Protected cruiser
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Protected cruisers, a type of
cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea ...
of the late 19th century, took their name from the armored deck, which protected vital machine-spaces from fragments released by explosive shells. Protected cruisers notably lacked a belt of armour along the sides, in contrast to armored cruisers which carried both deck and belt armour. Outside of a handful of very large designs in the major navies (which preceded the revival of armored cruisers), the majority of protected cruisers were of 'second-' or 'third-class' types, lighter in
displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...
and mounting fewer and/or lighter guns than armored cruisers. By the early 20th-century, with the advent of increasingly lighter yet stronger armour, even smaller vessels could afford some level of both belt and deck armour. In the place of protected cruisers, these new ' light armored cruisers' would evolve into light cruisers and heavy cruisers, the former especially taking on many of the roles originally envisioned for protected cruisers.


Evolution

From the late 1850s, navies began to replace their fleets of wooden ships-of-the-line with armoured
ironclad warship An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship protected by steel or iron armor constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The firs ...
s. The
frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...
s and sloops which performed the missions of scouting,
commerce raiding Commerce raiding is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging its combatants or enforcing a blockade against them. Privateering is a fo ...
and trade protection remained unarmoured. For several decades, it proved difficult to design a ship which had a meaningful amount of effective armour but at the same time maintained the speed and range required of a "cruising warship". The first attempts to do so, large
armored cruiser The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a pre-dreadnought battles ...
s like , proved unsatisfactory, generally lacking enough speed for their cruiser role. They were, along with their foreign counterparts such as the French , more like second- or third-class battleships and were mainly intended to fulfil this role on foreign stations where full-scale battleships could not be spared or properly supported.


First protective decks

During the 1870s the increasing power of armour-piercing shells made armouring the sides of a warship more and more difficult, as very thick, heavy armour plates were required. Even if armour dominated the design of the ship, it was likely that the next generation of shells would be able to pierce such armour. This problem was even more poignant where the design of cruising warships was concerned, with their requirement for long endurance needing much of their displacement to be devoted to consumable supplies – even where very powerful and space-consuming high-speed machinery was not required – leaving very little weight available for armour protection. This meant that effective side belt armour would be almost impossible to provide for smaller ships. The alternative was to leave the sides of the ship vulnerable, but to armour a deck just below the waterline. Since this deck would be struck only very obliquely by shells, it could be less thick and heavy than belt armour. The ship could be designed so that the engines, boilers and
magazines A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...
were under the armoured deck, and with hopefully enough reserve buoyancy to keep the ship afloat even in the event of flooding resulting from damage above the protective deck. An armoured deck had actually been used for the first time in HMS ''Shannon'', although she did rely principally on her vertical belt armour for defence: Her protective deck was only a partial one, extending from the forward armoured bulkhead of the
citadel A citadel is the most fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of ''city'', meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. ...
to the bow.


Early ships

The first of the smaller "unarmoured" British cruisers to incorporate an internal steel deck for protection was the of
corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...
s started in 1876; this was only a partial-length deck, with amidships over the machinery spaces. The ''Comus'' class were really designed for overseas service and were capable of only a speed, not fast enough for fleet duties. The following ''Satellite'' and ''Calypso'' classes were similar in performance. A more potent and versatile balance of attributes was struck with the four s. Ordered in 1880 as modified dispatch vessels and re-rated as second-class cruisers before completion, these ships combined an amidships protective armoured deck with the size, lean form and high performance of . They also featured a heavy and well-sited armament of modern breech-loading guns. ''Leander'' and her three sisters were successful and established a basis for future Royal Navy cruiser development, through the rest of the century and beyond. Their general configuration was scaled up to the big First Class cruisers and down to the torpedo cruisers, while traces of the protected deck scheme can even be recognised in some sloops.Brown, ''Warrior to Dreadnought, Warship Development 1860–1905'', page 111.


