SMS Hansa (1898)

Seiner Majestät Schiff "Hansa" was a German "Victoria Louise" class protected cruiser launched from Stettiner Maschinenbau AG Vulcan shipyard in 1898 for service in the Kaiserliche Marine. Ships in this class including SMS "Hansa" were primarily built for overseas cruiser duties and introduced the clipper bow and blocky looking sides that typified later German large cruisers.

Design

Dimensions and machinery

"Hansa" was convert|358|ft|3|in|m long at the waterline, and had an overall length of convert|363|ft|2|in|m She had a beam of convert|57|ft|2|in|m and a draught of convert|22|ft|9|in|m "Hansa" displaced 5,660 tons on a standard load, and 6,491 tons fully loaded. The ship was powered by three shaft triple expansion engines, that produced convert|10000|ihp|abbr=on and delivered a top speed of convert|19.5|kn|km/h|1.

Between 1905 and 1911, the ships of the "Victoria Louise" class were modernized. The ships had their boilers replaced, and had their original three funnels reduced to two stacks.

Armor and armament

"Hansa" was protected by convert|4|in|mm|sing=on thick armor plating on the decks. The ship was armed with a wide mix of armaments. The main armament consisted of two convert|8.2|in|mm|0|sing=on guns mounted in single turrets fore and aft. The secondary armament comprised eight convert|5.9|in|mm|0|sing=on guns in casemates along the length of the ship, along with ten convert|3.4|in|mm|0|sing=on guns, also casemated. The ships were also armed with three convert|17.7|in|mm|0|sing=on torpedo tubes.

SMS "Hansa" was scrapped in 1920.

External links

* [http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/armoured-cruiser/sms-victoria-luise.html worldwar1.co.uk webpage about Victoria Luise class cruiser]
* [http://www.the-blueprints.com/modules/bpview/bpview.php?nr=8037 the-blueprints.com webpage with blueprint of SMS Hansa]