BATTLESHIPS AND CRUISERS
There was no sudden change from iron to steel in the building of
warships. Steel at first was very expensive, and by no means the
perfect article that we know at the present day, besides which
the supply was very restricted, and the Admiralty by using it in
conjunction with iron was able to ascertain the extent to which it
might ultimately be adopted. Thus, in one ship, steel was tried for the
keel, in another for the protective deck, in another for facing armour,
in another for the frames, and so on. The two screw propeller shafts
of the _Inflexible_, for instance, were made of Whitworth compressed
steel. They were 288 feet in length and weighed 63 tons. Had they been
of wrought iron they would have weighed 97 tons.
One of the earliest steel warships ever built, and certainly one of
the smallest, was the Dutch gunboat _Handig Vlug_, launched on the
Thames in 1864. Commenting on this little gunboat, the _Times_ said:
“The general term ‘gunboat’ conveys to our minds the image of a vessel
built of ‘sappy timbers’ and rotten planking, carrying two heavy shell
guns on their low unprotected upper deck, fitted with 60 h.p. (nominal)
engines, and averaging no more than eight knots under the most
favourable circumstances, a class of vessel that has figured for almost
fabulous sums in our annual navy estimates for ‘repairs,’ etc., but,
nevertheless, a class of craft that has left imperishable marks of its
usefulness and power in many parts of the world, and more especially
on the rivers and seaboard of India and China.”
A comparison between the gunboats of the British Navy, as revealed by
the foregoing quotation, and the type introduced by the _Handig Vlug_
is striking. She was stated to be the first vessel of any class, built
on this side of the Atlantic, to carry her armour on the deflective
principle instead of offering vertical resistance to the impact of
shot. She was constructed entirely of steel, her plates below the
water-line being only ¼ inch thick, but above the water-line they were
⅜ inch thick, and the dome or cupola in which her battery was placed
was composed of plates of similar thickness. This cupola occupied 60
feet in the centre of the vessel with a grated top for ventilation,
and above this was a small pilot-house, resembling the usual American
design, about 5 feet high. The cupola had three gunports at either
end, permitting the guns to be trained ahead and astern, and on the
bows or quarters. It also had a number of holes for rifle fire, which
could be covered with brass slides when not in use. She was intended
to be sufficiently fast under steam to be able to outstrip a battery
operating on land in a country with so many watercourses as Holland,
or to be rifle-proof if sent to Javanese waters. She was to carry two
12-pounder rifle shell guns and fifty riflemen. The length of this
“hornet,” as she was called, was 100 feet between perpendiculars,
her beam was 17 feet, and her depth 6 feet 6 inches, and she drew
only 3 feet of water; her tonnage was 138 tons. In rough weather this
little low ship made a speed of ten knots on her trial trip, and
being a twin-screw vessel--the engines and ship were built by the
Dudgeons--she was put through some tests in the presence of Admiralty
representatives, and made a complete circle in two minutes forty-seven
seconds, and another in three minutes, while in going ahead at full
speed the course of the vessel was reversed by the altered action
of the screws in one minute. The tests were held to “prove the worth
of the double or twin-screw principle for purposes of warfare, as it
has been proved before for some time for purposes of commerce, for
handiness of any vessel under steam power is equally valuable for both
purposes, whether in avoiding the shoals of a tortuous shallow river or
in flanking the shore battery of an enemy.”[53]
As steel is much stronger in proportion to its weight than iron, it
followed that the adoption of steel for building warships meant a great
saving in the weight of the hull. The weight thus gained could be
utilised in three ways: by increasing the extent of the armour carried,
by increasing the weight of the guns carried, or by a combination of
the two. As steel was still further improved it became possible to
increase the size of the vessels, the power and weight of the engines
and boilers--in which the power increased to a far greater proportion
than the weight--the speed of the ships, the strength and extent of the
armour carried, and the effectiveness of the guns. It permitted also of
a destructive secondary armament.
We have seen how from the old broadside ships of the _Northumberland_
type came the central battery ships like the _Hercules_, the last
of these being the _Superb_. Their armament also underwent a
modernising process as time went on, and many of these old ships,
from the _Warrior_ onwards, were equipped with both quick-firing and
anti-torpedo-boat guns, and were retained long after their fighting
capacity had become a very doubtful quality, and their surrender to the
tender mercies of the shipbreaker became imperative.
Meanwhile from the converted _Royal Sovereign_ there descended a
series of turret ships, some, like the _Cerberus_, _Devastation_ and
_Dreadnought_, having two turrets on the centre line of the ship;
others, like the _Rupert_ and _Conqueror_, having one turret only;
others, like the _Monarch_, having two turrets in the centre, and yet
others having their turrets _en echelon_ or placed diagonally, as in
the _Inflexible_. The _Colossus_ was an improved _Inflexible_, but of
steel, and practically marked the end of the heavily armoured vessels
of this type. From the double turrets and the central battery ships we
have the combination of the two in the _Temeraire_.
