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Armoured Gunboat (Panzerkanonenboot) Wespe-Class (1876 ff.)

   of the Imperial German Navy  

•  The modelling project was completed in July 2024  •

S.M.S. WESPE
(H
ENK, 1895)

S.M.S. WESPE, brand-new and still without the 30.5 cm gun (1875) S.M.S. WESPE(?) c. 188? S.M.S. BRUMMER c. 188? Artist's impression
(ANONYM, 1891)

A wasps' nest
(before 1893)

Gun drill in the 1890s (LAVERRENZ, 1900) Stern with emergency steering wheel (LAVERRENZ, 1900) Upper deck and conning tower in the 1890s  (LAVERRENZ, 1900) Under construction
(HENK, 1895)

The Model

A waterline model in 1:160 scale (N-scale) was constructed between 2006 and 2024, aiming to show S.M.S. WESPE as she might have appeared when first commissioned in 1876.
The construction process is extensively documented on a separate modelling page.


The three images below compare the very first photograph taken shortly after her launch, the model, and an artistic representation based on the first photograph, plus two additional b/w images.

Below an overview over the research undertaken for the reconstruction and the resources used is given.

History
Description
Armament
Appearance
Sources
Literature

History and context

The WESPE-Class armoured gun-boats were born out of a tactical concept that dated well back into the Napoleonic era. The idea was to mount a heavy long-range gun onto a highly mobile small craft that would be able to retire into shallow coastal waters, beyond the range of even the heavy artillery of an attacking fleet. The addition of a steam engine and the increase in calibre followed the development of the time, of course. Adding heavy armour to the front (mainly) was meant to give the gun-boats a certain attacking capability. It also owes something to the floating batteries used in the defence of Copenhagen during the Napoleonic wars and to the armoured floating batteries used by the allied French/British forces during the Crimean War (1854-55). In fact, adding armour plating to a (rowing) gunboat was already proposed as early as the late 18th century in Spain, as documented by a model in the Museo Naval in Madrid, but apparently never put to work in full scale.


Armoured rowing gun-boat of c. 1781, © Museo Naval, Madrid

At the time of the conception of the WESPE-class in the early 1870s a former cavalry(!) general was the naval chief-of-staff in Germany. The tactical dogma was 'proactive defence': an attacking enemy was to be awaited in home waters and fenced off. The main threat was seen in amphibian operations attacking the German coast. Thus, the landing of troops at strategic points had to be prevented. Long-range strategic and oceanic operations were out of the scope of the naval planners at the time. There was a certain logic in this, as Germany, unlike Britain, is/was a more or less land-locked country and largely self-sufficient in many respects at that time. Overseas trade then did not have such an importance as in Britain or as in later globalising economies. Therefore, attempts to severe overseas supply chains was not so relevant. There was, indeed, active resistance from trade interest groups, particularly the merchants in the cities of Hamburg and Bremen, to a navy that would engage itself overseas. These merchants relied on their network of friendly contacts.
Hence, the WESPE-Class was designed to be mainly a heavily armoured gun-platform, giving long-range protection to the tidal North Sea harbours that are surrounded by mud-flats and to give mobile protection to the deep fjords of Schleswig-Holstein's Baltic coast. They would be backed-up by heavy artillery (and later torpedo batteries) in coastal forts.
The guns usually could only be trained by turning the whole boat. This seems more difficult then it probably was, because even in the old days of the rowing gunboats they would attack by rowing in a wide circle and when the intended target passed through the line of aim, one would fire. As the WESPE-Class was designed to let themselves fall dry on mud-flats, a possibility to train the gun was needed.



