Chapter Fifty-Three: Running Forward

On October 31, 1906, after nearly a year of arduous negotiations, Britain and Germany finally signed a naval armaments agreement.

According to the terms, within the next five years, the German Empire would build no more than eight capital ships with a total tonnage not exceeding 200,000 tons, while Britain would construct no more than twelve capital ships with a total tonnage not exceeding 300,000 tons. Ultimately, the German Imperial Fleet would reach sixty percent the size of the Royal Navy.

However, this agreement came with numerous supplementary clauses.

The most important of these pertained to France: the total size of the French Navy was not to exceed sixty percent of the German Imperial Fleet. Otherwise, Germany would be entitled to build two additional capital ships in response, and the Royal Navy would be allowed to construct one more as well.

There were additional clauses concerning Italy, Russia, and Austria-Hungary.

These supplementary terms rendered the agreement essentially unenforceable.

Just a few months later, in January 1907, France announced plans to build four “Colbert”-class battleships, each armed with twelve 305mm main guns. By the end of 1907, the French government again authorized the design and construction of four new battleships. Because the agreement did not cover battleships predating the “Nassau” class, the German Empire had actually completed only five battleships, and counting those under construction, only eight in total. Thus, France, in 1907 alone, approved and planned to build as many as eight battleships.

Clearly, this exceeded the limitations set by the agreement’s supplementary clauses.

Furthermore, in 1907 and 1908, Italy approved the construction and planning of the “Duca degli Abruzzi” and “Andrea Doria” class battleships, aiming to build seven battleships over the next five years to maintain naval dominance in the Mediterranean.

As for Russia, its ambitions were even greater. As early as 1906, the Tsar ordered the construction of four “Petropavlovsk”-class battleships, and the following year demanded the building of even more powerful ships—the “Imperatritsa Mariya” class, also totaling four, all scheduled for completion before 1912.

All these moves surpassed the limits set by the agreement’s supplementary clauses.

At the beginning of 1908, with the Kaiser’s approval, Feng Chengqian announced the Imperial Navy’s new shipbuilding plan, increasing the 1909 to 1913 construction scale by fifty percent, adding one capital ship per year to counter the threats posed by France and Russia.

As a result, by 1908, the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of London had become nothing more than a scrap of paper.

By this time, the last two ships of the “Helgoland” class had already been launched, scheduled for commissioning in 1909. Among the “Kaiser” class battleships planned in 1907, the first two—the “Kaiser” and the “Friedrich der Grosse” (the previous “Friedrich der Grosse” had been renamed “Crown Prince”)—were already under construction, slated for launch in 1910, with the planned “Queen” and “King Albert” to commence before year’s end.

For Feng Chengqian, the pressing question now was whether to add another “Kaiser” class ship, or to start a new design from scratch.

If the choice were left to Feng Chengqian, he would undoubtedly begin anew.

Strictly speaking, the “Kaiser” class is an enlarged, improved version of the “Helgoland” class, with its greatest innovation being the inclusion of a fourth main gun turret—all triple-mounted 300mm guns—raising the main battery to twelve guns, all aligned along the centerline, increasing firepower by a third. Consequently, the “Kaiser” class’s full-load displacement surpassed the “Helgoland” by nearly five thousand tons, breaking the thirty-thousand ton mark. Measured by full load, the “Kaiser” class was the largest capital ship of its day; the Royal Navy’s contemporary “St. Vincent,” “Neptune,” and “Colossus” classes, as well as the later “Orion” and “King George V” classes, all weighed in at just over twenty thousand tons. It was not until the “Iron Duke” class that this threshold was surpassed, and even the American Navy’s “Florida” class, after refitting, did not exceed thirty thousand tons until the subsequent “New York” class.

Thus, the “Kaiser” class was an exceptionally capable battleship.

Yet it was not without flaws.

The greatest issue remained its relatively weak firepower and less than optimal armor protection.

For instance, when designing the ship, Feng Chengqian advocated for “all-or-nothing” protection—abandoning armor on less vital areas to focus on key sections. However, the engineers resisted in practice, applying armor to secondary areas that could only withstand medium-caliber shells. The result was that the “Kaiser” class’s main belt and deck armor remained less than ideal.

In terms of firepower, the 300mm main guns were already becoming outdated.

