Beeep—!
A fleet composed of three steel warships—one large and two small—cut through the waves, sailing majestically across the high seas of the Eritrea Sea and leaving only three long white wakes behind them.
However.
The two smaller escort warships flying the duchy's flag, the Pangolin and the Warthog, were not the navy's main battleships at all. They were two... Fast Cruisers.
Specifications: Length: 169 meters; beam: 16.9 meters; draft: 5.8 meters; standard displacement: 7,430 tons. Armament: Main guns: four twin-mounted 152 mm 50-caliber guns; secondary guns: four single-mounted 102 mm 45-caliber guns; anti-aircraft guns: three quadruple-mounted 12.7 mm 62-caliber anti-aircraft autocannons; torpedoes: two quadruple-mounted 533 mm torpedo tubes. Speed: 29 knots.
Just as the International Democratic Alliance had already successfully launched its own All Heavy Gun Battleship, Monarch's Shield naturally would not allow a gap to appear in its naval strategic system.
These Fast Cruisers essentially filled the roles once held by Fifth-Rate Ships and Sixth-Rate Ships during the Sail Era.
Tulip, in particular, possessed the largest colonial territory in the world and required vast numbers of cruisers to maintain the security of its colonies.
Even if they could not serve as decisive mainline warships, they could scout enemy movements, wage Interdiction Battles, protect Battleship Fleets heading into distant seas, and surround enemy capital ships with wolf-pack tactics.
As for the fleet's flagship and lead ship, it was undoubtedly the All Heavy Gun Battleship—the Super Dreadnought-class Crown Prince.
Length: 177.8 meters; beam: 29 meters; draft: 8.7 meters; full-load displacement: 28,900 tons.
By any measure, it was the most powerful battleship among all the civilized nations of the modern world, without equal.
It was also the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet among the Garratt Duchy's Three Major Fleets—the Black Sea Fleet,