admin7126 Tsukuba class Battlecruisers (1905) Japan (1905) Tsukuba, Ikoma Half-way between armoured cruisers and battlecruisers: Tsukuba and Ikoma, massive ships armed with 12 in (305 mm) pieces were the result of a request from the navy after the observation of the Russians long-range gunnery at the Battle of the Yellow Sea, but also replacement of the … Read more
Braunschweig class battleships (1902) Germany (1906) Battleships Braunschweig, Elsass, Hessen, Prussen, Lothringen Improved pre-dreadnoughts with three funnels The Braunschchweig were another group of five German pre-dreadnought battleships ordered as part of Tirpitz 1898 naval law. After the Kaisers and Wittlesbach, they proceeded in a straightforward fashion, improving all what they could compared to the previous … Read more
Italy (1923) Seaplane Carrier Italy’s ww2 seaplane carrier: De Facto naval rivalry between France and Italy was traduced on an almost ship-to-ship basis: To the Giuseppe Miraglia, first Italian seaplane carrier modified as such in 1923, answered the French Commandant Teste, which was larger and built as a dedicated ship in 1929. The Miraglia was … Read more
Missile Cruiser USS Long Beach Nuclear-powered missile cruiser This great cruiser is probably as famous as the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, her ‘sibling’ in many ways. In fact, she was the first nuclear-powered cruiser ever built, the first USN cruiser built after the Second World War (the conventional Worcester and Des Moines were laid down … Read more
United Kingdom (1889) HMS Blake, Blenheim HMS Blake in the 1890, in typical peacetime livery, black hull, white superstructures and canvas sand funnels, masts and apparels. The oldest cruisers in British service In 1914 indeed, the oldest 1st class cruisers in service were the two Blake, designed by William White from Chatham Dyd. They were … Read more
WW1 French Torpedo Boats 350 Torpedo Boats (1870s-1914) Introduction: French doctrine about TBs The French did not invented the torpedo boat, which was, for all purposes, merely a British crossed invention. Robert Whitehead indeed invented the modern torpedo concept in 1866, later refined by French and German innovations. John Thornycroft brings the turbine with her … Read more
USA – Armoured Cruiser The first USN Armoured Cruiser: The USS New York, later Saratoga, is certainly not as well-known as the aircraft carrier that fought in ww2 “lady sara”, but she will remains the first of a kind, the first armoured cruiser built in the USA (ACR2). She was born USS New York and … Read more
Radetzky class battleships (1908) Radetzky, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, Zrinyi (1908) SMS Radetzky: the last Austrian pre-dreadnought In February 1906, HMS Dreadnought was leaving Portsmouth shipyards. On the same date back in the Adriatic, the three Herzerzog were in completion. The latter carried four 240 mm guns and displaced 10 000 tons versus ten 305 mm … Read more
Reichsmarine vs Russian Navy Fire on the Baltic The fact that the Baltic did not saw naval major battles like Heligoland or Jutland don’t have to mask the myriad of naval actions that occurred in this war between the Russian Navy -albeit reduced after the crippling losses of 1905 in this theater- and the powerful … Read more
Cruiser Minin (1866) Russia, 1866 The oldest cruiser worldwide ? The Minin (Минин) was still in service in 1914. By that time, she was 48 years old, and by the time the war ended, get passed half a century. Yet she was not a museum ship, but fully active the whole time for the Russian … Read more
