Hello again!
I have been collecting a few ships before posting again. This post completes the cruiser fleet that was employed in the war against Brazil in 1894.
LT
Coire (Justice) and LT
Coimirce (Safeguard):
The oldest vessels in active service in 1894 were two 5.800-ton ironclads which were classed as first class cruisers, although with their heavy armament (4 240mm and seven 140mm guns), heavy armour (275mm wrought iron) and slow speed (14 knots) they more resembled small battleships. They were built by FCM and Loire and were considered habitable and seaworthy ships when they were completed in 1882 and 1884. When the Thiarian fleet sailed against the Brazilians, they were part of the battle line, and
Coimirce perished in the Battle of Gaofar under the surprisingly precise fire of the Brazilian battleship
Aquidaban, together with the more modern ironclad
Fianna and both
Minaire-class cruisers. LT
Coire survived because she was tasked with towing the crippled flagship
Oireachtas home.
Coire lingered in active service for another ten years after the war and was hulked in 1905. After serving as a stokers and engineers training vessel, she ended her career as accomodation ship for submarine crews. She was expended as a live-fire target in 1934 after her hull had become completely rotten.
LT
Contuirt (Adventure) and LT
Fiontar (Quest):
These small 1.600-ton vessels were derived from a french torpedo gunboat design (
Cassini-class), but upscaled in all dimensions and with more powerful machinery and a third funnel. They were the first Thiarian cruisers to be built domestically,
Contuirt by the CSCA (Gaelic: Comhlacht Seoirseacht na Cruach Aonta [United Steel Craftsmanship Company], Thiaria's second oldest private yard at Abersiorrad) and
Coire by the Riordan yard in Cathair Riordan. They commissioned in 1892 and 1893, respectively. Both were very lightly built ships with doubtful seakeeping qualities, but they were fast for their age (21 knots) and carried a mean punch for their size (6 100mm guns, 8 65mm guns, and 6 381mm torpedo tubes). During the war against Brazil, they scouted for the battlefleet but were ordered to keep out of range during the battle of Gaofar. Afterwards, they hunted Brazilian merchants, but by that time, the Brazilian merchant fleet had already been driven off the Atlantic, and they only caught five respectively three merchants. They again took part in the war of 1907/8 against the Brazilians, but only as convoy escorts and auxiliary minelayers. By 1916, both approached a quarter century of age and were only employed as minelayers.
Fiontar was wrecked and driven ashore during a defensive mining operation in a heavy winter storm in August 1917;
Contuirt survived the war and was scrapped in 1923.
LT
Fadcheann (Providence):
The newest ship to fight in the 1894 war was Thiaria's only large warship to be ordered from a yard outside France or Thiaria herself. The
Fadcheann was laid down late in 1891 at the Schichau yard in Danzig and was taken over by her Thiarian crew only weeks before the war began. She displaced 4.100 tons and was a thoroughly modern and balanced design for her age, with six french-built 165mm guns and a speed of 20 knots; like most Thiarian ships, she was considered a good sea boat.
Fadcheann was still in transit when news of the war reached her, and she immediately engaged on a campaign against Brazilian trade during which she captured a total of 20 enemy merchants.
Fadcheann was also involved in the only one-on-one cruiser duel during the war; shortly before the armistice she destroyed Brazil's only modern cruiser, the
Almirante Barrozo, although she was outgunned by the latter's 10 152mm guns.
Fadcheann continued to serve with distinction in the two wars to follow, as an active cruiser in 1907/8 (where she took part in the Battle of Tranacorr and was heavily damaged) and as a training ship and flagship of the submarine fleet during WWI. After the war, she had to be kept in service for another ten years because several more modern cruisers had to be ceded to the victorious entente powers, and finally became an accomodation ship in 1928. As such, she survived the second world war as well and was finally scrapped in 1953 at the ripe age of 59.
More cruisers to come.
Greetings
GD