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Arcona at anchor
Class overview
Builders	Königliche Werft, Danzig
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Augusta-class corvette
Built	1855–1869
In service	1859–1904
Completed	5
Scrapped	5
General characteristics
Type	Steam frigate
Displacement	2,391 t (2,353 long tons)
Length	71.95 m (236 ft 1 in)
Beam	13 m (42 ft 8 in)
Draft	5.55 m (18 ft 3 in)
Installed power	4 × fire-tube boilers 1,365 PS (1,346 ihp)
Propulsion	1 × marine steam engine 1 × screw propeller
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Speed	12.4 knots (23.0 km/h; 14.3 mph)
Range	1,150 nmi (2,130 km; 1,320 mi) at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Complement	35 officers 345 enlisted men
Armament	6 × 68-pounder guns 20 × 36 pounder guns
Notes

The Arcona class of steam frigates was a class of five vessels built for the Prussian Navy in the late 1850s and 1860s. The class comprised Arcona, Gazelle, Vineta, Hertha, and Elisabeth.

Design

In the immediate aftermath of the First Schleswig War against Denmark, Prince Adalbert began drawing up plans for the future of the Prussian Navy; the war with Denmark made clear the need for a larger fleet to guard the Prussian coast and defend maritime trade. He also sought vessels capable of power projection beyond the Baltic Sea. Toward the latter end, he secured the Jade Treaty in 1853 that saw the port of Wilhelmshaven transferred to Prussia from the Duchy of Oldenburg. Wilhelmshaven would be expanded into a naval base for the Prussian fleet on the North Sea. At the same time, on 14 November, Adalbert's cousin, King Friedrich Wilhelm, ordered the creation of the Prussian Admiralty. The organization was nominally run by Otto Theodor von Manteuffel, the Minister President of Prussia, but it was in reality actually controlled by Adalbert.

In late 1854, the Admiralty issued a memorandum laying out its vision for expansion of the fleet. The document contained general principles—such as a desire to keep distinct ship classes to a minimum and a preference for experience from foreign navies—as well as specific requirements, including requirements for steam power and reduced draft to permit operations in the shallow Baltic. In April 1855, the Admiralty presented its plan, which laid its objectives at creating a navy directed against Denmark, Prussia's principal enemy at sea. In the plan, Adalbert called for a force of three screw frigates and six screw corvettes, which Friedrich Wilhelm approved on 19 April. The first question that confronted the naval leadership was whether to purchase vessels from foreign builders or to design the new ships domestically. Up to that point, Prussia had largely acquired warships from British shipyards, beginning with the Nix-class avisos in 1851.

Already in 1851, during negotiations over the Nix class with their British builder, the Prussians had inquired about the construction of a 60-gun frigate. The proposal came to nothing, as the Landtag of Prussia refused to appropriate funding for the project. The navy raised the proposal again in 1854, citing the severe shortage of ships, but they instead requested a pair of 40-gun frigates. The king approved the plan, and the navy sent the shipwright Felix Devrient and draftsman Theophile Guyot to Britain to gather information and prepare designs for the frigate and a smaller corvette. Devrient produced proposals for a 41-gun frigate and 24-gun corvette in September 1854, though Adalbert rejected both and ordered a new competition for a 26-gun corvette. In October 1854, the Swede Johan Gjerling became Prussia's chief naval constructor, and his proposal was ultimately selected the following year. Devrient had been sent to Britain and France to present the various proposals for evaluation by their experienced naval officers, but both countries' officers refused to assist because Prussia had chosen to remain neutral during the Crimean War. Two ships were authorized on 2 November 1855; a further pair was ordered in June 1860, and the final member of the class was ordered in February 1866.

General characteristics

The ships of the class varied slightly in dimensions. Arcona and Gazelle were 63.55 meters (208 ft 6 in) long at the waterline and 71.95 m (236 ft 1 in) long overall. They had a beam of 13 m (42 ft 8 in) and a draft of 5.55 m (18 ft 3 in) forward, which increased to 6.35 m (20 ft 10 in) aft. They displaced 1,928 metric tons (1,898 long tons) as designed and 2,391 t (2,353 long tons) at full load. Vineta and Hertha were slightly longer, at 65.5 m (214 ft 11 in) at the waterline and 73.32 m (240 ft 7 in) overall; their fore and aft draft measured 5.52 and 6.53 m (18 ft 1 in and 21 ft 5 in), respectively. Their displacement increased slightly, to 2,113 t (2,080 long tons) normally and 2,504 t (2,464 long tons) at full load. Elisabeth was the largest of the ships, being 71.5 m (234 ft 7 in) at the waterline and 79.3 m (260 ft 2 in) overall, with a beam of 13.2 m (43 ft 4 in) and a draft of 5.5 and 6.4 m (18 ft 1 in and 21 ft 0 in) forward and aft.

