The proposed Neptune was a 33-knot cruiser displacing about 19,000 tons at deep load. Four Admiralty three-drum boilers and 108,000 shaft horsepower were intended to support a range of roughly 7,500 nautical miles at 20 knots. Protection included a belt varying from about four to one and a half inches, four-inch bulkheads, and a deck between two and one inches. Its planned secondary battery amounted to three twin 4.5-inch mountings and torpedoes on each side, while the main battery could have grown from twelve to sixteen high-angle six-inch guns. Its scale is compared with Alaska, and its hull thinking reached back to Courageous and Glorious, making the label light cruiser increasingly nominal.
Chapter · 1:39:09-1:43:40
Neptune stretched the meaning of light cruiser
The 19,000-ton Neptune combined twelve to sixteen six-inch guns with the broadside firepower and torpedoes of two Daring-class destroyers.