The _Colossus_ and the _Edinburgh_, which were begun in 1882 and
completed in 1886, may be said to have inaugurated a new era in the
building of the world’s battleships. They were the first battleships
to be built wholly of steel for the British Navy, and were asserted to
be more powerful as fighting ships than any other ships in existence.
This was due not only to the material of which they were constructed,
but also to the fact that they were given breech-loading guns, Great
Britain being the last of the great Powers to dispense with the
old-fashioned muzzle-loader. These ships were of much the same type as
the _Ajax_ and _Inflexible_, but their citadels were of greater length;
they were of fourteen knots speed.
The _Nile_, launched in 1888, had a complete belt, and was the last
low freeboard turret ship. She was preceded by what were known as
the soft-ended barbette ships, because their ends were comparatively
unprotected, the weight being concentrated amidships in order, among
other objects, to increase the sea-going qualities of the vessels; the
first of these was the _Collingwood_, begun in 1882 and launched in
1886, the principal armament being carried in barbettes.
[Illustration: H.M.S. “VICTORIA” FIRING 111-TON GUN. _Photograph by Sir
W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Ltd._]
[Illustration: H.M.S. “VICTORIA,” SHOWING 111-TON GUNS AND TURRET.
_Photograph by Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Ltd._]
The _Collingwood_ has been regarded as the pioneer vessel of the
modern battleship, for it certainly was the first in which the real
advantages of steel were displayed. On her was introduced the
system of mounting four heavy guns in pairs on the middle line of the
ship, not in turrets as in her predecessors carrying a few big guns,
but in barbettes or fixed gun positions protected by heavy armour.
The barbettes and turrets have been so modified in later ships that
sometimes one term and sometimes the other is used by experts to denote
the same design. The method of mounting the guns, as illustrated in
the _Collingwood_, remained in vogue in the British Navy until it was
supplemented by the _Dreadnoughts_. The _Collingwood’s_ side armour was
18 inches in thickness; the armour of her bulkheads was 16 inches, that
of the conning tower 12 inches, and that of her barbettes, in which her
four 12-inch 45-ton guns were mounted, was 11½ inches. She also carried
six 6-inch guns and several smaller guns. Her displacement was very
little more than that of the _Colossus_, but she was two knots faster.
Other vessels, described as sisters to the _Collingwood_, followed, but
they were all rather larger, among them being the _Camperdown_, which
had the misfortune to sink the _Victoria_ during naval manœuvres in
1893 in the Mediterranean, when Admiral Sir George Tryon and nearly all
the crew of his flagship went down with the vessel.
The _Victoria_ was a steel-armoured first-class single-turreted
battleship, and was built at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1887. Her armour was
from 18 to 16 inches thick, and there was a protective deck 3 inches
thick. She had two sets of three-stage expansion engines, and steam
was generated in eight steel boilers with four furnaces each, which
were fired from four independent stokeholds. She was one of the three
ships to be armed with 111-ton guns, of which she had two in a turret
forward. One 29-ton gun was mounted aft to fire over the stern, and she
also had twelve 6-inch, twelve 6-pounder quick-firers, twelve 3-pounder
quick-firers, eight machine guns, and four torpedo tubes, two of which
were submerged. Her displacement was 10,470 tons, length 340 feet,
breadth 70 feet, and depth 27 feet 3 inches. The rapidity with which
she heeled over and sank was supposed to be partly due to the weight of
these enormous guns.
Great things were expected from the type represented by the _Benbow_,
launched in 1885, and completed three years later, which, next to the
_Inflexible_ which cost nearly £800,000, was the most expensive ship
Britain had then built, and cost the country close upon £775,000. She
was very heavily armed, as she carried two 16.25 inch and ten 6-inch
guns, all breech-loaders, and was the first vessel to be given five
torpedo tubes. This vessel may be said to have inaugurated the big gun
era, notwithstanding that she came under the category of soft-ended
ships. The last British single-turret ship was the _Sans Pareil_,
launched in 1887, and completed two years later, and in many respects
a sister ship to the unfortunate _Victoria_. These three vessels did
not give the satisfaction anticipated, and though various alterations
were made in the _Victoria_ no great improvement was effected, and the
results were not considered such as to justify the construction of any
more like them. The _Benbow’s_ big guns were in barbettes, and those of
the _Sans Pareil_ were in a turret.
The _Nile_ and _Trafalgar_, which were begun in 1886, were of 11,940
tons displacement, and were the largest ships up to then built for the
Navy. Their heaviest guns, instead of being in barbettes, were placed
in turrets. These vessels were exceedingly heavily armoured, having
a belt of steel no less than 20 inches thick, and above this was an
armoured redoubt, or citadel, protected by compound armour 18 inches in
thickness for 141 feet along each side, the redoubt having parabolic
ends of the same thickness of armour, enclosing the turret bases.
