Mulder, J. Protected Cruiser Gelderland

During the 1870s the increasing firepower of armor-piercing guns made armoring the hull of a ship increasingly difficult as heavy gauged armor plates were required. Even if it dominated the design of the ship it was likely that the next generation of guns would be able to pierce it. The alternative was to leave the sides of the ship vulnerable but to armor a deck just below the waterline. Since this deck would only be struck very obliquely by shells its gauge could be rather less thick and less heavy than belt armor. The ship could be designed so that the engines, boilers and magazines were under the armored deck but have enough displacement to keep the ship afloat and stable even in the event of damage. Cruisers with such decks and no side armor became known as protected cruisers. They eclipsed the armored cruisers in popularity in the 1880s and in to the 1890s. It was desirable for the protection of overseas trade and especially for the French, British and Dutch to police their vast overseas empires. Protected cruiser (Pantserdekschip) HNLMS Gelderland was a Holland-class cruiser of the Royal Netherlands Navy. This class, of six ships, was considered a modest, but well thought-out design. At a speed of 10 knots the radius of action would have been 8000 miles, the two triple expansion engines could generate a maximum speed of 19.5 knots.