International Naval Journal

3-11

Authors: Alejandro Anca Alamillo, Nikolay W. Mitiukov

Among the ships and vessels that were in Cuba in 1898 as part of the Spanish naval forces, the former New York's water buses, purchased with voluntary donations in 1895, stand out. Unfortunately, serious publications completely ignore information about them. And as an analysis of the literature has shown, the biographies of these courts have not yet been the object of anyone’s research. In this regard, the purpose of the work was to reconstruct the history of one of these river boats – the boat «Leon Abbett», in the Spanish fleet «Esperanza». The main material for the work was American and Spanish periodicals of that time. Since the early biography of the «Leon Abbett» from the moment of its construction in 1889 was practically not reflected in the local American press, it was assumed that while the ship was owned by the builder «Otterson & Seaman», no machines were installed on it, perhaps awaiting wishes potential buyer. As a result, when, after the death of the owner of the company, the ship was acquired by retired Colonel Payne in 1891, he was forced to additionally purchase machinery and a boiler for the ship. The ship was actively used until 1893, repeatedly appearing on the pages of gossip columns. Then, for a number of reasons, the owner lost interest in the ship and it was laid up until 1895, when it was purchased for the needs of the Spanish fleet in Cuba. Having received the new name «Esperanza», the ship entered the fleet as a 3rd rank gunboat. The almost complete lack of information about the ship’s participation in the fight against insurgents in Cuba and in the Spanish-American War allows us to assert that it was used as a crew ship on the Havana port. The last mention of the «Esperanza» dates back to January 1899, after which it was probably transferred, along with other infrastructure of the Havana port, to the Cuban side.

35-41

Authors: Andrey V. Rozhkov

A comparative analysis of the weight loads of the French cruisers of the Second World War was carried out among themselves and with the weight loads of cruisers from other countries. The first generation French cruisers had very heavy mechanisms; only the Japanese cruisers were heavier in order to achieve greater speed. Due to the heavy mechanisms, there was practically no weight left for armoring. In terms of armor, the first generation French cruisers were the most poorly protected. The experience of the designers made it possible already on the first generation cruisers to reduce the weight of the power plant and hull, and made it possible to make a reservation comparable to that of the English "Kent"-class cruisers. During this time, lightweight and compact power plants were created, the saved weight was used to strengthen the armor. In terms of protection, the second generation French cruisers were better than the British, sometimes even at the level of the Japanese and Italian ones. In the class of destroyers and leaders, similar measures made it possible to create the world's fastest ships in their class. The world speed record among displacement ships, set by the leader of the destroyers "Le Terrible": 42.93 knots with a displacement of 2,853 tons and an average power of the mechanisms of 86,443 hp. has not been beaten to this day, and is unlikely to ever be beaten due to considerations of expediency.