Bermejo

HMS MASTIFF HMS STAUNCH
CONSTITUCIÓN
BERMEJO FALSTER SOMORROSTRO
© Science Museum, London
© NMM, Greenwich © Museo Naval del Tigre
via http://www.histarmar.com.ar
© Orlogsmuseet, Copenhagen © Museo Naval, Madrid

This distinguished the WESPE-class from earlier boats of similar design in Britain. The first such boat was originally built by Armstrong as a sea-going platform for testing heavy guns. Design and tactical brief seem to have been sufficiently convincing so that the Royal Navy had a series of 30 such gun-boats built from the late 1860s onwards in three classes: ANT-class (20), GADFLY-class (4) and BOUNCER-class (2) (CONWAY, 1979). The armament was a 10" MLR (muzzle loading rifled) gun. Having only a displacement of 254 and 265 t respectively, they were much smaller than the WESPE-class. A model of HMS STAUNCH(?) is on display in the Science Museum in South Kensington/London. For those who like to build paper models, David Hathaway (Papershipwright) offers inter alia models of HMS STAUNCH (prototype) and HMS KITE (ANT-class). Other navies followed the example: the Argentinian navy had four 'Bombardere' (BERMEJO, CONSTITUCIÓN, PILCOMAYO, and REPÚBLICA built around 1874/75 at Laird's in Great Britain. BERMEJO and PILCOMAYO had a displacement of 416 tons, were capable of making 9 knots, and were armed with what appears to be an 11" Armstrong gun on a sliding carriage (MINISTERIO DE MARINA, 1945). Models and lithographs are in the Museo Naval del Tigre (North of Buenos Aires). The Danish Royal Navy also had such boats, e.g. the FALSTER and MØN, but the Armstrong-guns were mounted on a central pivot slide. The Dutch Royal Navy had a whole series of them built after the model of HMS STAUNCH as is evidenced by plans in the Scheepvaart Museum in Amsterdam and the odd photograph. The Spanish SOMORROSTRO-class, built by the Societé Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranée in Toulon (France) 1874ff had two 12 cm bronce guns in an armoured tower forward, allowing to train the guns in an arc (ALAMILLO, 2009).

Modern model in early livery
Photograph Modern model in later livery
STAUNCH-Class gunboat of the Royal Dutch Navy, © Marinemuseum, Den Helder

It is quite possible that the ideas for the WESPE-class gunboats owe something to this British development, albeit the former are somewhat more sophisticated in design and equipment.

Technical Description

The WESPE-class comprised ten boats delivered in two batches between 1876 and 1880: WESPE (1876), VIPER, BIENE, MÜCKE, SCORPION, BASILISK, CAMAELEON, CROCODILL, SALAMANDER and NATTER. They were all built by A.G. Weser in Bremen. With a length of 46.4 m and a beam of 10.65 m they had a dead weight of 1157 t, drawing 3.37 m. The dimensions vary somewhat according to source, but this may be due to different reference points, such as length overall compared to length between the perpendicles etc.
BRIX (1876) gives their length as 43.5 m and their beam as 10.6, the former number clearly pointing to a dimension between perpendicles. The same author also provides a detailed description of the constructional arrangements, the dimensions of the scantlings, as well as two cross-sections. These drawings appear to be based on the source same as those drawing preserved in the Deutsche Museum in Munich (see below):
Brix p. 17 Brix p. 18 Brix p. 19
BRIX (1876)

Two inclined double-expansion engines on two propellers gave a maximum speed of 11 knots. Their original complement was 3 officers and 73 crew. Steering was from a stand on the hut and an emergency double steering wheel abaft. Very early on they were also retrofitted with an electrical generator.
The WESPE-class were the first German warships (and indeed among the first of any warship) that did completely without auxiliary sails. In the consequence they only had a light mast for signalling. In spite of sporting quite some leading edge technology, they were only of limited seaworthyness and their handling  was far from perfect. This resulted in them being given a collection of rather unfavourable nicknames (GRÖNER, 1937). They were also not very popular with their crews and officers due to the cramped conditions below deck , but then they were not meant for long voyages in the open sea.

