', for instance, lacked the torpedo defense system of true capital ships. They also had proportionately less weight in armour at 28.4% of displacement, in contrast to the British battlecruiser ''Hood'' of 30%, and the German ''Scharnhorst'' and US ''North Carolina'' battleships of 40%. The layout of the ''Alaskas'' machinery and the possession of a single rudder was also based on that of cruisers rather than that of capital ships.

Heavy cruisers fell out of use after the Second World War, with the ''Royal Navy'' decommissioning its last three: (London, Cumberland, and Devonshire), by the early 1950s. Some existing US heavy cruisers lasted well thru the 1970s, with the last all-gun ship USS Newport News decommissioning in 1975, and those converted to guided missile cruisers (US hull symbol CG), USS Chicago, and USS Albany were laid up in 1980.

The last heavy cruiser in existence is the USS ''Salem'', now carefully preserved museum ship in Quincy MA.

See also

BL 7.5 inch Mk VI naval gun prototype heavy cruiser main battery armament

BL 8 inch Mk VIII naval gun British heavy cruiser armament

203mm/50 Modèle 1924 gun French heavy cruiser armament

20.3 cm SK C/34 Naval gun German heavy cruiser armament

203 mm /53 Italian naval gun Italian heavy cruiser armament

20 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval gun Japanese heavy cruiser armament

8"/55 caliber gun United States heavy cruiser armament

References

External links

Category:Ship types Category:Naval ships Category:Cruisers

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name	Neil Merryweather
background	solo_singer
birth name	Robert Neilson Lillie
alias	Bobby NeilsonNeil Lillie
birth date	December 27, 1945
birth place	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
origin	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
instrument	Vocals, bass
genre	Rock
occupation	Musician, songwriter
years active	1965–?
associated acts	The Just Us, The Mynah Birds, The Flying Circus, Merryweather
notable instruments	}}

Neil Merryweather (born Robert Neilson Lillie on December 27, 1945 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian rock singer, bass player and songwriter. He has recorded and performed with musicians including Steve Miller, Dave Mason, Rick James and Wilson Pickett.

The Just Us and The Tripp

Merryweather began his career in Toronto during the early ‘60s performing under the name Bobby Neilson.

During 1964, he joined forces with Gary Muir & The Reflections, a local group comprising Muir (vocals), Ed Roth (organ), Bill Ross (guitar), Brian Hughes (bass) and Bob Ablack (drums). Neilson’s arrival prompted the group to part from Muir and the band briefly changed their name to The Ookpiks (after a native-designed stuffed toy owl that was being promoted by the Canadian government). As it turned out that another group was already using that name, they briefly switched to The Sikusis (after yet another stuffed toy). After the Canadian government demanded payment for their name, they settled on The Just Us in early 1965.

In 1965, the group recorded its lone single, "I Don’t Love You" c/w "I Can Tell", for the local Quality Records label. (Some copies list the group as The Ookpiks, some The Sikusis, and some The Just Us.) Soon afterwards, Hughes, Ross and new drummer Al Morrison left to take part in the formation of The Bossmen around singer David Clayton-Thomas).

Neilson, who now went by the name Neil Lillie, befriended ex-Mynah Birds singer Jimmy Livingston in Long and McQuade’s music store where he worked in the backroom as an amp and guitar repairman and asked him to join a new line up of The Just Us. To complete the band, Lillie recruited former C. J. Feeney & The Spellbinders members Stan Endersby on guitar and Wayne Davis on bass.

In early 1966, the group recorded an album’s worth of material at Arc Sound in Toronto, but disaster struck when the manager took the tapes and disappeared with them. Undeterred, The Just Us remained a popular local draw, regularly playing at Toronto clubs like the Hawk’s Nest, the In Crowd and the Gogue Inn as well as local high schools.

In June 1966, Davis left to play with Bobby Kris & The Imperials and Lillie learned to play bass in two weeks to fill the spot. Around this time, an American duo with the same name appeared on the charts and the group was forced to adopt a new name, The Group Therapy, for its show at the Varsity Arena on June 22, supporting The Byrds. When another local group surfaced with an earlier claim to The Group Therapy name, the band adopted a new moniker, The Tripp, in September 1966.

The new group never got the opportunity to record, but did appear on the first episode of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s TV show “The Sunday Show”. The band remained a regular fixture on the Toronto club scene throughout late 1966 and early 1967, and one of its most prestigious shows during this period was a performance at Maple Leaf Gardens on September 24, 1966 alongside the cream of Toronto’s rock bands.

With its more experimental approach to performance, The Tripp began to perform at more colourful venues like Boris’ Red Gas Room, the Flick and the Syndicate Club. Pianist Richard Bell from Ritchie Knight & The Mid-Knights briefly augmented the group in early 1967 but soon moved on to Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks (and years later, Janis Joplin’s backing groups and The Band).

