French cruiser Milan

History
France
Name: Milan
Builder: A C de la Loire
Laid down: 1882
Launched: 1884
Completed: 1885
In service: 1885–1909
Struck: 1909
Fate: Stricken from the naval register in 1909
General characteristics
Type: Unprotected cruiser
Displacement: 1705t
Length: 301ft
Draught: 15.5
Installed power: 12 Belleville water-tube boilers
Propulsion: 2 propeller shafts, twin screws
Speed: 18.4 knots
Complement: 192
Armament: 2 × 4 inch guns, 13 small/light guns, 2 torpedo tubes

Milan was a late-19th-century unprotected cruiser in the French Navy. At the time of her completion, Milan was considered by several publications to be the fastest warship in the world.[1][2][3] The warship was the first unprotected cruiser in French naval service, and Milan's design influenced the construction of later unprotected cruisers.

History

Miyako, a Japanese unprotected cruiser built in 1898 that is noted to have resembled Milan.

Milan was laid down in Saint-Nazaire in 1882, and was commissioned into the French Navy in 1885 as the nation's first steel cruiser.[4][5][6] She was designed to be a fast, well armed ship for her size. At one point, the navy considered using Milan as an unarmed scout on account of her high speed of 18.4 knots, though this idea was never implemented and Milan was armed with 2 four-inch guns, 13 smaller guns, and two torpedo tubes.[7] The ship was also equipped with water-tube boilers which allowed Milan to accelerate and decelerate quickly.[8][3] The position of the boilers were unusual for the time, they were placed fore and aft in the center of the ship, with a fire room on each side. With coal bunkers designed to feed into the engine room using gravity, the ship's design was intended to reduce the amount of labor needed to move the coal into the boilers. The boilers, developed by Paris company Belleville & Cos., achieved 4,000 horsepower during a six-hour speed test during her sea trials in early 1885. Consequently, The Mechanical Engineer dubbed the ship "the fastest war vessel afloat." These also had the side effect of saving room on the vessel while reducing the heat put off in these spaces.[3]

As constructed, she was 303 feet (92 m) at the waterline, 32 feet 8 inches (9.96 m) at the beam. She had an average draft of 12 feet (3.7 m), giving her a displacement of 1,560 tonnes (1,540 long tons; 1,720 short tons). Her hull was constructed of steel and she had twin screws. Her coal bunker had a capacity of 300 tonnes (300 long tons; 330 short tons), good for 100 hours at 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph).[3]

Milan's design was noted as being similar to two Japanese unprotected cruisers, Yaeyama (launched 1889) and Miyako (launched 1898).[9]

The ship commenced her sea trials in early 1885 in Brest.[3] She was ultimately stricken from the naval list in 1908.

References

  1. ↑ The Internal Revenue Record and Customs Journal. 31. P.V. Van Wyck & Company. 1885. p. 199.
  2. ↑ "Maritime Notes". The Shipwrecked mariner. 32: 213. 1885.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "The New French Cruiser "Milan"". The Engineer: With which is Incorporated Steam Engineering: 121. 1885.
  4. ↑ "MILAN unprotected cruiser (1885) – French Navy (France)". www.navypedia.org. Retrieved 2018-02-10.
  5. ↑ Sondhaus, Lawrence (2004). Navies in Modern World History. Reaktion Books. ISBN 9781861892027.
  6. ↑ Sondhaus, Lawrence (2001). Naval Warfare, 1815–1914. Psychology Press. ISBN 9780415214780.
  7. ↑ Commons, Great Britain Parliament House of (1904). Sessional papers. Inventory control record 1.
  8. ↑ Osborne, Eric W. (2004). Cruisers and Battle Cruisers: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781851093694.
  9. ↑ Chesneau, Roger (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860–1905. Conway Maritime Press. p. 234. ISBN 0-85177-133-5.
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