Armour of equal thickness was placed on the turrets. The secondary
armament, consisting of 4.7 inch quick-firing guns, was contained in an
octagonal battery with steel sides 3 to 5 inches thick, placed between
the turrets. These ships were 345 feet in length by 73 feet beam, and
about 28 feet mean draught.
The _Royal Sovereign_, launched in 1891 and completed the following
year, introduced what is known as the high freeboard barbette type,
and in 1893 there was completed the _Hood_, the last of the British
turret ships. The _Royal Sovereign_ was noteworthy for several reasons.
A record for rapid building was established in her, for she was laid
down in September, 1889, and was launched as early as February, 1891,
a quicker piece of work for a vessel of her dimensions and the weight
of material handled than had ever been accomplished. One novelty
about her armament was that she carried as many as eight Maxims. In
her also the “big four” were 13½-inch breech-loaders, as against the
12-inch guns placed in her predecessors; these were mounted in pairs
in barbettes. She also had ten 6-inch quick-firers, six of which were
behind shields and four in casemates; and sixteen 6-pounders, twelve
3-pounders, and three torpedo tubes completed her weapons of offence.
For the protection of the ship a belt of compound armour, 18 inches
thick, extended along the water-line a sufficient distance to protect
the bases of the barbettes. Across the ship at the top of the belt was
a protective steel deck 8 inches thick, and this deck was continued at
the level of the bottom of the belt to the extreme ends of the ship.
Above the thick belt on the sides and protecting the ship as high as
the main deck and from the fore to the after barbette was a belt of
steel armour 4 inches thick, and above this, on the main deck, were the
casemates enclosing the 6-inch quick-firers. Altogether eight of these
vessels were built, the _Hood_ being the only one of them to be given
turrets instead of barbettes.
Artillerists, however, were not to be beaten, and so far as steel
armour and compound armour were concerned, the gun appeared once more
to be obtaining the advantage. The Harvey process of strengthening the
resisting powers of steel came to the rescue of the armour-plate. The
_Renown_, which has been called a “half-way house” between the _Royal
Sovereign_ and the _Centurion_, was the first warship in the British
Navy to be given Harveyised steel armour, of which both her armoured
belt and her armoured bulkheads were constructed. Whereas in the _Royal
Sovereign_ the thickest armour was 18 inches, that of the _Renown_ was
10 inches, and yet the latter was declared to be the better protected.
The extraordinary reduction in weight thus secured made possible the
advent of the _Majestic_ and _Magnificent_. These two vessels and the
others of their class were as far in advance of the _Royal Sovereign_
as the heavy ironclads were in front of the iron-plated ships. The
side armour of the _Majestic_ and _Magnificent_ of Harveyised steel
was carried to twice the height that was possible with the _Royal
Sovereign_, and though it was only 9 inches thick it offered a
resistance to penetration by hostile projectiles at least equal to that
of the massive sides of the _Royal Sovereign_, and was far stronger
than the ponderous iron masses piled upon the sides of the great turret
ships of a few years earlier.
[Illustration: H.M.S. “MAJESTIC.” _Photograph by West & Sons,
Southsea._]
With the _Magnificent_, launched in 1894 and completed the following
year, came the barbette ships with a high displacement. She, and the
others of her class, carried four 12-inch guns and twelve 6-inch
quick-firers, and thirty-eight anti-torpedo-boat guns, a number which
had not been equalled by any other vessel except the _Royal Sovereign_,
and five torpedo tubes, as against seven which had been installed
in that vessel and her sisters. The _Magnificent_ had a displacement
of 14,900 tons and engines of 12,000 indicated h.p., a designed speed
of seventeen and a half knots which she exceeded, a coal capacity of
2,200 tons, a belt of 9 inches of steel armour, and from 10 to 14
inches of steel for the protection of the main guns. The _Majestic_
was another of the sisterhood, though there were certain differences
of detail, no two vessels being precisely alike. She was 390 feet
between perpendiculars and, including the overhang of the stern and the
ram of 15 feet, about 430 feet in length. Her beam was 75 feet. Thus
she was longer than the _Royal Sovereign_ but of the same beam, which
made her a faster ship, her speed on her trial having reached 17.8
knots, although her engines indicated about 1,000 less h.p. than the
battleships of the programme of 1889.
All the ships of this class were remarkable for their appearance, which
certainly justified such names as _Magnificent_ and _Majestic_. The
great height of the superstructure fore and aft gave the idea of a good
deal of top hamper, which however was quite as great in the _Royal
Sovereign_. The upper deck 6-inch quick-firers of that vessel were
only protected by ordinary shields, but the new ships had closed-in
casemates at each corner of the battery and double plating above. The
bridges and deck-houses of the _Majestic_ were set back to avoid the
“blast” of the great guns, and the forward conning-tower stood clear
of the bridge and had an uninterrupted view all round. In regard to
the bridges she differed considerably from many of her predecessors
carrying heavy armament, as the “blast” from the big guns would have
rendered a position on the bridge far from safe, especially when they
were fired abeam. In these vessels the four 12-inch 46-ton wire guns
were placed two in each barbette; the breech and body of each gun was
protected by a steel hood with a maximum thickness of 10 inches. Their
6-inch guns were in casemates. The 12-inch guns were very powerful
for their weight, and comparing them with some of their most notable
predecessors, it was found that their energy nearly equalled that
of the 67-ton gun and their perforating power exceeded that of the
110½-ton gun.
