armour

shipbuilders.

Wow!

The Armoured Cruiser Fürst Bismarck (per www.kbismarck.com/otherbis.html) This cruiser was laid down on 1 April 1896 at the Kaiserliche-Werft in Kiel. She was launched on 25 September 1897 and later commissioned on 1 April 1900. The Fürst Bismarck served abroad in the East-Asian Squadron until 1909. Between 1910 and 1914 she was refitted at Kiel Dockyard and used as a coastal defence ship. In March 1915, the ship was disarmed and converted to an engine training ship. In 1919 she was used as an naval office ship until she was stricken on 17th June and sold to Brand & Son, Audorf. She was scrapped in 1919-20 at Audorf-Rendsburg. Displacement: standard 10,690 mt, full load 11,460 mt. Dimensions: overall length 127 meters, water line 125.7 meters, beam 20.4 meters, draft 7.8 meters forward, 8.46 aft. Armament: 4 x 24cm/L40, 12 x 15cm/L40, 10 x 8.8cm/L30, 5 x 45cm TT. Protection: deck 30-50 mm, belt 100-200mm, main turrets 200 mm max, conning tower 200 mm max. Propulsion Plant: Three vertical 4-cylinder engines, 8 Dürr burners boilers, three screws, power 13,622ihp max. Speed: 18.7 knots. Crew: 621 men.

The photo should be titled "Fürst Bismarck" or "Fuerst Bismarck."

SMS Fürst Bismarck was Germany's first armored cruiser. You can see the more graceful lines that distinguished most German capital ships throughout the first half of the 20th century, in contrast to many ships of the UK and US which often had casements for the smaller guns which interfered with a smoother hull facade.

Fantastic picture.

Slightly strange Russian pre-dred Graf Apraksin aground in the Gulf of Finland, 1899. Her future was not much more rosy. Part of Rozhestvensky's "fleet that had to die" she was captured by the Japanese at Tsushima, and served that nation until being decommissioned and turned into a museum in 1924. Severely damaged by a storm in 1939 she was finally scrapped.

Great set.

Yes, we are very lucky that all of these photos survived thanks to Donald Carson! As part of the donation, he also had a copy of Eisenhower's message to the Allied forces on the eve of D-Day. Carson even met Eisenhower a couple of days before the invasion.