Their armor
was quite heavy, being 13 inches thick on the side and 11 inches
thick where protection for the big guns was needed.
The largest ships in the German navy which were launched, fitted,
and manned at the time that the war began, were those which were
built in 1914 and which had a displacement of 26,575 tons. These
ships were the _Koenig, Grosser Kurfuerst_, and the _Markgraf_. The
corresponding type in the British navy was that of the _Iron Duke_,
built in the same year. The British ships of this class were 1,000
tons lighter in displacement, a bit faster--making 22.5 knots to
the 22 knots made by the German ships--and their armament was not
so strong as that of the German type, for the German ships carried
ten 14-inch guns, whereas the English carried ten 13.5-inch guns.
In addition to these first-class battleships, Germany had certain
others, individual in type, such as the _Von der Tann, Moltke,
Goeben, Seydlitz, Derfflinger, Fuerst Bismarck, Prinz Heinrich,
Prinz Adalbert, Roon_ and _Yorck, Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau,
Bluecher, Magdeburg, Strassburg, Breslau, Stralsund, Rostock_, and
_Karlsruhe_. These may be reckoned as scout cruisers, for they
showed much speed, the fastest making 30 knots and the slowest
19 knots. The oldest dates from 1900, and the newest from 1914.
Germany had, also, thirty-nine more fast protected cruisers which
were designed for scout duty.
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