The _Majestic_ and her sister ships were at the time they were added
to the Navy the most powerful warships afloat. The smaller guns were
unprotected, this being one of the objections urged against their
design. They were provided rather for repelling attacks by torpedo
boats, for which purpose they would no doubt have been very effective
if they were not disabled by an enemy’s gun-fire first.
The _Canopus_ class, of slightly larger displacement but less draught
and more lightly armoured, was a lighter version of the _Magnificent_,
and but very little faster. The next year, 1898, saw the launching
of the _Formidable_, which carried the same powerful armament as the
last two, but was considered to have it better protected, as her belt
consisted of 9 inches of steel and her main guns were protected by
steel armour 12 inches thick. The displacement and horse-power of the
engines were greater, but there was little improvement in the matter
of speed. This was remedied in the _Duncan_ and her class. She was
405 feet in length and 75 feet 6 inches beam, being 5 feet longer and
6 inches wider than the _Formidable_, and of about the same draught,
but her engines were of 18,000 h.p. indicated, giving her an estimated
speed of nineteen knots and an actual speed of over twenty knots on
occasion. These two classes of vessels attracted more than usual public
attention because of their cost, as although the cost of warships had
been steadily increasing, the _Formidables_ and the _Duncans_ were
the first in which the cost per ship exceeded a million sterling. A
somewhat smaller vessel followed in the _Triumph_, launched in 1903,
which attained a speed of nearly twenty-one knots, and in which also
the complete belt was revived. Her principal guns were four 10-inch
and fourteen 7.5-inch quick-firers, and she had also twenty-four
anti-torpedo-boat guns and two torpedo tubes.
[Illustration: H.M.S. “KING EDWARD VII.” _Photograph by the Carbonora
Co., Liverpool._]
[Illustration: H.M.S. “LORD NELSON.” _Photograph by Stephen Cribb,
Southsea._]
The increasing power and range of naval guns rendered it necessary that
better protection and more destructive weapons should be given to the
ships, and accordingly there was introduced in 1903, and completed in
1905, the _King Edward VII._, and eight of this class were built. Their
displacement was 16,350 tons, and in this respect they were the largest
ships yet built for the Navy, but though they were shorter than the
_Triumph_, they were of 2 feet greater draught. Their armour belt was
of 9 inches of steel, and their main guns were protected by 8 to 12
inches. These ships carried four 12-inch, four 9.2-inch, and ten 6-inch
quick-firers, and thirty anti-torpedo-boat guns. They cost not far
short of a million and a half sterling each. Their engines of 18,000
h.p. gave them a speed of about nineteen knots. In 1906, there was
launched the _Lord Nelson_, carrying fewer guns but better protected.
Her armament comprised four 12-inch and four 9.2-inch, besides
twenty-nine smaller guns and five torpedo tubes, and the armour both of
her belt and for her main guns was of steel 12 inches in thickness.
The _King Edward VII._ and _Lord Nelson_ were the finest examples
of the types of battleships carrying four big guns and a powerful
secondary armament. Both classes were provided with four 12-inch
guns, but the _Lord Nelson_ and the _Agamemnon_ marked an advance
from the principle which had endured so long towards the principle of
the all-big-gun one-calibre ship as exemplified in the _Dreadnought_.
They were not, however, ships carrying all big guns of one calibre,
for instead of a secondary armament like that of the _King Edward_,
they carried ten 9.2-inch guns and twenty-four smaller weapons. The
_Lord Nelson_ and _Agamemnon_ were about 410 feet in length by 79
feet 6 inches beam, and on a draught of 27 feet had a displacement of
16,500 tons. They were 15 feet shorter than the _King Edward_ class
and 18 inches broader. Many naval men preferred the _Agamemnon_ to
the _Dreadnought_, when the latter appeared in 1906, on account of
the greater rapidity of fire of the former; but against this it was
contended that her hitting power at long range was less. Upon her
trials the _Agamemnon’s_ engines developed 17,285 h.p. indicated,
and gave her a speed of eighteen and three-quarter knots, both power
and speed being in excess of the estimates. Her high freeboard was a
notable feature; her forward guns were 27 feet and her after pair 22
feet above the water-line, while in a superstructure above them were
the smaller guns some 34 feet above the water-line, where they were
admirably placed for dealing with any attempt at a torpedo attack.