Armament

The main armament was a single 30.5 cm rifled breech-loading gun (Ringkanone mit Rundkeilverschluß) designed and manufactured by Alfred Krupp AG in Essen. At the time the WESPE-class boats were designed, fast torpedo-boats did not exist yet – the automotive fish-torpedo was just being developed. When then in the mid-1880s small torpedo-boats became a tactical reality, some form of self-defence against them was necessary and two bronze(!) 8.7 cm/l24 breech-loading guns in 'disappearing' carriage and two 37 mm Hotchkiss revolving guns came on board. In fact, very early on (1883) also two 35 cm underwater torpedo launching tubes were installed to increase the attacking capabilities.

The 30.5 cm/l22 Rk
The Rk-30.5/l22 (Ringkanone of 22 calibre length) gun was the heaviest gun in the German Imperial Navy for many years and was among the heaviest ships' guns in the World at that time. It was mounted on the usual sliding carriage on a turn-table in an open barbette. Later, sliding armour shields were added to give the gun crew better protection while loading. The gun was trained entirely by hand. The apparatus is an interesting exercise of remote control or 'power steering'. The No. 1 would stand in a lightly armoured box behind the gun, taking aim and turn the gun left or right by actuating a clutch to the drive using one of two levers. The power is genuine 'man-power', provided from below deck onto a set of hand-cranks. It would be interesting to know why no steam power was employed at a time when power steering apparatus, which work on very much the same principle, were already known. Below is an excerpt from GALSTER (1885) describing the gun itself and its mounting and from a French (military intelligence) publication (MINISTÉRE DE LA MARINE ET DES COLONIES, 1874 & 1883).









GALSTER (1885)








ANONYM (1882) MINISTÉRE DE LA MARINE ET DES COLONIES (1874, 1883)
Admiralty drawing
of the gun from
Krupp promotional
photograph of the
30,5 cm RK/l22

Architekturmuseum TU Berline
A 15 cm RK/l22 in
upper deck livery
After gun on dock-
yard model of
SMS WACHT (1887)
DSM, Bremerhaven
28 cm Krupp-clone
Suomenlinna
fortress
outside Helsinki
A pictorial survey

The same type of gun was sold by Krupp to some other navies as well, including the Danish Navy. Blueprints, judging by the date probably belonged to the 'marketing package', survive in the Rigsarkivet in Copenhagen and a very detailed instruction model for training the gun crews is on display in the Orlogsmuseet. The lower carriage in this model is somewhat different from that of the WESPE-class guns, as the gun was mounted in a turret, forming the main armament of the 'panserskibet' HELGOLAND (STEEN STEENSEN, 1961, 1968).


Overview
Lock (open)
Rear of carriage
Starboard side
of carriage

Elevating gears, brake
and indicator

Instruction model for the Rk 30.5/l22 on HELGOLAND in the Orlogsmuseet Copenhagen
Hydraulic recoil brake
Front of carriage
Starboard side
of carriage

Bearing for barrel
Front rollers of
upper carriage

Excentric rear rollers
of upper carriage
Tampion and lever for
excentric rear rollers
Gear drive for shell hoisting crane

Instruction model for the Rk 30.5/l22 on HELGOLAND in the Orlogsmuseet Copenhagen

Gear drive for shell hoisting crane Shells and hoisting
cradles
Wiper (above) and
ram (below)
Expanding tampion
and powder bag
Dispostion of the gun on the armoured battleship HELGOLAND
Drawing of the shell
hoisting cradle
Instruction model for the Rk 30.5/l22 on HELGOLAND in the Orlogsmuseet Copenhagen © Orlogværvet - Rigsarkivet

Some specimens of full-size 28 cm guns built in Russia presumably under license by Krupp survive in various stages of decay on the fortress island of Suomenlinna just outside Helsinki in Finland. A pictorial survey of the guns' details can be found here.

