Coastal defence ship

Coastal defence ships (sometimes called coastal battleships or

coast defence ships) were warships built for the purpose of coastal
defence, mostly during the period from 1860 to 1920. They were
small, often cruiser-sized warships that sacrificed speed and range for
armour and armament. They were usually attractive to nations that
either could not afford full-sized battleships or could be satisfied by
specially designed shallow-draft vessels capable of littoral operations
close to their own shores. The Nordic countries and Thailand found
them particularly appropriate for their island-dotted coastal waters.
Some vessels had limited blue-water capabilities; others operated in
rivers. The Finnish coastal defence shipVäinämöinen,
one of the last examples of the type.
The coastal defence ships differed from earlier monitors by having a
higher freeboard and usually possessing both higher speed and a
secondary armament; some examples also mounted casemated guns (monitors' guns were almost always in turrets). They varied in
size from around 1,500 tons to 8,000 tons.

Their construction and appearance was often that of miniaturized pre-dreadnought battleships. As such, they carried heavier armour
than cruisers or gunboats of equivalent size, were typically equipped with a main armament of two or four heavy and several lighter
guns in turrets or casemates, and could steam at a higher speed than most monitors. In service they were mainly used as movable
coastal artillery rather than instruments of sea control or fleet engagements like the battleships operated by blue-water navies. Few of
these ships saw combat in theFirst World War, though some did in theSecond World War. The last were scrapped in the 1970s.

Navies with coastal defence ships serving as their main capital ships included those of Belgium, Ecuador, Finland, Greece, the
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Thailand, and the British colonies of India and Victoria. Some nations which at one time or
another built, bought, or otherwise acquired their own front-line capital ships, such as Argentina, Austria-Hungary, Brazil, China,
Germany, Russia, and Spain, also deployed this type of warship, with Russia usingthree at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905.

Apart from specially built coastal defence ships, some navies used various obsolescent ships in this role. The Royal Navy deployed
four Majestic-class battleships as guardships in the Humber at the start of the First World War. Similarly, the U.S. Navy redesignated
the Indiana and Iowa classes as "Coast Defense Battleships" in 1919. Such ships tended to be near the end of their service lives and
while generally considered no longer fit for front-line service, they were still powerful enough for defensive duties in reserve
situations.

Contents
Categorization
Swedish Pansarskepp
Technical details
Effectiveness
Dutch Pantserschepen
Operators
See also
References
External links
Categorization
This type of vessel has always been categorized differently by different countries, due to treaties, differences in judgments related to
design or intended roles, and also national pride. In the United Kingdom the Scandinavian ships were known as "coast defence
ships". The Germans called these ships Küstenpanzerschiff ("coastal armoured ship").[1] The Danes referred to their ships as
Kystforsvarsskib ("coast defence ship") andPanserskib ("armoured ship"). In Norway they were referred to asPanserskip ("armoured
ship"). The Dutch called their ships Kruiser ("cruiser"), Pantserschip ("armoured ship") or Slagschip ("battleship"). The Swedish
term for these ships was initially 1:a klass Pansarbåt ("1st class armoured boat") and later Pansarskepp ("armoured ship"). Note
however, that the German Panzerschiffen of the Deutschland class were not designed as coastal defense ships but as high seas raiders.

As an example of the profusion of terms and classifications which often contradicted each other, the 1938 edition of Jane's Fighting
Ships lists the Swedish Pansarskepps of the Sverige class as battleships.

Swedish Pansarskepp
The Swedish Pansarskepp were an outgrowth of the earlier Swedish adoption of themonitor and were used for similar duties.

Technical details
The Pansarskepp or Pansarbåt, with the notable exception of the Sverige class, were relatively small vessels with limited speed,
shallow draft, and very heavy guns relative to the displacement. They were designed for close in-shore work in the littoral zone of
Scandinavia, and other countries with shallow coastal waters. The aim was to outgun any ocean-going warship of the same draft by a
significant margin, making it a very dangerous opponent for a cruiser, and deadly to anything smaller. The limitations in speed and
seaworthiness were a trade-off for the heavy armament carried. Vessels similar to the Swedish Pansarskepp were also built and
operated by Denmark, Norway, and Finland, all of which had similar naval requirements.

