The Orlando class as foreign-station cruisers
Meet the Orlando-class armored cruisers: long-range Royal Navy ships built for global presence and imperial policing.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
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Explore every watch point in reverse video-date order, then in timestamp order within each video.
The Orlando class's guns, torpedo tubes, and armour
Examine the mixed gun battery, broadside and submerged torpedo tubes, and heavy protection of a first-class armoured cruiser.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
A useful class in varied Royal Navy roles
Follow the Orlandos from China and the Boxer Rebellion to their later use as coast-guard and reserve ships.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
HMS Galatea's British coast-guard assignment
Galatea's coast-guard service was a British assignment, alongside the class's better-known overseas roles.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Why the Orlandos operated independently
An audience question explains why Orlando-class cruisers usually worked alone on the China and Australia stations.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
The 9.2-inch gun as a natural cruiser calibre
Hear why the 9.2-inch gun was a recurring upper-end cruiser weapon whose development was interrupted by treaty limits.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Why the Royal Navy chose 9.2-inch guns
Compare the 9.2-inch gun with rejected eight- and eleven-inch alternatives for an armored cruiser.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Why Fisher could scrap the Orlandos
Hear why Fisher could dispose of a capable class that was held largely in reserve.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
A balanced hull and all-round fire layout
Inspect the Orlando-class weapons arrangement, protected midsection, and hull form praised in naval-architecture manuals.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Photographic evidence of HMS Immortalité in Japan
A photograph of HMS Immortalité saluting Queen Victoria's birthday in Japan contradicts a claim that she never served in the Far East.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Why cruisers should not be designed for the battle line
A viewer question opens a wider case for cruisers built for presence and trade protection rather than major fleet battle.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
What could counter an Orlando-class cruiser?
A brief comparison identifies another armored cruiser or possibly a battlecruiser as the appropriate counter.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
The Orlando guns' shore-support role
Connect the Orlando class's 9.2-inch and six-inch guns with army shell-handling needs, shore support, and counter-destroyer firepower.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Crew size and the surprisingly young ships Fisher scrapped
Compare the Orlandos' roughly 480 crew members and reported service ages with the claim that Fisher scrapped old, manpower-intensive ships.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Fisher's reform aims and their implementation
Separate support for much of Fisher's reform agenda from criticism of how the reforms were carried out.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
A long-range class without a known machinery flaw
An audience question tests whether a hidden machinery problem undermined the Orlando class, while the service record points to reliable long-range ships.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Fisher's order of selection for scrapping
One interpretation has Fisher working down a list for unwanted ships, instead of beginning at the bottom.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Shared suppliers of army and naval artillery
A small shared pool of heavy-artillery manufacturers connected late Victorian army and naval gun requirements.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
The difficulty of finding a complete Fisher disposal list
Tracing the individual classes disposed of under Fisher requires following scattered books and records.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
A reading recommendation for Victorian cruisers
For naval history of this era, Norman Friedman's British Cruisers of the Victorian Era is recommended with a qualification about interpretation.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
A speculative Fisher super-ship and HMS Incomparable
A lighthearted audience prompt leads to a speculative discussion of Fisher, HMS Incomparable, and treaty limits after the First World War.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
The Steam, Steel and Shellfire reading suggestion
Steam, Steel and Shellfire is suggested for the period 1815 to 1905, with a recommendation withheld until the book has been read.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Technology change and the USS Monitor comparison
Use a USS Monitor comparison to see how rapidly warship technology changed and why gun depression could complicate the Orlando's apparent advantage.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
The convoy-escort value Fisher discarded
Assess the case that relatively economical Orlando-class cruisers could still have protected convoys in the First World War.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Fisher's mandate to cut the naval budget
A short exchange recalls that Fisher secured his position by promising to cut Royal Navy spending.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Could flooding help an Orlando aim at USS Monitor?
A viewer proposes flooding the firing side to lower the guns toward Monitor's low hull, reversing a method used to gain elevation.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Why the Orlandos carried pronounced rams
Learn why close expected battle ranges made the Orlando class's prominent ram a meaningful design feature.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Slow firing and black powder in the Monitor comparison
The comment about slow firing and black powder applies more to USS Monitor than to the later Orlandos.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Armour that could deter a surface raider
See why the Orlandos' armour could have made them valuable convoy escorts even against faster enemy cruisers.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Fisher's inconsistent treatment of armored conning towers
A brief exchange tests whether Fisher scrapped the Orlandos because he disliked armored conning towers.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Could the Orlandos have served in the Adriatic?
