Here is my first cretan post in this thread : The 1899 class cruisers.
As said before the cretan warship class are named by year of launch of the first ship. They built a 4 cruisers class every 4 years.
The ships of the 1899 class were named after horses pulling Helios sun chariot:
- Phlegon,
- Pyrios,
- Aeos,
- Aethon.
To rationalize their cruiser fleet, cretan had only one type: cruiser, which was between protected and armored ones.But concretely this were big protected cruiser.
These ships were the last cretan protected cruisers. They were some of the ( if not simply "the") biggest, strongest and fastest ship of this type ever built.
They were built by two different yards with a different conning tower layout.
Has most of the cretan warship of the era they showed a heavy french influence in there design. It this particular case they were almost elongated JURIEN DE LA GRAVIÈRE with 4 twin turrets arranged in echelon and a stronger structure.
Overview: 6.900 tons normal, 8.100 tons full load, 26 knots, 4x2 – 165mm/45, 4x1 – 165mm/45, 24 x 1 - 47mm/40, 4 - 450 torpedo tubes, Armour 65-45mm horizontal.
The group P ships (Phlegon and Pyrios) complied exactly to the original design with a high conning tower.
The group A ships (Aeos and Aethon) had a lowered conning tower, different funnels and rigging.
Previously to the second (and last) battleship of the 1900 class, the last group A cruiser experimented turbine powerplant.