OVERSEAS HEAVYWEIGHTS

As a result, “man” was indeed a fairly typical “pass-through” battleship of the second class no doubt in a few years it exactly what is perceived to be, but he was prepared for a different fate after Only two and a half years after the entry into operation, on 15 February 1898, the first in the history of the United States armored cruiser blew up in the port of Havana, capital of Cuba, who was then a Spanish colony His death has served the US government well the Slogan “Remember the “Maine” brought a surge of activity and patriotism of the population, not too willing before the start of the war with Spain is In fact the true cause of the explosion and failed to the end to find out up to the present day, that has not prevented Americans to blame the death of Spaniards, and Vice versa, the Most evil tongues say that the US government specially “set up” your the worst ship that you can hardly to recognize the truth Although by that time under the stars and stripes already floated a few significantly more powerful battleships, new and, whatever you say, strong enough ship does not would be superfluous.

 

Meanwhile, by the time the us Navy had already had a real armored cruiser, constructed on entirely different principles than the unfortunate “man” the “new York”, laid 2 years after “the man”, but came into operation it 2 years earlier One of the reasons was that it was built on a private Philadelphia firm of “Charles crump and sons”, which became in short time one of the most prominent suppliers of military ships for navies of all countries (in particular, for Russia to Philadelphia has built the battleship “Retvizan” and the cruiser “Varyag”), “Traders” was fast, passing the large and advanced for its time, the ship in less than three years.

 

A “new York” was really a very original cruiser, After “saving” the firstborn of the Americans swung to the cruiser with a displacement of over 8,000 tonnes While at first glance his “bronenosec” looked pretty bogus belt of Nickel steel was not only thin, only 4 inch, but also short, covering only machinery and boilers But behind it lurked a very solid armor deck, the bevels of which reached a thickness of 152 mm In fact, “deuce” (the ship received sequence number acr2 is) was a powerful armored cruiser with the added “bonus” as “armour of jacket” looked Trivial and weapons, the Main artillery consisted of six 8-Dujmovic, four of which were located in well-armored turrets at the bow and stern, and the remaining pair in the ribs-sponsons on the sides in the middle of the body as a result, the Board could fire five guns, and aft — four nominally still “looked” rapid-fire artillery while in other leading Maritime powers in full combat unit armed with a six-inch, Americans do such a large (core loading) caliber not improving And “new York” received a dozen 102-millimetrovogo, too weak to inflict decisive damage equal to the enemy.

 

The speed of the first true armored cruiser USA was quite at the level of the early 1990-ies on the tests he developed 21 knots (It cost the government 200 thousand then full of dollars that had to pay Crampo as a prize for exceeding speed above the design value) mechanical installation is also distinguished by the originality Four steam engines turn two shafts in pairs, This combination is allowed to quietly serve using only the rear pair of cars, maintaining a stable front in good condition, However, in case of need quickly to give large speed cruiser fell into the “interesting position” was Required to first detach from the gear clutch already-running machine, then connect the pre – “heated” back and reconnecting cruising This procedure takes up to half an hour, during which the ship was moving only by inertia or a very small course that does not contribute to the success in battle And indeed, in the battle of Santiago de Cuba in 1989, the flagship of Admiral Sampson left the game not having to make this difficult operation He appeared on the scene only to shapochnomu analysis, and did not open fire on the Spaniards, However, “new York” the Navy liked, and he served happily, repeatedly changing the mechanics and artillery After 1905, the cruiser received a new vosmidesyati, and his weak chetyrehmetrovy replaced by more powerful 127-graph paper at the same time archaic ulnerable boilers gave way to modern water tube (it is accompanied by the appearance of impressive long tubes for better traction) Wearing such a prestigious name the ship could not have it for a long time In 1911 in connection with the construction of the battleship “new York” it was renamed “Saratoga”, but after 6 years and this name is needed for the gigantic battle cruiser (later rebuilt in the famous aircraft carrier) Became “Rochester”, the original ship slowly began to lose and instruments, and mechanisms In 1927, it remained only a third of boilers and 2 tubes, and 5 years later he was sent on indefinite reserve of the old Man moved across the Pacific to the Philippines where he was at the wall at the naval base in olongapo In 1938 it was finally excluded from the lists of the fleet, but to be scrapped to give did not hurry half-life of the “original” was completed in December 1941, when it blew up after the landing of the Japanese.

 

But the idea of armored cruisers with an additional “belt” is not dead, moreover, a good idea took root in the American Navy ACR3, or “Brooklyn” is much like “new York” and a flush-deck hull, and powerful armament of 8-Dujmovic, and “coupled” mechanical installation, and three chimneys And, of course, booking, However, the thickness of the belt is increased by an inch, but it still remained short. The most significant was the replacement of the on-Board single 203-mm guns in shields on the full two-gun turret However, in order to ensure the shooting of the bow and stern sponsons wouldn’t work had to “fill up” the top part of the Board inside, as in the French ships was a Little corrected and the weakness of the latter caliber, which was 127 mm. But in General, “Brooklyn” retained many features of his “second cousin” and as “new York”, played the honorable role of the flagship.

 

115. Armored cruiser “Brooklyn” (USA, 1896)

 

 

During the battle of Santiago it was Commodore of the Schlei, in essence, clinched the win Although he developed a course immediately, to shoot at the enemy, he succeeded, and not without success, the Only cruiser in the American fleet, but he could, in principle, to catch up with the Spanish class brothers fortunately for this strange armored vehicle, check his defense not held the Spaniards just keep their pretty powerful 280-mm guns, 10 years after the Spanish-American war already thoroughly obsolete “Brooklyn” was sent to the perpetual reserve, where he remained until the outbreak of the First world war During this time, the ship received a new feeder, ammunition and fire control system However, the war he, like the rest of the fleet, however, failed, and the Washington agreement limiting naval armaments finally decided his fate in 1921, the cruiser was dismantled for the metal.

