Chapter 04: Innovation On A Budget
SMS Prinz Heinrich – circa 1902 – Moored alongside a fitting-out wharf in Kiel. The big tripod seen behind the aft pole mast is a pair of heavy lifting “sheers” used instead of an expensive cantilever crane.
IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN
By: Dreadnought & AP
Chapter 04:
INNOVATION ON A BUDGET
Though an excellent warship, SMS Furst Bismarck, the first German armored cruiser, had its’ faults -- chiefly, the cost. The naval constructors of the Kaiserliche Marine were careful men, and not known for their extravagance, nor their waste of money. But the Reichstag was shocked at the increase in cost over the Victoria Louise Class protected cruisers. Admiral Hollman (State Secretary Of The Navy) had been forced into a protracted series of negotiations to make the politicians understand the difference between the thin-skinned protected cruisers and the new armored cruiser. It was also necessary to explain why it was essential for the Kaiserliche Marine to develop a “cruiser killer” to protect the trade routes and colonies. Only then was the money forthcoming -- reluctantly. Hollman’s successor, Alfred von Tirpitz, would be faced with solid opposition in the Reichstag and would have to find a different approach to new construction.
SMS PRINZ HEINRICH CLASS
SMS Prinz Heinrich -- an artist’s illustration of the period showing her underway at high speed.
SMS Prinz Heinrich was another single ship class, and the second armored cruiser built for the Kaiserliche Marine. The new ship was named after Kaiser Wilhelm II's younger brother, Prince Heinrich of Prussia. A career naval officer, the Prince held commands from a lowly torpedo boat to a battleship, and eventually commanded the Hochseeflotte from 1906-1909 -- rising to the rank of Grossadmiral (Grand Admiral) and Generalinspekteur der Marine. The new cruiser was authorized under the 1898 Naval Law – the first naval construction program instituted under the direction of Alfred von Tirpitz, the new State Secretary of the Reichsmarineamt.
Immediately upon assuming the office of Naval State Secretary in 1897, Tirpitz realized the current requirement of annual Reichstag approval for naval spending was unworkable. He could make no long-term strategic decisions regarding the composition of the fleet, nor could he guarantee the navy would have enough ships, enough sailors, or even the right ships for the job. To make a very long story much shorter – after a great deal of political maneuvering and considerable “Royal pressure” from the Kaiser -- he was able to get the Naval law of 1898 through the Reichstag. The politicians were now committed, by law, to building a specified number of new ships – of a certain type – within certain fiscal limits – each year. The Naval Law also provided for the automatic replacement of ships lost, retired at 25 years, or stricken as obsolete. There were additional naval laws passed in 1900, 1906, 1908, and 1912, which were negotiated due to rising construction costs or, more often, due to foreign political tensions. Tirpitz could now build a fleet that would never get smaller (automatic replacement), and could only grow -- through guarantied new construction.
Tirpitz’ goal was to build a fleet with battle squadrons that were “homogeneous” – built within a given time frame to the same plans – and, therefore, more able to operate together as a fleet. One four-ship-squadron with the same speed, same armor protection, and same gun power could be tactically employed much more effectively than a squadron with four completely dissimilar ships. The Naval laws put an end to long delays between ships, increased the number of new ships to be laid down every year, and effectively put an end to “single ship classes”. (Sounds good – but when dealing with “government money” – there are always strings attached.)
SMS Prinz Heinrich – profile plan.
The designs for Prinz Heinrich were prepared in the late 1890’s while construction of Furst Bismarck was still underway. The keel was laid down at Kaiserwerft Shipyard in Kiel in December, 1898. She was launched in March, 1900, and commissioned in March, 1902. The naval architects based the new plans on the design of Furst Bismarck, but the new Naval Law imposed fiscal limitations and it was agreed the new ship's size would have to be reduced by about 1,500 tons. Weight reduction was achieved, in part, by thinning the ship's armor. Krupp’s recent development of “cemented armor plate” allowed for thinner and lighter plates that were significantly more effective, so less could be applied to achieve the same level of protection. With the savings in weight on the new armor plate, the belt could actually be extended up to the main deck level, thereby protecting more of the ship’s interior. As in previous designs, the ship’s “protected armor deck” sloped down and connected to the lower edge of the belt, below the waterline.