Mynah Birds

Soon afterwards, Lillie left the group to take up an offer from singer Ricky James Matthews (later funk star Rick James) in a new version of The Mynah Birds. The band went to Motown studios in Detroit during August 1967 and recorded "It’s My Time", a song written by James and Neil Young during the group's previous incarnation. The project was shelved when the band fell apart.

James and Lillie returned to Toronto to find new musicians. With James out of action for a few weeks, Lillie was introduced to guitarist Bruce Cockburn, formerly of the Esquires. The pair decided to go ahead without James, and recruited with former Bobby Kris & The Imperials members Marty Fisher and Gordon MacBain, who were playing at the Concord Tavern in Toronto at the time.

Bruce Cockburn's Flying Circus

Signed to Harvey Glatt’s management, the group recorded a number of unreleased tracks in Toronto, including Cockburn’s “Flying Circus”, “She Wants To Know”, “I’m Leaving You Out” and “Mother” as well as Lillie’s “Last Hoorah” and “Elephant Song” and Fisher and MacBain’s “Where Is All The Love”. At the same sessions, the band also recorded songs by Cockburn’s former Children cohort, Bill Hawkins, such as “Merry Go Round”, “It’s A Dirty Shame” and “Little Bit Stoned”.

During late 1967, the band played at Le Hibou in Ottawa and the Riverboat in Toronto and opened for Wilson Pickett at the Capitol Theatre in Ottawa. The Flying Circus also drove to Motown Records but turned down an offer to record for the label after the members refused to give up their song-writing royalties.

After leaving The Flying Circus in March 1968, Lillie reunited with former Tripp members Ed Roth and Jimmy Livingston to form a new band. Adding ex-Fraser Loveman Group guitarist Dave Burt and drummer Gary Hall, the new group, initially dubbed New King Boiler began rehearsing in Lillie’s grandmother’s basement. Gary Hall drank so much coffee that he was soon being called “Coffee” by Lillie’s grandmother; the name stuck, though he chose to spell it “Coffi”.

Merryweather

Renamed Heather Merryweather after a song the band performed with lyrics by band friend, June Nelson, the group soon shortened it to simply Merryweather. In the summer of 1968, the band moved to Los Angeles but Livingston dropped out before the band signed to Capitol Records.

Shortly before the release of the band’s eponymous debut, produced by John Gross, Lillie changed his name to Merryweather. The group’s second (double album), ''Word of Mouth'' (released in September 1969) was recorded in Los Angeles with the same basic line-up of Merryweather, Roth, Hall and Burt, plus Steve Miller, Barry Goldberg, Charlie Musselwhite, Dave Mason, Howard Roberts and Bobby Notkoff.

Although the album was reasonably successful, the group still fragmented, with Burt, Hall and Roth hooking up with Ricky James Matthews in a new group called Salt 'N' Pepper.

Merryweather flew back to Toronto to recruit replacements, then returned with them to record an interesting album for the important blues label, Kent in early 1970. The resulting album, credited to Merryweather, ex-Ugly Ducklings drummer Robin Boers, guitarist John Richardson from Nucleus (and before that Lords of London) and ex-49th Parallel member JJ Velker attracted only limited interest, as did a follow-up album for RCA, ''Ivar Avenue Reunion'', featuring the same basic group plus Goldberg, Musselwhite and Neil's new girlfriend, ex-CK Strong singer Lynn Carey. The Reunion LP has some very strong quitar work especially in the cut "Ride Me", but is unavailable in most instances.

Neil Merryweather and Lynn Carey, using a pool of musicians, recorded the ''Vacuum Cleaner'' LP for RCA, then came out with a more permanent unit, Mama Lion, which recorded two albums. The first Mama Lion LP featured a controversial photo of Lynn appearing to be nursing a tiger cub.

After Mama Lion disbanded, Neil Merryweather released a couple of heavy Glam Rock solo LPs on Mercuty Records: ''Space Rangers'' in 1974 and ''Kryptonite'' in 1975. Notable cuts included a cosmic glam rock version of The Byrds' "8 Miles High," and a single released from the album ''Hollywood Boulevard''.

Sources

http://www.theneilmerryweather.com/

http://www.classicrockpage.com/everheardof/StanEndersby.htm

http://www.canadianbands.com/Merryweather.html

Bill Munson, interview with Ed Roth, 1976

Nick Warburton, interview with Neil Merryweather, 2005

The Toronto Telegram's After Four section

Category:Canadian rock singers Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian rock bass guitarists Category:Living people Category:1945 births Category:People from Winnipeg