The remaining three ships of this class are the Baiern, the Baden, and the Würtemberg. The engraving of the Sachsen represents their general appearance. Their dimensions and other particulars will be given presently in table on [page 125], but it will be observed that the armament is arranged in a forward and in a midship battery, giving right-ahead fire with four guns, a stern fire with two, and beam fire with three.
THE “SACHSEN.”
The largest iron-clad of the German navy is the König Wilhelm, of 9750 tons, which steams at 14¾ knots. She is also the most thickly armor-plated (armor, twelve inches); but having been launched eighteen years ago, her guns, although numerous, are only of fourteen tons weight. I designed this ship for his Majesty, the late Sultan of Turkey, Abdul-Aziz, but before she was much advanced in construction she was purchased by the Prussian government, and passed from under my care. A few years later I designed the Kaiser and Deutschland for the Prussian government; and these vessels, built on the Thames, and launched in 1874, although 2000 tons smaller than the Wilhelm, steamed but one-fourth of a knot less (14½ knots). They carry 10-inch armor and 10-ton guns.
HALF-DECK PLAN OF THE “KAISER.”
SIDE ELEVATION OF THE “KAISER.”
These ships are described on [page 125]. The principal ships built in Germany are the Preussen and the Friedrich der Grosse, which, although designed by the German Admiralty constructors, are but reproductions on a less scale, and with some variations, of the British turret-ship Monarch, designed by myself. Lord Brassey (in “The British Navy,” vol. i., page 22) says: “In the mean time Germany had constructed three turret-ships of precisely the same type as the Monarch, but of somewhat smaller dimensions. These were the Preussen, the Friedrich der Grosse, and the Grosser Kurfürst.”[36] His lordship goes on to say (what I do not understand), “Their armor at the water-line is six inches thicker, while at the turrets it is two inches less, than that of the Monarch.” Now, as Lord Brassey elsewhere says (page 326), “the Monarch is protected with 8-inch armor,” and (page 333), writing of the Preussen, “that the armor-plates at the water-line are 9¼ inches thick, below the water 7¼ inches, and above the water 8¼ inches,” it is obvious that there cannot be the difference of six inches which his first-quoted statement alleges. There doubtless was a difference of an inch, or possibly of two inches, in so far as a few of the armor-plates were concerned, but not more, and how far this difference extended is very doubtful, seeing that nowadays if the constructor of a ship thickens but two or three plates on each side of his ship he feels entitled to speak of her as being armored with plates of the maximum thickness, and to mislead mankind accordingly. Nor is this surprising, when we see in a late return to the British Parliament ships like the British Collingwood class, the French Brennus class, and the German Sachsen class gravely included in the lists of “armored vessels.”
The particulars of the German armored fleet, leaving out the Hansa, a weak and weakly armed ship of only 3500 tons and 12 knots speed, and all smaller armored craft, are as follows: