"Esmeralda" - cheap but cheerful!
"The Esmeralda increased the speed of cruisers, deprived them of sails, and Armstrong became rich," said the chief builder of the Royal Navy. fleet Sir Nathaniel Barnaby. Right on target! That's exactly how it was.
William Armstrong
Let's start from the beginning. In the second half of the 19th century, Chile was considered a famous "troublemaker" in Latin America: the country managed to participate in all Latin American wars, some of which it unleashed. Agronomists had already learned about the benefits of mineral fertilizers, but chemists had not yet learned how to produce them artificially, so Chile, with its reserves of potassium nitrate and "guano" - bird droppings - began to grow rich rapidly. And as they got rich, local elites began to "want something strange" - to squeeze something out of their neighbors. Paying much attention to equipping the army and navy.
John Rendell
Since the country had virtually no shipbuilding industry of its own, the Chileans began ordering ships from the English firm of Armstrong, which had shipyards in Elswick. True, Mr. Armstrong's chief designer, John Whitwick Rendel, was mainly engaged in gunboats, and the Chileans needed something more serious. Therefore, Rendel designed, and Armstrong built, to a Chilean order, the cruiser "Arturo Prat" - 1380 tons of displacement, speed of 16,5 knots, steel hull with a ram divided into watertight compartments, armament: 2x1 254-mm guns in the bow and stern, 4x1 130-mm guns on the sides, 2 torpedo tubes.
According to most historians, the ship had no armor (there are references to a carp deck, but they are doubtful). But it had a pair of masts with oblique sail rigging. The ship was launched in 1879, and was ready in 1880, but the Chileans, seeing that another war with Peru did not happen, sold the ship to the Japanese. And the Chinese ordered a pair of the same from Armstrong for their fleet.
Cruiser "Arturo Prat", also known as "Chaoyong".
But in the early 80s it became clear again that war was just around the corner, and in Chile they started collecting funds by subscription for the construction of a new ship. They chose a symbolic name! In Chile, the Esmeralda is what the Varyag is in Russia: a ship that heroically perished in an unequal battle with the monitor Huascar, and the ship's commander and national hero Arturo Prat tried to board the Peruvian ship and died. In general, the most uplifting storyTherefore, the money for the construction of the new Esmeralda was collected quickly.
"Esmeralda" in dock.
After which the order was given to Rendel and Armstrong again. The requirements were standard for Latin America: strong armament, high speed, but inexpensive. And the British, not feeling the customer's control, gave free rein to their engineering thought! Construction began on April 5, 1881, the ship was launched on June 6, 1883, and in 1884 it was put into operation. What a ship it was! A steel hull with a smooth deck and a ram stem. Two pipes, a complete lack of rigging, 18,3 knots per measured mile!
At the same time, the ship also had armor, albeit weak: a carp armor deck, which sloped down to the waterline along the entire length of the ship. The armor thickness above the magazines was 51 mm, above the engines - 25 mm, at the ends - 12,7 mm. Additional protection was provided by coal pits located on the slopes of the armor deck and a cofferdam filled with cork.
Armament: 2x1 254-mm breech-loading guns in the bow and stern, located in barbettes, 6x1 152-mm guns on Vavasseur mounts, protected by two-inch armor shields, for protection against destroyers - two 57-mm guns and a five-barrel 37-mm Hotchkiss gun, the conning tower is protected by an inch of armor. And all this - fit into 2800 tons of displacement!
The future Edward VII, but for now - simply the Prince of Wales...
William Armstrong was good at PR: he gave interviews in batches, and did not hesitate to praise his brainchild, calling the Esmeralda "the fastest and most well-armed cruiser in the world", while, in his words, it was "almost completely protected from the most destructive shells". The ship attracted the attention of not only sailors, but also royalty: on August 22, 1884, the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, came on board, which added even more popularity to the ship. Stepan Osipovich Makarov was also enchanted by the Esmeralda, calling the cruiser "an ideal fighting machine".
"Esmeralda" in all its glory.
