Cruiser

:For the type of motorcycle, see motorcycle.

History

The term "cruiser" was a mid 19th century invention. During the age of sail, frigates were small, fast, long range, lightly armed (single gun-deck) ships used for scouting and carrying dispatches. The majority of the fleet would be made up of much larger and slower ships of the line, which were expected to deal with fleet combat that the frigates would avoid. The first ironclads also had only a single gun-deck because of the weight of armor, even though they were bigger ships with bigger guns. They were nevertheless referred to as frigates although they were used as ships of the line. Thus the definition of a frigate changed, the smaller ships originally using this term were now referred to as "cruising ships", which was rapidly abbreviated to cruiser.

Related Topics:
19th century - Frigate - Ships of the line - Ironclad

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For many years cruisers filled a sweet spot between very light craft such as the torpedo boat, and the ships intended to take part in fleet combat, later generally referred to as battleships. Cruisers were large enough to fend off attacks from smaller surface ships and self-sufficient enough to roam far from their home bases. Battleships were more powerful in combat, but so slow and (after the introduction of increased engine power), so fuel hungry that long-range operations were difficult. For much of 19th century and the first half of the 20th, the cruiser was a navy's long-range "force projection" weapon, while the larger ships stayed nearer to home. Their main role was to attack enemy merchant vessels, so much so that this task came to be called cruiser warfare.

Related Topics:
Sweet spot - Torpedo boat - Battleship - 20th - Merchant vessels

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Cruisers were also attached to the main battlefleet and used for reconnaissance, sweeping ahead of the fleet looking for the enemy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The evolution of the cruiser follows that of their larger cousins, generally growing in size and capability. The conversion from sail to steam resulted in the armored cruiser, essentially a small and faster battleship. This occurred so rapidly during the late 19th century battleships only a few years old could be outperformed by cruisers of the next building run. The United States' Great White Fleet was rendered obsolete in this fashion only a few years after it sailed. During this time it was not uncommon for fleets to contain the very latest of an older generation as well as the latest designs, which were generally much larger.

Related Topics:
Armored cruiser - Great White Fleet

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For this reason the terms heavy cruiser and light cruiser started to be used. After World War I these terms were codified during the various naval arms limitation treaties. Light cruisers were defined to be armed with 6.1 in (155 mm) guns or smaller and heavy cruisers to be armed with larger calibers, 8 in (203 mm) being particularly common. 8 in was the largest gun permitted by the Washington Naval Treaty on heavy cruisers of the major treaty signatory nations, and became the de facto international standard for heavy cruisers; only five cruisers would be eventually built with larger guns: three German "pocket battleships" of the Deutschland class and two United States Navy World War II-era Alaska-class "large cruisers".

Related Topics:
Heavy cruiser - Light cruiser - World War I - Washington Naval Treaty - Pocket battleship - ''Deutschland'' class - United States Navy - World War II - ''Alaska''-class

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

From around 1880 until 1910 smaller ships with considerably less capability were built as protected cruisers. Because they carried less armor, it was distributed as a shaped deck inside the vessel rather than covering the sides.

Related Topics:
1880 - 1910 - Protected cruiser

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

An even more limited type was the auxiliary cruiser, a merchant ship hastily armed with small guns on the outbreak of war. Auxiliary cruisers were used to fill gaps in their long-range lines or provide escort for other cargo ships, although they generally proved to be useless in this role because of their low speed, feeble firepower and lack of armor. In both world wars the Germans also used small merchant ships armed with cruiser guns to surprise Allied merchant ships who didn't realise what they were. Some large liners were armed in the same way, and known as AMCs, or Armed Merchant Cruisers. The British, Germans and French used them in World War I as raiders because of their high speed (around 30 knots or 56 km/h), and they were used again as raiders in World War II by the Germans, Japanese, and in the early part of the war, as convoy escorts by the British.

Related Topics:
Auxiliary cruiser - Merchant ship

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~