Belle Époque Collection
The "Belle Époche" Collection was available during in-game celebrations surrounding the 2019 New Year.
The age of "Their Imperial Majesties" fleets, the heyday of battleships, the art of ramming stems and high masts. A time when the most powerful machines, hidden in the wombs of steel monsters, were set into motion by coal. When warships flaunted their flawlessly white or majestically black sides, and the rays of the sun played across the gilding of their rich decor. An era that bid its farewell to the roaring salute of dreadnought battleships.
The overall collection was comprised of four sub-collections. Each sub-collection granted a different reward. There was a separate reward for obtaining all 16 items.
Contents
Collections
Titled Persons
Belle Époche Collection - Titled Persons
Wilhelm Eitel Friedrich Christian Karl, the second son of Prussian Prince Wilhelm, the future Emperor of Germany, was born in 1883 at the Marble Palace in Potsdam. After graduating from the University of Bonn in 1904, Prince Eitel Friedrich decided to pursue a military career by enrolling in the foot guard regiment. At the very beginning of World War I, he was appointed as Commander of his regiment. As a member of the guard's infantry, the Prince fought on both Western and Eastern fronts before being wounded in action. For his honor in battle, Eitel Friedrich received the Iron Cross of the first and second classes, as well as the highest German award, the Order of Pour le Mérite (French for "For Merits"), with oak leaves.
An ocean liner built in 1904 was named after Prince Eitel Friedrich. When World War I broke out, the liner was converted into an auxiliary cruiser. In August 1914, by the order of Vice-Admiral von Spee, the Commander of the East Asian squadron, Prinz Eitel Friedrich, embarked on a solo raid lasting seven months in the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In March 1915, the raider, having exhausted all possibilities to replenish her supplies, was interned in the USA. Two months later, a Mackensen-class battlecruiser, also named Prinz Eitel Friedrich, was laid down at the Blohm und Voss shipyard in Hamburg.
Queen Elizabeth I, the last of the Tudors, ruled England from 1558 to 1603. The era of her reign is associated not only with Shakespeare, Bacon, and Marlowe, but also with Drake, Raleigh, and Hawkins. The country's blossoming culture was intimately intertwined with the growth of its naval power. It was under Elizabeth's rule that Britain claimed to be the "Mistress of the Seas". Famous pirates and naval commanders, including John Hawkins, Walter Raleigh, and Francis Drake, with the support of the Queen, depleted the resources of the main maritime power of the time – Spain. In 1588, the British Navy, under the command of Admirals Howard and Drake, defeated the Invincible Spanish Armada.
French lilies and English lions have shared the coats of arms of British monarchs since the Hundred Years' War, when the rulers of Albion considered the French throne to be theirs. At the same time, in the middle of the 14th century, the emblem of the newly established Order of the Garter, the highest British order of chivalry, became part of the coat of arms. Elizabeth I chose the English lion and Welsh dragon Y Ddraig Goch, symbolizing her dual titles as Queen of England and Queen of Wales, as the figures supporting the coat of arms. The emblem was supplemented by Elizabeth's personal motto – Semper eadem (Latin for "Always the same").
The reign of Emperor Nicholas I in the second quarter of the 19th century was an important era in Russia's naval history. Fully aware of the importance of the fleet as an integral tool of foreign policy, Emperor Nicholas paid a great deal of attention to the development of the nation's naval forces. Under his rule, the Russian sailing fleet reached the peak of its power and perfection. In 1853, it consisted of over 400 ships of all ranks, including about 40 battleships. It was under Nicholas I that Russia's first steam warship and first warship with a propeller engine were built.
In the year of the Emperor's death, a sailing battleship named after him was laid down in St. Petersburg. After being commissioned in 1861, she had a steam engine mounted. More than three decades later, in 1893, the most up-to-date battleship of the Russian Navy, Imperator Nikolai I, visited New York City to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. During World War I, the same name was carried by a seaplane carrier, a battle unit of the Black Sea Fleet that had been converted from a cargo-and-passenger vessel. The construction of another Imperator Nikolai I in the city of Nikolaev would result in the most powerful dreadnought battleship on the Black Sea. However, the Revolution of 1917 put an end to this "Emperor" as well as the existence of the Russian Empire itself.