Unfortunately, the main battery armament was also significantly reduced to save weight and cost. Instead of four heavy guns in two twin turrets, Prinz Heinrich was given two heavy guns in single turrets. They also reduced the secondary battery by removing two guns. And rather than spreading the secondary battery along the hull in casemates and sponsons, they were all mounted in a “central battery” amidships, to reduce the area of hull requiring armor. This weight savings allowed thicker armor to be concentrated in the battery.
Additional weight was cut by redesigning the bridge structure. Rather than a raised position for better ship handling and field of view, it was raised just one level above the weather deck and reduced to flat walkways with canvas screens and an enclosed wheelhouse barely big enough for two helmsmen and two officers. The conning tower “battle position” was built into the weather deck beneath the wheelhouse. The heavy “military” masts were discarded in favor of heavy pole masts.
SMS Prinz Heinrich – circa 1904. The wooden framing erected above the forecastle deck are temporary supports for large sun awnings.
In the picture above, you can clearly see just how spartan the bridge arrangements were, and just how little deck clutter there was on the rest of the ship. You can also get a good idea of that stepped, “slab-sided”, look common to all German armored cruisers. The secondary battery concentrated amidships is in a sort of “pyramid stack”, giving it a stepped (staircase) look. While the hull has an extremely high freeboard, with a forecastle deck raised one level higher, adding to the “slab-sided” look. Though this looks like an unnecessarily large, exposed, hull (big target), the Royal navy dreadnoughts sat even taller in the water. During their frequent sweeps of the North Sea, the British had to be able to endure rough weather – and it was not uncommon to send the light forces (light cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats) home, while the battleships plowed ahead.
SMS Prinz Heinrich tied up at the Replenishment Pier, taking on stores. As only the second armored cruiser built, she was still a bit of an experiment, and the Reichstag was being difficult with money. The most notable result was the main battery being reduced to single-gun-turrets fore and aft. They are an unusual shape and @AP has modeled all their details very well. Note the placement of the crew in various locations. The crewmen on the platform deck beside the casemated turret guns near the bow – one exiting a bulkhead door – are a special treat for me. That deck is actually the “main deck” level, which is frequently mentioned in the text.
Prinz Heinrich was 410 feet on the waterline with a beam of 64 feet, and displaced 8,887 tons. The steel hull was constructed with transverse and longitudinal frames, and incorporated thirteen watertight compartments, with a double bottom extended for 57% of the ship’s length. Her crew comprised 35 officers and 532 enlisted men. Her propulsion plant was three vertical 4-cylinder triple expansion engines, driving three shafts, and powered by fourteen Durr water-tube boilers. The boilers were trunked into two funnels amidships. Strangely enough, the propulsion system was rated at 15,000 IHP (Indicated Horsepower) and should have provided 20 knots – but on sea trials, her engines actually reached 15,694 IHP, but only produced 19.9 knots. Prinz Heinrich was designed to ship 890 tons of coal for normal operations, but could take on a “war load” of 1,590 tons if necessary. This allowed an operating radius of 2,640 miles at 18 knots, or 5,270 miles at a cruising speed of 10 knots.
Prinz Heinrich is moored at a Replenishment Pier modified from the PEG seaport “Pier One” set. I added the “WMP Seawalls” on the outer edges to act as wooden “bumpers” for the warships and deleted selected items of the dock cargo to make them more appropriate to the early 1900’s. The “base” of the pier has been completely “re-lotted” with cargo props and the space between the pier and the road has been filled in with 1x1 custom-made lots of concrete pads, trucks, and jeeps.
Prinz Heinrich’s main battery consisted of two 9.4 inch SK-L/40 (QF) guns mounted in single turrets, one fore and one aft. They fired a 310 pound shell at 3 rounds per minute out to a range of 18,500 yards and were supplied with 75 rounds each.
A secondary battery of ten 5.9 inch SK-L/40 (QF) guns were mounted amidships, six in turreted casemates on either broadside, with the remaining four in turrets in the ship's hull above the casemates. These guns could fire an 88 pound shell at 5 rounds per minute out to a range of 15,000 yards. Each gun was supplied with 120 rounds.
The cruiser also carried ten 3.5 inch SK-L/30 (QF) guns for torpedo boat defense. These guns could fire a 15 pound shell at the rate of 15 per minute out to a range of 7,800 yards. Each gun was allowed 250 rounds.