The _Agamemnon_ was built by the Beardmore firm, at Dalmuir, and
launched in June, 1906, and the _Lord Nelson_ left the slips at
Palmer’s establishment at Jarrow in the following September. It was
contended that their 12-inch guns were half as powerful again as any
of similar calibre mounted previous to 1906. Of their 9.2-inch guns,
eight were in what are called twin barbettes, and the other two in
single barbettes between the others. There are also a few 12-pounders
and a greater number of 3-pounders, thirty-five in all, most of which
are in a somewhat exposed position. These ships have each a complete
belt extending along the water-line from stem to stern, 12 inches
thick amidships, and tapering to 6 inches at the bow and 4 inches aft,
while the sides above the belt and between the barbettes have 8-inch
armour raised to the level of the upper deck; diagonal bulkheads, also
of 8-inch armour, enclose the citadel at either end. Yet that 8-inch
armour was declared by Mr. Beardmore, when the ship was launched, to be
more than equal in its power of resisting projectiles to the 12-inch
armour of only four years earlier.
In considering the development of the modern warship attention
naturally turns to the battleship, but it should be remembered that
other vessels of scarcely less importance help to constitute the modern
navy, the most notable being the cruisers of various classes, the
destroyers and torpedo boats, and submarines.
Broadly speaking, the cruiser of the present day is to the modern
fleet what the frigate was to the line-of-battle ship in the days
of the three-deckers. That is to say, she has to be the eyes of the
fleet, able to show a good turn of speed, and capable of taking care
of herself if need be. There the resemblance ends. The duties of the
modern cruiser are multifarious. She has to be no less a commerce
protector than a commerce destroyer, and while at one end of the scale
she may be little more than a glorified gunboat, she may at the other
end have to be able to take her place in the line of battle and help
her more powerful sisters. Whatever her duties, speed is regarded as of
great importance.
The _Iris_, in 1878, attained a speed of eighteen and a half knots, but
more than seventeen years elapsed before this speed was equalled by any
of the cruisers. Her sister ship, the _Mercury_, covered nearly 18.9
knots, or close upon twenty-two miles an hour. In 1895 the cruisers
_Amphion_ and _Arethusa_ proved themselves able to exceed their
designed speed of seventeen and a half knots, and thence onwards the
increase in speed has been continuous, until we have the _Invincible_
in the British Navy capable of exceeding twenty-nine knots under
service conditions and in only moderately fine weather, and the _Von
der Tann_, in the German navy, possessing a speed of twenty-eight
knots under the most favourable conditions of weather and lightness
of stores. At one time the German ship was asserted to be the fastest
large cruiser afloat, but her supremacy, if it ever existed, in this
respect was very short-lived.
The _Phæton_ was one of the last class of cruisers to be given square
sails. Her canvas certainly proved useful to her, for her machinery
broke down during her commissioning trials preparatory to the naval
review at Spithead in 1897, and had it not been for her sails she
would have been totally disabled. The incident was seized upon by
those who still favoured the older methods which had done duty for
so many hundreds of years, as an argument for the retention of sail
power for the ships of the Royal Navy, and the modernists replied that
such incidents were few and far between, and with the improvements in
mechanism which science was continually making would become virtually
impossible.
Naval experts do not always agree as to the differences between a
battleship and a cruiser. There are vessels in either category which
could not possibly be placed in the other; but on the other hand there
are some vessels that may be classed as either one or the other, and
the types of the fast battleship and the armoured cruiser have been
approaching each other in late years in so many respects, that some
cruisers are fit to take their place in the line of battle against
all but the heaviest battleships, and the natural result has been the
appearance of the latest type of warship suitable for either duty, and
known as the cruiser-battleship.
[Illustration: THE GERMAN DREADNOUGHT CRUISER “VON DER TANN.”
_Photograph by Stephen Cribb, Southsea._]
The Japanese, in their encounter with the Russian fleet, utilised
cruisers against the Russian ships of the line, but whether they
would have been able to do so had the Russian battleships been in
as good condition as were those of their Oriental opponents is a
point upon which opinions differ. The cruisers, like the latest
_Invincibles_, have been given the armament of a battleship, but they
have been less heavily protected in order to allow them superior
speed; everything, should they have to take part in a naval battle,
will therefore depend upon their antagonists and the exigencies of the
engagement as to the duties they will have to perform.
Every nation has its own classification of warships, and the varieties
of modern warships are so numerous, and the estimates of their
effectiveness so much at variance, that it is little wonder the
descriptions assigned to the vessels do not agree. Thus the American
_Maine_, sunk at Havana, was described with equal accuracy as a cruiser
and as a second-class battleship. But the nations have, for the most
part, adopted the British classification of cruisers, though they
have not failed to modify it to suit their own views. First come the
unprotected cruisers, then the protected cruisers of the first, second,
or third class; then the armoured cruisers; and of recent years the
battle-cruiser, or heavy cruiser, capable of taking her place in the
line with battleships. The unprotected cruisers have no side armour
or other protection worth mentioning, and are mostly used for police
duties, such as guarding fisheries, etc. They are lightly built and
armed, and of relatively good speed for their size, and the duties they
have to perform usually constitute the chief matter for consideration
in the design of the several vessels. The protected cruisers have
strong steel decks to protect their engines, etc., besides a great
number of watertight compartments, and are classified according to
their size, armament and speed, and the work for which they are
intended.
