Sachsen Class Ironclad (1877)

Four Sachsen class ironclads were completed for the Imperial German Navy between 1878 and 1883.

Design & Construction

Designed by the Imperial German Navy between 1872 and 1874. The Sachsens were iron-hulled with both transverse and longitudinal framing with sixteen watertight compartments and a double bottom extending over 60 per cent of the hull. Their machinery consisted of two 3-cylinder horizontal single-expansion engines driving two four-bladed propellers and fed by eight trunk boilers.

Performance

The Sachsens were quite manoeuverable, very responsive to helm changes and with a small tactical diameter. However they were generally poor seaboats, prone to severe rolling in beam seas and shipping large quantities of water owing to their low freeboard.

Armament

As Completed

• Six 260mm/22 caliber guns
• Six 87mm/24 caliber guns
• Eight 37mm Hotchkiss machine guns

1886

• Six 260mm/22 caliber guns
• Six 87mm/24 caliber guns
• Eight 37mm Hotchkiss machine guns
• Three 350mm torpedo tubes, twelve torpedoes

As Rebuilt c. 1896

• Six 260mm/22 caliber guns
• Eight 88mm/30 caliber quick-firing guns
• Eight 37mm Hotchkiss machine guns
• Three 350mm torpedo tubes, twelve torpedoes

See Also

• Wikipedia

Bibliography

• Chesneau, Robert; Kolesnik, Eugene (editors) (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).
• Gray, Randal (editor) (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).
• Gröner, Erich (revised and expanded by Dieter Jung and Martin Maass) (1990). German Warships 1815-1945. Volume One: Major Surface Vessels. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.