Strasbourg Class Light Cruiser
Stablock
Dimensions:
Length: 96 meters at water line
Width: 14 meters
Draught: 5.9 meters
Displacement: 4,120 tons
Armament:
x6 240mm guns
x8 130mm guns
x12 47mm/5 revolver cannons
x4 400mm torpedo tubes
Protection:
80mm armored deck
120mm barbette armor
Propulsion:
17 knots maximum speed
6,000 ihp engine, 10 boilers, 2 shafts
10,000 kilometers range
Complement:
396
General
A mainstay of the French Navy, Strasbourg-class cruisers are intended to offer a relatively cheap, long range, efficiently armed vessel with moderate protection. Their role includes commerce raiding, screening, scouting, and commerce protection. Although the development of the Jeune Ecole with its priority focus on commerce raiding and lighter assets was halted by government policy and strategic outlook changes, that is not to say that France entirely rejected its ideas. One of them that received a great degree of attention was commerce raiding. Although the French Navy decided that it needed a full fleet of battle to engage the enemy and ultimately control the sea, it still needed a powerful fleet of cruisers as well.
Origin
At the end of the Franco-Prussian War, French cruisers were outdated. France had placed major focus on creating a fleet which would be capable of challenging England in an open sea confrontation, and although it did build a number of cruisers, by 1870 these wooden vessels with older technology were clearly going to be outdated. While protection obviously is less importance for a cruiser than a battleship that needs to fight in the line of battle, the wooden vessels with outdated armaments would be fore pressed against enemy ships.
Thus, the Strasbourg-class cruiser was conceived as a way to fix this problem. They were intended to be a revolutionary design, reflecting as much as possible French advances in naval technology, to provide a vessel that was decently fast, long ranged, well armed, and incorporating a certain degree of protection for a cruiser. While not quite as cheap as ligher vessels like the anticipated Indochine-class, they could still be built in large enough numbers so that they could serve in a variety of roles, and it was hoped that they would provide a vessel that would even be useful enough to engage small numbers of enemy capital ships, presuming they had sufficient numbers.
Shape and general form
Despite their revolutionary nature, some of the external aspects of the vessels appears similar to previous ships. They still have sails for one, which were viewed as being absolutely necessary for a cruiser. They have plough bows with a forward forecastle, displace around 4,000 tons (4,120 to be exact), and have a length of 96 meters at the waterline, a beam of 14 meters, and draught of 5.9 meters. This makes them long, sleek warships, which are capable of high speed. They also have three masts, which give good sailing performance.
Armament
Strasbourg-class ships are very well armed. From the outset, there was a belief that they might have to face heavily armored enemies, and that they also had to have a powerful armament capable of dealing with both them and enemy coastal fortifications. This is one of the main regions in which they are such a major change from proceeding vessels. Instead of relying on broadsides, although they still incorporate some broadside weaponry, they made great strides in armament.
The largest onboard artillery is 240mm in caliber. There are six such guns, mounted in six individual barbettes on opposite sides of the ship. This powerful armament of 240mm guns (which are also commonly deployed in coastal defense applications) means that the ships are capable of penetrating most warships with light-medium armor, with only the heaviest armor being able to resist the cannons. Although slightly slow in reloading, they still carry some 60 rounds each, enough for long and sustained fire.
In addition, the ship mounts a secondary armament of 130mm guns. There are 8 of these of these, mounted on a gun deck below the 240mms, with four to each side. These provide additional firepower, with faster firing guns to engage lighter targets or add additional weight to the main battery. In addition, there are also the standard French 47mm/5 revolver guns. 12 of these are mounted onboard, with 6 in the ship's three masts, and the remaining 6 distributed along the deck. A final armament is composed of four onboard torpedo tubes, with two above water torpedo tubes on both sides holding 400mm torpedoes, along with 4 reloads.
Protection
While armament changed dramatically with the Strasbourg-class, they also made substantial improvements in protection. Since they were intended to be capable of actions with enemy cruisers, it was viewed as important for them to have some form of defense, other than their own armament. However, there was the substantial problem that the protectioned that could be accorded to a cruiser would be either too heavy, or inadequate, if it used a conventional belt protection scheme. Strasbourgs needed to be fast, but there was seemingly no way to reconcile this with protection.
The solution would be the creation of a protected armor deck. This had started at the same time on the the Marianne-class, but the Mariannes had a very heavily armored citadel, and although they rejected a belt armor scheme, they still thus had very good protection. The Strasbourg-class wouldn't have the same citadel, and naturally less protection, but they still sought some defense against the enemy. Thus, the adoption of an armored deck. Beneath the armored deck would be the ship's vital systems, such as engines, boilers, and magazines, protected. This deck would be around .6 to .9 meters below the waterline, with 80mm of protection for it. Combined with the highly oblique angle that enemy shells are expecting to be hitting, and that they will already be slowed by the passage through the exterior of the ship.