Although the Admiralty adopted iron ships, it did not finally abandon
its old wooden ships until 1874--or a year after that in which the
first steel vessel was built for the Navy--in which year the British
Navy was enriched by the addition of the wooden corvettes _Sapphire_
and _Diamond_. Iron screw-driven cruisers or corvettes were the
successors of the smaller fast wooden vessels, and a number of fast
unarmoured ships of various types were built. One of them, the
_Bacchante_, had the honour of being selected for the cruise round the
world of the present King, when he and his brother, the late Prince
Albert Victor, joined the Navy as midshipmen.
The Americans claim that these types of vessels were introduced by
the _Wampanoag_, which was designed at the time of the American Civil
War to chase Confederate commerce destroyers. The extraordinary
reports published in the sensation-loving American papers, and duly
copied and accepted as true by the British papers, as to the speed
and capabilities of this vessel and others of her class, in 1866,
induced the British Government to decide on something similar, and, if
possible, superior, and the _Inconstant_ was the result. She was 333
feet in length by 50 feet beam, and had a displacement of 5,782 tons
on a draught of 23 feet. She was built of iron sheathed with wood and
coppered, this arrangement enabling a light hull to be constructed
which should take the strain of the machinery without being subject
to the same “working” as a wooden ship would have had to endure on
account of the greater elasticity of the material. The wood sheathing
protected the iron, and also enabled the bottom to be covered with
copper, or “yellow metal” as the composition was called which was
generally used for the purpose, in order to prevent barnacles, weeds,
and other marine growths from accumulating upon the submerged portion
of the hull and retarding the speed. Considering that barnacles and
weeds will grow thus to a length of several inches, the extent to which
the speed of a vessel will be hindered may be imagined. All unsheathed
vessels, whether of wood or iron, were peculiarly liable to these
growths, which are particularly luxuriant in tropical waters, and
might have their speed reduced even as much as from ten knots to six
knots. The difficulty was to enable an iron ship to carry a skin of
copper or yellow metal, the latter being mostly used in the mercantile
marine, and the former for ships of war, private owners with their own
money to spend being usually more economical than governments with
the taxpayers’ money behind them, and not hampered by the problems of
making the ships pay commercially. The _Inconstant_ was launched in
November, 1868, and was followed in 1873 by the _Shah_, whose famous
encounter with the _Huascar_ was alluded to in the previous chapter.
In 1879 the _Comus_ class, usually called the “C” class, as their
names began with that letter, and the _Leander_ class were introduced,
constructed partly of steel and partly of iron, their hulls being
given a sheathing of wood. Their engines and boilers were given a
protective steel deck over them 1½ inches thick, but otherwise they
had little enough in the way of protection. The most famous of the
former class was the _Calliope_, which, in March, 1889, made such a
magnificently successful struggle against a hurricane, and fought her
way from Samoa Harbour in the teeth of one of the most severe storms
experienced in the Pacific. The consummate seamanship and cool daring
displayed by Captain Kane in that struggle, lasting for hours, when six
American and German gunboats in the harbour were wrecked, have made
his feat memorable in the annals not only of the British Navy, but in
the heroic records of the seamanship of all ages. It is no detraction
from the merits of Captain Kane’s exploit to say that credit is due
also to the members of his crew, whatever their station--and not least
to the unknown hero who was at the wheel in that battle between man’s
science and Nature’s force. All shared in the glory of the feat; from
Captain Kane and his officers to the engineering staff who kept a
set of unreliable engines going at a pressure they were never built
to withstand, and to the half-naked coal-trimmers in the bunkers and
firemen in the stokehold, who stuck to their work in the semi-darkness,
knowing full well that in the case of failure on anyone else’s part, or
breakdown in the engines, they were doomed to die like rats in a trap.
The incident directed attention to the splendid sea-going capacities of
these vessels, and for many years afterwards the “lines” of the smaller
cruisers bore a strong resemblance to those of the _Calliope_ and her
sisters.
It was not, however, until 1883 that the first protected cruiser
appeared. This was not built for the British Navy, but for a South
American State, and under the name of the _Esmeralda_ came from the
slips at Elswick. She had a complete protective deck, and not simply a
protecting deck over her vital parts, engines capable of giving her a
high speed, and a powerful armament. She was the pioneer vessel of her
class. The British naval authorities, however, preferred the armoured
cruisers, and led the way in 1881 with the _Imperieuse_ and _Warspite_,
but soon abandoned this type and adopted the protected cruiser. These
two vessels were each of 8,000 tons displacement, 315 feet in length,
and had a partial belt of 10-inch armour along 140 feet on each side,
transverse bulkheads 9 inches thick at each end of the belt, and a
protective deck 1½ inches thick. They carried four 9.2-inch guns in
separate barbettes, one forward, one aft, and one on either side,
besides ten 6-inch guns, twenty-six smaller and machine guns, and
six torpedo tubes. Their hulls, which were of steel, were sheathed with
wood and coppered.
