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Chapter 05: An Ill-Fated Lot
Dreadnought posted a City Journal entry in IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN
SMS Friedrich Carl – circa 1905 – Leading a squadron of Wittelsbach Class pre-dreadnoughts on training exercises off Heligoland Island. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 05: "AN ILL-FATED LOT...” While the Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office) played politics with the Reichstag, and their naval architects experimented with Furst Bismarck and Prinz Heinrich, the clock was ticking. The German Naval Command knew other powers would begin building their own armored cruisers – it was the only plausible defense against commerce raiding cruisers. The armored cruiser was designed to be the perfect concept to both attack an enemy’s commerce, and to destroy his commerce raiders. HMS Cressy – circa 1901. The British, of course, were terrified at the thought of half a dozen commerce raiders loose on the Empire’s sea lanes. And they did not experiment, nor did they dither around. Between 1901 and 1904 they commissioned six ships of the Cressy Class. The Cressy’s were big at 12,000 tons and 472 feet in length. They were certainly designed larger than other nation’s cruisers because they were expected to operate alone on distant colonial stations. They were powered by 30 Belleville boilers, driving two 4-cylinder triple expansion engines, coupled to twin shafts, for a top speed of 21 knots (though Cressy proved to be the slowest of her class at 20.7 knots). The class was given a main battery of two 9.2 inch guns in single turrets, one fore and one aft, and were capable of 3-4 rounds per minute out to a range of approximately 19,000 yards. The Cressy’s had a secondary battery of twelve 6 inch guns arranged in casemates amidships. However, eight of the casemates were on the main deck level and were useless in any sort of seaway. The guns were capable of 8 rounds per minute out to approximately 16,000 yards. Another dozen 3 inch guns were provided for torpedo boat defense and could fire 15 rounds per minute to a range of about 12,000 yards. Two submerged torpedo tubes were also installed. The class was given an armor belt of 6 inches, closed at the ends by 5 inch transverse bulkheads, forming an armored citadel (box). The main battery gun turrets and barbettes were 6 inches with 5 inches on the casemates. The protected armor deck was 1 inch with 3 inch sloping sides and the conning tower was an amazing 12 inches. Sinking of HMS Cressy. The Cressy Class could be considered an ill-fated lot, with only three of the six ships surviving the Great War. And the other three sisterships made the history books when they were torpedoed and sunk within an hour and thirty-five minutes. The morning of 22 September, 1914, found Cressy, Aboukir, and Hogue on patrol off the “Broad Fourteens” along the Dutch coast. They were without destroyer escorts because those had sought shelter from heavy seas during the night. The cruisers were steaming at 10 knots, north by east in line abreast, about 2,000 yards apart. They were positioned to intercept any German warships that might attempt to interfere with British troop convoys to France. That same morning, the German submarine U-9 surfaced, after laying on the bottom overnight to avoid the storm, and sighted the cruisers. The submarine was, indeed, on it’s way to seek the troop convoys, but the cruisers were too tempting a target. Kapitanleutnant Otto Weddigen fired his first torpedo at Aboukir, striking her starboard side around 06:20. The British Captain thought he had struck a mine and signaled the other two cruisers to close and lend assistance. That signal, and the fact that Royal Navy captains were only just learning the danger a submarine presented, doomed all three ships. Aboukir went down in 30 minutes. Hogue was hit by two torpedoes at 06:55 and went down in 10 minutes. And Cressy, still trying to rescue survivors, was hit by two torpedoes, took on a list, and capsized in 35 minutes. Otto Weddigen, having emptied his torpedo tubes, was on his way home by 07:55. Sixty-two officers and 1,397 enlisted men were lost that morning, and the Royal Navy learned a brutal lesson in a tragically awful way. U-9 – “manning the side” – receives the salute as she makes her way through the fleet in Wilhelmshaven. The warships behind her are the pre-dreadnought battleships of the II Battle Squadron. Kapitanleutnant Weddingen was lauded as a hero by his countrymen and received the “Iron Cross, Second and First Class” for his action. No surprise – the British thought the submarine...”A damned un-English weapon”...and their propaganda painted Weddingen as a “pirate”. Weddinmgen would go on to receive the “Pour le Merite” – before meeting his death in March 1915, when his submarine