Columbia-class cruiser

The Columbia class cruisers were a group of two protected cruisers constructed in 1890 and 1891 and used by the United States Navy.

Class history
The Columbia class cruisers were designed for the purpose of commerce destruction. They were lightly armored and lightly gunned ships that were built for the speed needed to overtake and destroy the merchant vessels of the day as commerce raiders. However, the light armament and armor left these ships outclassed by ordinary similar sized protected cruisers that they may encounter. Also, the engines were expensive to operate and at full power the ships' range was greatly decreased.

Due to their design, this type of ship was criticized as being not much better than an armed merchant cruiser. During the Spanish-American War, for example, the Columbia was used primarily as a troop transport.

This type of large (but under-armed) specialized commerce raider was built by several other countries. The German cruiser SMS Kaiserin Augusta also had a triple-screw design and was nearly as long as the American Columbia-class ships. The French copied the Columbia class concept with two large protected cruisers, the Guichen (1897) and Chateaurenault (1898) before switching to building only armored cruisers for the commerce-raiding role such as the Dupleix-class cruiser of 1900. Later, Russia acquired a series of oversized protected cruisers such as the Aurora class, Askold, Varyag and Bogatyr class up until the Russo-Japanese War (1905) although these were given a relatively stronger armament for their size. The British were the most probable target of most of these ships, and invested in various cruiser designs as a counter to the perceived threat.

Ships in class

 * USS Columbia (C-12)
 * USS Minneapolis (C-13)