The Arcona class of steam frigates was a class of five vessels built for the Prussian Navy in the late 1850s and 1860s. The class comprised , , , , and . The Arconas were the first major steam-powered warships ordered for the Prussian Navy. The ships were ordered as part of a major construction program to strengthen the nascent Prussian fleet, under the direction of Prince Adalbert, and were intended to provide defense against the Royal Danish Navy. The ships were armed with a battery of twenty-six or twenty-eight guns, and were capable of steaming at a speeds of between .
Design
In the immediate aftermath of the First Schleswig War against Denmark, Prince Adalbert began drawing up plans for the future of the Prussian Navy; the war with Denmark made clear the need for a larger fleet to guard the Prussian coast and defend maritime trade. He also sought vessels capable of power projection beyond the Baltic Sea. Toward the latter end, he secured the Jade Treaty in 1853 that saw the port of Wilhelmshaven transferred to Prussia from the Duchy of Oldenburg. Wilhelmshaven would be expanded into a naval base for the Prussian fleet on the North Sea. At the same time, on 14 November, Adalbert's cousin, King Friedrich Wilhelm, ordered the creation of the Prussian Admiralty. The organization was nominally run by Otto Theodor von Manteuffel, the Minister President of Prussia, but it was in reality actually controlled by Adalbert.
In late 1854, the Admiralty issued a memorandum laying out its vision for expansion of the fleet. The document contained general principles—such as a desire to keep distinct ship classes to a minimum and a preference for experience from foreign navies—as well as specific requirements, including requirements for steam power and reduced draft to permit operations in the shallow Baltic. In April 1855, the Admiralty presented its plan, which laid its objectives at creating a navy directed against Denmark, Prussia's principal enemy at sea. In the plan, Adalbert called for a force of three screw frigates and six screw corvettes, which Friedrich Wilhelm approved on 19 April. The first question that confronted the naval leadership was whether to purchase vessels from foreign builders or to design the new ships domestically. Up to that point, Prussia had largely acquired warships from British shipyards, beginning with the s in 1851.
Already in 1851, during negotiations over the Nix class with their British builder, the Prussians had inquired about the construction of a 60-gun frigate. The proposal came to nothing, as the Landtag of Prussia refused to appropriate funding for the project. The navy raised the proposal again in 1854, citing the severe shortage of ships, but they instead requested a pair of 40-gun frigates. The king approved the plan, and the navy sent the shipwright Felix Devrient and draftsman Theophile Guyot to Britain to gather information and prepare designs for the frigate and a smaller corvette. Devrient produced proposals for a 41-gun frigate and 24-gun corvette in September 1854, though Adalbert rejected both and ordered a new competition for a 26-gun corvette.
In October 1854, the Swede Johan Gjerling became Prussia's chief naval constructor, and his proposal was ultimately selected the following year. Devrient had been sent to Britain and France to present the various proposals for evaluation by their experienced naval officers, but both countries' officers refused to assist because Prussia had chosen to remain neutral during the Crimean War. Two ships were authorized on 2 November 1855. Gjerling resigned from the project in June 1856 over dissatisfaction with the navy's requests to modify aspects of the design. This left the task of completing the ship to Carl Elbertzhagen, who replaced him as the navy's chief constructor. Elbertzhagen needed to make a series of alterations to the plans for the ship, including some significant details that had not been sketched by Gjerling at all, including the shape of the stern or the size of propeller to be fitted. By May 1857, the design work had been completed.
A further pair was ordered in June 1860, and the final member of the class was ordered in February 1866. Elbertzhagen made a number of alterations to the basic design for the second pair of ships; their hulls were lengthened to provide more coal storage space, which gave him more room to refine their lines and thereby improve their hydrodynamic performance. For the final member of the class, Adalbert hoped to replace her altogether with an ironclad warship, but there was no available design and the shipyard in Danzig was incapable of building a larger vessel anyway. So another Arcona-class frigate was ordered, albeit slightly increased in size over the second pair. With even finer lines, this ship——had the highest design speed of the class.
General characteristics The ships of the class varied slightly in dimensions. Arcona and Gazelle were long at the waterline and long overall. They had a beam of and a draft of forward, which increased to aft. They displaced as designed and at full load. Vineta and Hertha were slightly longer, at at the waterline and overall; their fore and aft draft measured , respectively. Their displacement increased slightly, to normally and at full load. Elisabeth was the largest of the ships, being at the waterline and overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward and aft.
The ships had short forecastle and sterncastle decks, and the first four vessels had a transom stern. They were constructed using transverse oak frames, with a carvel-built outer hull. Their superstructure consisted primarily of a small deckhouse aft. Steering was controlled via a single rudder. The ships were very maneuverable under sail, and they were excellent sea boats. While steaming into a head sea, they tended to lose speed significantly, however. They had a crew of 35 officers and 345 enlisted men. Each ship carried a number of smaller boats, including one launch, two pinnaces, one cutter, one yawl, and two dinghies.
