A new history of the large, fast, and long-ranged armored cruisers of
the US Navy, and the roles that these warships played in the fleet as
America developed into a great naval power.
At the dawn of the "Steel Navy" era, the rapidly expanding US Navy's
fleet of capital ships consisted not only of battleships but also
armored cruisers, the forerunner of the battlecruiser. Armored cruisers
sacrificed the battleship's superlative firepower and protection for
superior speed and range but, as this study shows, their role was not
always easy to define. Controversial because they were as large and
expensive as battleships but not able to withstand a battleship in
battle, contemporary strategists pointed out that, "naval wars are not
won by running away from stronger ships."
Despite being produced at great expense, tactically they never really
had a legitimate mission-traditional deployments were commerce raiding
and protection, but despite this, author Brian Lane Herder illustrates
how successful the use of armored cruisers was for the US Navy. After
1906, some replaced US battleships in the Pacific, functioning as
oversized gunboats, most notably, the modified armored cruiser
Pennsylvania which witnessed the first landing of an airplane on a
ship. On November 5, 1915, North Carolina became the first cruiser to
launch an aircraft from a catapult while underway. After the war,
surviving US armored cruisers represented the US Navy on their Asiatic
station until the final cruiser was scuttled in 1946.
Using detailed, color artwork and photos, this fascinating book
describes the development and deployment of these controversial but
intriguing ships, providing examples of the key service they played in
the US Navy in a variety of defensive and escorting roles.
