Editing Cruiser (section)

==Early 20th century==
{{see also|Scout cruiser}}
Shortly after the turn of the 20th century there were difficult questions about the design of future cruisers. Modern armored cruisers, almost as powerful as battleships, were also fast enough to outrun older protected and unarmored cruisers. In the Royal Navy, [[John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher|Jackie Fisher]] cut back hugely on older vessels, including many cruisers of different sorts, calling them "a miser's hoard of useless junk" that any modern cruiser would sweep from the seas. The [[scout cruiser]] also appeared in this era; this was a small, fast, lightly armed and armored type designed primarily for reconnaissance. The Royal Navy and the [[Italian Navy]] were the primary developers of this type.

===Battle cruisers===
{{main|Battlecruiser}}The growing size and power of the armored cruiser resulted in the battlecruiser, with an armament and size similar to the revolutionary new dreadnought battleship; the brainchild of British admiral Jackie Fisher. He believed that to ensure British naval dominance in its overseas colonial possessions, a fleet of large, fast, powerfully armed vessels which would be able to hunt down and mop up enemy cruisers and armored cruisers with overwhelming fire superiority was needed. They were equipped with the same gun types as battleships, though usually with fewer guns, and were intended to engage enemy capital ships as well. This type of vessel came to be known as the ''battlecruiser'', and the first were commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1907. The British battlecruisers sacrificed protection for speed, as they were intended to "choose their range" (to the enemy) with superior speed and only engage the enemy at long range. When engaged at moderate ranges, the lack of protection combined with unsafe ammunition handling practices became tragic with the loss of three of them at the [[Battle of Jutland]]. Germany and eventually Japan followed suit to build these vessels, replacing armored cruisers in most frontline roles. German battlecruisers were generally better protected but slower than British battlecruisers. Battlecruisers were in many cases larger and more expensive than contemporary battleships, due to their much larger propulsion plants.

===Light cruisers===
[[File:USS Huntington (CL-107) at Naples, Italy, circa in August 1948 (NH 93200).jpg|thumb|[[Fargo-class cruiser|''Fargo''-class cruiser]]]]
{{main|Light cruiser}}

At around the same time as the battlecruiser was developed, the distinction between the armored and the unarmored cruiser finally disappeared. By the British {{sclass2|Town|cruiser (1910)|4}}, the first of which was launched in 1909, it was possible for a small, fast cruiser to carry both belt and deck armor, particularly when turbine engines were adopted. These light armored cruisers began to occupy the traditional cruiser role once it became clear that the battlecruiser squadrons were required to operate with the battle fleet.

===Flotilla leaders===
{{main|Flotilla leader}}
Some light cruisers were built specifically to act as the leaders of flotillas of destroyers.

===Coastguard cruisers===
[[File:Romanian gunboat Grivița at Nicopol, 1913.jpg|thumb|Romanian coastguard cruiser ''Grivița'']]
These vessels were essentially large coastal patrol boats armed with multiple light guns. One such warship was ''[[NMS Grivița|Grivița]]'' of the [[Romanian Navy]]. She displaced 110 tons, measured 60 meters in length and was armed with four light guns.<ref>John Evelyn Moore, ''Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I'', Military Press, 1990, p. 295</ref>

===Auxiliary cruisers===
{{main|Auxiliary cruiser}}

The [[Armed merchantmen|auxiliary cruiser]] was a [[merchant marine|merchant ship]] hastily armed with small guns on the outbreak of war. Auxiliary cruisers were used to fill gaps in their long-range lines or provide escort for other cargo ships, although they generally proved to be useless in this role because of their low speed, feeble firepower and lack of armor. In both world wars the Germans also used small merchant ships armed with cruiser guns to surprise Allied merchant ships.

Some large liners were armed in the same way. In British service these were known as Armed Merchant Cruisers (AMC). The Germans and French used them in World War I as raiders because of their high speed (around 30&nbsp;knots (56&nbsp;km/h)), and they were used again as raiders early in World War II by the Germans and Japanese. In both the First World War and in the early part of the Second, they were used as convoy escorts by the British.

===World War I===
Cruisers were one of the workhorse types of [[Naval warfare of World War I|warship during World War I]]. By the time of World War I, cruisers had accelerated their development and improved their quality significantly, with drainage volume reaching 3000–4000 tons, a speed of 25–30 knots and a [[Caliber|calibre]] of 127–152&nbsp;mm.