HMS Superb (25)

History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Superb
Builder:	Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend, Tyne and Wear
Laid down:	23 June 1942
Launched:	31 August 1943
Commissioned:	16 November 1945
Decommissioned:	1957
Identification:	Pennant number: 25
Fate:	Scrapped at Dalmuir by Arnott Young, arriving on 8 August 1960
General characteristics
Class and type:	Minotaur-class light cruiser
Displacement:	8,885 tons standard 11,560 tons full
Length:	555.5 ft (169.3 m)
Beam:	64 ft (20 m)
Draught:	17.25 ft (5.26 m)
Propulsion:	Four Admiralty-type three drum boilers Four shaft Parsons steam turbines 72,500 shp (54,100 kW)
Speed:	31.5 knots (58.3 km/h)
Range:	2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km) at 30 knots (60 km/h) 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km) at 16 knots (30 km/h); 1,850 tons fuel oil
Complement:	867
Armament:	Three triple 6-inch / 50 Mk 23 guns Five dual 4-inch / 45 QF Mk 16 HA Four quad 2 pdr Six single 40 mm AA Two triple 21-inch (530 mm) torpedo tubes.
Armour:	Belt: 3.25 to 3.5 in (83 to 89 mm) Deck: 2 in (51 mm) Turrets: 1 to 2 in (25 to 51 mm) Bulkheads: 1.5 to 2 in (38 to 51 mm)

HMS Superb was a Minotaur-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. The ship entered service in 1945 and had a brief, quiet career before being decommissioned in 1957 after her modernisation was cancelled. She was broken up in 1960.

Superb was the last of the Minotaurs to be built, and was completed to a slightly different design to that of the previous members of the class, with a foot more beam than her immediate predecessor HMS Swiftsure, which had introduced Type 274 lock and follow radar directors for surface action. With Superb the first Type 275 sets, modified versions of the lock and follow radar, were introduced to also control anti-aircraft fire of the twin 4-inch mounts. Unfortunately the versions of 275 fitted were the British glasshouse director version, which had higher tolerances and less reliability than the American versions of the set, which were reserved for the latter Battle-class destroyers and aircraft carriers Eagle and Ark Royal under construction and in particular the last battleship, Vanguard for its secondary armament. Construction on her unfinished sister ships was halted after the end of the war and they were later scrapped, or converted into the new Tiger-class automatic gun cruiser. Superb herself was planned to be converted to full automatic 6-inch and 3-inch/70 gun Tiger specifications and would have been much more suitable for such modernisation than the narrower beam Swifsure. The plans to modernise Superb at the time of the 1957 Defence Review were much more cost constricted and would have been similar to the limited modernisation of HMS Belfast, with new MRS8 multi channel directors for four twin 4-inch and six twin proximity fused L70 Bofors and new radar, fire control and AIO and a data link to the modernised carriers Victorious and Hermes. Superb's, update was cancelled in April 1957.

...
Wikipedia