Luigi Amedeo Giuseppe Maria Ferdinando Francesco, Prince of Savoy, was born in 1873 in Madrid at the time of his father's brief wielding of the Spanish scepter. In 1890, after his father's death, Luigi Amedeo inherited the title of Duke of Abruzzo from his uncle, Umberto I, the King of Italy. The prince was one of the outstanding representatives of his time. He made three voyages around the world in his lifetime, becoming the first man to climb the second highest peak of Canada and the USA, Mount St. Elias, aged 24. When he was 26, he led an expedition to the North Pole, during which he reached Franz Joseph Land, but was forced to return because of severe frostbite. In 1906, Luigi Amedeo was the first to conquer the highest summit (over 5,000 m) of the Rwenzori massif in Equatorial Africa. Three years later, in the course of an expedition to conquer the second highest peak of the world, K2 or Chogori, he set a world record by climbing to a height of 6,250 m.
As the Vice-Admiral of the Regia Marina (Italian for Royal Navy) during World War I, Prince Luigi Amedeo led the Italian fleet that fought in the Adriatic Sea. In 1920, he began the project of his lifetime – establishing a settlement in Italian Somalia with the aim of studying and introducing the most up-to-date farming methods. Through the efforts of the prince, who invested his personal funds into the construction of roads, schools, and hospitals, the settlement grew into a small city within a few years. The Duke of Abruzzi's settlement became his fate, where the prince raised a family by marrying a local resident. It was there that he died in 1933. Four years later, one of the best Italian light cruisers, Luigi di Savoia Duca degli Abruzzi, was enlisted into the Regia Marina.
Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following rewards:
+24 hours Warships Premium time
Legendary Names
Belle Époche Collection - Legendary Names
Karl Martell or, in French style, Charles Martel, the famous Duke and Prince of the Franks, and de facto ruler of Francia in the first third of the 8th century. His military and political genius allowed him to crush all his rivals, repel the Saracen invasion that could have been disastrous for the country, and unite the Franks' lands under his power, laying the foundations for the power of his legendary grandson, Charlemagne (French for Charles the Great).
The military campaign of Charles Martel, undertaken in 734, was a rare event for the Dark Ages. In an attempt to strike the Frisians from the sea, he sent off a large fleet, invaded this Germanic tribe with its help, and defeated his enemies in the Battle of the Boarn. Battleship Charles Martel, part of the French Navy from 1897 to 1922, was named in honor of this French Mayor of the Palace. His name had another chance to enter French naval history at the beginning of World War II, when Navy Command discussed the potential names of the new heavy cruisers being designed at that time. In the list of the proposed options, Charles Martel stood alongside Henri IV, Saint Louis, and Charlemagne.
Oleg is the legendary Russian Prince who united the two largest centers of the Eastern Slavs, Novgorod and Kiev, under his rule in the late 9th century. One of the most famous ancient Russian chronicles, The Tale of Bygone Years, tells the story of Oleg's legendary campaign against Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. According to the chronicles, the fleet assembled by the Prince for this purpose consisted of 2,000 ships. The story goes that in order to prevent the Rus people from entering the city, the Golden Horn waterway was blocked by a chain, but Oleg put his ships on wheels and proceeded to Constantinople by land. The stunned Byzantines asked for peace following this.
Naming ships of the Russian Imperial Navy in honor of the legendary characters of ancient Russian history and mythology became especially popular in the middle of the 19th century. In 1860, propeller frigate Oleg was launched in Kronstadt. The next ship that would be named in honor of the conqueror of Constantinople was the Bogatyr-class armored cruiser, laid down in St. Petersburg in 1902. The second Oleg, barely completed in the autumn of 1904 at the height of the war with Japan, was sent to the Far East as a member of the notorious 2nd Pacific Squadron. Having avoided sinking in the Battle of Tsushima, the cruiser returned to the Baltic after the war. During World War I, she participated in covering minelaying operations and carried out raids on enemy communications facilities. After the collapse of the Russian Empire, Oleg became part of the Naval Forces of the 'Workers and Peasants' Red Army. In 1919, during the Civil War, the old cruiser was sunk in Kronstadt by British torpedo boats.
King Henry IV of France, the first French monarch of the House of Bourbon dynasty, ruled France at the turn of the 17th century. A bright personality and an outstanding statesman with wise policies in the spirit of tolerance, he was able to stop the religious wars that had ravaged the country. The king was consistent and thoughtful in economic affairs too. During his rule, the country experienced swift financial growth, laying the foundations for the formation of the French Navy, a task eventually accomplished under Cardinal Richelieu.
