Alexandrine class
 SMS Arcona in Nagasaki , Japan, ca.1897
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The Alexandrine- class was a class of two cruiser corvettes that were built for the German Imperial Navy in the early 1880s . The two ships were SMS Alexandrine and SMS Arcona . The corvettes of the class were ordered to replace older steam corvettes and were intended to serve on extended mission trips in areas of interest overseas of the German Empire. In the literature, the two ships of the class are sometimes referred to as the third construction lot of the Carola class .
The ships had a battery of ten 15 cm ring cannons as their main armament and were equipped with a full set of sailing equipment to supplement the steam engine that was also available on long missions overseas. The ships were outdated even before construction began.
history
After the Franco-Prussian War , the Imperial Navy started a general expansion program, the so-called "Fleet Plan of 1873", to strengthen and modernize the fleet, mainly in order to be prepared for a possible renewed conflict with France . At the same time, however, German trade interests also expanded in the overseas markets in Asia, Central and South America and the Pacific, while other European powers began to exclude German companies from activities in their overseas areas of interest. In order to better protect these German interests and to further project power overseas, a need for warships for long journeys and overseas stays was identified. In the mid-1870s, the previous capacities of the conventional sailing corvettes of the Imperial Navy were too small and also out of date. Accordingly, the naval command decided that modern steam corvettes were required for reconnaissance purposes and for service overseas. The technical innovation of steam power in shipping was only available for a short time and had already replaced the sails of the armored ships of the modern navy. The long trips abroad, which were necessary to safeguard German economic interests, on the one hand required a much larger radius of action than that of the armored ships, and on the other hand, steam engines were not yet reliable and efficient enough to rely on them alone. For the intended task, the German naval command therefore decided that traditional sailing systems had to be retained.
Accordingly, six ships of the Carola class were initially ordered in 1875 as so-called "smooth-deck corvettes" as part of this program to modernize the fleet. The last two ships that were intended for the class, however, were modified in the draft and subsequently formed the independent Alexandrine class. The Imperial Navy reclassified the "smooth-deck corvettes" from 1884 as "cruiser corvettes". As a result, the ships of the class were larger, heavier, had a modernized steam engine and more modern armament and were put into service as "cruiser corvettes" from 1886. Nevertheless, the ships were already considered obsolete at the start of construction and were therefore only used overseas, where an encounter with modern enemy armored units was considered unlikely.
The ships of the class were deployed overseas for several years during their entire service, often also to protect German interests as part of a gunboat policy and to promote the expansion of the German colonial empire from the 1880s onwards. The ships were involved in taking possession of the African colonies, the colonies in the Pacific and in the concession for the Kiautschou lease area . Overall, the Alexandrine- class corvettes and the other available ships managed to do their job and expand the German colonial empire in the 1880s and 1890s.
In the 1890s, all Alexandrine- class ships were no longer suitable as warships. The Alexandrine was taken out of service as early as 1895. The Arcona remained in service until 1899, was renamed Mercury and finally deleted from the register of ships in 1902.
general characteristics
The two ships of the Alexandrine class were 71.8 m and a total of 81.2 m long at the waterline, with a width of 12.6 m and a draft of 6.25 m. The design displacement was 2361 t, with a full load the ships displaced 2662 t.
The hulls were constructed with iron frames that formed the structure for the wooden planks. A copper layer was applied to the planks to prevent biocorrosion during longer missions overseas, where shipyard facilities were not readily available. The hull consisted of eleven watertight compartments. The keel was made of iron and the stern post was made of bronze. Both ships had a double floor under the engine room to protect the steam engine.
The nominal crew of the ships consisted of 25 officers and 257 men .
Each corvette carried several smaller boats of unspecified types.
drive
Alexandrine and Arcona were equipped with two 2-cylinder compound steam engines with double expansion, which drove a 2-blade propeller with a diameter of 5.02 m. Steam was supplied by eight coal-fired boilers , and the exhaust gases were fed into two chimneys . Each ship had a coal supply of 340 to 350 tons. The power supply was provided by a generator that produced 2 kilowatts (2.7 hp) at 55 volts .
The ships had a planned speed of 14 knots (26.0 km / h) under steam with an indicated power of 2400 PS (1800 kW). These values were slightly exceeded in speed tests.
The ships were a Dreimast- Bark - rig equipped with a sail area of 1134 square meters, to complement their steam engines in their long missions abroad, where coal could be scarce. The Alexandrine thus achieved a maximum range of 4180 nautical miles (7740 km) at a speed of 8.5 kn. The ships were steered with a single rudder and maneuvered well under steam and even better under sail. However, the corvettes tended to roll and pitch and lost a considerable amount of speed in the Gegensee, although they did well in bad weather.
Armament
The ships of the Alexandrine class were armed with a battery of ten 15 cm ring cannons of caliber length L / 30, for which a total of 730 rounds of ammunition were carried. The guns had a range of 6800 m. Furthermore, four 10.5-cm were Sk L / 35 with 400 rounds of ammunition and 7300 m range, and six Hotchkiss - 3.7 cm revolver cannon carried.
Ships
| ship | Shipyard | Keel laying | Launch | Commissioning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMS Alexandrine | Imperial shipyard , Kiel | February 1882 | February 7, 1885 | October 6, 1886 |
| SMS Arcona | Imperial Shipyard , Danzig | 1881 | May 7, 1885 | December 1, 1886 |
literature
- Gröner, Erich / Dieter Jung / Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . tape 1 : Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats . Bernard & Graefe, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 .
- Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . 10 volumes. Mundus Verlag, Ratingen (licensed edition by Koehler's Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg, approx. 1990).
Footnotes
- ↑ Cf. for example Gröner: The German warships. Vol. 1, pp. 117f.