Foreign Service Fleet.
| Large Cruisers. | ||
| For East Asia | 2 | |
| For Central and South America | 1 | |
| Material reserve | 3 | |
| — | ||
| Total | 6 | |
| Small Cruisers. | ||
| For East Asia | 3 | |
| For Central and South America | 3 | |
| For East Africa | 2 | |
| For the South Seas | 2 | |
| Material reserve | 4 | |
| — | ||
| Total | 14 | |
| 1 station ship. | ||
The period proposed for the gradual attainment of this strength was seven years, but the Reichstag shortened it by a year, and thus it became known as the "Sexennat." It was pronounced inexpedient to attempt to fix for some years in advance the Empire's requirements in torpedo craft, school-ships, and training ships.
That this scheme was intended by its author to be merely a beginning has been shown by the sequel, but Admiral von Tirpitz himself little dreamed that he would so soon be able to take the next and decisive step, which should bring him to within measurable distance of his goal. Early in 1899 he said in the Budget Committee: "I declare expressly that in no quarter has the intention to submit a new navy plan in any way been manifested; that, on the contrary, in all quarters concerned, the firmest intention exists to carry out the Navy Law, and to observe the limits therein laid down." In other words, the law was to run its six years' course.
Nevertheless, before the year was at an end, the Bill which was to become the Navy Law of 1900 had already been announced by the Government.
In the light of the vast development of Germany's colonial and commercial interests the Navy Act of 1898 was of an unambitious character. The German Fleet was at this time still the weakest possessed by any of the Great Powers of Europe, except Austria-Hungary, which then had no naval pretensions. If only as a matter of historical interest it is interesting to record that, at the moment when this effort towards expansion was made, Germany kept in commission only four ships which could be dignified with the description of battleships, together with four smaller armoured vessels. The only modern ships of the line under the German ensign consisted of these four battleships of the Worth class, vessels of 9,874 tons displacement in comparison with ships of 15,000 tons which had already been incorporated in the British Fleet. The German ships, though nominally battleships, were really only coast-defence vessels, heavily gunned and thickly armoured, but with storage for only 680 tons of coal; whereas contemporary British ships of the Majestic class possessed a capacity of 1,850 tons.[8] The four vessels of this class, in addition to the Worth, were the Weisenburg, Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm, and Brandenburg. They marked a notable advance on the little armoured ships of three to four thousand tons of the Siegfried class, which had been built during the early 'nineties, but, owing to their limited fuel capacity, their radius of action was extremely restricted, and they were, in fact, only very powerful coast-defence ships, with a speed on trial of between sixteen and seventeen knots. The design of every armoured ship is a compromise between armament, armour, speed, and coal capacity, and in this German design a predominance then unprecedented in any navy in the world was given to the two first-named characteristics. On paper these ships were vessels of great offensive power, as is revealed by the contrast given on p. 103 between them and the contemporary battleships of the Majestic class of the British Fleet, which displaced about 15,000 tons and attained a speed of eighteen knots, with 1,850 tons of coal on board.
These few details reveal the fundamental differences between the character of the British and German Navies at this time and the policy which they represented. The British Government, in accordance with precedent, was providing a fleet of the high-seas type, while the German Government was content with a small force built specifically for the purpose of coast-defence. These four large German coast-defence ships were at this time supported by the four vessels of the Sachsen type of 7,283 tons, already obsolescent; by six old ships—one dating back to 1868; by eight little armoured vessels of the Beowulf class, of about 3,500 tons, which had been constructed during the early 'nineties; and the tail of the list was brought up by eleven armoured gunboats each of 1,000 tons displacement. This enumeration of the naval forces of Germany indicates conclusively the modest ambitions which hitherto had animated her naval administration.
The German Fleet, except for the purposes of coast defence, and specifically for the protection of her Baltic shores, was a negligible quantity, having no