Breakthrough

By the start of the 1880s, ships were appearing with full-length armoured decks and no side armour, from the of very fast
battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...
s to the torpedo ram . In the case of the latter, the armoured deck was of sufficient thickness to defend against small-calibre guns capable of tracking such a difficult, fast target. This was very much the philosophy adopted by George Wightwick Rendel in his design of the so-called 'Rendel cruisers' ''Arturo Prat'', and . By enlarging the flatiron gunboat concept, increasing engine power and thus speed, Rendel was able to produce a fast small vessel and still have enough tonnage to incorporate a very thin ( thick) partial protective deck over the machinery. Still small and relatively weakly built, these vessels were 'proto-protected cruisers' which served as the inspiration for a significantly larger ship; ''Esmeralda''. The first true mastless protected cruiser and the first of the 'Elswick cruisers', the was designed by Rendel and built for the
Chilean Navy The Chilean Navy () is the naval warfare service branch of the Chilean Armed Forces. It is under the Ministry of National Defense (Chile), Ministry of National Defense. Its headquarters are at Edificio Armada de Chile, Valparaiso. History Ori ...
by the British firm of Armstrong at their Elswick yard. ''Esmeralda'' was revolutionary; she had a high speed of (dispensing entirely with sails), an armament of two and six guns and a full-length protective deck. This was up to thick on the slopes, with a cork-filled cofferdam along her sides. It would not defend against fire from heavy guns, but was designed to be adequate to defeat any gun of the day considered capable of hitting so fast a ship. With her heavy emphasis on speed and firepower, ''Esmeralda'' set the tone for competitive cruiser designs into the early 20th century, with 'Elswick cruisers' of a similar design being constructed for Italy, China, Japan, Argentina, Austria and the United States. Cruisers with armoured decks and no side armour – like ''Esmeralda'' – became known as "protected cruisers", and rapidly eclipsed the large and slow armoured cruisers during the 1880s and into the 1890s. The
French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...
adopted the protected-cruiser concept wholeheartedly in the 1880s. The '' Jeune École'' school of thought, which proposed a navy composed of fast cruisers for commerce raiding and torpedo boats for coastal defence, became particularly influential in France. The first French protected cruiser was , laid down in 1882, and followed by six classes of protected cruiser – and no armoured cruisers.


Side armour abandonment

The
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
remained equivocal about which protection scheme to use for cruisers until 1887. The large , begun in 1881 and finished in 1886, were built as armoured cruisers but were often referred to as protected cruisers due to the limited extent of their side armour – although what armour they had was admittedly very thick. Their primary role, as with the earlier ''Shannon'' and ''Nelsons'', was still to function as small battleships on foreign stations, countering enemy ''stationnaire ironclads'' rather than chasing down swift commerce-raiding corsairs. While they carried a very thick and heavy armoured belt of great power of resistance that extended over the middle of the ship's length, the belt's upper edge was submerged at full load. Britain built one more class of armoured cruiser with the , begun in 1885 and completed in 1889. They were affected by a similar fault to the ''Imperieuse'' regarding their belt's submergence. In 1887 an assessment of the ''Orlando'' type judged them inferior to the protected cruisers and thereafter the Royal Navy built only protected cruisers, even for very large first-class cruiser designs, not returning to armoured cruisers until the introduction of new lighter and stronger armour technology (as seen in the , laid down in 1898). The sole major naval power to retain a preference for armoured cruisers into the 1890s was
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. The Imperial Russian Navy laid down four armoured cruisers and one protected cruiser during the late 1880s, all large ships with sails.


Elswick's influence

Following the ''Leander'' class, the next small cruisers designed for the Royal Navy were the of 1883. Derived from the previous class, these were also protected cruisers but with a full-length armoured deck for superior protection. The ''Merseys'' were born from a different tactical conception to their forebears and this was reflected in their armament arrangement. They were conceived as 'fleet torpedo cruisers' to carry out attacks on the enemy battle line and featured heavy guns fore and aft with excellent fields of fire. Despite public Admiralty criticism of Elswick designs, it is clear that the ''Mersey'' class was heavily influenced by the Italian 'torpedo ram cruiser' ''Giovanni Bausan'', a design itself derived from ''Esmeralda''. Thus, the British notion of the protected cruising warship was being shaped early on by the commercial export models coming out of Elswick. (For the following decade, practically any British cruiser which was seen to have eschewed very heavy firepower in favour of conservative design balance was subject to fierce public criticism, and this period coincided somewhat unfortunately with Sir William White's tenure as DNC.) The protected cruiser remained a popular and economical type, rather stable in terms of its characteristics, right throughout the 1890s and into the early 1900s. During this period, protected cruiser designs of second- to third-class grew slowly in size, seeing few major changes to the common balance of design features. Perhaps the most significant paradigm shift came with the universal adoption of quick-firing guns by the world's navies in the middle of the 1890s; suddenly small and medium cruisers saw a swift increase in their fighting power for a slight reduction in gun calibre, yielding a very economical balance of attributes. This kept the protected cruiser competitive for a further decade.


