Coastal defence ship

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Dutch Coastal defence ship Hertog Hendrik

A Coastal defence ship can be described as an armoured cruiser sized warship with limited blue-water capacity, meant first of all for a coastal defence purpose. They are often called coastal battleships, but in fact they are not included into battleship class. Basically, the next generation of ship after the monitors and armoured gunboats, the type was widely used among the smaller navies in Europe from the late 19th and until the middle of the 20th century as the main ships of their respective fleet. Their construction and appearance was similar to pre-dreadnoughts, with main armament most often mounted in two turrets (fore and aft), but they were smaller - 3000 to 7000 tons. They were usually armed with 2, later 4 guns 203 mm - 280 mm (8 - 11 in) and some smaller guns. Undergunned compared to the larger pre-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts, they were still of greater use in shallow waters, especially in fiords and skerries - that is why they were especially popular in Scandinavian navies. They were mainly used as movable coastal artillery. Few of them ever saw combat in the First World War, some of them did in Second World War, and the last were scrapped in the 1950s and 1960s.

Navies with coastal defence ships as main capital ships included Sweden, Finland (2 ships), Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Portugal and Thailand (2 ships). Some were also used by Russia (3 ships of Admiral Senyavin class, that took part in a battle of Tsushima, far from their home waters) and Germany.

Apart from specially built coastal defence ships, some navies used obsolete pre-dreadnought battleships in this role - they were bigger and better armed.

Some coastal defence ships were:

Netherland:
* Hr.Ms. De Ruyter
* Hr.Ms. Hertog Hendrik
* Hr.Ms. Marten Harpertszoon Tromp
* Hr.Ms. Koningin Regentes
* Hr.Ms. Jacob van Heemskerck
* Hr.Ms. Kortenaer
* Hr.Ms. Zeven Provinciën
* Hr.Ms. Soerabaja

Norway:

Sideview of the Norwegian Eidvold class, built like a pre-dreadnought battleship on a smaller scale. Note heavy guns in the front and aft, with lighter guns in the superstructure and masts.