Besides this, the barbettes have 120mm of armor, which makes them protected against lighter weapons. The rest of the ship only has light armor to protect against shrapnel and small rounds.
Propulsion
The ship has triple expansion engines, choosing their greater cost for improved speed and efficiency. While the Strasbourg-class wasn't intended to be as speedy as ships like the Triomphe-class, it still needed to be fast enough for operations to avoid heavier enemy ships, as well as to quickly chase down enemy commerce. As a result, the more expensive triple expansion engines were decided as being well worth it. The Strasbourgs have engines with some 6,000 ihp, with power provided by 10 coal fired boilers, driving two screws. This is enough for a maximum speed of 17 knots to be attained, slightly faster than the Mariannes. It carries enough coal to have a crusing range of 10,000 kilometers with this.
In addition, the ships have sails, and both of the screws can be retracted. This enables the ship to attain greater performance under sail, significantly improving its range, and abilities to operate as its guiding role - that of a cruiser, hunting down and destroying enemy commerce.
Fire Control and command
The Strasbourg-class still maintains the advanced fire control and rangefinding equipment from the larger Marianne and Republique-classes, differant from smaller ships like the Indochine-class. Due to their expected capabilities, cost in other regards, and methods of use, they naturally made good platforms for such systems. Each vessel has rangefinders and the director fire control required to make effective use of such systems, with the advanced electronic measures as used on larger vessels.
Since it is a cruiser and has limited armor, the Strasbourg-class does not have the extensive armored conning towers found on larger vessels. The Strasbourg-class is instead where the differentiation begins to the smaller ships, which instead on conventional command bridges. Although mostly unarmored, the assumption is that better visibility, and the lack of protection in other sections asides from vital systems, will be more useful than a heavily armored conning tower on an unarmored ship. It was expected that on ships of the line of battle it would be required to have extensive effort on trying to convince officers to use the conning towers, and on a cruiser this would be even harder, and for less worth.
There is an overall complement of 396, which is enough for operating the ship's various systems, including engines, armament, sails, ect. ect.
Dimensions:
Length: 96 meters at water line
Width: 14 meters
Draught: 5.9 meters
Displacement: 4,120 tons
Armament:
x6 240mm guns
x8 130mm guns
x12 47mm/5 revolver cannons
x4 400mm torpedo tubes
Protection:
80mm armored deck
120mm barbette armor
Propulsion:
17 knots maximum speed
6,000 ihp engine, 10 boilers, 2 shafts
10,000 kilometers range
Complement:
396
General
A mainstay of the French Navy, Strasbourg-class cruisers are intended to offer a relatively cheap, long range, efficiently armed vessel with moderate protection. Their role includes commerce raiding, screening, scouting, and commerce protection. Although the development of the Jeune Ecole with its priority focus on commerce raiding and lighter assets was halted by government policy and strategic outlook changes, that is not to say that France entirely rejected its ideas. One of them that received a great degree of attention was commerce raiding. Although the French Navy decided that it needed a full fleet of battle to engage the enemy and ultimately control the sea, it still needed a powerful fleet of cruisers as well.
Origin
At the end of the Franco-Prussian War, French cruisers were outdated. France had placed major focus on creating a fleet which would be capable of challenging England in an open sea confrontation, and although it did build a number of cruisers, by 1870 these wooden vessels with older technology were clearly going to be outdated. While protection obviously is less importance for a cruiser than a battleship that needs to fight in the line of battle, the wooden vessels with outdated armaments would be fore pressed against enemy ships.
Thus, the Strasbourg-class cruiser was conceived as a way to fix this problem. They were intended to be a revolutionary design, reflecting as much as possible French advances in naval technology, to provide a vessel that was decently fast, long ranged, well armed, and incorporating a certain degree of protection for a cruiser. While not quite as cheap as ligher vessels like the anticipated Indochine-class, they could still be built in large enough numbers so that they could serve in a variety of roles, and it was hoped that they would provide a vessel that would even be useful enough to engage small numbers of enemy capital ships, presuming they had sufficient numbers.
Shape and general form
Despite their revolutionary nature, some of the external aspects of the vessels appears similar to previous ships. They still have sails for one, which were viewed as being absolutely necessary for a cruiser. They have plough bows with a forward forecastle, displace around 4,000 tons (4,120 to be exact), and have a length of 96 meters at the waterline, a beam of 14 meters, and draught of 5.9 meters. This makes them long, sleek warships, which are capable of high speed. They also have three masts, which give good sailing performance.