Henry's desire for peace and the welfare of his countrymen left a mark on the people for many centuries. In the Marine Nationale (the Navy of the French Republic), ships were not usually named in honor of French kings – only Saint Louis and Henry IV had this privilege. Designed by the famous Émile Bertin, battleship Henri IV entered into service in 1903. During World War I, she was actively involved in operations in the Eastern Mediterranean. After the war, like most of the representatives of the armored steam age, Henri IV was scrapped for metal, leaving the name of the glorious French king for the ships of future eras.
Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, who reigned from 1640 to 1688, was in fact the founder of the Brandenburg-Prussian state – the forerunner of modern Germany. Nicknamed Großer Kurfürst (German for Great Elector), he was able to turn his principality, devastated by the Thirty Years' War, into a noticeable force in Europe within just half a century of his rule. Thrifty and faithful to the ideals of strict justice, Friedrich Wilhelm was actively promoting innovation in all spheres, investing gradually and increasing the resources of the state in the development of industry, science, and education. Pursuing active foreign policy, the Great Elector not only formed a strong army but also built a rather large navy.
The first ship named in honor of Friedrich Wilhelm was a sailing frigate, launched when the Elector was still alive. In 1878, several years after the founding of the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine), the ironclad turret ship Großer Kurfürst was commissioned. It was the Elector's descendant, German Emperor Wilhelm II, who in the late 19th century set about creating a powerful navy. One of the first battleships to be launched was Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm. Two decades later, in July 1914, the König-class dreadnought battleship Großer Kurfürst joined the Kaiserliche Marine. The last of the "Great Electors" took part in a number of combat operations during World War I, including the famous Battle of Jutland. After the defeat of Germany, she would become one of the German Navy's large ships sunk by crews in the Scapa Flow.
Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following rewards:
+24 hours Warships Premium time
Decor and Finery of Ships of the Past
Belle Époche Collection - Decor and Finery of Ships of the Past
The tradition of decorating the stem with rich decor was inherited by armored ships from the sailing fleet, where the overhang under the bowsprit of nearly every ship had a massive carved figure, usually associated with the ship's name. When the sailing mast on warships became part of history, new battleships and cruisers that were entering into service still couldn't resist flaunting a gilded ornament at their bows and sterns.
At the turn of the 20th century, U.S. Navy ships were perhaps the ones that could boast the richest decorations out at sea. The U.S. Navy was booming at that time, and in heavy pursuit of the ocean's glory. Steel monsters under the star-spangled banner had to demonstrate that they were in no way inferior to representatives of the maritime powers of the Old World. Although USS Albany was built in the U.K. and designed by the British company Armstrong, at the time she entered into service in 1900, she had the U.S. Navy emblem with a rich gilded ornament on her stem.
As a rule, ships of the Russian Imperial Navy that entered into service at the turn of the 20th century no longer carried rich figureheads characteristic of the 1880s through the early 1890s. The exceptions were squadron battleship Retvizan and protected cruiser Varyag, ordered in the U.S.A. Both ships were built between 1898 and 1901 at the shipyards of William Cramp & Sons shipbuilding company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Varyag's figurehead, made of gilded bronze, replicated many similar decorative elements of American ships of that time in its design and execution. Only the bald eagle with the U.S. Navy emblem was replaced by the Russian Imperial two-headed eagle. After the sunk cruiser was lifted by the Japanese from the bottom of Chemulpo Bay, the massive figurehead was completely dismantled. The ship formerly known as Varyag was eventually renamed Soya, and joined the Imperial Japanese Navy after a long overhaul with a chrysanthemum on a stem.
The stem of nearly all U.S. Navy large (or similar-sized) ships that entered service between the 1880s and the 1900s had a rich decor. Initially, its parts were made of wood, but rather quickly bronze became the main material. The central element of the decoration in most cases was the Navy emblem – an image of a star-spangled shield, often with a figure of a bald eagle holding it.
Cruiser St. Louis, which joined the U.S. Navy in 1906, also had a figurehead typical of American ships. But it didn't last long – in 1910, the decoration was dismantled. The Belle Époque was coming to an end, gradually giving way to the era of dreadnoughts with "big guns" that needed no gilded decor. Almost all items of warships' "excessive" decoration disappeared without a trace, with only a few such items surviving as decoration for the halls of government buildings, walls of military establishments, or city parks across the United States.
Ships of the Imperial German Navy traditionally carried decor elements at their bow and aft ends. As a rule, figureheads in one form or another symbolized the name of the ship – a shield with the emblem of a city or the coat of arms of a historical person. The main element of the sternboards between the 1890s and 1910s was the monogram of the then reigning Emperor, Wilhelm II.