was rammed and sunk by HMS Dreadnought in the Pentland Firth. (Willy Stower) HMS Drake – circa 1909. This picture clearly shows the secondary guns “stacked” along the hull in two rows. The bottom row was at main deck level and, when at high speed or in rough weather, they were completely awash and of no use. A serious fault built into the Cressy’s and continued in several subsequent classes. The Admiralty doubled-down between 1902-1903 with a new design and four more armored cruisers of the Drake Class. The Drake’s were considerably larger, and improved versions of the Cressy Class, laid down specifically in response to the new French armored cruiser Jeanne d’Arc. These ships were 14,150 tons displacement and 533 feet long, with an unusually deep draft of 26 feet, which produced a very stable gun platform and an excellent sea boat. The ships retained the same engines and twin screw arrangement, but the longer length was filled by a rising total of boilers – 43 Bellevilles, this time. The added boiler muscle meant the Drake’s could easily reach their designed speed of 23 knots on trials. The new cruisers kept the same armament and gun layout as in the Cressy Class, and basically the same armor scheme, with the exception of changing the protected armor deck to 1.25 inches thick with 2.5 inches of sloping armor. If you examine the German and British ships and their commissioning dates, you see a pattern developing early on in the 20th Century. In the time it took the Imperial Navy to design, build, commission, and evaluate Furst Bismarck and Prinz Heinrich – the Royal Navy commissioned ten roughly equal armored cruisers. This disparity was to dog the Imperial Navy for its’ entire life span. And though many analysts and historians are quick to cite the disparity, it is too readily dismissed as a simple inability of German shipyards to build “more” and “fast”. But, I’m afraid, it is more complicated than that. Great Britain had well over two centuries of naval supremacy to her credit. Britain was an island -- she had the means to build many ships, the wealth of an entire empire to pay for them, senior officers to direct them, seagoing officers to command them, and politicians who understood the very life of the Empire depended upon them. Britain had long experience in producing the warships necessary to project seapower around the globe and control any sea zone she wished. In fact, the Royal Navy was so critical and successful an instrument of power politics, that Britain possessed no army to speak of. (Raising an army of millions to fight in the WW I trenches would kill an entire generation of young men and ultimately cripple the British Empire beyond recovery.) Germany, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. Prussia/Germany had an illustrious military heritage dating back to Frederick The Great. And, more recently, her army had beaten the dominant European land power in the Franco-Prussian War. At the turn of the 20th Century, the Imperial German Army was the largest, best equipped, best trained, and best led army on the Continent. (The Tsarist armies might have been larger, but they were abominably equipped, shockingly poorly led, and logistics was an unknown science.) The German Great General Staff was the finest collection of military minds and experience on the planet. And, what’s more, the Reichstag understood the Army – and were in agreement (mostly) that it was THE instrument of defense, power, and decision. They agreed that if the French raised a division, Germany must raise two – and they voted the funds. But -- one naval-oriented member of the Reichstag, when asked about naval estimates, said flatly…...”How am I to convince a Silesian farmer that he needs to pay for a battleship?” So Germany had no naval heritage to rely upon, nor did she have centuries of experience in building warships and employing them as a political tool. Their lack of reliance on warships explained why their shipyards were smaller and fewer in number. Since Germany had so little experience in naval matters, her senior officers were less able to formulate plans for a future they could not foresee. This, in turn, made it difficult to influence ship designs that would effectively meet the needs of the navy. And -- since the existing shipyards did not have a lot of experience building warships, it took them almost twice as long. And all of this brings into focus the three problems that, in effect, prohibited Imperial Germany from building “more” and “fast”. (1) It took longer to identify an optimal ship design, (2) Building “one-off” ships – or infrequent ships – prevented shipyards from developing techniques, streamlined procedures, and staff experienced in building complicated ships. And (3) The Reichstag’s reluctance to fully fund a navy they simply did not understand, effectively prevented any solution