Prinz Heinrich was also fitted with four 17.7 inch torpedo tubes -- one on the stern in a swivel mount, one submerged in the bow, and one submerged on either side abreast the forward gun turret.
Prinz Heinrich is, simply put, one of “AP’s” scratch-built “works of art”. The details of the ship have been carefully researched from text records, ship’s plans, and numerous photographs. The “slab-sided-look” to these ships is especially noticeable on this one. (Prinz Heinrich has already been posted to the STEX for those who wish to download.)
The new armored cruiser was plated with Krupp “cemented armor”. The armor belt was 3.9 inches thick in the “central citadel” of the ship, protecting the barbettes, magazines, and machinery spaces, and tapered to 3.1 inches at the ends. The belt was backed by 4 inches of teak planks. Unlike Furst Bismarck, the bow and stern were left unarmored. (The naval architects were, apparently, trusting the “protected armor deck” below the waterline to counteract any damage taken on the ends of the ship. A reasonable assumption. But the problem of keeping the bow “watertight” – would come back to haunt them – with catastrophic results.) The “protective armored deck” was 1.6 inches thick and connected to the bottom of the belt by 2 inches of sloped armor. The forward conning tower had 5.9 inch sides with a 1.2 inch roof. The aft control position was only protected against splinter and shrapnel damage with half-inch plating. The main battery turrets were given 5.9 inch sides with a 1.2 inch roof, while the secondary turrets received 3.9 inches of armor. The casemated guns were protected by a 3.9 inch armored strake with 2.8 inch gun shields.
This shot shows Prinz Heinrich’s streamlined hull form to good effect. And you can see the long, “flush” weather deck that runs from the forecastle break to the aft turret.
Prinz Heinrich served with the fleet in home waters for just four years, from 1902 to 1906, when she was “Flagship – Scouting Forces”, and mainly occupied with fleet training. In August, 1902, she escorted Kaiser Wilhelm II’s yacht Hohenzollern during a trip to meet Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, in Reval. Prinz Heinrich also participated in the fleet training activities of 1903, including a visit to Spain from 7 May to 10 August, during which she made a port call in Vigo, Spain from 20 to 30 May.
On January 25, 1904, the Kaiser ordered Prinz Heinrich to be loaded with medical supplies, food, clothing, medical staff, and a special landing party, to go to the assistance of the Norwegian town of Alesund in the aftermath of a fire that caused extensive destruction. The Kaiser had often enjoyed the hospitality of the small village during his Norwegian vacations and wished to repay their kindness.
The ship was “laid up” from early 1906 to mid-1908, largely due to budgetary constraints. There was always a shortage of operating funds for the growing fleet, and, there was a chronic shortage of enlisted men to man the ships – because they had to be paid. She was reactivated in 1908 as a gunnery training ship, and in 1912, underwent modernization. In 1914, conversion into a permanent training ship began, with the work completed just before the outbreak of World War I.
Mobilized for active war service, initially with III Scouting Group of the Hochseeflotte, Prinz Heinrich was used in the North Sea for coastal defense and patrols – mostly guard ship duty in the Jade Bay and Ems River. In December, 1914, she sortied with the fleet in support of the raids on Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby.
During the raid on Hartlepool, 15-16 December, 1914, Prinz Heinrich, the armored cruiser Roon, and a flotilla of torpedo boats, were assigned to the "scouting van” of the Hochseeflotte, commanded by Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl. The battle fleet was providing distant cover for Konteradmiral Franz von Hipper’s battlecruisers, which were conducting the raid. Hipper had put to sea at 03:00 and it had been heavy going all night. The seas were running high with long rollers coming in from the north. Even the big battlecruisers were taking water over the bow. The weather had closed in and the fast moving raiding force ran in and out of belts of drizzling rain and fog.
The weather was no better as Ingenohl and the battle fleet approached the area south-east of Dogger Bank. At this point, during the pre-dawn darkness on the 16th, the German battle fleet of fourteen dreadnoughts and eight pre-dreadnoughts came within a dozen miles of an isolated squadron of six British battleships – followed a few miles behind by four battlecruisers. A lively skirmish erupted between the rival destroyer screens across a wide arc of darkened, fog-shrouded, ocean. Gunfire rumbled like thunder and the night sky was lit by the muzzle flashes of quick-firing cannon. The widespread fighting and confusion in the rain and darkness convinced von Ingenohl he was faced with the entire Grand Fleet. Under strict orders from Kaiser Wilhelm II to avoid risking the fleet unnecessarily, von Ingenohl chose to break off the engagement and set course for Wilhelmshaven. The irony of the whole thing was that this is exactly what the German strategy had called for. The raid was designed to lure a small portion of the Grand Fleet into an engagement with the main body of the Hochseeflotte where it could be destroyed, and thereby reduce Britain’s numerical superiority. But that is another story – for another day.