The 8,7 cm/l24 Rk
GALSTER (1885) also provides a detailed description of the 8,7 cm guns and their 'disappearing' carriage:







GALSTER (1885)

The 3,7 cm RevK
The Hotchiss revolving gun was adopted in the early 1880s in the 37 mm or the 47 mm version in those navies around the World that did not opt for the competing products of Nordenfeldt or Gatling. A synopsis of the 37 mm gun, based on various original sources and some Internet resources is presented in these PDF-files: Part 1, Part 2

A copy of an original instruction and maintenance manual (in German) can viewed here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Some time ago, I have been able to take some close-up pictures of an original naval gun from 1886, preserved at the Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung and another close-range defense gun in the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, both in Koblenz, Germany.  The land-based guns lack the shoulder piece, have a straight hand crank and simpler sights, but are otherwise largely identical to the naval version.











The 1886 naval version.
Note that it appears to rest the wrong way around in the
fork, as pivot locking srew should be facing inboard

Locking screw for the rear cover
Front bearing of
the barrel bundle.

Ammunition
feed
channel

The internal workings (left) and the
individual parts (right)  from a specimen
preserved in the USA

Naval gun in carriage mounting in the
former German East Africa sometime
between 1903 and 1916
(Walther Dobbertin)

© Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung, Koblenz, Germany © Festung Ehrenbreitstein, Koblenz, Germany © Fieldsofthunder © Deutsches Bundesarchiv

A number of Hotchkiss-guns have been restored to working order and are occassionally being fired for demonstration purposes: Hotchkiss-1, Hotchkiss-2. And a similar, but smaller calibre Gatling-gun being fired. Here are two videos of the internal workings of a Hotchkiss-gun (at the end of the movie!). At this Link you can find a movie of animated CAD-drawings of the internal workings of the gun.

Changes to the outward appearance

Much uncertainty persists (and  likely will so in the future) over any stage in the history of the prototypes and what they exactly looked like at any given time. Though it is known that they went through various refits, during which e.g. the underwater torpedo launching tubes were added and the 3.7 cm RevKs and 8.7 Rks came on board. Also an armoured conning tower was added together with the sliding semi-circular armour shields on top of the barbette. Early on boat racks were added; the boats appear to have been originally slung outboard from davits, thus being more vulnerable to the sea and to damage from collision when in harbour. To protect the double screws, an extended rubbing strake was also added. On some boats at least the deck house seems to have been extended at its after end by something that has decidedly the appearance of a garden shed ! Early on also a platform for an additional binnacle was errected atop the engine-room skylight.
The early boats, S.M.S. WESPE and S.M.S. VIPER, must have been delivered in the 1874 ordinance colour scheme:

Black hull up to main bulwark railing; certain iron deck areas and (probably) machinery such as the capstan, bollards etc.
Yellow masts and funnel, water ways; deviating from the ordinance also the two main boiler-room ventilators next to the funnel seem to have been painted yellow.
White line about 0.5 m above the CWL and one just below the main bulwark railing; any superstructures above the level of the main bulwark railing, ventilators, deckhouses, inside bulwark and stanchions, scrollwork.

Varnish

Judging from pictures, skylight caps have been natural wood in clear varnish, rather than white as stipulated by the ordinance.

In 1878 a new ordinance was issued specifying the following colour scheme and also the yellow appears to have become brighter:

Black hull up to main bulwark railing; certain iron deck areas and (probably) machinery such as the capstan, bollards etc.
Yellow any superstructures above the level of the main bulwark railing; masts and funnels; scroll-work (picked out in gold); ventilators; deckhouses.
White
line about 0.5 m above the CWL and another one just below main bulwark railing; inside bulwark and awning stanchions, scrollwork.

Varnish

Judging from pictures, skylight caps have been kept in natural wood in clear varnish, rather than yellow as stipulated by the ordinance..

At some stages red(?) bands appeared around the funnels, distinguishing the different boats in a flotilla.

