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74-526: Germany was a relative latecomer to the imperialistic scramble for colonies across the globe. A German colony in China was envisioned as a two-fold enterprise: as a coaling station to support a global naval presence, and because it was felt that a German colonial empire would support the economy in the mother country. Densely populated China was viewed as a potential market to be exploited, with thinkers such as Max Weber demanding an active colonial policy from

148-453: A coaling station due to the use of coal for steam generation, a fuelling station was built for the purpose of replenishing coal supplies for ships or railway locomotives. The term is often associated with 19th and early 20th century seaports associated with blue water navies , who used coaling stations as a means of extending the range of warships . In the late 19th century, steamships powered by coal began to replace sailing ships as

222-687: A Prussian expeditionary fleet arrived in Asia and explored the region around Jiaozhou Bay. The following year, the Prussian-Chinese Treaty of Peking was signed. After journeys to China between 1868 and 1871, the geographer Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen recommended the Bay of Jiaozhou as a possible naval base. In 1896, Rear Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz , at that time commander of the East Asian Cruiser Division , examined

296-405: A full-length protective deck. This was up to 2 inches (51 mm) thick on the slopes, with a cork-filled cofferdam along her sides. It would not defend against fire from heavy guns, but was designed to be adequate to defeat any gun of the day considered capable of hitting so fast a ship. With her heavy emphasis on speed and firepower, Esmeralda set the tone for competitive cruiser designs into

370-494: A basis for future Royal Navy cruiser development, through the rest of the century and beyond. Their general configuration was scaled up to the big First Class cruisers and down to the torpedo cruisers, while traces of the protected deck scheme can even be recognised in some sloops. By the start of the 1880s, ships were appearing with full-length armoured decks and no side armour, from the Italia class of very fast battleships to

444-413: A considerable portion of shipping tonnage . As shipbuilding progressed to ever-larger ships, additional fuel storage capacity was incorporated into ship design that afforded greater range between refueling stops. Today most oceangoing vessels have the ability to fuel for an uninterrupted ocean crossing at their terminal locations before setting to sea. Protected cruiser Protected cruisers ,

518-719: A greater number of secondary guns. These ships were employed as fleet scouts and colonial cruisers. Several of the ships served with the German East Asia Squadron , and Hertha , Irene , and Hansa took part in the Battle of Taku Forts in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion . During a deployment to American waters in 1902, Vineta participated in the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903 , where she bombarded Fort San Carlos . Long since obsolete by

592-474: A large variety of protected cruisers classes starting with Sfax in 1882. The last ship built to this design was Jurien de la Gravière in 1897. The German Imperial Navy ( Kaiserliche Marine ) built a series of protected cruisers in the 1880s and 1890s, starting with the two ships of the Irene class in the 1880s. The Navy completed only two additional classes of protected cruisers, comprising six more ships:

666-670: A lease, and because of its importance to the German navy, it was not placed under the supervision of the Imperial Colonial Office ( Reichskolonialamt ) but instead under that of the Imperial Naval Office (the Reichsmarineamt or RMA). At the top of the territory stood the governor (all five office holders were senior navy officers), who was directly subordinated to the secretary of state of

740-481: A network of global naval bases was a key requirement for this intention. Again, intending to directly copy Britain, the acquisition of a harbor in China was, from the start, intended to be a model colony: all installations, the administration, the surrounding infrastructure, and the utilization thereof were to show the Chinese, the German nation itself, and other colonial powers, an effective colonial policy. In 1860,

814-471: A new class of cruising warship, the " light armoured cruisers " which featured a side armoured belt (topped by a flat armoured deck) amidships and sloped armoured decks at the ends, instead of the single full-length curved deck of the older ships. With the introduction of oil-fired boilers, more effective at generating a constant steam pressure to get the best performance from the turbine engines, side bunkers of coal disappeared from ships and this change removed

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888-420: A period where long-range fire control was a rapidly-developing discipline with technology to match; and finally – most critically – being less well protected than the new generation of side-armoured ships. From this point on, practically no more protected cruisers would be built for the world's navies. The Austro-Hungarian Navy built and operated three classes of protected cruisers. These were two small ships of

