Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/949

 DEFENCE 593

The early German battleships were built abroad ; but the ships of the new programme are being constructed not only in German yards, but almost exclusively of German materials. Of these, the Brandenburg battleships are steel-built, with complete belt, double bottom, transverse and longitudinal bulk-heads, and about 120 water-tight compartments. Their heaviest plating (compound) is of 15^ inches, and the three protected barbette gun emplace- ments have 11^ inches plating. These are in the axis of the ship, and the heavy guns are placed in them in pairs. The forward gun is raised consider- ably, and behind it lies the battery. The dimensions of these ships are — length, 254 feet 4 inches; beam, 64 feet ; draught, 24 feet 7 inches. The new ships of the Kaiser Friedrich III. class are a considerable improvement ui)on their predecessors. The system of placing a turret amidships with two of the heaviest calil)ro guns has been abandoned, but the quick-tiring armament, which is well protected, is much larger. The heaviest guns are of 9 4 inch calibre instead of 11 inch, but they are very powerful. The speed of the new ships is two knots better than that of the earlier type, and the range is greater. The Siegfried ships are provided with powerful rams, and, having their works raised very high amidships, present a somewhat singular appearance. They are protected by watertiglit compartments and cofferdams filled with cellulose, and have an end-to-end belt with an extreme thickness of 9-^ inches. The heavy guns are placed, two forward in an oval barbette, and one aft in a pear- shaped barbette, and the lighter pieces on the forecastle and poop and at the corners of the superstructure. The first-class cruiser Kaiserin Atignsta is steel-built, planked, and coppered, has two fighting-masts, and has the special feature of being provided with three independent screws, like the French Ditpuy de Lomc^ a speed often knots being attainable with the middle one alone.

The large armoured cruiser Fiirst Bismarck (10,650 tons) was launched in 1897. She is 393 feet 8 inches long, with 66 feet 9 inches beam, and is pro- tected by Harvey steel, 7 '7 inches thick on her sides and turrets, besides having a 3 inch deck. She will carry a very powerful armament, and have engines of 14,000 horse power, intended to give a speed of 19 knots. Five second-class cruisers, the Victoria Luise, Hcrtha, Freya, Ransa, and Vineta have also been launched, and another is provided for. These displace 5,560 tons, are powerfull}'- armed, well protected, and intended to steam at 20 knots, being superior in some respects to their immediate predecessors, the Gefion, Irene, and Prinzess JFilhelm.

Germany subsidises, as auxiliary merchant cruisers, seven vessels with a nominal speed of from 19^ to 20 knots or more, viz, the Fiirst Bismarck (10,500 tons), and the Augusta Victoria (9,500 tons), belonging to the Hamburg-American Steam Ship Company, and the North-German Lloyd steamers Kaiser JFilhelm dcr Grosse and Kaiser Friedrich III. (20,000 tons), and the Spree, Havel, and Lahn (7,700 to 8,900 tons). These are to be severally armed, in case of war, with 8 5*9 in., 4 4 9 in., 2 3*1 in. Q.F., and 2 2 '2 in. Q. F. Krupp guns.

The German navy is manned by the obligatory service of the maritime population {seemdnnische Bevolkericng) — sailors, fishermen, ships' carpenters, and others ; and also of the semi-maritime population — that is, of those who have smaller experience of the sea. All these are freed on this account from service in the army. Great inducements are held out for able seamen to volunteer in the navy, and the number of these in recent years has been very large. The total seafaring population of Germany is estimated at 80,000, of whom 48,000 are serving in the merchant navy at home, and about 6,000 in foreign navies.

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