My Shipyard

- Plata Class Battleship -

# Ship Version

Due to the many cultural differences between the people from all different places of the Latin Empire, it was hard to keep it united after its independence war and, as expected, the nation was divided into multiple smaller parts, each being a province of the Latin Empire governed by their own emperor. Although this division made many people see the Latin Empire as nothing more than just an alliance of many smaller nations, this was still a success for the Latin people, bringing stability and peace inside their own territory. This was not enough, however, to keep other things from being divided... The Latin Navy warships, for instance, were distributed among the provinces, unequally but "proportionally to the territories that each province need to defend", as the emperor of Brasa province said. To the anger of many, Brasa kept the two only battleships of the Latin Empire to itself... And as an answer, the Plata province started to focus on producing its own battleships, which should rival the Brasa class. The result of the development was two battleships, Plata and Bronce from the Plata class, roughly based on the Brasa class, but "greatly improved", as the emperor of Plata province claimed.

Those two warships were armed with about 10 guns of 32.5 cm, placed in two quadruple mounts, one in the bow and one in the aft, and a single twin mount in the bow. Those guns were fewer in number when compared to Brasa, but their better technology regarding range and fire rate was worth it, though some people might claim that it was never enough to surpass the Brasa battleships. In addition to their main armament, 14 single mounts of 15.2 cm guns in casemates and five twin mounts of 15.2 cm, and 10 twin mounts of dual-purpose 10 cm guns were present, used mainly to attack smaller, faster vessels while the aerial threat was neglected from ever becoming a real danger to this battleship, with the 10 cm guns being specialized more in dealing with vessels rather than aircraft and the only AA specialized guns being the eight twin mounts of 10 mm guns and six single mounts of 7.7 mm guns. As an extra four submerged 533 mm torpedo launchers were installed to support the Plata class, two on the bow and two on the aft, but they were never able to see any kind of action before the retrofit.

Plata's retrofit was intended to be careful and well-planed, but the emperor of the province soon felt pressured by its people to hurry it up, as the Brasa's battleships were already retrofitted and considered "up-to-date", though many disagreed. Without much of a choice, then, he shortened the retrofit process, making it more similar to Brasa's retrofit. The torpedo launchers were removed and an internal reorganization allowed Plata to be fitted with a small hangar for four seaplanes, recon ones being the choice by default. The 32.5 cm guns were replaced by two triple mounts of 41 cm guns, one in the aft and one in the bow, and a twin mount of the same guns, in the bow. Plata's 41 cm guns were in many aspects identical to Brasa's guns and since the two were now with the same number of guns, people thought they were more equal in strength, but it was clear to officers that Plata was better when facing enemies ahead of her, but worse when from behind. Other changes in the retrofit include the new three twin mounts and 18 single mounts of the 15.2 cm guns, replacing the old ones of the same caliber; and newer versions of the dual-purpose guns, remaining the same in number and caliber but now much more capable of the AA role at the cost of their surface combat abilities. With the rising concern of airpower at the time of Plata's retrofit, their AA was also improved, increasing AA weaponry to 12 twin mounts of 10 mm AA guns and 12 single mounts of 7.7 mm AA guns, supported by the new addition of 12 triple mounts of 35 mm AA guns.

Plata was better armored when compared with Brasa, slightly improved armor in many regions, and much thicker in the essential areas. As this is true for both before and after the retrofit, the Plata was always a bit slower than the Brasa even though the two were powered by the very same engine. More specifically, Plata could reach up to 30.5 knots before and 29.6 knots after the retrofit.