- Yes!
- No!
launched on July 5th, 1898,
and commissioned on September 17th, 1901
HMS Amphitrite fitted for minelaying and clad in dazzle camouflage, 1918
HMS Niobe - almost all 8 Diadem-class cruisers were externally identical aside from Diadem and Andromeda having slightly different pipes on their funnels
bow weather deck of HMS Niobe
DESIGN:
The origins of the Diadem-class Protected Cruiser are like many ships even in the early days of the steam-and-steel era of ship design- based upon their predecessor design. Where the Diadem-class however breaks with the standard paradigm, is that it isn’t so much based upon its predecessor; the Powerful-class 1st Class Protected Cruiser; but that it’s basically an 85% scale model and total repeat of the Powerful-class design- see here
it’s basically this meme.
But what the Diadem-class represents is the most powerful force in military procurement since time immemorial- “this costs HOW much?”
While the Powerful and Diadem-class share effectively the same base hull, the cost of HMS Powerful and HMS Terrible with their mission profile of commerce escorts and raiders, being a response to the rare instance of Russians doing the trendsetting in effectively inventing the role of dedicated commerce raider, courtesy of the Armored Cruiser Rurik.
The Powerful-class was a decisive answer to Rurik and its desire for commerce raiding with record speeds at the time for this kind of ship of ~22 knots, well above the 18 knots of the Russian Armored Cruiser Rurik, or the French Armored Cruiser Dupuy de Lôme… which I made a suggestion of… shameless plug.
They were also an answer to the question of “do we put even bigger guns on instead?” with a resounding “yes!”, followed by a slightly less resounding claim of “wait this costs HOW much?” to the realization that the mighty BL 9.2-inch Mk VIII naval gun was just a little bit expensive compared to the ubiquitous series of 6-inch naval guns.
And thus the Diadem-class was born. A classic case of the Cheap Out.
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Compared to the Powerful-class, the Diadems were a mild cost cutting downgrade, albeit one with no real loss in practicality for the time as while the ship size was downscaled (though still quite large for its type), Speeds were reduced, firepower was reduced, and armor was reduced… but the number of ships actually built went from just two, to two sets of four.
there were now 8 ships produced for the class in Diadem, Andromeda, Europa, and Niobe being the first group; followed by Ariadne, Spartiate, Amphitrite, and Argonaut; as a second, slightly improved group of otherwise exact duplicate ships.
And the core reason of why, was that at this time, the UK only counted the actual ship itself in the on-paper production costs, and did not include procurement of guns, ammo, provisions, etc; kind of like how during the interwar era in the 1920s and 30s, the US, Italy, Germany, and Japan all used creative accounting to hide treaty breaking tonnage ships; but in the 1890s it was more about keeping the notoriously troublesome British Press in the dark, lest they start another panic.
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As for the downsides of being a cheap out design, in hindsight the only true loss of capability in the long run was the lowered speeds- a decade later battleships could outpace most protected cruisers of this vintage. The replacement of the 9.2-inch Mk VIII on the other hand was rather inconsequential, as these ships main roles were commerce-oriented, and the reduced armor only meant so much as being Protected Cruisers; not Light Cruisers; meant that they mainly only armored the deck and the guns.
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The general reaction to the Diadem-class was largely one of disappointment from the press, who criticized the obnoxiously average nature of the ship and it’s lack of maneuverability as a large cruiser- specifically, naval journalist Fred Jane; the man behind the “Jane’s Fighting Ships” publications; characterized them as “much-discussed” (translation: overrated), and complained that “all the weak points of the Powerfuls were exaggerated in them”.
As a result, the legacy of the Diadiem-class is that this was the last class of Protected Cruisers built by the Royal Navy, who had renewed interest in the Development of Armored Cruisers fielding the mighty 9.2-inch guns.
HISTORY:
HMS Amphitrite was built by Vickers, Sons & Maxim at Barrow-in-Furness
laid down on December 8th, 1896
launched on July 5th, 1898
placed into the Fleet Reserve during February 1900… yes, completed straight into reserve.
HMS Amphitrite was eventually commissioned on September 17th, 1901… after a year and a half… as a glorified taxi cab. no joke- she was commissioned, crewed, and outfitted with extra crew who needed a lift to Malta to crew to newly refit Majestic-Class pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Illustrious… and then take invalidated crewmen back from Malta to Portsmouth.
In November, Amphitrite got to be… a taxi again- this time ferrying new crew to HMS Alacrity and Snipe of the China Station and bring more invalidated crew back, before getting decommissioned, recommissioned, and recrewed in the span of a day, and sent back off to the exile of mediocrity of that time period- Hong Kong, the China Station… so of course Amphitrite then got sent to Muscat, Oman for a bit to give something of mention for the year of 1902.
the next 12 years passed with so little of note save for that Amphitrite gained the nicknames of Am (ham) and Tripe after the common foodstuffs- and they fit! this ship’s service is a solid contender for the title “always there, never seen”. a common man’s common cruiser.
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When World War One broke out in 1914, a now-very obsolete HMS Amphitrite was on Atlantic patrol with the 9th Cruiser Squadron until mid-1915 when she was sent into reserve for conversion into a minelayer. a rare moment of bombast for this ship.
emerging as a converted minelayer largely defanged of most her original armament in mid-1917, Amphitrite would spend the next 15 months doing ex-cruiser minelayer things, until on September 8th, 1918, HMS Amphitrite would finally accomplish something of note:
she scored a kill.