Effectiveness
The Sverige-class ships differed in several ways from the classical coastal defence ship, having heavier armament as well as better
speed and armor (while still being small enough to operate and hide in the archipelagos and shallow waters off Sweden). The main
difference was to be noted in their tactical doctrine and operations. Unlike other coastal defence ships the Sverige-class formed the
core of a traditional open-sea battle group (Coastal Fleet), operating with cruisers, destroyers, torpedo boats, and air reconnaissance
in conformance with traditional battleship tactics of the time. This “mini-battle group” had no intention of challenging the
superpowers in blue-water battles, but rather were to operate as a defensive shield to aggression challenging Swedish interests and
territory. Based on the doctrine that one needs a battle group to challenge other battle groups, this force intended to form a
problematic obstacle in the confined and shallow Baltic and Kattegat theatre, where traditional large warships would be limited to
very predictable moving patterns exposing them to submarines, fast torpedo craft, and minefields. It has been suggested that the
Sverige-class ships were one reason why Germany did not invade Sweden during World War II. Such speculation appeared in
Warship Magazine Annual 1992 in the article 'The Sverige Class Coastal Defence Ships,' by Daniel G. Harris. This could be said to
have been partly confirmed in the post war publication of German tactical orders, and of scenarios regarding attacking Sweden. The
problems of maintaining an army in Sweden without sea superiority were emphasized, and the lack of available suitable units to face
the Swedish navy was pointed out (“Stations for battle”, Insulander/Olsson, 2001). Summarizing the question of effectiveness for the
Sverige-class, it is likely that despite a good armament they would have been too small, slow, and cramped (from both a habitability
and essential ship's stores standpoint), along with having insuf
ficient range, to perform adequately against any traditional battlecruiser
or battleship in a blue-water scenario; however, if correctly used in their home waters and in a defensive situation, they would
probably have presented a major challenge for any aggressor
.

Dutch Pantserschepen
The Dutch used their armoured ships mainly to defend their interests overseas, in particular their colonial possessions in the West
Indies (the islands of the Netherlands Antilles) and the East Indies (primarily, modern Indonesia). For this reason the ships had to be
capable of long-range cruising, providing artillery support during amphibious operations, and carrying the troops and equipment
needed in these operations. At the same time, the ships had to be armed and armoured well enough to face contemporary armoured
cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy (the Netherlands' most likely enemy in the Pacific), and as such they were expected to act as
mini-battleships rather than strictly as coastal defence vessels.

The last Dutch pantserschip, HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën, was built in 1909 as a stop-gap measure while the Dutch Admiralty and
government contemplated an ambitious fleet plan comprising a number of dreadnought battleships. This ambition was never realized
due to the outbreak of the First World War. The Second World War put an end to a similar project to obtain fast capital ships in the
late 1930s with German assistance.

Prior to the Second World War, the Dutch had relegated all the surviving pantserschips to secondary duties. The Axis powers, who
seized some of the ships following the conquest of the Netherlands, converted several to serve as floating anti-aircraft batteries and
subsequently utilized some asblock ships.

Operators
The navies of the following countries have operated coastal defence ships at some point in time.

Argentina:

El Plata class (1874)

El Plata
Los Andes
Libertad class (1890)

Independencia
Libertad
Side and top views of ARA Independencia
Austria-Hungary: in Brassey’s 1899 edition
SMS Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie
SMS Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf
Monarch class (1895)

SMS Monarch
SMS Wien
SMS Budapest
Brazil:

Barroso
Brasil
Lima Barros
Right elevation and plan of theMonarch
Rio de Janeiro
class; the shaded area is armored
Bahia
Silvado
Mariz e Barros class (1866)

Mariz e Barros
Herval
Cabral class (1866)

Cabral
Colombo
Sete de Setembro (1874)
Javary class (1874)
 Javary
Solimoes
Marshal Deodoro class (1898)

Marshal Deodoro
Marshal Floriano
China:

Pingyuan (1888)
Yongfeng-class coastal defense ship(1910)

SS Zhongshan, the only coastal defense ship to be preserved

Denmark

Herluf Trolle class (1899)