to the first two problems. But the Naval Laws of 1898, 1900, 1906, 1908, and 1912, at least provided partial relief to the funding. It was not enough money, and would never be enough. But at least the work of building a fleet could proceed. PRINZ ADALBERT CLASS ARMORED CRUISERS SMS Prinz Adalbert seen at high speed during sea trials in January, 1904. The Reichstag passed the Naval Law of 1898, outlining a force of 12 armored cruisers. The original intent of the Naval Office was to design them for use on colonial stations, while a further cruiser force was to be built for scouting duties with the Hochseeflotte. But the Reichstag balked at such a large expenditure during the original negotiations, and the Naval Office had to settle for a cruiser design that could perform both duties. After all, Tirpitz’ paramount objective was to get the law passed to guarantee regular additions to the strength of the fleet – a procedure quite new to the Reichstag budgeting process. Let’s face it – 12 cruisers were better than none! The new law called for one armored cruiser per year, and 1898 produced the Prinz Heinrich design – an altered version of the Furst Bismarck. While remaining within the Naval Law’s budget allowance, they basically cut back on gun power and rearranged the armor into a reduced, more comprehensive scheme, to make a trade-off for increased speed and lower cost. The Second Naval Law, of 1900, increased the planned armored cruisers to 14 and produced a design for two armored cruisers of the Prinz Adalbert Class. Both ships were laid down in 1900 -- Prinz Adalbert at Kaiserwerft, Kiel, and Friedrich Carl at Blohm & Voss, Hamburg. The class was, as usual, based on the previous Prinz Heinrich, but in the important points, they were a significant improvement. The basic hull size and shape remained the same, but armament and armoring schemes were altered. SMS Prinz Adalbert – plan profile. By this stage of cruiser development, the naval architects and seagoing officers were beginning to question the viability of mounting only two heavy guns on a warship. The naval officers were always worried about battle damage -- an accepted risk. But – could only two slow-firing 9.4 inch guns lay down enough fire to suppress an enemy quickly? (One of Adm. Jackie Fisher’s favorite axioms was – “Hit fast...hit hard...and keep hitting!”) So the decision was made to go back to four guns in twin turrets, with calibers reduced to 8.3 inch – a faster firing gun of roughly comparable hitting power. This might seem like an erroneous conclusion, but in 1 minute of firing, the 9.4 inch gun could deliver three shells with a total weight of 930 pounds. In the same minute, the 8.3 inch gun could deliver five shells with a total weight of 1,190 pounds. Plus – the effect of more shells falling faster would be quite disconcerting on the receiving end. This was the “Volume Of Fire” theory – more shells, faster – “smother” the target. In opposition was the “Big Gun” school of thought. Big gun advocates pointed out that a bigger shell would strike harder, penetrate deeper, and cause more damage. In the end, both theories were based on the number of hits that could be scored – a somewhat more dubious reality. The science of long range gunnery was just beginning to be recognized as critical to success, but was not yet widely accepted as the key to victory. Fire control systems and actual gunnery practice were among Fisher’s Royal Navy reforms – but “old school” admirals tended to ignore such things. Fortunately for the Imperial Navy, the Kaiser was excessively proud of his ship’s gunnery, and held frequent competitions with annual awards for excellence. This would pay off handsomely in later years. Ultimately, the decision to switch to a lighter, faster-firing gun was a political decision. The Reichstag would not agree to additional funds to put the larger 9.4 inch gun on the cruisers. Consequently, the switch to 8.3 inch main battery guns would become a permanent fixture on all armored cruisers – and it would similarly influence the main battery caliber on dreadnought battleships. In view of the Imperial Navy’s skilled shooting – the bigger gun would have been the better investment. Here are the two ships of the Prinz Adalbert Class, riding at their moorings along the breakwater in the West Loch. Prinz Adalbert is moored outboard, and Friederich Carl is tied up at the mooring points. Cruisers assigned to the Hochseeflotte spent quite a lot of time at moorings – when not making port calls around Europe, or making training cruises – or escorting the Kaiser’s yacht. The steam tug (by WolfZe) is towing two barges loaded with fresh foodstuffs, headed for one of the other cruisers. With the exception of WolfZe’s tug, all the other beautiful ship models are courtesy of @AP. The armoring scheme for the Adalbert’s was improved, somewhat, by