Victoria Louise class protected cruiser

The "Victoria Louise" class of protected cruisers was Germany's last class of ships of that type. They were designed for overseas cruiser duties. The class design introduced the clipper bow and blocky sides that typified later German armored cruisers.There were five ships of the class, "Victoria Louise", "Hertha", "Freya", "Vineta", and "Hansa". They were laid down between 1895 and 1898, and completed between 1898 and 1900.

Design

Dimensions and machinery

The ships of the "Victoria Louise" class were convert|358|ft|3|in|m long at the waterline, and had an overall length of convert|363|ft|2|in|m They had a beam of convert|57|ft|2|in|m and a draught of convert|22|ft|9|in|m They displaced 5,660 tons on a standard load, and 6,491 tons fully loaded. The ships were powered by three shaft triple expansion engines, that produced convert|10000|ihp|abbr=on and delivered a top speed of convert|19.5|kn|mph 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

The ships were protected by convert|4|in|mm|sing=on thick armor plate on the decks.The "Victoria Louise" ships were 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.

ervice history

The ships had very limited careers during World War I. They started the war as coastal defense ships, but by November 1914, they were converted into barracks ships, and with the exception of "Freya", which became a training ship in April 1915, served in this capacity until the end of war. The ships of the class were scrapped between 1920 and 1923.

External links

* [http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/armoured-cruiser/sms-victoria-luise.html World War 1 Naval Combat]