Herluf Trolle2
Olfert Fischer
Peder Skram[2]
Niels Juel[3]
HDMS Niels Juel in 1939
Finland:

Väinämöinen-class Panssarilaiva ships (1931)

Ilmarinen
Väinämöinen
France:
Jemmapes class 6,476 tons.[4]

Jemmapes (1892) – hulked 1911.[4]

Valmy (1892) – stricken 1911.[4]
Väinämöinen in 1938
Bouvines class 6,681 tons.[4]

Amiral-Tréhouart (1893) – stricken 1922.[4]

Bouvines (1892) – stricken 1920.[4]

Germany:

Siegfried class (1890)

Siegfried
Beowulf
Frithjof
Line-drawing of Siegfried as
Hagen
originally configured
Heimdall
Hildebrand
Odin class (1896)

Odin
Ägir

The Netherlands:

Evertsen class (1894)

HNLMS Evertsen
HNLMS Piet Hein
HNLMS Kortenaer
Koningin Regentes class (1900)

HNLMS Koningin Regentes

 HNLMS De Ruyter
HNLMS Hertog Hendrik
HNLMS Marten Harpertzoon Tromp
HNLMS Jacob Van Heemskerck
HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën

Norway:
Plan and side view of theKoningin
Tordenskjold class (1897)
Regentes class
HNoMS Tordenskjold
HNoMS Harald Haarfagre
Eidsvold class (1899)

HNoMS Eidsvold
HNoMS Norge
Bjørgvin class (1914) - Both ships were requisitioned by the Royal
Navy during World War I while under construction, completed and
served as the monitorsHMS Glatton and HMS Gorgon Norwegian Tordenskjold class

HNoMS Bjørgvin
HNoMS Nidaros
Portugal:

Vasco da Gama (1876)

Russia:

Uragan class (1865)

Novgorod class (1874) - later reclassified as "Coastal Defence Armour-
Clad Ships"

Novgorod
Rear Admiral Popov
Admiral Ushakov class (1895)
Admiral Ushakov in 1897
Admiral Ushakov
Admiral Seniavin
General Admiral Graf Apraksin

Sweden:

Svea class (1886)

Svea
Göta
Thule
Oden class (1896)

Oden
Thor Right elevation and deck plan of
Sverige as depicted in Brassey's
Niord
Naval Annual, 1923
Dristigheten (1900)
Äran class (1902)

Äran
Wasa
Tapperheten
Manligheten
Oscar II (1905)
Sverige class (1917)

Sverige
 Gustav V
Drottning Victoria

Thailand:

Ratanakosin class

Ratanakosin
Sukhothai
Thonburi class (1938)

HTMS Sri Ayudhya Thonburi in 1938

HTMS Thonburi

India:

Cerberus class (1870)

Magdala
Abyssinia (half-sister to Cerberus & Magdala)
British Colony of Victoria:

Cerberus class
HMVS Cerberus at Williamstown
HMVS Cerberus in 1871.

See also
SS Zhongshan, the only surviving coastal battleship
Kaibōkan, a smaller type of ship used for coastal defence and escort duties by the Imperial Japanese Navy during
the Second World War.
List of coastal defence ships of the Second World War

References
1. Albert Röhr:Handbuch der deutschen Marinegeschichte. Publisher Gerhard Stalling. Oldenburg/Hamburg 1963. p.
161
2. "Den Danske Brigade 1947"(https://web.archive.org/web/20070929094234/http://www .milhist.dk/weapons/shipdata/
skram_1908.htm). milhist.dk. Archived from the original (http://www.milhist.dk/weapons/shipdata/skram_1908.htm)
on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
3. "Den Danske Brigade 1947"(https://web.archive.org/web/20070927034544/http://www .milhist.dk/besattelsen/9april/n
elsjul.html). milhist.dk. Archived from the original (http://www.milhist.dk/besattelsen/9april/nelsjul.html) on 27
September 2007. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
4. Chesnau, Roger and Kolesnik, Eugene (Ed.)Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860–1905. Conway Maritime
Press, 1979. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4

External links
Media related to Coastal defence ships at Wikimedia Commons

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