adjusting the placement of the various plates and adding an oblique armored bulkhead to connect the upper belt armor to the turret barbettes. The protected armor deck thickness was increased and a new propulsion plant used, giving a marginal increase in speed, with a slight increase in operating radius. The coal bunkers were adjusted to carry more coal, but the object was to spread them over a greater area of the hull to increase the layers of protection. Tests proved that a full coal bunker absorbed a great deal of destructive energy from incoming shells. This practice had been somewhat overlooked in the Prinz Heinrich, but became a standard feature on all Imperial warships beginning with the Prinz Adalbert Class. The crewmen on Prinz Adalbert have used the ship’s crane to swing a boat out in preparation for going ashore. The ship already has a boat boom rigged and a cutter has just returned with some green bags in the stern sheets – possibly mail. A dispatch boat has also just pulled alongside. We chose the British 75 foot motor launch from 1915 as a dispatch boat – it looked like the perfect “errand boy” for a naval base. It is a small model, but “AP” has worked a lot of detail into it. The boat boom, cutter, and dispatch boat are props, on a 1x1 lot plopped adjacent to the cruiser model The Prinz Adalbert Class displaced 8,943 tons with a length of 415 feet and a beam of 64 feet. Fourteen coal-fired water-tube boilers powered three triple-expansion engines driving three screws at a speed of 20 knots (though both ships slightly exceeded their design speeds on sea trials). The radius of operation was 5,850 miles at 12 knots. The assigned crew was 35 officers and 551 enlisted men. Over on the left of the picture is a Jupiter Class collier tied up to a “barrel buoy” (both by “AP”). The steam tug has a “double tow” of lighters, and it should be mentioned that the length of the tow hawser to the first lighter should, in reality, be about three times as long. But for visual effect in the game, I have shortened the tow. The class was armed with four 8.3 inch SK-L/40 (QF) guns mounted in twin turrets, one fore and one aft. The secondary armament of ten 5.9 inch guns followed the now standard “slab-sided” arrangement amidships in turrets and turreted casemates. They also carried the obligatory dozen 3.5 inch guns for torpedo boat defense. Four 17.7 inch submerged torpedo tubes were mounted -- one in the bow, one in the stern, and one on each broadside. The mooring points in the picture are patterned after those used in Pearl Harbor and were provided by @Mattb325. I re-lotted them and added lights, rope coils, and sailors – everything you would expect to see with a mooring party. The armor scheme seems repetitive, from class to class, but there were always subtle adjustments and additions that continued to improve the system. The ship’s were plated with the new Krupp’s Cemented Armor with 3.9 inches on the belt, barbettes, and new oblique bulkheads. The bow and stern of the ships were left unarmored. (This practice had now become quite common as a weight-saving device, but future repercussions would prove it to have been an ill-conceived concept.) The protective armored deck was 1.6 inches with sloping sides of 3.1 inches. The main battery turrets were faced with 5.9 inch armor as was the forward conning tower. Some bulkheads were rearranged from the previous design and one more watertight compartment added to improve internal protection. When finished, Prinz Adalbert and Friedrich Carl, had each cost the Imperial Government 16.4 million Goldmarks. (Goldmarks were the official currency of the Empire and were valued at about five to the English Pound.) After commissioning, both ships served in a wide variety of functions – everything from the “Tangier Crisis” of 1905, to escorting the Kaiser on his Mediterranean vacations, and the normal training exercises and pre-war fleet maneuvers with the Hochseeflotte. This is a detail shot – and if you look closely, you will find a wealth of detail and even some crewmen training on their guns. The lighter in the top corner is a little gem. There is a lot of detail “AP” worked into the barge, itself – in addition to a superb job of modeling the food crates. The breakwaters are by “Uki”. Shortly after war broke out in 1914, Friedrich Carl was assigned to the Cruiser Division Baltic, where she served as flagship. August, September, and October were spent patrolling off the German coast and making offensive sweeps around Libau and into the Gulf of Finland. On 16 November, 1914, Friedrich Carl joined a force being assembled to bombard Libau, which was suspected of being used as a base for British submarines operating in the Baltic Sea. Around 01:46 on the 17th, she was 38 miles west of Memel when she entered a Russian-laid minefield and struck one to starboard. Friedrich