January 1890 – Kaiserliches Oberkommando der Marine, Berlin
Vitzeadmiral Karl Diedrichs heard an exchange in the outer chamber and stifled a sigh. He had little desire to see his counterpart from the Imperial Naval Office, but knew the meeting was necessary. His own meeting with the Kaiser last week had been a fiasco but there was some hope that the administrative bureau had fared better.
“Herr Admiral,” his aide began after a perfunctory knock, “
Vitzeadmiral von Posen.”
“Yes, yes,” Diedrichs answered, rising from his desk and waving the other man in. “Heinrich, please see that we have plenty of coffee, and that we’re not disturbed.” The young
Korvettenkapitän nodded and exited, closing the door behind him.
von Posen looked around as he entered the office, sniffed, and took a seat. Diedrichs joined him at the small oak table and handed across a folder, explaining “So this is apparently the report our young Kaiser read that kicked off the recent frenzy.”
“Yes,” said von Posen, “if we choose to fight the English it will be difficult. I personally don’t see any natural reason we should do so, but if it is the Kaiser’s inclination, so be it.”
“His inclination appears to be asking the impossible,” answered Diedrichs. “He requested that I build a plan to counter them in the North Sea, and when I suggested that a few more ships might be helpful he implied that another Admiral might be found to take a more positive approach.”
“So I heard,” said von Posen, with an irritating smirk. “Though apparently your conversation hit the mark. He’s provided a bit of funds to start building the fleet you might want.”
“I’ll take what I can get,” Diedrichs said, “though it’ll be a decade before we’re close to level, and that assumes they don’t start building to match. What do your architects have in mind?”
“We don’t have a large enough shipyard, yet, to match their biggest ships,” von Posen replied, “and we don’t yet have an acceptable thirteen-inch gun either. We’ve taken a balanced approach, and plan to lay down three
Weissenburg class ships this year.”
Diedrichs took a moment looking over the specification and exhaled slowly, debating how to respond. “Well,” he started, “These will be a vast improvement over the
Brandenburg. I have a battle squadron in name only, these would help fill it out.”
“I do wonder, though, if we shouldn’t be building more cruisers instead. Their
Niobe and
Diadem class are tough customers, and there are a lot of them.”
Waving a hand, von Posen answered “Yes, but they’re scattered around the globe. We won’t have to fight them in the Mediterranean or Caribbean. It’s their battle fleet that can bottle us up in Wilhelmshaven.”
“Just so,” Diedrichs responded, frustrated. He knew that they could build more cruisers, more quickly, and that they were more flexible ships. “Why are these planned with such large coal bunkers?” he asked. “If we expect to fight in the North Sea, we don’t need the range to cruise off Africa.”
“Perhaps you have something there,” von Posen answered. “We’ll consider that for follow-on ships.”
von Posen sat for a moment, sipping his coffee, then asked “How thin can you spread the fleet for the next few months? We could shift additional funds to shipbuilding if you can lay some of the fleet in reserve.”
“I’ve already ordered the
Hela stripped down for storage, and her sister will go on reduced manning as well. I also have one ship each from the Cruiser Squadron and the Scout Squadron in a state of partial readiness, though that will greatly limit our training opportunities. I’m planning to bring
Vineta back from Dar es Salaam as soon as the gunboats reach the Indian Ocean.”
“Very good,” answered von Posen. “Ideally in a year we’ll have more options available.”