Armstrong made a fortune with the ship! The Elswick cruisers became the standard, 12 countries ordered 51 Esmeralda clones from the shipyard. They served all over the world - from China to Chile, from Brazil to Turkey and Romania. Moreover, the combat experience of using the Esmeralda was initially inspiring. In 1885, taking advantage of another Civil War in the United States of Columbia (there was such a country at that time - the USC), the American Marines landed on the coast. The Chileans really did not like it when the United States interfered in the affairs of Latin America, and sent the brand new Esmeralda, smelling of fresh paint, to sort out the situation. The effect was amazing! Before the cruiser had time to drop anchor off the coast of Panama (it was then part of the USC), the Americans hurried to retreat. "The Esmeralda could have destroyed all our ships located in Panama at the same time, even without losses," American newspapers wrote.
Esmeralda and Magellan bombard President Balmaceda's troops, 1891.
Then there was participation in the Civil War in Chile itself: in 1891, President Juan Manuel Balmaceda and the National Congress could not reach an agreement. Most of the fleet, including the Esmeralda, sided with the Congress, while the army supported the president. The cruiser's 254 mm guns were a weighty argument that greatly demoralized those loyal to the president, which led to the victory of the Congress in the war. In 1894, Armstrong proposed modernizing the cruiser - changing the boilers and artillery, sheathe with teak, add a poop deck with a forecastle... But the Chileans refused. And sold the cruiser to Japan. Why?
The Esmeralda's bow was swept by the waves in the rough seas...
It should be noted here that none of the major naval powers ordered "Elswick cruisers". Brazil and Romania ordered them, but Russia, Germany and France did not. The advertisement for the cruiser was promoted by representatives of the "young school" (S. O. Makarov expressed similar views), who considered such ships to be "battleships of the future". And the British Admiralty was not interested in the cruiser. What's the matter? Well, let's start with the fact that "the Empire on which the Sun never set" needed a more seaworthy cruiser. And the Esmeralda, with its freeboard of 3,6 meters, was not distinguished by enviable seaworthiness. And the cruising range of 2200 miles was clearly insufficient for both the Royal Navy and the Russian Imperial Navy.
In addition, experienced sailors understood that a ship with a displacement of 2800 tons was not the most stable platform for 254 mm guns. Moreover, the rate of fire of these guns - 1 shot every 3 minutes was too low for any self-respecting fleet at the end of the 254th century. And, given the low seaworthiness, the possibility of firing from the bow ten-inch gun in windy weather was questionable. At the same time, to perform the main tasks facing cruisers: reconnaissance, protection of their own trade and destruction of enemy trade, XNUMX mm non-rapid-fire monsters were not needed at all. At all!
HMS Mersey
Therefore, the same British Admiralty put forward another project of second-rank cruisers — the Mersey class. The lead ship of the series of four cruisers entered service in 1887 — only three years later than the Esmeralda. In terms of speed, she was slightly inferior to the "star of the stage", showing only 17 knots on the measured mile, but her cruising range was four times greater — 8750 miles! At the same time, the ship, with a displacement of 4050 tons, carried two 203-mm guns and ten 152-mm guns: five in sponsons on each side. For protection against torpedo boats, there were three quick-firing 57-mm "6-pounder" Hotchkiss guns and three quick-firing 47-mm "3-pounder" guns of the same company. At the same time, the armor of the cruisers of this project was much more serious than that of the Esmeralda - the carpass armored deck was 51-102 mm thick, and the conning tower was armored like a real one: 229 mm!
Screw corvette "Rynda"
Russia did not pay much attention to armored cruisers at all, preferring to develop armored cruisers. Nevertheless, almost simultaneously with the English cruisers of the "Mersey" type, a pair of "screw corvettes" entered service: "Vityaz" and "Rynda", also equipped with an armored deck, and a couple of years later in Saint-Nazaire the armored cruiser "Admiral Kornilov" was built. These were ships armed with 152-mm main caliber guns, having armor no thicker than 76 mm, but much better suited to work on protecting their own trade and destroying others.
Armored cruiser "Admiral Kornilov"
In general, assessing the Esmeralda project, one can note the presence of many progressive technical solutions that Randall and Armstrong put into the project. The Esmeralda defined the appearance of ships of its class for decades to come, but to call the project successful... If we mean the commercial success of William Armstrong, then he undoubtedly took off. But the basis for success was that the ship became the optimal option in terms of "price-quality" for the fleets of minor naval powers. Larger players preferred less breakthrough ships with more balanced characteristics.
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