Though the Royal Navy maintained strict secrecy, and the American battleships then under construction or planned still mounted 305mm main guns, leading many Imperial engineers to see no need for the yet unproven 350mm guns on the “Kaiser” class, and some naval officers even argued that rather than adopting the 350mm, it would be better to wait for the next generation of ships to use the more rapidly developing 380mm guns, directly raising the capital ship’s firepower two levels above the Royal Navy. Yet Feng Chengqian disagreed, knowing that after completing the “Colossus” class, the Royal Navy would arm the “Orion” class with 14-inch (343mm) guns, then the “Canada” class with 14.5-inch (356mm) guns, and soon after, the “Queen Elizabeth” class with 15.5-inch (381mm) guns, always maintaining a firepower edge.

Clearly, if the “Kaiser” class retained 300mm guns, it would become obsolete within a decade.

The best solution would be to adopt 350mm guns directly. With the Empire’s artillery technology, it would hold a clear advantage against British ships equipped with 14-inch and 14.5-inch guns, and would not be outmatched even by those with 15.5-inch weapons.

But Feng Chengqian also had to compromise with reality.

If the “Kaiser” class were fitted with four triple 350mm turrets, its standard displacement would exceed thirty thousand tons, surpassing the 25,000-ton limit set by the Anglo-German naval agreement. If one turret were removed, even future upgrades would only allow for six 380mm guns, severely reducing firepower density.

More crucially, by 1908, the 350mm gun was still not successfully developed.

Confronted with these insurmountable practical issues, Feng Chengqian had to compromise: the “Kaiser” class would be built with four triple 300mm turrets, but designed to allow for future upgrades—specifically, to swap in twin 380mm turrets later.

This, however, created a new dilemma.

When it came time to add another battleship, building an additional “Kaiser” class would necessitate major future refits, while starting a new design would mean falling behind schedule.

Ultimately, Feng Chengqian compromised with reality once more, authorizing a fifth “Kaiser” class vessel—the “Prince Luitpold.”

What prompted this decision was chiefly the Royal Navy’s targeted response.

At the end of 1907, prompted by the German Empire’s naval expansion, the British Parliament approved the construction of two “Colossus” class battleships, and allocated funds for the Royal Navy to begin building the more powerful “Orion” class before 1909.

At the time, most believed the “Orion” class was simply an improved “Colossus,” with the main innovation being a reconfiguration of the turrets. Put simply, the stubborn British had started to learn from Germany, abandoning wing turrets in favor of an all-centerline layout. However, the “Orion” class used twin turrets, and to maximize firepower density, there were five in total, giving it a main battery between that of the “Helgoland” and “Kaiser” classes. The third turret was aft of the second funnel, while the other four were arranged in pairs fore and aft, rather than all clustered at the ship’s ends. Feng Chengqian, though, had already received word that the “Orion” class bore no relation to the “Colossus,” and that the Royal Navy would install 343mm main guns on this new class, thereby regaining the firepower advantage over the German fleet.

If so, the “Orion” class would indeed outgun the “Kaiser.”

Fortunately, the “Kaiser” class had been designed with future upgrades in mind, while the “Orion” class had almost no potential for upsizing its main battery.

Clearly, the Imperial Navy needed more capital ships.

Feng Chengqian also realized that with the naval arms race now in full swing, a “quality over quantity” approach was no longer viable.

While quality was important, quantity could not be neglected.

No battleship, however formidable, could hope to defeat twice its number in battle. Only when numbers reached a certain threshold could victory be assured.

For this reason, Feng Chengqian decided to authorize the construction of a fifth “Kaiser” class ship.

Yet even this could not satisfy the Imperial Navy’s expansion needs.

It must be noted that, in the four years after 1909, the Imperial Navy would build three capital ships annually—requiring four additional ships beyond the current plan.

Clearly, simply increasing the quantity in the existing plan would be insufficient.

To address this, Feng Chengqian adopted a very clever solution: he advanced the construction schedule of the planned four “King” class battleships by a year, moved the still nascent “Bayern” class forward to 1912, and in 1910 launched the design for a new class of battleship, code-named “x5,” also planning for five ships.

This effectively brought the shipbuilding schedule forward by two years, adding the equivalent of four battleships to the construction program.

Yet whether these ships would ever be completed remained an open question.