The cruiser Powerful, revisited

If you search with Google Image Search, you will find that there are many photographs of the 1st Class Protected Cruiser Powerful online. Battleships and Cruisers has number of them on this page. There is also this Wikipedia page. There are some really nice pictures from Australia and New Zealand of the Powerful from about 1908, and possibly later. I did find this one of the Powerful at Sydney harbour in August of 1908. The Powerful and Terrible had the misfortune to be completed right before the armoured cruisers. The navy regarded the 1st Class Protected Cruisers as white elephants, as they wanted vertical side armour, not thick protective decks. Of course, The later Coumty Class ships had less protection than the Powerfuls did. The Powerfuls were armed according to the current thinking, circa 1895, with 2-9.2in and 16-6in guns in two-story casemates. They were completely reasonable ships for service overseas, even if they were deemed unsuitable for service with the main battlefleet.

HMS Powerful

This page shows that HMS Powerful remained in service in the southwest Pacific up to the war. There are some other Wikipedia pages (and elsewhere) that claim that the Powerful was laid up after 1904, but that was not the case. There are some fabulous pictures of the ship at various times, such as in 1908 at the American visit to New Zealand.

The state of the art: fast cruisers

Admiral Makarov had advocated that the Russian navy acquire very fast cruisers for use as scouts. The British had been slow to adopt such vessels, probably due to the conservatism of William H. White, the DNC. The lead ship, the Novik, was built in Germany, by Schichau at Elbing. The succeeding ships were built in Russia, and were not as fast. The Novik was credited with making as fast as 26 knots, when the usual fast cruiser could make 23 or 24 knots, maximum. The Novik was scuttled in shallow water after the steering gear was disabled. The picture shows the wreck. The Japanese repaired the Novik for service in their navy.

Lord Brassey's "The Naval Annual" is in Google Books

I got an email from the NavWarGames Yahoo Group that told me that the 1908 edition of Lord Brassey's The Naval Annual is available in Google Books. I checked, and there are many older editions available as "full view" (at least in the United States) (between 1886 and 1908). Many of the good editions from later years don't even have a preview.

The Chinese cruiser Nan Shuin

This is my version of the Nan Shuin, a Chinese unprotected steel cruiser built by Howaldt at Kiel, Germany. The Nan Shuin was launched on 8 January 1884. The Nan Shuin was a 2200 ton ship that could reach a speed of just 13 knots. The Nan Shuin was armed with 2-8.2in, 8-4.7in BLR guns.

The Galena picture as an "old photograph"

The ironclad gunboat Galena picture with the GIMP "old photograph" look applied.

The Galena as a screw sloop

The transformation of the armoured gunboat Galena into the screw sloop Galena is pretty amazing. In 1864, the Galena was fitted out without armour and with masts and sails as a screw sloop. In this guise, the Galena had a successful second career. The Galena even played an important role in the Battle of Mobile Bay, with the sloop Oneida lashed alongside. The Oneida had a boiler disabled, but the Galena carried the Oneida into the bay.