Here you see the “box-like” forward superstructure designed to keep water “over the bow” from flowing back over the ship. Notice the weathered look to the turret roof. The forward bridge is a “minimalist”, round, armored conning tower, and the midships weather deck accommodates the funnels, ship’s boats, boat cranes, and an alternate compass platform aft of the boats. (Many warships of this era had specially built compass platforms – mostly wooden – to partially alleviate problems with “compass deviation” in steel warships.)
In the “after-action” discussions in Wilhelmshaven, it was decided the twelve-year-old Prinz Heinrich had no place in operations against the powerful and more modern British Grand Fleet. Accordingly, on 12 April 1915, III Scouting Group was detached from the Hochseeflotte and transferred to Kiel. Prinz Heinrich and her older sisters could do good work in the Baltic Sea against the less numerous and hardly modern Russian Baltic Fleet.
Prinz Heinrich patrolled the central Baltic and supported offensive minelaying operations for the most part. In May, 1915, she provided gunfire support for the assault on Libau, and shelled Russian positions during the Battle Of The Gulf Of Riga, in August. Cruiser warfare set the tone for most of the war in the Baltic. Hit-and-run raids, minelaying sorties, shipping convoys, bombardments, and mostly nuisance raids were the usual fare. German cruisers had to be wary at all times. Though the Russians were not “strategically brilliant”, once they located an enemy and engaged – they were tenacious. In this type of cutthroat warfare, the armored cruisers took the place of battleships and provided support and muscle for the lighter cruisers and destroyers. Prinz Heinrich was frequently at sea in support of one operation or another, and the support was needed. The Russians did have some good armored cruisers, and when aggressively handled, they could be real trouble. And if that were not enough to contend with, there was always a British submarine or two lurking about in the Baltic.
Due to severe crew shortages in the fleet in late 1915, Prinz Heinrich had her crew reduced, and was ultimately decommissioned and disarmed in March 1916. She then served in a variety of secondary roles. For a time she even served as the “station flagship” for the Commander-In-Chief, Baltic Forces – His Royal Highness, Admiral Prince Heinrich. She was finally sold and scrapped in 1920.
With Prinz Heinrich, the forecastle deck and fantail were rather short, and in this ship, the rear control position (aft conning tower) is a cramped, box-like structure on the quarter deck. Note the sailors climbing the ladder to the quarter deck. Ships of this period quite often carried a large number of ship’s boats and steam launches. They were used for errands, and transporting crew and small goods from ship to shore, and numerous boats were a good thing when “abandoning ship”. “Carley Floats” (an American invention) were quite common in the Royal Navy beginning around 1905, while the Kaiserliche Marine devised a variant of their own around 1910.
The general opinion was that Prinz Heinrich was a good sea boat with gentle motion, quick to the helm, but like Furst Bismarck, suffering from excessive roll in a beam sea. And though well received, she was not without her critics; Vizeadmiral Hopman referred to her as ”...cheap, but bad”. No doubt, the Vizeadmiral was unhappy with the initial design choices made in the interests of cost-cutting. But then, any admiral would rather have four big guns than just two. On the other hand, naval analysts and historians have compared the ship favorably with foreign contemporaries such as the French Desaix, Russian Bayan, and Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi. But the Imperial Naval High Command was right about one thing; when analysts measure her against the Grand Fleet armored cruisers, she still comes out a poor second.
Though she only served four years in the High Sea Fleet, she did good service over a long life, and her design proved to be quite influential. All subsequent German armored cruisers were developments of the Prinz Heinrich “template”. In fact, if you study the basic armor scheme pioneered in Prinz Heinrich, and compare it to successive designs, you will find those same basic elements over and over. With the exception of a few “flourishes”, the basic armor placement pattern is always the same and is, more often than not, simply scaled up in thickness to meet changing technologies. In actual fact, Prinz Heinrich provided the basis of all German capital ships designed over the next forty years, including World War II’s KM Bismarck and the outlandish battleships of the H-Classes.