Carl immediately altered course to return to Memel, but struck a second mine at 01:57. She began taking on water, but remained afloat long enough for the light cruiser Augsburg to remove the crew. Abandoned to sink, she did so around 07:15. Only eight crewmen were lost. One more detail shot. Prinz Adalbert was assigned as flagship of the IV Scouting Group of the Hochseeflotte upon the outbreak of hostilities in 1914. In November, when Friedrich Carl was sunk, she was detached and assigned to the Cruiser Division Baltic Sea to take her place. On 1 July, 1915, a minelaying operation north of Bogskar was returning when it was ambushed by a Russian Squadron of three armored cruisers and two light cruisers. When the situation report came in, Prinz Adalbert and Prinz Heinrich immediately sortied in support. While en route, the cruisers steamed across the path of the British submarine E-9, which slammed a torpedo into Prinz Adalbert just below the conning tower, causing severe damage and killing ten. The armored cruiser laid in a course for the Kaiserwerft, Danzig – but taking in 2,000 tons of water made her too deep for the shallow entrance. Instead, she had to limp all the way to Kiel to find a channel deep enough to admit her to port, arriving on July 4th. Repairs were completed in September, 1915. On October 19th, Prinz Adalbert was ordered to take up a patrol line between Faro and Dagerot. Some 20 miles west of Libau, en route to her patrol area, she was steaming in company with two destroyers when she encountered the British submarine E-8. The submarine loosed a spread of torpedoes at 1,300 yards and within seconds, a massive explosion ripped the cruiser apart. She went down instantly, with only three survivors from her 675 man crew. In all probability, one or more torpedoes struck near a powder magazine and detonated the contents. She lies in 240 feet of water, broken in half like a match stick. It might be said that the Prinz Adalbert’s, too, were an ill-fated class. But what could be more truly said, was that the Baltic Sea might have been a “small show” compared to the North Sea – but it was infinitely more deadly. THE COMPETITION The evolution of the Imperial German cruiser force must always be viewed within the context of the era and the prevailing environment. Nothing exists in a vacuum and warships are no exception. In 1905, the big news in the world, and Europe in particular, was the humiliating defeat suffered by the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. The modern Japanese Imperial Navy had easily defeated the less numerous and less modern Russian Pacific Fleet. Then, at the Battle Of Tsushima, they defeated the even less modern Russian Baltic Fleet sent all the way around Africa. At the same time, the Japanese Imperial Army, at great cost of human life, captured Port Arthur and drove the Russian army out of Manchuria. The defeat came as a great shock to Europeans, in general, and the Americans in particular, because it signaled a major shift in the balance of power in Asia. It also altered the power balance in Europe. Russia was devastated and would take many years to regain her strength. This automatically (though only temporarily) removed the potential military/political threat on the borders of the Austro-Hungarian and German Empires. The politicians and generals were emboldened because they no longer feared the “Russian Juggernaut” in the East. Edward VII, King of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India. Reigned 1901 – 1910. In his coronation robes. Political tensions would rise and crises would multiply in the coming years, but the King-Emperor, Edward VII, sat on the throne of Great Britain. Both Kaiser Wilhelm II and Czar Nicholas II were his nephews, and Edward spent a great deal of time smoothing the political waves in Europe. They did not call him “Edward The Peacemaker” for nothing. He achieved more useful political maneuvering than all his ministers put together. During his brief ten-year reign, he turned the French from enemies to allies, sympathized with Nicholas II, and did his best to still Wilhelm’s saber-rattling. But Edward was no fool. The King actively backed Admiral Jackie Fisher’s reforms of the Royal Navy, the much-needed reorganization and distribution of the fleet, and encouraged Admiral Fisher in his design and building of the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought. Edward knew diplomacy was all well and good, but it would fail without a strong, modern fleet to back it up. And Jackie Fisher was the man to build that fleet. Fisher always kept his “eye on the ball” and followed naval developments in France, Austro-Hungary, Japan, and even in America. But most of all, he eyed the German fleet with particular interest. The growing numbers of German armored cruisers were a distinct threat to British trade routes