[Illustration: RUSSIAN CRUISER “RURIK.” _By permission of Messrs.
Vickers, Ltd._]
[Illustration: RUSSIAN CRUISER “ROSSIA.” _Photograph by Stephen Cribb,
Southsea._]
Other nations, notably France and Russia, adhered to the armoured
type, the former producing the _Dupuy de Lôme_, and the latter the
_Rossia_ and _Rurik_. Both these vessels were built at St. Petersburg
in 1896 and 1894 respectively, and must be distinguished from the
present Russian cruisers bearing these names. The _Rossia_ was terribly
knocked about in the war with Japan, but has survived it, thanks to
her armour. She appeared at the Diamond Jubilee Review in 1897 at
Spithead. The _Rossia_ and the present _Rurik_, the latter launched
at Barrow in 1906, attracted attention on account of their speed,
the former attaining twenty and a quarter knots and the more modern
boat nearly twenty-one and a half knots. Both were heavily armed, the
latter especially so, being the only Russian cruiser to carry four
10-inch guns. She has, besides, eight 8-inch guns, twenty 4.7-inch
quick-firers, eighteen smaller quick-firers, and two torpedo tubes,
and when she left the builders was one of the most formidable cruisers
afloat. Accurate long-range shooting being indispensable, the _Rurik_
is also fitted with a range-finding tower.
The new _Esmeralda_, built in 1895 for the Chilian Government by the
Tyneside firm who built her earlier namesake, had not a little to do
with the introduction of side armour on British cruisers, thanks to the
improvement of the Harvey and Krupp processes of strengthening steel.
The _Powerful_, launched at Barrow in 1895, and the _Terrible_,
launched at Glasgow the same year, were the largest protected cruisers
afloat at that time, and will long be remembered by the public for the
excellent service their crews rendered during the Boer War, and among
naval architects and marine engineers and shipbuilders by reason of the
bitter controversy that arose over their installation of forty-eight
Belleville water-tube boilers, they being the first cruisers in the
British Navy in which these were carried.
As a contrast to these two was the armoured cruiser _Drake_, begun
in 1899 and completed in 1902, and at that time the largest of her
class anywhere. Though called a cruiser, she was a more formidable
fighting-machine than the _Barfleur_, _Renown_ or _Canopus_. With a
displacement of 14,100 tons, and a length of 500 feet, and an equipment
of Belleville boilers and engines developing 30,000 h.p., she and her
sister ships could reach a speed of over twenty-four knots, and were
faster than any other large vessels in the British Navy. She was belted
on her sides with Krupp steel from one barbette to the other, and from
6 feet below the water-line to the level of the upper deck, and there
was lighter armour above this. She had also two protective decks, the
lower being 2 to 3 inches in thickness. Her two 9.2-inch breech-loading
guns were in barbettes, and she was given sixteen 6-inch, fourteen
3-inch, and three smaller guns, which, like the last two classes, were
quick-firers, and two machine guns.
The increase in gun power rendered necessary an addition to the
protection of the vessels, and the _Devonshire_ class of cruisers,
which appeared early in the present century, were given 6 inches of
armour instead of 4 inches. The ships of this class were tried for
experimental purposes with four different types of water-tube boilers
in combination with cylindrical boilers. These fast armoured cruisers
were designed to replace the old protected cruisers, which were no
longer equal to modern requirements, speed being now recognised as of
very great importance.
[Illustration: H.M.S. “INDOMITABLE.” _Photograph by West & Son,
Southsea._]
[Illustration: H.M.S. “LIVERPOOL.” _Photograph by E. Sankey, Barrow._]
It is not only in the larger ships, however, that examples of such
extraordinary development are to be found. Progress is shown by the
smaller vessels in no less degree. The continually changing conditions
of commerce have necessitated as many changes in the construction and
armament of vessels whose duty it would be in time of war to protect
commerce at sea, or maintain order in estuaries and rivers.
The _Dartford_, belonging to the “town” class of cruiser, may be
regarded as one of the best existing specimens of the modern smaller
cruiser. She is of 5,250 tons displacement, as compared with 4,800 tons
in the _Liverpool_, one of the earliest of her class, the addition
being largely required to carry an increase in her fighting power, as
her armament includes eight 6-inch quick-firers, all well protected,
and several smaller guns, as compared with two 6-inch guns and ten
4-inch guns in her preceding sisters. The machinery is of the same type
and power as that installed in the earlier “town” cruisers, and in
view of the high efficiency of the _Liverpool’s_ engines at her speed
trials, the _Dartford_ was expected to attain a speed of twenty-six
knots. Besides her coal-bunkers at the sides, the _Dartford_ has an
armoured deck of nickel steel, with sloping sides extending well
below the water-line. Her turbine machinery of 22,000 shaft h.p. is
contained in three separate engine-rooms, and there are three separate
boiler-rooms for her twelve water-tube boilers. Oil fuel is carried in
her double bottom. She has two masts fitted with wireless telegraphy
apparatus, and on the foremast is a platform from which the gun-fire
can be electrically directed.