NEXT TIME……
AN ILL-FATED LOT
But – before you go……
This is our new “prop-pack” offering…...Volume 04: Maritime Cranes.
AND -- Let’s take a moment and look at some of the landscape. I have experimented with various types of landscape over the years – heavily forested – minimalist vegetation – no landscape – all with complete dissatisfaction. I have never been able to look at a map and put “just a little” flora and fauna on it. I finally settled on what has been referred to as “painting” the landscape. It’s a lot more work, but does produce a satisfying appearance. I have also experimented with various coastal landscapes, and wanted something new for this map. Fortunately for me, @MissVanleider did some really great “pioneering” work with sand dunes and the Poseidon Terrain Mod – which I have adapted to my own terrain style.
This is the shoreline south of the West Loch anchorage. Starting on the right of the picture, there are some low hills with a few trees on top, but most of them are concentrated in low spots or the “valleys” between the hills. They blend into a thicker belt of timber running along the tops of the beachfront bluffs. Rather than create a series of sand dunes along the shore, I opted to create something like a sandy, eroding, cliff face. From there down to the shore there is progressively less vegetation, mostly low scrub, with just a few deciduous trees – and a lot of dead ones. The sandy areas are encroaching on the trees and gradually killing them off. The bulk of my landscaping MMP’s are the work of @Girafe – simply put, they are uniformly excellent.
This is one of my favorite coastal features – a rocky point jutting out into the water. It is known locally as “Gull’s Rock” – for obvious reasons. Notice how, when applied, the Poseidon sand “brush” highlights the bare slopes of the bluff face and shows the shadows of low spots where they occur naturally. Notice, near the top of the picture, the indentation in the bluff face, accented by low vegetation along the bottom – the “terrain brush” is perfect for bringing out the shape of the land.
In this close-up, you can see a mass of different MMP work grouped together around the rocks. It seems like a lot of different MMP’s jammed together – but when it is blended together it creates a very natural look. Even the seagulls like the place……
Another view of “Gull’s Rock” and the sandy bluffs behind. The heavily forested belt behind the bluffs was built with a variety of custom-made 1x1 “Tree Filler” lots, then trimmed out with MMP’s to make it all blend together.
As we move north along the beach, the sandy areas begin to thin out a bit and are replaced with grassy areas where the sand has not taken over as yet. In this spot, a small belt of trees still extends down to the water’s edge. Notice the indentation in the bluff face near the top of the picture. Part of the trick to making realistic bluffs is to make sure the faces are “irregular” in shape. Making the bluffs in a straight line would look awful. And if you want the indentations and high spots to show up well – you might make the bluffs at least 15 meters in height. Anything lower will result in a “dune” rather than a bluff or hill.
This is a close-up showing an indentation in the bluff line. Notice how a minimum of “ground cover” has been placed running down the slope to accentuate the effect. Too much vegetation will blot out the visual shadow effect of the terrain brush. Along the shore, a patch of non-sandy shoreline has been “painted’ with “Heblem Sands” and gravels.
In this shot, the sandy bluffs merge back into the semi-wooded beachfront and the heavily forested area below the West Loch Replenishment Piers. The ground cover gets heavier as it nears the lighthouse and merges with the thick forest. My THANKS to @MissVanleider for her excellent tutorial and inspiration.
MANY THANKS to @Barroco Hispano for his generously given time and talent creating so many beautiful warships for this series.
MY SPECIAL THANKS to my partner -- @AP -- for volunteering his considerable talents and valuable time in providing so many beautiful and highly detailed models that have added so much variety, originality, and “life” to the dockyards. Without his talent, imagination, and hard work – this series would not have been possible.
If you enjoyed anything you saw – please punch the “like” button so I will know. A comment would be even more informative.
Comments and critiques requested and gratefully accepted. All questions answered promptly to the best of my ability.
THANK YOU for your visit!
You may wish to visit these CJ’s as well……
SERIES I:
IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: WILHELMSHAVEN
SERIES II:
IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN
Appearing – Work In Publication
SERIES III:
IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: BREMERHAVEN
Appearing -- ???
And please feel free to drop in at…
THE SIMTROPOLIS SHIPYARD
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