According to the "Vorschriften für die Behandlung und Instandhaltung der Schiffsgeschütze (...)", Berlin, 1891 (I have not seen this reference in person) the gun barrels were to be painted brown, while the gun carriages were painted green and other accessories belonging to the gun were black. This colour scheme for the carriages of deck guns is corroborated e.g. by the contemporary dockyard model of S.M.S WACHT (1887) in the Deutsche Schiffahrtsmuseum Bremerhaven (see picture above, where actually the guns are nickel-plated). Nothing specific is known about the hues of the brown and green. One might infer that the brown was something like a caput mortuum, mimicking the in situ browning applied in earlier times by rubbing the barrels repeatedly with vinegar and solidifying the developing 'rust' by rubbing it down with linseed oil (DAVIDS, 1870). The barrels of all Krupp-guns in Copenhagen's Orlogmuseet, whether instructions models or originals appear to be chemically 'browned'.
There remains some uncertainty around what the decks originally looked liked, that is before imported marine linoleum was introduced by the Imperial Navy at the end of the 1870s. Contrary to the assumption made in early model reconstructions, it is now sure that the only decks with a wooden cover was the one on the quarter deck and certain sectors of the gun emplacement. All other decks were presumably covered in some sort of tar paint, mixed with sand and with sand sprinkled on. This would give these decks a dark grey 'tarmac' appearance. It is not known what colour the early linoleoum had. Some research on linoleum indicates that it was originally only available in its 'natural' colour, i.e. a darkish cork-brown, from domestic sources from 1882 onwards. The characteristic red-oxide colour of 'battleship'-quality linoleum was introduced in 1892 according to the archives of the (sole) manufacturer. It is not exactly known, how the linoleum was fixed to the iron decks, but presumably some sort of marine glue was used. In addition, the seams of the linoleum panels were protected by flat brass bars about 5 cm wide, as can be clearly seen on on of the above pictures.
In 1895 and 1896 new ordinances specified grey over virtually the whole ship. However, as the model will be built to represent S.M.S. WESPE when brand-new, these further changes are not discussed. , except the pictures below.



S.M.S SCORPION
in Kiel ?
S.M.S NATTER
in Kiel ?
S.M.S NATTER
in Wilhelmshaven ?
S.M.S MÜCKE
in Wilhelmshaven ?

S.M.S CROCODIL and S.M.S SCORPION.
Entrance to Wilhelmshaven dock.

A brief 'biography' and evaluation of S.M.S. WESPE and her class

The keel of S.M.S. WESPE was laid down in May 1875 and she ran off the blocks on 6 July 1876. She commissioned only sporadically:

26 November 1876 - 8 February 1877
24 March 1877 - 9 April 1877
20 September 1880 - 15 October 1880
20 September 1881 - 17 October 1881
20 August 1885 - 14 September 1885

She was struck of the active list on 28 June 1909 and sold in 1910 to be used as a lighter in Düsseldorf. The final fate of the hull is not known.

Her short active life and that of her sister ships reflects the fact that the design was not entirely successful (HILDEBRANDT et al., 1999). Though the Admiralty design office was inexperienced with ships for such tactical brief, the Chief Designer A. Koch took on job. At the time the first series was built the German steel industry still was not capable of providing the necessary armour plates, which in consequence were ordered in the UK. To this end exact wooden models for the plates were taken off the boats and sent to England. When approved by the yard's representative, the plates were shipped to A.G. Weser in Bremerhaven for mounting on the boats. Only from 1878 the German steel industry was able to produce adequate armour plates and the last six boats of the WESPE-class were fitted with plates made by the Dillinger Hütte. At the time the shipbuilding yard, A.G. Weser, received the order they only had built two naval ships, two armoured river gunboats, and thus little experience as well. These circumstances resulted in a design of limited seaworthiness, tendency to heel, slow turning, to little bunker capacity and hence limited steaming capacity and last but not least inadequate accommodation for crew (forward under the quarter deck) and officers (aft, behind the engine). While the ships appear to have been unpopular with the crews and attracted a variety of pejorative nick-names, such as 'mud-bug' and 'tidal slipper' (referring to their intended operation on the tidal mud-flats of the German Wadden Sea), the design found much attention in the foreign press, particularly Britain
(HILDEBRANDT et al., 1999)