962-536: A series of protected cruiser classes (Russian: Бронепалубный крейсер , Armored deck cruiser ). The last ships built to this design where the Izumrud class in 1901. The Spanish Navy operated a series of protected cruisers classes starting with Reina Regente class . The last ship built to this design was Reina Regente in 1899. The first protected cruiser of the United States Navy 's "New Navy"

1036-479: A sewer system, and a safe drinking water supply, a rarity in large parts of Asia at that time and later. The area had the highest density of schools and highest per capita student enrollment in all of China, with primary, secondary, and vocational schools funded by the Berlin treasury and Protestant and Roman Catholic missions. With the expansion of economic activity and public works, German banks opened branch offices,

1110-408: A slight reduction in gun calibre, yielding a very economical balance of attributes. This kept the protected cruiser competitive for a further decade. By 1910, steel armour had increased in quality, being lighter and stronger than before thanks to metallurgical advances, and steam-turbine engines, lighter and more powerful than previous reciprocating engines , were in general use. This gave rise to

1184-475: A type of cruising warship of the late 19th century, gained their description because an armored deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers notably lacked a belt of armour along the sides in-contrast to armored cruisers which carried both deck and belt armour. Protected cruisers were typically lighter in displacement and mounted fewer and/or lighter guns than armored cruisers. By

1258-727: The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank being the most prominent. The completion of the Tsingtau-Jinan railway in 1910 provided a connection to the Trans-Siberian Railway and thus allowed travel by train from Tsingtau to Berlin. The territory fully implemented Georgist policy. Its sole source of government revenue was the land value tax of six percent which it levied in its territory. The German colonial empire had previously had economic problems with its African colonies caused by land speculation . One of

1332-693: The Nino Bixio class , were designed as high speed fleet scouts. Most of these ships saw action during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, where several of them supported Italian troops fighting in Libya, and another group operated in the Red Sea . There, the cruiser Piemonte and two destroyers sank or destroyed seven Ottoman gunboats in the Battle of Kunfuda Bay in January 1912. Most of

1406-814: The Esmeralda [?] Summary of remarks by William Armstrong published in Valparaiso's The Record The first true mastless protected cruiser and the first of the 'Elswick cruisers', the Esmeralda was designed by Rendel and built for the Chilean Navy by the British firm of Armstrong at their Elswick yard. Esmeralda was revolutionary; she had a high speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) (dispensing entirely with sails), an armament of two 10-inch (254 mm) and six 6-inch (152 mm) guns and

1480-604: The Pago Pago coaling station was the driving factor behind the 1887-1889 Samoan crisis . The Melanesian island of New Caledonia , with its local coal mines, enabled maritime transport within the second French colonial empire and spurred rivalries with Japanese and Australian naval interests. Countries with large naval forces must maintain means for fuelling their fleets in times of conflict, to this end defended fuelling stations were set up around theaters of operations. Examples of such fuelling stations were almost any of

1554-690: The Panther class, two ships of the Kaiser Franz Joseph I class and three of the Zenta class . The Royal Navy rated cruisers as first, second and third class between the late 1880s and 1905, and built large numbers of them for trade protection requirements. For most of this time these cruisers were built with a "protected", rather than armoured, scheme of protection for their hulls. First-class protected cruisers were as large and as well-armed as armoured cruisers, and were built as an alternative to

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1628-503: The "protected" era. The introduction of Krupp armour in six-inch thickness rendered the "armoured" protection scheme more effective for the largest first class cruisers, and no large first class protected cruisers were built after 1898. The smaller cruisers unable to bear the weight of heavy armoured belts retained the "protected" scheme up to 1905, when the last units of the Challenger and Highflyer classes were completed. There

1702-604: The 1880s and 1910s. The first five ships, Giovanni Bausan and the Etna class , were built as "battleship destroyers", armed with a pair of large caliber guns. Subsequent cruisers were more traditional designs, and were instead intended for reconnaissance and colonial duties. Some of the ships, like Calabria and the Campania class , were designed specifically for service in Italy's colonial empire, while others, like Quarto and