and supply lines. And the only way to protect the sea lanes was to hunt down the German cruisers with an overwhelming number of British cruisers. Between 1903 and 1906, Great Britain commissioned ten ships of the Monmouth Class, six ships of the Devonshire Class, and two ships of the Duke Of Edinburgh Class. Though some of these proved to be of slightly dubious quality, both Edward and Fisher knew...”Quantity had a quality all its’ own”. HMS Bedford – Monmouth Class – 1903. Note the bridge, which has been reduced to an armored conning tower with “flying bridge wings” and a wheelhouse. The Monmouth’s (Often called the “County Class”) might actually be called “second class” cruisers. Jackie Fisher’s comment was biting, but succinct – “Sir William White designed the County Class but forgot the guns”. But in all fairness, potential enemy armored cruisers were still rare in 1902, when they were designed. The ships were really only expected to encounter light cruisers and armed merchant cruisers on the sea lanes, and were specifically designed to deal with small, fast cruisers like the French Guichen, Chateaurenault, and Dupleix. Having said that, they were relatively fast ships for their time and could possibly have outrun anything with bigger guns. The Monmouth Class ships were 9,800 tons, 463 feet long, and capable of 23 knots. The main battery consisted of fourteen 6 inch MK VII guns – four of which were mounted in two twin turrets, one fore and one aft. The remaining ten guns were mounted five on either broadside in casemates amidships. Unfortunately, six of the casemates were positioned at the main deck level and were useless in heavy seas. Ten quick-firing 3 inch guns were fitted for torpedo boat defense and two 18 inch submerged torpedo tubes were included. The waterline belt armor was 4 inches amidships, tapering to 2 inches forward (presumably, the stern was unarmored). The gun turrets, barbettes, and casemates were armored with 4 inches. The protective armored deck was 0.75 inches, thickening to 2 inches on the slopes, and the conning tower received 10 inches. Monmouth was lost at the Battle Of Coronel, in 1914, while the other ships did good service and some were instrumental in tracking down and sinking German light cruisers used for commerce raiding early in the war. All were withdrawn from service and scrapped in 1920–21. Devonshire Class - HMS Devonshire – 1905. Again we see the large wooden bridge atop the armored conning tower. In battle the bridge staff was supposed to drop down a ladder into the armored conning tower. In actual practice, many captains chose to command from the bridge to get a better tactical view of the battle. The six ships of the Devonshire Class were all commissioned in 1905, and were “improved” versions of the Monmouth’s intended for commerce protection. Mindful of the previous negative remarks about armament, the 6 inch battery was reduced and 7.5 inch guns were added. The ships displaced 10,850 tons, were 473 feet in length, and capable of 22 knots. The breech-loading 7.5 inch MK I guns were placed in four single turrets, with one aft, and the other three in a triangular arrangement forward. One turret was placed on the forecastle deck, with the other two placed slightly aft and one deck lower (weather deck) on either beam. The MK I’s fired a 200 pound shell out to approximately 14,000 yards. The secondary battery of six 6 inch guns was placed in casemates amidships on either beam. Four of the casemates were at main deck level and were unworkable at any kind of speed or heavy weather. The ships were also equipped with eighteen quick-firing, 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns for torpedo boat defense, but these were later removed when they proved unable to stop modern torpedo craft. Two 18” submerged torpedo tubes rounded out the armament. The Devonshires were “up-armored” with a waterline belt of 6 inches amidships, closed off at both ends by 5-inch armored transverse bulkheads. The turrets were armored with 5 inches, while the barbettes received 6 inches. The protective armored deck was unchanged from the previous class, while the conning tower was increased to 12 inches. HMS Argyll ran aground on Bell Rock near Dundee in October, 1915, and though her entire crew was rescued, the ship was a total loss. HMS Hampshire struck a mine off the mainland of Orkney and was lost on June 5, 1916. Of the 749 souls aboard, only 12 were rescued. Among those lost were the Secretary Of State For War, Lord Kitchner, and his staff. They were en route for Russia to discuss the deteriorating situation on the Eastern Front. The remainder of the class was scrapped 1921-1922. Duke Of Edinburgh Class - HMS Duke Of Edinburgh – 1906. After the Devonshire Class, the British Admiralty decided their cruisers could be put to better use by forming a “fast wing” of