Eclipse of the type

By 1910, metallurgical advances had led to lighter and stronger steel armour, and lighter, more powerful
steam turbine A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...
s had displaced reciprocating
steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...
s in general use. This gave rise to a new class of cruising warship, the " light armoured cruiser", which featured a side armoured belt (topped by a flat armoured deck) amidships and sloped armoured decks at the ends, instead of the single full-length curved deck of the older ships. With the introduction of oil-fired boilers, more effective at generating a constant steam pressure optimal to turbine engines, side bunkers of coal disappeared from ships, and with them their protection, making the shift to side armour a practical choice. The majority of pre-existing protected cruisers – products of the Victorian-era design generation – had become obsolete: their old and worn engines were degrading their already-eclipsed performance; their older models of lower-velocity guns were inferior in distance to newer equivalent ships in a period where long-range guns and fire control were rapidly-developing; and, most critically, their protection was inferior to the new generation of side-armoured ships. From this point on, practically no more protected cruisers would be built for the world's navies.


Service areas


Austria-Hungary

The
Austro-Hungarian Navy The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy (, in short ''k.u.k. Kriegsmarine'', ) was the navy, naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy were designated ''SMS'', for ''Seiner Majestät Schiff'' (His Majes ...
built and operated three classes of protected cruisers. These were two small ships of the , two ships of the and three of the .


Britain

The Royal Navy rated cruisers as first, second and third class between the late 1880s and 1905, and built large numbers of them for trade protection requirements. For most of this time these cruisers were built with a "protected", rather than armoured, scheme of protection for their hulls. First-class protected cruisers were as large and as well-armed as armoured cruisers, and were built as an alternative to the large first-class armoured cruiser from the late 1880s till 1898. Second-class protected cruisers were smaller, displacing and were of value both in trade protection duties and scouting for the fleet. Third-class cruisers were smaller, lacked a watertight
double bottom A double hull is a ship hull design and construction method where the bottom and sides of the ship have two complete layers of watertight hull surface: one outer layer forming the normal hull of the ship, and a second inner hull which is some di ...
, and were intended primarily for trade protection duties, though a few small cruisers were built for fleet scout roles or as "torpedo" cruisers during the "protected" era. The introduction of
Krupp armour Krupp armour was a type of steel naval armour used in the construction of capital ships starting shortly before the end of the nineteenth century. It was developed by Germany's Krupp Arms Works in 1893 and quickly replaced Harvey armour as th ...
in six-inch thickness rendered the "armoured" protection scheme more effective for the largest first class cruisers, and no large first class protected cruisers were built after 1898. The smaller cruisers unable to bear the weight of heavy armoured belts retained the "protected" scheme up to 1905, when the last units of the and es were completed. There was a general hiatus in British cruiser production after this time, apart from a few classes of small, fast scout cruisers for fleet duties. When the Royal Navy began building larger cruisers (less than ) again around 1910, they used a mix of armoured decks and/or armoured belts for protection, depending on class. These modern, turbine-powered cruisers are properly classified as light cruisers.


France

The French Navy built and operated a large variety of protected cruisers classes starting with ''Sfax'' in 1882. The last ship built to this design was in 1897.


Germany

The German Imperial Navy (''Kaiserliche Marine'') built a series of protected cruisers in the 1880s and 1890s, starting with the two ships of the in the 1880s. The Navy completed only two additional classes of protected cruisers, comprising six more ships: the unique , and the five ships. The type then was superseded by the armored cruiser at the turn of the century, the first of which being . All of these ships tended to incorporate design elements from their foreign contemporaries, though the ''Victoria Louise'' class more closely resembled German battleships of the period, which carried lighter main guns and a greater number of secondary guns. These ships were employed as fleet scouts and colonial cruisers. Several of the ships served with the German East Asia Squadron, and , , and took part in the Battle of Taku Forts in 1900 during the
Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious F ...
. During a deployment to American waters in 1902, participated in the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903, where she bombarded Fort San Carlos. Long since obsolete by the outbreak of World War I, the five ''Victoria Louise''-class vessels briefly served as training ships in the Baltic but were withdrawn by the end of 1914 for secondary duties. ''Kaiserin Augusta'' and the two ''Irene''-class cruisers similarly served in reduced capacities for the duration of the war. All eight ships were broken up for scrap following Germany's defeat.Gröner, pp. 47–53, 95