Propulsion system
The ships' propulsion system consisted of a single horizontal single-expansion steam engine driving a single screw propeller; all of the ships except Gazelle received engines manufactured in Britain, while that vessel had a domestically produced engine installed. Gazelles engine proved to be troublesome throughout her career. Steam was supplied by four coal-burning fire-tube boilers. Exhaust was vented through a single funnel located amidships. To supplement the steam engine on long voyages abroad, they carried a three-masted full-ship rig with a total surface area of . The screw could be retracted while cruising under sail.
The first four members of the Arcona class were rated to steam at a top speed of , while Elisabeth was projected to reach , but all of the ships significantly exceeded their estimated speeds, reaching from . The ships carried between of coal for their boilers. Arcona and Hertha had a cruising radius of about at a speed of , while Vineta and Hertha were capable of steaming for at the same speed. Elisabeth could cruise for at .
Armament Arcona and Gazelle were armed with a battery of six 68-pounder guns and twenty 36-pounder guns. By 1870, they had been rearmed with a uniform battery of seventeen RK L/22 guns; later in her career, the number of these guns was reduced to eight. Vineta, Hertha, and Elisabeth were completed with a uniform battery of twenty-eight of the 68-pounder guns, which they carried until 1869, when they, too, were rearmed with 15 cm RK L/22 guns, receiving seventeen or nineteen of the guns. Vineta and Hertha also received a pair of K L/23 guns at that time.
Ships
+ Construction data Ship Builder Laid down Launched Completed Königliche Werft, Danzig 3 December 1854 19 May 1858 15 April 1859 3 December 1854 12 December 1859 15 May 1862 17 September 1860 3 June 1863 3 March 1864 1 September 1860 1 October 1864 1 November 1865 1 May 1866 18 October 1868 29 September 1869
Service history Arcona
Arcona spent the first two years of her career leading the Eulenburg expedition as the squadron flagship; the mission took the ship to East Asia to support diplomatic efforts with the Kingdom of Siam, Qing China, and Tokugawa Japan. Arcona next saw service during the Second Schleswig War in 1864, once again serving as the flagship of a squadron led by Eduard von Jachmann, which briefly engaged the Danish Navy in the Battle of Jasmund in March. She saw no action during the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, as the Austrian Navy remained in the Adriatic Sea during the short conflict. The ship passed into the service of the North German Federal Navy, which was created by the Prussian-dominated North German Confederation after their victory in the war with Austria.
The ship embarked on another major overseas cruise in 1869, this time to the eastern Mediterranean Sea for the opening ceremonies of the Suez Canal, followed by a cruise in the Caribbean Sea. She was still there when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in July 1870, and she soon stopped in the neutral Azores, where she remained safe from blockading French warships; she sailed to Portugal in November, where the French pursued and trapped her until the end of the war in January 1871. Arcona passed into the service of a third German navy, the (Imperial Navy) of the new German Empire. She made another major overseas voyage from 1873 to 1875, visiting East Asia and North and South America. The ship was used for limited training duties in the late 1870s and early 1880s, but her poor condition led to her being struck from the naval register in 1884. Briefly used as a target ship, she was broken up soon thereafter.
Gazelle
Gazelles first major operation began in late 1862, when she was chosen to carry the ratified treaties with Japan and China that had been concluded by the Eulenburg expedition. While in the latter country in early 1864, the Second Schleswig War had broken out, and Gazelle attacked Danish merchant shipping in Asia, capturing four prizes before the war ended. She eventually arrived home in 1865. Gazelle was mobilized during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, but saw no action during the short conflict that resulted in the creation of the Prussian-dominated North German Confederation. She cruised in the Mediterranean Sea on a training voyage for naval cadets in 1866–1867, now a warship of the North German Federal Navy.
Gazelle was not recommissioned during the Franco-Prussian War, owing to the vast superiority of the French fleet. Now in the service of the , Gazelle made a cruise to the Caribbean Sea from 1871 to 1873, sailing alone, at times with her sister ship , and ending the voyage with a larger squadron. From 1874 to 1876, Gazelle embarked on a major overseas voyage for scientific purposes, including part of Germany's observation of the 1874 transit of Venus. The scientific team aboard the ship also conducted ethnographic, zoological, and oceanographic research during the cruise. Gazelle was sent to the Mediterranean in 1877 in response to heightened tensions that eventually resulted in the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War in 1878. The ship saw limited service in the late 1870s and early 1880s, primarily as a training ship, before being struck from the naval register in 1884. She was used as a barracks ship until 1906, when she was sold to ship breakers.
Vineta
Completion of Vineta was rushed in early 1864 in the run up to the Second Schleswig War; the ship was still not complete at the start of the war, and so only saw brief action as a guard ship at Danzig. Vineta embarked on a major overseas voyage from 1865 to 1868, which saw the ship complete the first circumnavigation of the globe by a Prussian warship. The ship was again used as a guard ship at Friedrichsort during the Franco-Prussian War, but did not see action.