the battle fleet. A fast wing would give the battle line a tactical edge over their opponents. The cruiser’s extra speed would allow them to race ahead of the enemy line and cross their “T”, allowing the cruisers to bring all their broadside guns to bear on the leading enemy warship. Or, the fast wing could be used to apply pressure to the van (front) of the enemy line, forcing them to alter course and place them in a less advantageous position. If nothing else, they could be used as scouts to locate the enemy fleet and help bring them to battle. This new tactical employment would, of course, mean the new cruisers would have to have heavier armor and bigger guns. And the higher speed would require more room for engines and boilers, which meant longer hulls and higher costs. Some naval analysts (including the legendary Oscar Parks) have referred to the Duke Of Edinburgh Class as the cruiser version of the contemporary King Edward VII Class pre-dreadnought battleships. They displaced 12,590 tons, were 505 feet long, and could make 23 knots. The cruiser’s main battery was composed of six 9.2 inch MK X guns in single turrets. The Mark X was a much more powerful gun than those mounted in the Devonshires. The guns were arranged with one turret fore and aft, and four wing turrets amidships, abaft the first and fourth funnels. The guns could fire a 380 pound shell at three rounds per minute out to 15,500 yards. The secondary battery of ten 6 inch guns were mounted on the main deck in single embrasures rather than casemates, five on either broadside amidships. And, as usual, the guns on the main deck level were too close to the waterline and were useless in anything but calm seas. They also carried twenty Vickers 3-pounder quick-firing guns for torpedo boat defense, but these were found to be useless, and were removed. Three submerged 18 inch torpedo tubes were fitted with eighteen reloads. The Duke Of Edinburgh and Black Prince were well armored with a 6 inch belt of Krupp Cemented Armor amidships that reached up 14.5 feet to the upper deck and extended nearly 5 feet below the waterline. The belt was only 4 inches out to the bow and 3 inches to the stern, while 6 inch transverse bulkheads closed off the fore and aft ends of the midships central citadel. The gun turrets had 7.5 inches on the front with 5.5 inches on the sides and a 2 inch roof. The barbettes and ammunition hoists were 6 inches, while the embrasure mounted 6 inch guns were separated by 2 inch armor screens. The protective armor deck was, however, only 0.75 of an inch with 1.5 inches over the steering gear and 2 inches over the engines. The conning tower was plated to 10 inches. For those of you wondering why Krupp armor from Germany could be found on a British warship – it was strictly “business”. The decades just before and after the turn of the century were the “Golden Years” for the armaments industries. And representatives (salesmen) of the armaments firms practically went door-to-door across Europe and the entire World drumming up business. The British shipyards of Armstrong, Vickers, and John Brown built ships for Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Japan. German shipyards built warships for Holland, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Turkey, and even Russia. France sold warships to Russia. Even the Americans got in on the act by building battleships for South American customers and selling two old ones to Greece. (German Stukas bombed and sank them in WW II.) Armstrong sold some of the largest cannon in the world to anyone who had the money to buy them. And Krupp’s massive works at Essen were kept roaring day and night by selling anything to anyone. You could even find some Krupp cannon and Cemented Armor in Teddy Roosevelt’s “Great White Fleet”. Of course the Royal Navy only wanted the best and strongest armor for their warships, so Krupp was paid handsomely to supply it. And – Admiral Hollman’s fear that armored cruisers would eventually find their way into the battle fleet came true with the British Duke Of Edinburgh Class. The sailing frigate had transformed into an ironclad frigate, an unprotected cruiser, a protected cruiser, an armored cruiser for commerce protection, and now an armored cruiser “fast wing” of the battle fleet. From Dupuy de Lome, 1890, to The Duke Of Edinburgh’s planning and design (about 1902), it had taken just twelve years for the ships to find their way into close proximity with the battle fleet. HMS Duke Of Edinburgh was assigned to the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet at Jutland, in May of 1916, and briefly engaged the German II Scouting Group as well as the German light cruiser Wiesbaden. She suffered no damage or casualties and finished out the war on the North American West Indies Station performing convoy duties. She was scrapped in 1920. HMS Black