14 MARINE REVIEW. [October 11, GERMAN ARMORED CRUISER PRINZ HEINRICH. The Prinz Heinrich--at present completing fer sea--is apparently in- tended as a standard type for German armored cruisers. Unlike the Furst Bismark, she is not a merely weak battleship, but a cruiser pure and simple, built chiefly with an eye to cruiser work. Her principal dimen- sions, etc., are as follows: Displacement...) c4ccns5 os Pe ee a aes 8868 tons. Length ..0;.0300 eo eae Bee Pin. 394 ft. Beam 52.2.2... Oe es eee as 651% ft. Draweht (Mean) 43. es ee, 1 2394 ft. Armament... .... Pie Pe ei »...- Two 9.4 in. '(24 cm.) % pee eer oes Ten 6-in. (15 cm.) Be io fees Ten 1-pounders. a Senta Lies Be ie Four Maxims. 'Lorpedo tubes: 2... Se es ie-.......One bow, submerged. ue DC ca es Me ee cs Two broadside, submerged. u ee es Po ee ee, One, stern, above water. The armor is distributed as follows: There is a complete water-line belt of Krupp armor 4 in. to 3 in, in thickness, reinforced by'a protective deck 234 in. thick on the slopes. Above the belt there is a redoubt about 165 ft. long, and of about the same thickness as the belt. Above this again is the main deck redoubt, 6 in. thick, in which six of the 6 in. guns then and now for a ship carrying a more or less standard armament for a first-class cruiser in the way of protection and speed. Orlando. Edgar. Bake. P. Heinrich. Date ot launch............ 1886 1890 1891 1900 Displacement, tons........... 5700 7700 9000 8868 Weneth: [eet tie 300 360 378 394 Beam TCCh foc, 56 60 65 65% Draught, feet... 7.0... 26 2 28 27% ~--- 2434 (mean) Armour belt, inches........... 10 Nil Nil 4 Do., lower deck, inches...... ° Nil Nil Nil 4 Do., battery, Q.F., inches... Nil 6in.on4guns. 6in.ond guns. 6 Do., big guns, inches......... 4Min. 4%in dyin. 6 shields shields shields Do., deck, inches:.....35.:...5 3 5 5 234 THs Pe C1060 vere. ccoeeso 2, 9000. 10,000 to12,(.00 -20,000 15,000 Speed, trial.....................-.18.0 to 19 19.5 to 20 21.5 20 (est.) Actual sea-speeds at a push...15.5 or less 19.6 20.5 oo The Orlando, the only cruiser carrying belt armor except the Prinz Heinrich, has less than this ship, and is altogether smaller. She belongs to the era of "paper" ships, and to this day, with her 10-in. "armor belt"-- all under the water-line, by the way--and heavy armament, is a grand ship for the makers of statistics. The Prinz Heinrich could probably tackle three of her. The Edgar and Blake are more interesting comparisons. GERMAN ARMORED ORUISER PRINZ HEINRIOH. are mounted. Both redoubts have 6 in. bulkheads, while screens will be placed between the guns in the upper one. On top of the upper redoubts there will be four turrets, oval in shape, each 6 in. thick, and carrying a 6-in. gun. Forward and aft are barbettes, each mounting a single 9.4-in. gun, and protected by stout shields. These barbettes will have a total height of about 9 ft., will be 6 in. thick, with armored hoists descending to the protective deck. The conning tower, which will have a thickness of 6 in. or more, will have an armored tube of communication, It will be noted that the Prinz Heinrich has little in common with the Furst Bismark. The later has no protection to the lower deck, and has her armament a good deal more distributed. The Prinz Heinrich, on the other hand, is a direct adaptation of the French Brennus, and closely resembles that ship both in the disposition of armament and in the system of armoring. The high forecastle and the bow submerged tube are the only distinctly German features in the design, and there is nothing of the First Bismark about her save in general outline. Like all German ships, the Prinz Heinrich will have no wood used in her construction, unless the latest discovery, or supposed discovery, that woodless ships are very unsanitary, causes some departure from a well- established German custom. The estimated indicated horse power is 15,000, which is expected to give a speed of 20 knots. There are three screws, and the deadwood aft is very much cut away after the Elswick model, in order to make the ship relatively handy. This, for a cruiser, she should be, as she has a very fair proportion of beam to length. The boilers selected for her are of the Diirr type. __It may be of some interest to compare the Prinz Heinrich of 1900 with the Edgar class of 1890 and the Orlando of 1886, since the armaments in each case are practically identical, though the German 9.4-in, gun is of course, a far more powerful gun than the old 9.2-in. in the other ships. This, however, is more an accident of date than anything else, and in so far as the modern guns are all heavier, enforces rather than detracts from the point we wish to make--the difference between what was demanded All the class are as good ships as ever were built for speed. Although now nearly ten years old, they are all excellent steamers, and in the recent maneuvers kept station at 19 knots without the least difficulty. Ten years have seen far. less advance in speed than people are prone to imagine. It is exceedingly doubtful whether there is a warship in the world that would beat the Edgar class in a thirty hours' race. Probably the Russian cruiser Variag, recently built at Cramp's, Philadelphia, might. The advance of recent years has been in protection, and the prone today is to pile on armor without deteriorating the other cruiser essentials, BIDS SOLICITED FOR THE ARMORED CRUISERS. Secretary Long has issued advertisements for the construction of the 'protected armored cruisers, and has announced that bids will be opened on Dec, 7. Six armored cruisers are to be constructed, three of which will be sheathed and coppered. The general characteristics of all the vessels are the same, except as regards sheathing and coppering, and the variation in dimensions and displacemént consequent thereon, The unsheathed vessels, if the department's désign is followed, will be about 502 ft. long, about 69 ft. 6 in. in breadth, about 13,400 tons displacement and will draw, when fully laden, about 26 ft. 6 in. They will have a coal bunker capacity of 2,000 tons and a speed of not less than 22 knots. In their main batteries will be four 8-in. guns in pairs, in two electrically controlled, elliptical, balanced turrets, one forward and one alt: four 6-in. guns will be mounted in sponsons at each corner of the superstructure, and on the main floor of the gun deck ten 6-in. guns in broadside will be mounted. The secondary batteries will contain eighteen 3-in. breech load- ing rifles, fourteen 14-pounders, twelve 3-pounder guns, four 1-pounder automatic guns, four l-pounder single shot guns, two 3-in. field guns, two machine guns; six automatic guns of small caliber and two sub- merged torpedo tubes. Each vessel will be protected by 1976 tons of armor and 100 tons of cellulose. Each vessel is to be fitted as a flagship.