Some cruisers are distinctly lighter versions of battleships. As
developments of the swift battleship of the _Magnificent_ and _Duncan_
types came the armoured cruisers _Cressy_, in 1899, _Drake_, in 1902,
and the belted cruisers _Black Prince_, in 1904, and _Minotaur_, in
1906, whence there developed the cruiser-battleship _Inflexible_ in
1907.
The _Dreadnought_ cruisers as much surpass the preceding types of
cruisers as the _Dreadnought_ battleships surpassed the _Majestics_,
etc. For that matter, _Dreadnought_ cruisers, like the _Princess
Royal_, as well as the _Queen Mary_ now being built, “could steam
round a fleet of pre-_Dreadnought_ ships and fire when it suited them,
keeping beyond the range which would enable the old battleship guns to
penetrate the armour of the modern cruiser.”[54]
The last of the _Dreadnought_ cruisers launched to the time of writing,
the _Princess Royal_, is the largest warship ever built by a private
firm in England for the British Government, although she is stated to
be exceeded by the battleship _Rio de Janeiro_, under construction at
Newcastle for the Brazilian Government, which is asserted to have a
displacement of 32,000 tons.
The _Princess Royal_ is a cruiser copy of the battleship _Conqueror_,
launched the same day. The principal differences between the two
vessels are that the cruiser has a pair less of the 13.5-inch guns, and
also has her side armour 2 inches less in thickness, in order that she
may steam thirty knots or more in place of the battleship’s twenty-one.
Her beam is the same as that of the _Conqueror_, but in order to give
her speed she is 700 feet over all as against the battleship’s 545
feet. In fighting power the _Conqueror_ is superior to the _Princess
Royal_, the latter having only eight big guns. An idea of the enormous
power required to drive these ships at the necessary speed, and
especially of the increase in power as between the two vessels, is
shown by the fact that turbine engines of 27,000 h.p. will give the
battleship a speed of twenty-one knots, but the thirty knots of the
cruiser require engines developing 70,000 h.p., or 27,000 more than the
_Indefatigable_, which has done twenty-nine knots. The vessel is to
be completed for sea by March, 1912.
[Illustration: FRENCH CRUISER “ERNEST RENAN.” _Photograph supplied by
Société Anonyme des Chantiers et Ateliers de Saint Nazaire._]
[Illustration: FRENCH CRUISER “DANTON.” _Photograph by Stephen Cribb,
Southsea._]
It will have been seen from the dimensions quoted of the various
cruisers mentioned that they are longer in proportion to their beam
than the battleships, the additional length being necessary to give
them greater speed. There was launched at Elswick in 1895, for the
Argentine Government, the protected cruiser _Buenos Ayres_, which was
very narrow for her length. Though 424 feet over all, she was only 47
feet 2 inches in beam, by 22 feet in depth. Her displacement was 4,500
tons. Her normal speed was twenty-three knots, and under forced draught
twenty-four knots. Like all the warships built on the Tyne for South
American States, she was heavily armed. One of the most heavily armed
ships of her size early in the present century was the Japanese cruiser
_Tsushima_, launched in 1902, but she has been surpassed by the later
vessels of the Japanese navy in speed, coal capacity and armament, the
latest, which are not yet completed, though only classed as protected
cruisers of 4,035 tons, having a coal capacity of 750 to 1,000 tons,
and carrying two 6-inch guns, ten 4.7-inch, and two 3-inch guns, all
quick-firers, and two machine guns.
A vessel which attracted considerable attention when she was begun in
1902--at various other times since when changes in her plans have been
suggested to meet the views of French naval experts, or the theories
of successive Ministers of Marine, a tinkering process from which she
has not been the only sufferer on the other side of the Channel--until
she was completed in 1908, is the _Ernest Renan_ cruiser. The length of
time which has elapsed between the laying-down and the completion of
some French vessels has seen them surpassed by newer types from other
shipyards, notably British, even before they have been commissioned.
But this is not the case with the _Ernest_ _Renan_, which, apart
from the _Dreadnought_ cruisers, is an exceedingly powerful ship, and
a great credit to her builders at St. Nazaire. She is rather narrow,
being only 70 feet 6 inches beam, with a length of 515 feet, and her
draught is 26 feet 9 inches. She is more effectively protected than
many a battleship of a few years earlier, having an armoured deck 2
inches in thickness, an armoured belt varying from 6¾ inches to 4
inches, while above the water-line belt she carries armour varying from
5 inches to 3 inches in thickness. Her armament is remarkably varied,
including, as it does, four 7.6-inch guns, twelve 6.4-inch guns,
twenty-one 1.8-inch guns, and two 1.4-inch guns, besides two submerged
torpedo tubes. Her main gun positions are protected by 8 inches of
armour, and her secondary armament by 5 inches of armour.