Spanish Armada (1888-1898): Armoured Cruisers Infanta Maria Teresa, Vizcaya, Almirante Oquendo If it is a dubious privilege to have three cruisers of the same class sunk the same day, the Infanta Maria Teresa class shared it with other examples, as Cressy, Hogue Aboukir in WWI, three of the Zara class at Matapan in 1941 and … Read more
USA – pre-dreadnought 1895-1911 USS Texas 1890 – The very first USN battleship. After the American Civil war ended in 1865, what was later called the “old navy” started to decrease and over the years, few new ships were built, so much so that in 1883, the Congress was asked two authorize the first modern … Read more
Svea class coast defence ships (1886) Swedish Navy – Svea, Göta, Thule The Svea class armored ships (“pansarskepp”) of the Swedish fleet comprised HMS Svea, Göta and Thule. They were coastal defensive ships armed with 25 cm guns and the lead vessel was launched on 12 December 1885. They were modernized in 1900-1904, and after … Read more
US Protected Cruiser, 1890 – today Introduction: The birth of the “new navy” When the first Cleveland Administration took office in 1885, Navy Secretary William Collins Whitney decided to maintain the previous modernization program under the Arthur Administration, at the time it was still far from power projection, limited to commerce raiding only (in part … Read more
Protected cruisers 1888-1926: IJN Matsushima, Itsukushima, Hashidate The Yalu Protected Cruisers These three cruisers played a role central at the battle of Yalu in 1894, and were at the same time an example of the alignment of Japan on the French “Jeune Ecole” (Young School) theories, which attacted attention from relatively modest navies, like the … Read more
France 1873-1910, Central Battery Ironclad The “Le Redoutable” was the world’s first steel-built central battery ironclad and started a new breed of capital ships for France in the 1880s. She however still had wrought iron armor. She was also the largest warship afloat when launched, rebuilt in 1894, and saw service until 1910 in the … Read more
Italia class ironclads Italy (1881) Italia, Lepanto The Italia class comprised two ironclad battleships of the Regia Marina, built between the late 1870s and early 1880s. They were designed by famous engineer Benedetto Brin, which took a radical approach on protection design to profit overall speed, with an exceptionally extensive internal subdivision. Combined with their … Read more
France, Coastal Battleships – Jemmapes, Valmy The Jemmapes class (1892) were two French coastal Battleships, part of the four commissioned in the early 1890s, quite unique in design, and completely influenced by the “Jeune Ecole” theories, with the Bouvines class. The first were assigned to the Mediterranean and the second, which had a forecastle, to … Read more
HDMS Tordenskjold (1880) Denmark Torpedo Ram built 1878-81, decomm. 1908 Development of the sole Danish Torpedo Ram HDMS Tordenskjold was not the largest, not most famous pre-WWI Danish warship, but it was the only one of its kind. It was designed in Copenhaguen back in 1878 as a Torpedo-Ram. This partially armored, heavily armed experiment … Read more