1776-658: The 1880s. The Jeune École school of thought, which proposed a navy composed of fast cruisers for commerce raiding and torpedo boats for coastal defence, became particularly influential in France. The first French protected cruiser was Sfax , laid down in 1882, and followed by six classes of protected cruiser – and no armoured cruisers. The Royal Navy remained equivocal about which protection scheme to use for cruisers until 1887. The large Imperieuse class , begun in 1881 and finished in 1886, were built as armoured cruisers but were often referred to as protected cruisers due to

1850-427: The 1890s and into the early 1900s. During this period, protected cruiser designs of second- to third-class grew slowly in size, seeing few major changes to the common balance of design features. Perhaps the most significant paradigm shift came with the universal adoption of quick-firing guns by the world's navies in the middle of the 1890s; suddenly small and medium cruisers saw a swift increase in their fighting power for

1924-925: The China Sea; at Hong Kong on the Chinese coast; at Chagos , Seychelles , or Mauritius in the Indian Ocean; at Thursday Island and Suva , Fiji, in the South Pacific: (British) and at Honolulu , Pago Pago and Manila in the Pacific for the United States. While defense of naval fuelling stations has historically focused on attack by other naval powers the USS Cole bombing in the Yemeni port of Aden in October 2000 has focused attention on

1998-770: The Dutch also built six protected cruisers of the Holland class . The Holland -class cruisers were commissioned between 1898 and 1901, and featured, besides other armaments, two 15 cm SK L/40 single naval guns. The Dutch protected cruisers have played a role in several international events. For example, during the Boxer Rebellion, two protected cruisers ( Holland and ( Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden ) were sent to Shanghai to protect European citizens and defend Dutch interests. The Imperial Russian Navy operated

2072-472: The French Alma class, more like second- or third-class battleships and were mainly intended to fulfil this role on foreign stations where full-scale battleships could not be spared or properly supported. During the 1870s the increasing power of armour-piercing shells made armouring the sides of a warship more and more difficult, as very thick, heavy armour plates were required. Even if armour dominated

2146-544: The German leased territory came under German economic influence. Although the lease treaty set limits to the German expansion, it became a starting point for the following cessions of Port Arthur and Dalian to Russia to support Russia's Chinese Eastern Railway interests in Manchuria, of the transfer of Weihaiwei and Liugong Island from Japan to Great Britain , and the cession of Guangzhouwan to support France in southern China and Indochina. On 15 August 1914, at

2220-596: The RMA, Alfred von Tirpitz . The governor was head of both the military administration (run by the chief of staff and deputy governor), and the civil administration (managed by the Zivilkommissar) . Further important functionaries of Kiautschou were the official for the construction of the harbor, and after 1900, the chief justice and the Commissioner for Chinese Affairs. The Gouvernementsrat [government council of

2294-482: The admiral replied, "will proceed ... with greatest energy." Diederichs, at that moment, only had his division's flagship SMS Kaiser and the light cruiser SMS Prinzess Wilhelm available at anchor in Shanghai. The corvette SMS Arcona was laid up for repairs and the light cruiser SMS Irene in a dockyard at Hong Kong for an engine refit. The shallow draft small cruiser SMS Cormoran , operating independent of

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2368-606: The admiralty finally cabled congratulations and the proclamation was to remain in effect; Wilhelm II promoted him to vice admiral. Admiral von Diederichs consolidated his positions at Jiaozhou Bay. The admiralty dispatched the protected cruiser SMS Kaiserin Augusta from the Mediterranean to Qingdao to further strengthen the naval presence in East Asia. On 26 January 1898, the marines of III. Seebataillon arrived on

2442-633: The area personally, as well as three additional sites in China, for the establishment of a naval base. Rear Admiral Otto von Diederichs replaced Tirpitz in East Asia and focused on Jiaozhou Bay, even though the Berlin admiralty had not formally decided on a base location. On 1 November 1897, the Big Sword Society murdered two German Roman Catholic priests of the Steyler Mission in Juye County in southern Shandong . This event