Sources

As for most ships of the early German Imperial Navy drawings and photographs are rather scarce and good quality ones even more so. My research efforts that extended back some 15 years were supplemented by a group of interested people loosely organised in the 'Kaiserliche Marine-Forum'. However, little material additional to what I already had came to light. This group is currently collecting all the available material into a CD-ROM.
Recently a set of pages that summarise the main data on the WESPE-Class appeared on the German Wikipedia.

Drawings

The Deutsche Museum in Munich has a set of contemporary drawings (on which the commercial model building plans appear to draw), but these were not builder's plan, rather than some instruction or publicity material. These plans appear to have been drawn before the major refit in the 1880s, i.e. the change in armament is not recorded, but the change in the arrangement for the boats. The regular grid pattern on the deck may also indicate that the deck by then had been laid with linoleum.





The Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv (Freiburg i. Brsg.) has a number of drawings that survived the plundering/partial destruction of the naval construction offices archive in Berlin in 1945, but these only pertain to some refitting at a late stage in life of e.g. S.M.S. NATTER.
Some years ago a set of interesting drawings surfaced in the USA in a private collection (www.dreadnoughtproject.org). The drawing of the gun bears a date of 1877 and may have been the original from which the drawing in LAVERRENZ (1900) was reproduced. The other drawings seem to pertain to some refitting done in Wilhelmshaven in the early 1890s. In any case, considering the signatures and other marks, these drawings are certainly 'official' ones. It is hoped that some day they may find their way into a public collection, though their current ready accessibility is rather laudable.

Photographs

The Marinearchiv of the Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek keeps a small range of photographs and pictures.

The commercial image bank of the Wilhelmshavener Zeitung, WZ-Bilddienst offers a range of photographs for sale. Some are from published sources, while others are available elsewhere, e.g. in published books.

Very recently two albums with photographs of the Panzerkanonenboot-Flotilla in Danzig, dated around 1898, appeared in auctions on ebay and are now in private collections.

Some photographs shown on this site are only known from published books, no original prints or negatives seem to have survived.

The photographs above seem to be indeed all that is available from the time when the ships appeared in the 1874 or 1878 livery.

Published Books

At the time S.M.S Wespe was designed and built, it seems to have raised considerable interest and descriptions of various details appears in the contemporary technical and popular literature, e.g. BRIX (1876), KRONENFELS (1882), HENK (1895) or LAVERRENZ (1900).

The main armament is reviewed in detail with accompanying drawings in GALSTER (1885) as detailed above.

Commercial Sources for the modeller

There are a couple of commercial plans available, such as that drawn by Wolfgang Bohlayer (available e.g from VTH); they all pertain to the time after the major refit of the mid-1880s.


Model in 1/100 scale by Wolfgang Bohlayer based on his plans, now in the Collection Tamm (Internationales Maritimes Museum), Hamburg


For those into card modelling, there is also a commercial building set for WESPE/NATTER available that is based on the published modelling drawings for S.M.S. WESPE by W. Bohlayer.

Literature:

ALAMILLO, A.A. (2009): Buques de la Armada Española del siglo XIX. La marina del Sexenio y de la Restauracion (1868-1900).- 156 p., Madrid ( Ministero de Defensa).

ANONYM (1880-82): Artillerie-Unterricht für die k.k. Kriegs-Marine.- 3 vols., pl., Laibach (I. von Kleinmayr & F. Bamberg).