 

On “Brooklyn” over “childhood” American cruisers and began the undoubted maturity of Overseas fleet in the beginning of the twentieth century grew by leaps and bounds, and in 1899 and 1900 was followed by an order for a large series — two of three new ships of this class By the time the designers completely forgot about saving For the displacement of the newcomers were more than its predecessor by almost 1.5 times and exceeded the contemporary domestic armadillos Therefore, although new units have been given the same designations ACR (Armoured Cruiser — armored cruiser) with numbers from 4 to 9, their names correspond to the “linkarea standard” — names of States However, in contrast to the “man”, weapons “Pennsylvanian” was the opposite: almost 14-tasaciones monsters carried the same artillery that the Japanese “Assam” — four vosmidesyati in the towers and fourteen six-inch in casemates were Roughly similar and protection, although the distribution of the armor was different and consistent with “national habits” Belt was a little thinner, 152 mm instead of the Japanese 178, but bevels the deck behind him — 102 mm to 51, and 76 from “Assam” and “Iwate” In the end “the Americans” had some advantage over the “Japanese” cover the vital parts, especially at small distances of the Pacific rivals on both sides of the ocean were approximately equal to the maximum speed both had to experience replacement boilers But if the Japanese “armstrongites” the reason was the archaic “ognerubov”, “Pennsylvania” and “Colorado” — unreliability of the “super-proprietary” boiler systems Nicklaus, vigorously promote Crampon. With the “capricious child” suffered all the navies (in particular, in Russia they are affected the driving characteristics of the record velocity of his time — “the outsider”) had to suffer and the hosts themselves Only on the threshold of the First world war they were replaced by more hardy and powerful boilers Babcock-Wilcox, which became the standard for the United States Navy.

 

A “surplus” of four thousand tons (in comparison with the same English “Japanese”) went on more large, sturdy and seaworthy hull, and for additional coal But “Pennsylvania” become a truly ocean-going ships, though fairly strange “genre” — whether the fast wing of the fleet, whether hunters the enemy’s cruisers In the past as they, perhaps, would be good, except that for total success a few lacked speed they Served quite a long time; before the First world war vosmidesyati replaced by a new long-barreled model and during the war took some of the little helpful 76-millimetrovogo, replacing them with a pair of anti-aircraft guns of the same caliber. The Americans soon realized the potential of the new enemy ships Because it was the “Pennsylvania” was held the first ever aircraft landing on a ship on January 18, 1918, Navy Lieutenant Y. Ali managed to “Park” his “Curtiss” on a rickety wooden platform, built by the carpenter on the quarter deck of the cruiser — a truly circus After the death of a brave pilot in one of the flights, the scaffold was dismantled, but a large (and thoroughly outdated) fellow “Pennsylvania” continued to attract the attention of other flyers On renamed “Huntington”, “West Virginia” in 1917, equipped with not only a mini-site for four of the apparatus, but also a catapult for their release was Complemented by a kind group of generous proportions tethered balloon is One of six “States”, the former “California”, which became “San Diego”, received the dubious honour of being the only huge ship in the US, died in the First world war 19 July 1918 in the heart of the engine room on the port side were rocked by a strong underwater explosion, the Water quickly spread through the ship, he has to sit in the sea and finally flows poured through the leaky gun ports Just about 20 minutes, “San Diego” went down Historians and experts still argue that that’s because of German submarine or a mine, one thing is clear: protection against underwater explosions of these large ships can be considered very bad Large, expensive, numerous and not well understood purpose “of Pennsylvania” have caused severe criticism from supporters of traditional (read: not huge) cruisers. Well, the designers were ready to draw, shipbuilding company — to build and congressmen to give money. So in 1902, in conjunction with the second of three giants, placed the three smaller ship is Smaller, but not small, “Saint Louis”, “Milwaukee” and “Charleston” on the displacement of even slightly exceeded the famous “al-mu” But the armament and protection they rivals armored Japanese did not was the Lack of vospityvat (with the same number of 152-mm skorostrel) deprived of their ability to penetrate the armor of the enemy, and his own 102-mm waist, besides, according to all those traditions short was a bad cover from armor-piercing shells, However, the penetration of them to the mechanisms and in the cellar of ammunition saved as traditionally solid bevels armored deck. Much weight taken excessive for the time of “paling” of the eighteen three-inch guns is overkill in number when an unknown destination is Not as noticeable as faults, but very significant advantage of the “little great Americans” was their decent seaworthiness, due to the high Board In General, this trio is reminiscent of the British “County”, though inferior to them in so important for “hunters” feature, as the speed of 22 knots for antirasistisk task after the Russo-Japanese war was obviously not enough.

 

So in the early twentieth century, the United States became the owners of a very impressive collection numerical cruisers moreover, their most powerful representatives belonged to the major series of six units — a rarity for any country other than England But this is hefty in size, “technical arm” was attached not too many “brains” As in other countries (with rare exception), there were no ideas about how to maximize the benefits of these nearly 130 thousand tons of steel in case of war.

 

The best thing you can come up with is hunt on the weaker members of the same class of number available to the enemy and the potential enemy after crushing Spain in 1898 was completely hidden in the dense political fog and Possibly Japan, possibly Germany And suddenly the “mistress of the seas”? The Americans have built a cruising fleet would like “just in case”, without clear objectives and concepts of What exactly is no doubt is gradually accumulated in the shipbuilding industry experience is a value that rarely disappears without a trace.

 

V. KOFMAN