2516-646: The cruiser division, was patrolling the Yangtze . Diederichs weighed anchor, ordered Prinzess Wilhelm to follow next day, and Cormoran to catch up at sea. The three ships arrived off Qingdao after dawn on 13 November 1897, but made no aggressive moves. With his staff and the three captains of his ships aboard, Diederichs landed with his admirals tender at Qingdao's long Zhanqiao Pier to reconnoiter. He determined that his landing force would be vastly outnumbered by Chinese troops, but he had qualitative superiority. At 06:00, Sunday, 14 November 1897, Cormoran steamed into

2590-579: The design of the ship, it was likely that the next generation of shells would be able to pierce such armour. This problem was even more poignant where the design of cruising warships was concerned, with their requirement for long endurance needing much of their displacement to be devoted to consumable supplies – even where very powerful and space-consuming high-speed machinery was not required – leaving very little weight available for armour protection. This meant that effective side belt armour would be almost impossible to provide for smaller ships. The alternative

2664-550: The earlier cruisers were obsolescent by the outbreak of World War I, and so had either been sold for scrap or reduced to subsidiary roles. The most modern vessels, including Quarto and the Nino Bixio class, saw limited action in the Adriatic Sea after Italy entered the war in 1915. The surviving vessels continued on in service through the 1920s, with some— Quarto , Campania , and Libia , remaining on active duty into

2738-433: The early 20th Century, with 'Elswick cruisers' of a similar design being constructed for Italy, China, Japan, Argentina, Austria and the United States. Cruisers with armoured decks and no side armour – like Esmeralda – became known as "protected cruisers", and rapidly eclipsed the large and slow armoured cruisers during the 1880s and into the 1890s. The French Navy adopted the protected-cruiser concept wholeheartedly in

2812-537: The early 20th-century, with the advent of increasingly lighter yet stronger armour, even smaller vessels could afford some level of both belt and deck armour. In the place of protected cruisers, armored cruisers would evolve into heavy cruisers and light cruisers , the latter especially taking-up many of roles originally envisaged for that of protected cruisers. From the late 1850s, navies began to replace their fleets of wooden ships-of-the-line with armoured ironclad warships . The frigates and sloops which performed

2886-553: The enemy battle line and featured heavy guns fore and aft with excellent fields of fire. Despite public Admiralty criticism of Elswick designs, it is clear that the Mersey class was heavily influenced by the Italian 'torpedo ram cruiser' Giovanni Bausan , a design itself derived from Esmeralda . Thus, the British notion of the protected cruising warship was being shaped early on by the commercial export models coming out of Elswick. (For

2960-405: The following decade, practically any British cruiser which was seen to have eschewed very heavy firepower in favour of conservative design balance was subject to fierce public criticism, and this period coincided somewhat unfortunately with Sir William White's tenure as DNC.) The protected cruiser remained a popular and economical type, rather stable in terms of its characteristics, right throughout

3034-635: The government. In particular, the opening of China was made a high priority, because it was thought to be the most important non-European market in the world. However, a global policy ( Weltpolitik ) without global military influence appeared impracticable, so, assessing that Britain's great strength came from its navy, the Germans began to build one, too. This fleet was supposed to serve German interests during peace through gunboat diplomacy , and in times of war, through commerce raiding , to protect German trade routes and disrupt hostile ones. Imitating Britain,

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3108-417: The importance of ship defense during refueling operations even in friendly fuelling stations. As international trade grew a defined set of fixed routes, sea lanes were established with fuelling stations appearing at strategic points along these routes. Since most fuelling stations did not possess natural resources in coal or oil the "bunkering" trade of transporting coal and oil to fuelling stations consumed

3182-542: The inner harbor to provide inshore fire support, if necessary. Kaiser and Prinzess Wilhelm cleared boats to carry an amphibious force of 717 officers, petty officers, and sailors armed with rifles. Diederichs, on horseback, and his column marched toward the Chinese main garrison and artillery battery. A special unit swiftly disabled the Chinese telegraph line and others occupied the outer forts and powder magazines. With speed and effectiveness, Diederichs’ actions had achieved their primary objective by 08.15. Signalmen restored

3256-471: The large first-class armoured cruiser from the late 1880s till 1898. Second-class protected cruisers were smaller, displacing 3,000–5,500 long tons (3,000–5,600 t) and were of value both in trade protection duties and scouting for the fleet. Third-class cruisers were smaller, lacked a watertight double bottom , and were intended primarily for trade protection duties, though a few small cruisers were built for fleet scout roles or as "torpedo" cruisers during

3330-665: The late 1880s, all large ships with sails. Following the Leander class, the next small cruisers designed for the Royal Navy were the Mersey class of 1883. Derived from the previous class, these were also protected cruisers but with a full-length armoured deck for superior protection. The Merseys were born from a different tactical conception to their forebears and this was reflected in their armament arrangement. They were conceived as 'fleet torpedo cruisers' to carry out attacks on

3404-422: The late 1930s. The Royal Netherlands Navy built several protected cruisers between 1880 and 1900. The first protected cruiser was launched in 1890 and called HNLMS  Sumatra . It was a small cruiser with a heavy main gun; four years later a larger and more heavily armed protected cruiser was commissioned, which was called HNLMS  Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden . In addition to these two cruisers,

3478-510: The leased territory of approximately 83,000 inhabitants (to which the city of Kiautschou was excluded), as well as in a 50 km wide neutral zone ("neutrales Gebiet"). According to international law, the leased territory ("territoire à bail") remained legally part of China but for the duration of the lease, all sovereign powers were to be exercised by Germany. Moreover, the treaty included rights for construction of railway lines and mining of local coal deposits. Many parts of Shandong outside of

3552-431: The limited extent of their side armour – although what armour they had was admittedly very thick. Their primary role, as with the earlier Shannon and Nelsons , was still to function as small battleships on foreign stations, countering enemy stationnaire ironclads rather than chasing down swift commerce-raiding corsairs. While they carried a very thick and heavy armoured belt of great power of resistance that extended over

3626-606: The liner Darmstadt . Jiaozhou Bay was now secure. Negotiations with the Chinese government began and on 6 March 1898, the German Empire retreated from outright cession of the area and accepted a leasehold of the bay for 99 years, or until 1997, as the British were soon to do with Hong Kong's New Territories and the French with Guangzhouwan . One month later, the Reichstag ratified the treaty on 8 April 1898. Kiautschou Bay

3700-651: The main reasons for using the land value tax in Jiaozhou Bay was to eliminate such speculation, which the policy achieved. After the 1911 Revolution , many wealthy Chinese and politically connected ex-officials settled in the leased territory because of the safe and orderly environment it offered. Sun Yat-sen visited the Tsingtau area and stated in 1912, “... I am impressed. The city is a true model for China’s future.” The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank in Qingdao issued

3774-568: The middle 140 feet (43 m) of the ship's 315-foot (96 m) length, the belt's upper edge was submerged at full load. Britain built one more class of armoured cruiser with the Orlando class , begun in 1885 and completed in 1889. They were affected by a similar fault to the Imperieuse regarding their belt's submergence. In 1887 an assessment of the Orlando type judged them inferior to

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3848-496: The missions of scouting, commerce raiding and trade protection remained unarmoured. For several decades, it proved difficult to design a ship which had a meaningful amount of effective armour but at the same time maintained the speed and range required of a "cruising warship". The first attempts to do so, large armored cruisers like HMS  Shannon , proved unsatisfactory, generally lacking enough speed for their cruiser role. They were, along with their foreign counterparts such as

3922-537: The outbreak of World War I in Europe, Japan delivered an ultimatum to Germany demanding that it relinquish its control of the disputed territory of Kiautschou. Upon rejection of the ultimatum, Japan declared war on 23 August and the same day, its navy bombarded the German territory. On 7 November 1914, the bay was occupied by Japanese forces . Following resolution of the Shandong Problem , the occupied territory

