construction in place of iron-or composite wood and iron. Cruisers, as well as larger warships, now contained a relatively thin but strong high-tensile steel deck within the hull, roughly at water level. This protective deck was designed to prevent projectiles from plunging through the hull and emerging below the waterline. Vital compartments, such as engine rooms, boiler rooms and magazines, were located in the bowels of the ship, below this protective deck. C ruisers mounted relatively small-caliber guns that, in the most modern ships, had a high-muzzle velocity (giving them superior range and accuracy). Generally their armament was composed of so-called "quick-firers: " the use of an integral cartridge-case and shell allowed a much higher rate of fire than that of the large-caliber guns mounted in battleships. Most cruisers also carried tubes for launching torpedoes, a recently-developed weapon that gave ships the potential to make a deadly strike at the waterline of more powerful warships. The cruiser's slim lines, lightweight steel construction, and powerful engines provided high speed and maneuverabili ty. Light cruisers could o utstrip major warships, and with a draft of only about eighteen feet they were able to penetrate waterways denied to larger ships. In April of 191 4, the German light cruiser SMS Konigsberg, under Captai n Max Loof, was deployed to German East Africa. She was the Kaiser's crack warship; her customary duties included providing escort to the Imperial yacht Hohenzollern during Kielerwoche, the yachting regatta held at Kiel, the principal navy base in the Baltic, and during annual naval maneuvers in Norwegian waters. Konigsberg was sent to Dar es Salaam to "show the flag," and to be present when the Kaiser arrived on his planned state visit that August. He was due to open a Colonial Exposition to celebrate completion of the Central Railway from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika. Other events in Europe intervened, and the visit never took place. ThesleekKonigsberg, nonetheless, made an exaggerated impression in East Africa. On arrival, she was thrown open to the public, and thereafter she steamed along the coastline to reconnoiter every river mouth and every navigable inlet. She made a splash wherever she appeared. SEAHTSTORY 141 , WINTER 20 12- 13
r SMS Konigsberg at Dar es Salaam
These were the same waters familiar to Chinese seafarers centuries earlier, when a mighty fleet of warships left China in 142 1 as part of a wo rldwide expedition. These ships were far larger than anything known in Europe at the time. In addition, Chinese knowledge of celestial navigation was far more advanced than the rest of the seafaring world. It was only some thirty years after this expedition that the first Portuguese navigators began to venture southwards along the west coast of Africa. The Portuguese and Spanish initiated the Age of Reconnaissance, and they were followed by other Europeans who were equally eager to dis-
cover a sea passage to the Orient. Over the course of the next two centuries, Western European mariners explored the very limits of the North and South Atlantic, the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Carracks, galleons, and Indiamen all mounted broadside batteries of cannon, and they proved to be more than a match for any indigenous naval forces they encountered at sea. On land, it was not always so easy to obtain mastery. After they rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1486, the Portuguese rapidly secured command of the seas off the east coast from Delagoa Bay to Malindi. Under the leadership of the masterful Vasco da Gama, they
Dar es Salaam by Ian Marshall "Haven of Peace. " This handsome town was laid out around the grassy shores of a very beautiful lagoon, which is approached by a narrow access from the open sea.
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