Hegemon wrote:C) The inconsistency between the number of RMN SDs in 1905 (186), RMN SDs lost in the First Havenite-Manticoran War (more than 21), RMN SDs lost in Operation Thunderbolt (54), the units sold to Grayson (53-55) and Erewhon (9-12), the number of pre-pod RMN SDs in 1920 (225) and the number of Sphynx-class SDs listed as built by Manticore between 1905 and 1913 according to House of Steel.
There were 90 GSN active and reserve pre-pod SDs in 1920 (
http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/si ... gton/106/1) , of which (according to House of Steel):
- 27 were Manticore’s Gift-class ships: 11 ships gifted by Admiral White Haven in 1905, 1 ship destroyed at Fourth Yeltsin, 14 Duquesne-class and 3 Haven-class ships bought in 1917
- 22 were Steadholder Denevski-class ships
- 3 (5 according to
http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/si ... gton/110/1) were Benjamin the Great-class ships
- 34 were Protector-class (former RMN Victory-class) ships bought in 1918
- Therefore 2-4* (the difference to 90) were King William-class ships bought in 1918
*This supposes that the only GSN SD ever lost was GNS Glorious during Fourth Yeltsin. Otherwise, the number should increase to cover any additional GSN SD losses during the First Havenite-Manticoran War.
There were 225 RMN active and reserve pre-pod SDs in 1920 (
http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/si ... gton/106/1) . According to House of Steel, here are the numbers of SDs that RMN could have had in 1920 (excluding the sold ships and 6 ships that House of Steel heavily implies are destroyed in the First Havenite-Manticoran War):
- up to 3 Manticore-class ships in mothballs (2 decommissioned before 1905, 1 decommissioned in late 1905)
- up to 7 Samothrace-class ships, most of them in mothballs
- up to 17 King William-class ships most of them in mothballs (of the 25 ships, a squadron of 6-8 was sold to Erewhon in 1919 and probably another 2-4 to Grayson in 1918-1919)*
- up to 11 Anduril-class ships in mothballs (of the 14 ships, at least 3-4 were sold to Erewhon in 1918)
- no Victory-class ships (of the 36 ships, all the 34 remaining were sold to Grayson in 1918 and the other 2 were destroyed in the First Havenite-Manticoran War)
- up to 67 Sphinx-class ships, about half in mothballs
- up to 163 Gryphon-class ships, about half in mothballs
- no Duquesne-class ships (of the 18 captured ships, all 14 remaining units were sold to GSN, the other 4 were destroyed in the First Havenite-Manticoran War**)
- no Haven-class ships (all 3 captured ships never saw action and were sold to GSN)
In total, no more than 268 ships, excluding losses. That would mean that the combined RMN SD losses during the First Havenite-Manticoran War and Operation Thunderbolt were no more than 268 + 2 (Victory-class) + 4 (Duquesne-class) - 225 (SDs still present in 1920) = 49 SDs. This is a lower number than the 54 SDs (out of the 61 SDs and SD(P)s) Elizabeth says have been destroyed by RHN during Thunderbolt alone ("Basically, we've lost (...) sixty-one superdreadnoughts.") ! We know 7 SD(P)s were destroyed at Grendelsbane, so the rest of 54 were presumably pre-pod SDs.
*As you can see, these are minimum numbers, that do not even consider that some King William-class ships were sold to other allied navies (other than Erewhon or Grayson) according to House of steel.
**Given that they were used for rear area security, they were probably destroyed during operation Icarus.