3996-509: The outbreak of World War I, the five Victoria Louise -class vessels briefly served as training ships in the Baltic but were withdrawn by the end of 1914 for secondary duties. Kaiserin Augusta and the two Irene -class cruisers similarly served in reduced capacities for the duration of the war. All eight ships were broken up for scrap following Germany's defeat. The Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) ordered twenty protected cruisers between

4070-466: The principal means of propulsion for ocean transport. Fuelling stations transitioned to oil as boilers moved from being coal-fired to oil- or hybrid oil-and-coal-firing, coal being completely replaced as steam engines gave way to internal combustion and gas turbine power plants. The need for naval fuelling stations was a key driver of colonialism in Oceania . The American-German dispute over

4144-884: The principal ports of the British Isles , Canada , Australia , New Zealand , British Africa, or India . In addition, there were facilities for coaling vessels at St. Helena , Ascension , and the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic; at Jamaica and Bermuda in the North Atlantic, at Gibraltar , Malta , and Port Said in the Mediterranean ; at Aden , on the Gulf of Aden; at Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); at Singapore ; and at Labuan in

4218-539: The protected cruisers and thereafter the Royal Navy built only protected cruisers, even for very large first-class cruiser designs, not returning to armoured cruisers until the introduction of new lighter and stronger armour technology (as seen in the Cressy class , laid down in 1898). The sole major naval power to retain a preference for armoured cruisers into the 1890s was Russia . The Imperial Russian Navy laid down four armoured cruisers and one protected cruiser during

4292-495: The protection they had afforded, making the shift to side armour a practical choice. The majority of pre-existing protected cruisers – products of the Victorian-era design generation – had now become obsolete: With their by-now old and worn engines degrading their already-eclipsed performance by this point; their older models of lower-velocity guns able to shoot accurately to a shorter distance than newer equivalent ships, in

4366-463: The protective deck. An armoured deck had actually been used for the first time in HMS Shannon , although she did rely principally on her vertical belt armour for defence: Her protective deck was only a partial one, extending from the forward armoured bulkhead of the citadel to the bow . The first of the smaller "unarmoured" British cruisers to incorporate an internal steel deck for protection

4440-649: The so-called Kiautschou dollar . All governors of the Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory were high-ranking officers of the Imperial German Navy . Fuelling station Fuelling stations , also known as coaling stations , are repositories of fuel (initially coal and later oil ) that have been located to service commercial and naval vessels. Today, the term "coaling station" can also refer to coal storage and feeding units in fossil-fuel power stations . Initially named

4514-549: The telegraph line, and the first messages were received and deciphered. Diederichs was stunned to learn that his orders had been canceled, and that he was to suspend operations at Jiaozhou pending negotiations with the Chinese government. If he had already occupied the village of Qingdao, he was to consider his presence temporary. He responded, thinking the politicians in Berlin had lost their nerve to political or diplomatic complications: "Proclamation already published. ... Revocation not possible." After considerable time and uncertainty,

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4588-567: The territory] and, after 1902, the Chinese Committee advised the governor. The departments of finance, construction, education, and medical services were directly subordinated to the governor, because these were crucial with regard to the idea of a model colony. Germany invested upwards of $ 100 million in modernizing the territory of Kiautschou. The impoverished fishing village of Tsingtau was laid out with wide streets, solid housing areas, government buildings, electrification throughout,

4662-458: The torpedo ram HMS  Polyphemus . In the case of the latter, the armoured deck was of sufficient thickness to defend against small-calibre guns capable of tracking such a difficult, fast target. This was very much the philosophy adopted by George Wightwick Rendel in his design of the so-called 'Rendel Cruisers' Arturo Prat , Chaoyong and Yangwei . By enlarging the flatiron gunboat concept, increasing engine power and thus speed, Rendel

