Cruiser frigate
From 1884 the term cruiser frigate was the official type designation for covered corvettes with additional steam propulsion in the German Imperial Navy . Covered corvettes were so named because they carried their gun armament below deck. Overall, they were very similar to screw frigates .
The ships had a displacement of 2500 to 4600 tons , depending on the class . They were rigged as full ships , the steam engine operated on a screw . At the time of their reclassification, they were armed with ring cannons. The ships were completely out of date in the 1880s and could only be used as training ships and for foreign service.
Technically, the German cruiser frigates were not a new type of ship. The only ship that was launched as a cruiser frigate was the SMS Charlotte, which was still planned under the designation covered corvette in 1885 . When the imperial navy abandoned the designations cruiser frigate and cruiser corvette in favor of the designation cruiser in 1893 , no ships were in active naval service.
Cruiser frigates of the Imperial Navy
- Arcona class (1858): SMS Arcona , SMS Gazelle , SMS Vineta , SMS Hertha , SMS Elisabeth
- Leipzig class (1875) : SMS Leipzig , SMS Prinz Adalbert
- Bismarck class (1877) : SMS Bismarck , SMS Blücher , SMS Moltke , SMS Stosch , SMS Gneisenau , SMS Stein
- SMS Charlotte (1885)