Italy

The Italian '' Regia Marina'' (Royal Navy) ordered twenty protected cruisers between the 1880s and 1910s. The first five ships, and the , were built as "battleship destroyers", armed with a pair of large caliber guns. Subsequent cruisers were more traditional designs, and were instead intended for reconnaissance and colonial duties. Some of the ships, like and the , were designed specifically for service in Italy's colonial empire, while others, like and the , were designed as high speed fleet scouts. Most of these ships saw action during the
Italo-Turkish War The Italo-Turkish (, "Tripolitanian War", , "War of Libya"), also known as the Turco-Italian War, was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911 to 18 October 1912. As a result of this conflict, Italy captur ...
of 1911–1912, where several of them supported Italian troops fighting in Libya, and another group operated in the
Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...
. There, the cruiser and two
destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...
s sank or destroyed seven Ottoman
gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-steam ...
s in the Battle of Kunfuda Bay in January 1912. Most of the earlier cruisers were obsolescent by the outbreak of World War I, and so had either been sold for scrap or reduced to subsidiary roles. The most modern vessels, including ''Quarto'' and the ''Nino Bixio'' class, saw limited action in the Adriatic Sea after Italy entered the war in 1915. The surviving vessels continued on in service through the 1920s, with some—''Quarto'', , and , remaining on active duty into the late 1930s.


Netherlands

The
Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy (, ) is the Navy, maritime service branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It traces its history to 8 January 1488, making it the List of navies, third-oldest navy in the world. During the 17th and early 18th centurie ...
built several protected cruisers between 1880 and 1900. The first protected cruiser was launched in 1890 and called . It was a small cruiser with a heavy main gun; four years later a larger and more heavily armed protected cruiser was commissioned, which was called . In addition to these two cruisers, the Dutch also built six protected cruisers of the . The ''Holland''-class cruisers were commissioned between 1898 and 1901, and featured, besides other armaments, two 15 cm SK L/40 single naval guns. The Dutch protected cruisers have played a role in several international events. For example, during the Boxer Rebellion, two protected cruisers ( and () were sent to Shanghai to protect European citizens and defend Dutch interests. Ministerie van Buitenlandsche Zaken. Diplomatieke bescheiden – behoorende bij de Staatsbegroting voor het dienstjaar 1901, p. 11.


Russia

The Imperial Russian Navy operated a series of protected cruiser classes (, ''Armored deck cruiser''). The last ships built to this design where the in 1901.


Spain

The
Spanish Navy The Spanish Navy, officially the Armada, is the Navy, maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces and one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Spanish Navy was responsible for a number of major historic achievements in navigation ...
operated a series of protected cruisers classes starting with . The last ship built to this design was in 1899.


United States

The first protected cruiser of the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
's "New Navy" was , launched in October 1884, soon followed by in December, and a year later. A numbered series of cruisers began with ''Newark'' (Cruiser No. 1), although ''Charleston'' (Cruiser No. 2) was the first to be launched, in July 1888, and ending with another ''Charleston'', Cruiser No. 22, launched in 1904. The last survivor of this series is , preserved as a
museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...
in
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
. The reclassification of 17 July 1920 put an end to the U.S. usage of the term "protected cruiser", the existing ships were classified as light or heavy cruisers with new numbers, depending on their level of armor.Early American cruisers
from the Naval Historical Center. Excluding the larger armored cruiser type, these warships were "protected cruisers", with a steel armored deck covering machinery and ammunition magazines.


Surviving examples

A few protected cruisers have survived as museum ships, while others were used as breakwaters, some of which can still be seen today. * –
St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
, Russia * –
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, Pennsylvania * replica is on display in Dandong, China * Bow section and bridge of –
La Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguria ...
, Italy * Bow section of is on display at
Ostend Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...
, Belgium * The hulk of serves as a breakwater in Kelsey Bay, on the north coast of
Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest ...
.


See also

*
Battlecruiser The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of att ...
*
Unprotected cruiser An unprotected cruiser was a type of naval warship that was in use during the early 1870s Victorian era, Victorian or Pre-dreadnought battleship, pre-dreadnought era (about 1880 to 1905). The name was meant to distinguish these ships from “p ...


Footnotes


References

* * * * * *


Further reading

* *


External links

{{Warship types of the 19th & 20th centuries Ship types