4736-423: The unique Kaiserin Augusta , and the five Victoria Louise -class ships. The type then was superseded by the armored cruiser at the turn of the century, the first of which being Fürst Bismarck . All of these ships tended to incorporate design elements from their foreign contemporaries, though the Victoria Louise class more closely resembled German battleships of the period, which carried lighter main guns and

4810-425: The world. Happily ... she had passed into the hands of a nation which is never likely to be at war with England, for he could conceive no more terrible scourge for our commerce than she would be in the hands of an enemy. No cruiser in the British navy was swift enough to catch her or strong enough to take her. We have seen what the Alabama could do ... what might we expect from such an incomparably superior vessel as

4884-403: Was USS  Atlanta , launched in October 1884, soon followed by USS  Boston in December, and USS  Chicago a year later. A numbered series of cruisers began with Newark (Cruiser No. 1) , although Charleston (Cruiser No. 2) was the first to be launched, in July 1888, and ending with another Charleston , Cruiser No. 22 , launched in 1904. The last survivor of this series

4958-465: Was a general hiatus in British cruiser production after this time, apart from a few classes of small, fast scout cruisers for fleet duties. When the Royal Navy began building larger cruisers (less than 4,000 long tons, 4,100 t) again around 1910, they used a mix of armoured decks and/or armoured belts for protection, depending on class. These modern, turbine-powered cruisers are properly classified as light cruisers . The French Navy built and operated

5032-410: Was able to produce a fast small vessel and still have enough tonnage to incorporate a very thin (quarter-inch thick) partial protective deck over the machinery. Still small and relatively weakly built, these vessels were 'proto-protected cruisers' which served as the inspiration for a significantly larger ship; Esmeralda . He believed the Esmeralda was the swiftest and most powerfully armed cruiser in

5106-497: Was known as the " Juye Incident ". Admiral von Diederichs, commander of the cruiser squadron, wired on 7 November 1897, to the admiralty: "May incidents be exploited in pursuit of further goals?" Upon receipt of the Diederichs cable, chancellor Chlodwig von Hohenlohe counseled caution, preferring a diplomatic resolution. However, Kaiser Wilhelm II intervened and the admiralty sent a message for Diederichs to "proceed immediately to Kiautschou [Jiaozhou] with entire squadron ..." to which

5180-417: Was officially placed under German protection by imperial decree on 27 April and Kapitän zur See [captain] Carl Rosendahl was appointed governor. These events ended Admiral von Diederichs' responsibility (but not his interest) in Kiautschou. He wrote that he had "fulfilled [his] purpose in the navy." As a result of the lease treaty, the Chinese government gave up the exercise of its sovereign rights within

5254-405: Was returned to China on 10 December 1922, but the Japanese again occupied the area from 1937 to 1945, during the Second Sino-Japanese War . The local language was the Qingdao dialect of Jiaoliao Mandarin . A German pidgin , known as Kiautschou German pidgin , developed as well, as a mixture of German, Low German, English and Chinese. As the territory was not, strictly speaking, a colony but

5328-447: Was struck with the four Leander -class cruisers. Ordered in 1880 as modified Iris -class dispatch vessels and re-rated as second-class cruisers before completion, these ships combined an amidships protective armoured deck with the size, lean form and high performance of HMS  Mercury . They also featured a heavy and well-sited armament of modern breech-loading guns. Leander and her three sisters were successful and established

5402-479: Was the Comus class of corvettes started in 1876; this was only a partial-length deck, with amidships over the machinery spaces. The Comus class were really designed for overseas service and were capable of only a 13- knot (24 km/h; 15 mph) speed, not fast enough for fleet duties. The following Satellite and Calypso classes were similar in performance. A more potent and versatile balance of attributes

5476-436: Was to leave the sides of the ship vulnerable, but to armour a deck just below the waterline. Since this deck would be struck only very obliquely by shells, it could be less thick and heavy than belt armour . The ship could be designed so that the engines, boilers and magazines were under the armoured deck, and with hopefully enough reserve buoyancy to keep the ship afloat even in the event of flooding resulting from damage above

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