…
…
Because she ran over a Royal Navy Destroyer.
yup. a certified teamkill, due to colliding with (translation: completely obliterating) the Admiralty M-class Destroyer HMS Nessus that was 1/10th her tonnage, in the middle of the North Sea.
Amphitrite would then be transferred to the Nore Command at the mouths of the Thames and the Medway, a quiet and hopefully Destroyer-free posting in the last months of WWI.
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HMS Amphitrite would see out the end of the Great War, and at the ripe age of 20 would be removed from service and sold to the shipbreaker Ward of Milford Haven on April 12th, 1920.
A quiet and unassuming end for a quiet and unassuming ship… and a not so quiet sigh of relief for old Destroyers looking to not get mowed down by a homicidal museum piece cruiser.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS:
Displacement:
11,000 long tons (standard)
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Length:
132.6 meters (435 feet) at the waterline
141 meters (462 feet, 6 inches) overall
Beam:
21.0 meters (69 ft)
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Draft:
7.77 meters (25 feet, 6 inches)
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Propulsion:
30 Belleville Water Tube boilers feeding into 2 four cylinder Vertical Triple Expansion Steam Engines producing 19,500 ihp, powering 2 propellers through two shafts that produced speeds of 20.75 knots.
The second run of Diadem-class cruisers, HMS Ariadne, HMS Spartiate, HMS Amphitrite, and HMS Argonaut had an improved engine room layout (and presumably funnel trunking) that improved indicated horsepower slightly, adding 1500 ihp output and half a knot of speed.
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Range:
2,000 nmi (3,700 km; 2,300 mi) at 19 knots (35.2 km/h; 21.9 mph) - though meaningless in WT, this is historically important as the Diadem-class’s cruising speed was nearly it’s top speed, so they were always ready to go.
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Crew:
677
ARMOR:
while the Diadem-class has a very heavily armored conning tower, the sides of Diadem-class ships were unarmored as per the usual for most protected cruisers, and the armor is largely scaled down from the Powerful-class.
Armour: Armour was Harvey Steel (case hardened nickel steel)
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Casemates and Gun Shields:
all the 6-inch casemate and deck-mounted guns 6-inch guns had 4.5-inch (114mm) armored faces, and a 2-inch thick (51mm) roof
ammunition hoists: 2 inches (51 mm)
“The tubes protecting the ammunition hoists were also 2 inches thick.”
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Deck: 4 to 2.5 to 2 inches (102-64-51mm)
"The sloped armoured deck ranged in thickness from 2.5 to 4 inches (64 to 102 mm) on the flat and slopes, respectively.
“The protective deck was 102mm thick over the machinery, thinning to 51mm over a narrow section of the crown and reducing to 64mm forward and aft”
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Conning tower:
the conning tower was just about the only area not compromised in the downscaling of the Powerful design to the Diadem design.
12 inches (305mm) fore conning tower walls, 6 inches (152mm) tube to fore conning tower, 2 inches (51mm) conning tower roof.
The conning towers were protected by 12-inch (305mm) walls and their roofs were 2 inches (51mm) thick.
ARMAMENT:
4x1x2 QF 6-inch/40 Mark I EOC Pattern Z deck mounted guns
12x1x6 QF 6-inch/40 Mark I EOC Pattern Z casemate guns
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_6-40_mk1.php
Export-ready sample picture from Elswick with the transitional brown powder early cartridge and shell
bow weather deck of Niobe- you can clearly see the gunshields are the same design
the main armament of the Diadems was a vast smattering of single quick firing 6-inch guns, specifically the Elswick-produced Mk.I guns commercially known as the Pattern Z. there were two on the bow deck, two on the aft deck, and 6 per side in single casemates, making for a possible 7 or 8-gun full broadside, but more easily a 6-gun broadside, like a ye olde Omaha-class cruiser.
The 6-inch/40 used 100-pound CPC Common and HE shells, with 200 rounds per gun.
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12x1x6 - 76/40 12pdr 12cwt QF Mk I guns. the venerable 12-pounder was the main anti-torpedo boat armament at this time. six per side, all in casemates.
Didn’t know it at first, but this is actually ingame, as the 3-inch/40 Type 41 on the Ikoma, Kurama, Settsu, and Mutsu.
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3×1 47mm QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss Mk.1 guns - the classic Hotchkiss 3-pounder
likely mounted on the superstructure or in fighting tops.
also seen ingame.
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3x1 450mm (17.7-inch) M1894 Mark IV torpedoes
one above water firing out the back of the stern, 1 for each side underwater, presumably above or below that balcony backdoor on the stern.
“two 18-in submerged broadside tubes forward, depressed three degrees and bearing abeam; axis of tube was 6 foot 6 inches below load water line and 1 feet 6 inches above deck.”
_-_Fairfield_-_Cassier's_1897-04.png/800px-HMS_Diadem_(ship,_1898)_-_Fairfield_-_Cassier's_1897-04.png)
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There were also 8 Maxim machine guns chambered in .303, which could be placed anywhere.
SOURCES:
Online:
Diadem-class cruiser - Wikipedia
HMS Amphitrite (1898) - Wikipedia
DIADEM 1 class protected cruisers (8, 1898 - 1903)
Literary:
Brown, David K. Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860–1905. Caxton Editions 2003. ISBN 1-84067-529-2
Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Revised ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475
(Ships of the Royal Navy - Wikipedia)* (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
Macpherson, Ken; Barrie, Ron (2002). The Ships of Canada’s Naval Forces 1910–2002 (Third ed.). St. Catharines, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing. ISBN 1-55125-072-1.