The Orlandos could have done well early in the Adriatic campaign, with less certain value later in the war.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Why an armored cruiser's armour was so thick
Place the Orlando class in the contemporary hierarchy: armored cruisers stood below battleships but above protected, scout, and torpedo craft.
From The Ships that Fisher Scrapped: Orlando Class (The Forgotten Coast Guard) ·
Warships After Washington and the Zara-class cruiser problem
John Jordan's Warships After Washington is recommended as a readable guide to five major fleets from 1922 to 1930, with the Zara class introducing Italy's search for a cruiser that could form the fleet's backbone.
How the Zara class saved weight for a battle-line role
Italian designers cut weight with a lighter hull, two-shaft machinery, omitted torpedo tubes, and reduced belt armour while pursuing a cruiser intended to operate in the battle line.
Zara-class treaty breach and capital-ship armour
The completed design still exceeded its declared treaty displacement, while protection for the turrets, barbettes, and hull made the Zara class a group of mini-capital ships rather than ordinary 10,000-ton cruisers.
Camouflage references for destroyers and escorts
Malcolm Wright's first camouflage volume is a visual reference to destroyers, frigates, escorts, minesweepers, coastal craft, submarines, and auxiliaries, especially useful for comparing schemes and refits.
Using repeated profiles to trace ships through the war
Repeated profiles of individual destroyers reveal changing camouflage, wartime alterations, and transfers into other navies rather than presenting each ship in one fixed configuration.
Battleship and carrier profiles drawn to useful scale
Malcolm Wright's second volume uses repeated battleship and carrier profiles to trace changing camouflage, while aircraft drawn to scale show what the ships' air groups looked like aboard.
Combining carrier profiles with squadron and air-defence research
Carrier profiles become more useful when cross-referenced with Fleet Air Arm squadron histories, while visible additions of machine guns and pom-poms show continued Royal Navy concern about air attack.
Cruiser profiles that follow a ship's whole career
Malcolm Wright's third volume expands each cruiser entry into a visual life history, with HMS Kent shown repeatedly across pre-war and wartime colour schemes.
Cruiser camouflage designed to confuse identification
HMS Enterprise demonstrates how black-and-white disruptive camouflage complicated judgments of size, outline, identity, and intention, aiming to mystify rather than make a ship disappear.
The Galatea name before the 1935 cruiser
The episode follows the Galatea name through several earlier Royal Navy ships, including the 1914 light cruiser that fought at Jutland, before turning to the 1935 cruiser.
From HMS Galatea (1935) an introduction to the Arethusa Class part 2/4 ·
The First World War Arethusa class in figures
The measurements and armament belong to the First World War Arethusa class: about 3,500 long tons, 40,000 shaft horsepower, 5,000 nautical miles at 16 knots, and light protection.
From HMS Galatea (1935) an introduction to the Arethusa Class part 2/4 ·
Why a small Arethusa could serve far from the battle fleet
The Mediterranean deployment becomes a starting point for considering how small cruisers might protect trade, raid commerce, and serve in the Indian Ocean during a war with Japan.
From HMS Galatea (1935) an introduction to the Arethusa Class part 2/4 ·
A light cruiser leading destroyers in the Mediterranean
Galatea's Mediterranean assignment shows why a small cruiser could coordinate mass destroyer attacks and lead larger sweeps.
From HMS Galatea (1935) an introduction to the Arethusa Class part 2/4 ·
Spanish Civil War patrols and a Republican evacuation
Patrols in Spanish waters brought Galatea alongside possible future enemies before she embarked Segismundo Casado and his entourage at Gandia.
From HMS Galatea (1935) an introduction to the Arethusa Class part 2/4 ·
Norway, Operation Ariel, and the cruiser as transport
Galatea's work in Norway and Operation Ariel shows a light cruiser moving part of a national treasury, troops, and a diplomat during the Allied withdrawals of 1940.
From HMS Galatea (1935) an introduction to the Arethusa Class part 2/4 ·
Codeword Cromwell, an invasion patrol, and an uncertain mine
A false invasion alarm sent Galatea into the Dover Strait, where the mine she struck may have been enemy-laid or a loose British defensive mine.
From HMS Galatea (1935) an introduction to the Arethusa Class part 2/4 ·