The ships had short forecastle and sterncastle decks, and the first four vessels had a transom stern. They were constructed using transverse oak frames, with a carvel-built outer hull. Their superstructure consisted primarily of a small deckhouse aft. Steering was controlled via a single rudder. The ships were very maneuverable under sail, and they were excellent sea boats. While steaming into a head sea, they tended to lose speed significantly, however. They had a crew of 35 officers and 345 enlisted men. Each ship carried a number of smaller boats, including one launch, two pinnaces, one cutter, one yawl, and two dinghies.

Propulsion system

The ships' propulsion system consisted of a single horizontal single-expansion steam engine driving a single screw propeller; all of the ships except Gazelle received engines manufactured in Britain, while that vessel had a domestically produced engine installed. Gazelle's engine proved to be troublesome throughout her career. Steam was supplied by four coal-burning fire-tube boilers. Exhaust was vented through a single funnel located amidships. To supplement the steam engine on long voyages abroad, they carried a three-masted full-ship rig with a total surface area of 2,200 m (24,000 sq ft). The screw could be retracted while cruising under sail.

The first four members of the Arcona class were rated to steam at a top speed of 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph), while Elisabeth was projected to reach 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph), but all of the ships significantly exceeded their estimated speeds, reaching 11.5 to 12.4 knots (21.3 to 23.0 km/h; 13.2 to 14.3 mph) from 1,320 to 2,440 metric horsepower (1,300 to 2,410 ihp). The ships carried between 150 to 240 t (150 to 240 long tons) of coal for their boilers. Arcona and Hertha had a cruising radius of about 1,150 nautical miles (2,130 km; 1,320 mi) at a speed of 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph), while Vineta and Hertha were capable of steaming for 1,350 nmi (2,500 km; 1,550 mi) at the same speed. Elisabeth could cruise for 1,900 nmi (3,500 km; 2,200 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

Armament

Arcona and Gazelle were armed with a battery of six 68-pounder guns and twenty 36-pounder guns. By 1870, they had been rearmed with a uniform battery of seventeen 15 cm (5.9 in) RK L/22 guns; later in her career, the number of these guns was reduced to eight. Vineta, Hertha, and Elisabeth were completed with a uniform battery of twenty-eight of the 68-pounder guns, which they carried until 1869, when they, too, were rearmed with 15 cm RK L/22 guns, receiving seventeen or nineteen of the guns. Vineta and Hertha also received a pair of 12.5 cm (4.9 in) K L/23 guns at that time.

Ships

Service history

Footnotes

Notes

1. Figures are for Arcona
2. According to Dirk Nottelmann, no definitive record of the ship's keel laying is known to exist, but the available evidence suggests work began the same day as Gazelle

Citations

1. Nottelmann, p. 110.
2. Nottelmann, pp. 110–111.
3. Nottelmann, pp. 111–113, 119, 124.
4. Sondhaus, p. 55.
5. ^ Gröner, p. 42.
6. Gröner, pp. 42–43.
7. Lyon, p. 250.
8. Nottelmann, p. 114.
9. Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 1, p. 235.
10. Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 1, p. 237.
11. ^ Nottelmann, p. 118.
12. ^ Nottelmann, p. 120.
13. ^ Nottelmann, p. 122.
14. ^ Nottelmann, p. 125.

References

• Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Vol. I: Major Surface Vessels. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
• Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe: Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships: Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 1. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 3-78220-237-6.
• Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe: Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships: Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 3. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 3-7822-0211-2.
• Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe: Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships: Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 4. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7822-0382-1.
• Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe: Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships: Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 8. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag.
• Lyon, Hugh (1979). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
• Nottelmann, Dirk (2022). Wright, Christopher C. (ed.). "From "Wooden Walls" to "New-Testament Ships": The Development of the German Armored Cruiser 1854–1918, Part I: "Humble Beginnings"". Warship International. LIX (2): 102–129. ISSN 0043-0374.
• Sondhaus, Lawrence (1997). Preparing for Weltpolitik: German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-745-7.

• Arcona-class frigates