Prince was serving in the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet when war broke out in 1914. She participated in the pursuit of the Goeben (German battlecruiser) and was then sent into the Red Sea to search for German merchant shipping. Black Prince took two prizes – the German ocean liners Istria and Sudmark. It is a bit ironic that she actually performed commerce raiding duty – the original mission of an armored cruiser. Ordered to England, she joined the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet in December, 1914. In May 1916, at Jutland, Black Prince was again deployed with the 1st Cruiser Squadron scouting in advance of the main body of the Grand Fleet. A swirling fire-fight erupted when contact was made with the cruisers of the Hochseeflotte’s 2nd Scouting Group at about 17:42. A lively skirmish ensued with much gunfire and the occasional torpedo track in the water. Fifteen or twenty minutes later, Black Prince had lost sight of the enemy and her own squadron mates, and nothing more was heard from her until she radioed an erroneous submarine sighting report at 20:45. Darkness settled in over the battle area and nothing more was known until about 23:35. The 1st Battle Squadron of the Hochseeflotte was on “high alert” steering southwest for Horn’s Reef when, suddenly, a ship appeared out of the darkness to the east. The enemy ship looked to be an armored cruiser resembling a Duke Of Edinburgh Class. The British vessel scored hits with two 6 inch shells on the battleship Rheinland, then put her helm hard over and tried to run. But it was too close and too late. SMS Thuringen quickly fixed the fleeing cruiser in her searchlight beams and opened fire almost instantly. At least five more ships – including the battleships Nassau, Friedrich der Grosse, and Ostfriesland opened a quick and deadly fusillade. All of the German ships were within 750 to 1,500 yards of the target – point-blank range – zero trajectory shooting for 12 inch guns. Black Prince was hit by a minimum of twelve large caliber shells and an unknown number of 5.9 inch rounds. Within seconds, she burst into a mass of flame from stem to stern and the fires deep inside the hull could be seen through the jagged shell holes. The Germans ceased fire and maintained their course, but they saw the flames disappear about 23:50. Black Prince had gone down with all hands – a loss of 857 officers and men. SMS Thuringen and 1st Battle Squadron open fire on HMS Black Prince at point-blank range. (Art by Willy Stower.) In 1902, when Black Prince was designed to form a “fast wing” of the battle fleet, the officers who formulated the strategy had never seen an armored cruiser under the guns of a battleship. They had no real concept of what they were trying to doing. The British naval officer of the era had grown up in the late Victorian Age and had been spoon-fed a diet of “Nelsonian Superiority”. The Royal Navy was the navy of Nelson, and Francis Drake, and annihilating your enemy in battle. To attack – always attack – and no matter the odds, you fought on until victory was achieved. Nelson had gotten away with it in the Age Of Sail. And Black Prince might have gotten away back then, with a fair wind in her sails. But in the age of steel giants and massive 12 inch guns – this sort of daring-do was no longer possible. And what happened to Black Prince at Jutland, would have happened to the ships of a “fast wing” in 1902 – if it was composed of armored cruisers. An armored cruiser was no more than a “grown-up” frigate, and the Royal Navy had forgotten the “first law” of frigates – “Frigates were NEVER intended to stand in the line of battle.” Neither were armored cruisers. But the idea of a “fast wing” was never tried in battle – and it would resurface in a few years with yet another kind of ship that held out the promise of speed and power. NEXT TIME…… EVOLUTION OF THE ARMORED CRUISER THAT'S NOT ALL...... We have another prop-pack for you ...HISTORIC NAVIES 1900 - Volume 05: Victoria Louise Class Cruisers. I DO HOPE you are enjoying these chapters – rather than being bored out of your mind. I enjoy writing them, but then, I have always been fascinated with the history. Do let me know – I can always write a lot less and post more pictures. MANY THANKS to @Barroco Hispano for his beautiful warships. We haven’t seen many of his models lately, but there are some great ones coming in future chapters. AGAIN, VERY SPECIAL THANKS to my teammate @AP for volunteering his considerable talents and valuable time. The Cuxhaven Series would have been utterly impossible without his generous assisstance. 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 https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/761469-simtropolis-shipyard/?tab=comments#comment-1766496- 4 Comments
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