Armament
Strasbourg-class ships are very well armed. From the outset, there was a belief that they might have to face heavily armored enemies, and that they also had to have a powerful armament capable of dealing with both them and enemy coastal fortifications. This is one of the main regions in which they are such a major change from proceeding vessels. Instead of relying on broadsides, although they still incorporate some broadside weaponry, they made great strides in armament.
The largest onboard artillery is 240mm in caliber. There are six such guns, mounted in six individual barbettes on opposite sides of the ship. This powerful armament of 240mm guns (which are also commonly deployed in coastal defense applications) means that the ships are capable of penetrating most warships with light-medium armor, with only the heaviest armor being able to resist the cannons. Although slightly slow in reloading, they still carry some 60 rounds each, enough for long and sustained fire.
In addition, the ship mounts a secondary armament of 130mm guns. There are 8 of these of these, mounted on a gun deck below the 240mms, with four to each side. These provide additional firepower, with faster firing guns to engage lighter targets or add additional weight to the main battery. In addition, there are also the standard French 47mm/5 revolver guns. 12 of these are mounted onboard, with 6 in the ship's three masts, and the remaining 6 distributed along the deck. A final armament is composed of four onboard torpedo tubes, with two above water torpedo tubes on both sides holding 400mm torpedoes, along with 4 reloads.
Protection
While armament changed dramatically with the Strasbourg-class, they also made substantial improvements in protection. Since they were intended to be capable of actions with enemy cruisers, it was viewed as important for them to have some form of defense, other than their own armament. However, there was the substantial problem that the protectioned that could be accorded to a cruiser would be either too heavy, or inadequate, if it used a conventional belt protection scheme. Strasbourgs needed to be fast, but there was seemingly no way to reconcile this with protection.
The solution would be the creation of a protected armor deck. This had started at the same time on the the Marianne-class, but the Mariannes had a very heavily armored citadel, and although they rejected a belt armor scheme, they still thus had very good protection. The Strasbourg-class wouldn't have the same citadel, and naturally less protection, but they still sought some defense against the enemy. Thus, the adoption of an armored deck. Beneath the armored deck would be the ship's vital systems, such as engines, boilers, and magazines, protected. This deck would be around .6 to .9 meters below the waterline, with 80mm of protection for it. Combined with the highly oblique angle that enemy shells are expecting to be hitting, and that they will already be slowed by the passage through the exterior of the ship.
Besides this, the barbettes have 120mm of armor, which makes them protected against lighter weapons. The rest of the ship only has light armor to protect against shrapnel and small rounds.
Propulsion
The ship has triple expansion engines, choosing their greater cost for improved speed and efficiency. While the Strasbourg-class wasn't intended to be as speedy as ships like the Triomphe-class, it still needed to be fast enough for operations to avoid heavier enemy ships, as well as to quickly chase down enemy commerce. As a result, the more expensive triple expansion engines were decided as being well worth it. The Strasbourgs have engines with some 6,000 ihp, with power provided by 10 coal fired boilers, driving two screws. This is enough for a maximum speed of 17 knots to be attained, slightly faster than the Mariannes. It carries enough coal to have a crusing range of 10,000 kilometers with this.
In addition, the ships have sails, and both of the screws can be retracted. This enables the ship to attain greater performance under sail, significantly improving its range, and abilities to operate as its guiding role - that of a cruiser, hunting down and destroying enemy commerce.
Fire Control and command
The Strasbourg-class still maintains the advanced fire control and rangefinding equipment from the larger Marianne and Republique-classes, differant from smaller ships like the Indochine-class. Due to their expected capabilities, cost in other regards, and methods of use, they naturally made good platforms for such systems. Each vessel has rangefinders and the director fire control required to make effective use of such systems, with the advanced electronic measures as used on larger vessels.
Since it is a cruiser and has limited armor, the Strasbourg-class does not have the extensive armored conning towers found on larger vessels. The Strasbourg-class is instead where the differentiation begins to the smaller ships, which instead on conventional command bridges. Although mostly unarmored, the assumption is that better visibility, and the lack of protection in other sections asides from vital systems, will be more useful than a heavily armored conning tower on an unarmored ship. It was expected that on ships of the line of battle it would be required to have extensive effort on trying to convince officers to use the conning towers, and on a cruiser this would be even harder, and for less worth.
There is an overall complement of 396, which is enough for operating the ship's various systems, including engines, armament, sails, ect. ect.
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