ANONYM (1887): Exercirreglement für die Marine-Artillerie, Nr. I. Für die 30,5 cm Kanone L/22 in Pivot-Laffete C/76.- Berlin (E.S. Mittler und Sohn). !!! If you have a copy or know someone who has, I would very much appreciate to hear from you: wefalck at wefalck dot eu !!!

ANONYM (1891): Die Kaiserlich Deutsche Marine.- 8 p., 29 plates, Leipzig (Verlagsbuchhandlung von J.J. Weber).

BRIX, A. (1876): Der Bau eiserner Kriegs- und Handelsschiffe - Ein Leitfaden.- 114 pp. + 33 plates, Berlin (Ernst & Sohn).

BRIX, A. (1878): Praktischer Schiffbau - Bootsbau.- 28 pp. + 12 plates, Berlin (Hütte).

CONWAY (1979): All the World‘s Fighting Ships 1860-1905.- 440 pp., London (Conway Maritime Press).

DAVIDS, K. (1870): Leitfaden für den Unterricht in der Schiffsartillerie zunächst für die Feuerwerksmaatenschule.- 176 Sp, 18 woodcuts., 4 plates, Berlin (E.S. Mittler und Sohn).

GALSTER, C. (1873): Das Krupp‘sche 30 1/2 cm Geschütz.- Marine-Verordnungsblatt, Beiheft 4.3: 16-9, Berlin.

GALSTER, C. (1885): Die Schiffs- und Küstengeschütze der deutschen Marine - Unter Benutzung amtlichen Materials bearbeitet.- 290 pp., 248 woodcuts, 7 lithographs, Berlin (S. Mittler und Sohn).

GRÖNER, E. (1937): Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe 1815-1936.- München (J.F. Lehmanns Verlag).

HENK, W. VON (1895): Zur See.- 417 pp., Hamburg (reprint 1982 at Gerstenberg Verlag, Hildesheim).

HILDEBRAND, H., RÖHR, A., STEINMETZ, H.-O. (1999): Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe – Biographien, Bd. 8 - Schiffsbiographien Undine bis Zieten.- 286 pp., Hamburg (Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft).

KRONENFELS, J.F. VON (1881): Das schwimmende Flottenmaterial der Seemächte.- 599 pp., Wien/Pest/Leipzig (A. Hartleben‘s Verlag; reprint 1976 as Vol. I, Christian Schmidt‘s Maritime Reprints, München).

LAVERRENZ, V. (1900): Unter Deutscher Kriegsflagge – Bilder aus dem Manschaftsleben an Bord.- 178 pp., Berlin (W. Sommer).

MINISTÉRE DE LA MARINE ET DES COLONIES [Ed.] (1873-1876): Aide mémoire de l’artillerie de marine.- Ch. I (Pl. 1-46), Ch. II (Pl. 8-12), Ch. XI (Pl. 1-13), Paris (Imprimerie Lemercier et Cie.)

MINISTÉRE DE LA MARINE ET DES COLONIES [Ed.] (1883): Mémorial de l’artillerie de marine.- 1re (Pl. 1-13) livraison, Paris (Imprimerie Lemercier et Cie.)

MINISTERIO DE MARINA (1945): Museo Naval del Tigre.- 87 S., Buenos Aires (Guillermo Kraft LTDA.).

RECKENDORF, H. (1983): Die Handwaffen der königlich preußischen und kaiserlichen Marine.- 172 p., plates, Dortmund (Eigenverlag).

REVENTLOW, Graf E. (1901): Die deutsche Flotte.- 300 pp., Zweibrücken i.d.Pf. (Fr. Lehmann, reprint 1999 at Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg, ).

STEEN STEENSEN, R. (1961): Orlogsmuseet.- 128 pp., København (Marinehistorisk Selskab/ Strubes Vorlag).

STEEN STEENSEN, R. (1968): Vore Panserskibe 1863-1943.- 492 pp., København (Marinehistorisk Selskab/Strubes Vorlag).


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