The Imperial monogram had the letter "W" with the Roman numeral "II". The image of the crown of German Emperors was placed above the letter. Its design, resembling the crown of the Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, was developed in 1871 with the unification of Germany. Although the crown itself was never made, its image became an indispensable attribute of imperial symbolism until the collapse of the Empire itself and the abdication of Wilhelm II in 1918.
Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following rewards:
+24 hours Warships Premium time
Dawn of the 20th Century
Belle Époche Collection - Dawn of the 20th Century
In the 1880s and 1890s, the British company Armstrong built a number of so-called Elswick cruisers at the shipyard in Elswick. These were, as a rule, relatively small but well-armed, high-speed ships, with their main defense consisting of an armored deck with inclined sides. These relatively cheap cruisers were built mostly by order of countries that wanted to have their own navies but were extremely limited in resources.
In 1895, Armstrong received an order from Brazil to build three armored cruisers with a displacement of about 3,500 tons, and main armament of rapid-fire 152 mm guns. However, the customer's finances quickly ran low, which resulted in the Brazilian Navy receiving only one ship of this class, named the Almirante Barroso. The lead cruiser of the series was bought by Chile, while the third and the fourth ones – the latter being ordered by Brazil instead of the lead ship – were purchased by the United States, a country that could not be said as being limited in funds. The reason behind it was that, in 1898, at the height of the ships' construction, the Spanish-American war broke out, and the United States government feared that the Elswicks would be acquired by Spain, which needed to replenish its fleet with up-to-date combat units. As a result, from 1898–1900, USS New Orleans and USS Albany raised star-spangled banners and became the last major ships built abroad to become part of the U.S. Navy.
On September 24, 1863, the New York estuary welcomed Russian steam corvette Varyag which had arrived all the way from the Baltic Sea. The arrival of Varyag was part of an expedition of the Russian fleet to the shores of North America. Their purpose was to create a threat to the ocean shipping lines between England and France, which at that time were quite hostile to Russia. The appearance of the Russian squadrons was perhaps even more valuable for the United States, as the country's position on the world stage at the height of the Civil War was extremely precarious.
On May 22, 1899, the ceremonial laying down of armored cruiser Varyag, ordered by the Russian Empire, took place at the William Cramp shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Less than six months later, on October 31, the hull of the ship was launched. On April 2, 1901, the fully-equipped cruiser, flashing her snow-white sides, left the famous Hampton roads and headed into the Atlantic Ocean to reprise the path of her namesake, only in the opposite direction. On May 13, having sailed about 5,000 miles, Varyag arrived at the Port of Revel where, 38 years before, the corvette of the same name had departed on her journey towards the shores of the USA.
Japanese squadron battleship Mikasa, one of the few surviving representatives of the classic era of "armor and steam", was built in the U.K. by Vickers. When she was commissioned in 1902, she claimed to be the largest and most powerful warship in the world, and not without good reason. She was a force to be reckoned with: a displacement of nearly 16,000 tons, Krupp cemented armor, improved turret mount mechanisms that provided a rate of fire unrivaled for its time, and fourteen 152 mm guns capable of firing up to seven 45 kg shells per minute.
From the very beginning of her construction, Mikasa was destined to be the flagship of the navy. During her trial period, in early 1902, she received an original paint scheme that, became the standard for the Imperial Japanese Navy for a short period of time and was not used in any other Navy of the world. In accordance with this scheme, the ship's side, masts, and funnels were covered with black paint, while superstructures, turret mounts, and lifeboats were painted white. The unique detail that made the Navy flagship instantly recognizable was her three white stripes on each of the funnels. However, Mikasa did not pose in her black-and-white dress for too long. In early 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out, becoming the swan song of the entirety of the type of squadron battleships.
In the 1890s, the concept of oceanic "trade destroyers" – large, high-speed ships with good seakeeping characteristics and an impressive action range – gained popularity in France. However, the initial results of the implementation of this idea in shipbuilding programs were not quite satisfactory. Laid down as ocean raiders, cruisers Châteaurenault and Guichen were too expensive, and poorly armed. It was decided to consider and fix these drawbacks when building the third ship.
In November 1897, a cruiser named after the naval commander, historian, and member of the French Academy – Admiral Jean Pierre Edmond Jurien de La Gravière – was laid down at the naval shipyard in Lorient. The new ship was smaller than her predecessors, but she was almost as fast. She also had much better armament, with eight 165 mm guns in comparison to the two 165 mm and six 139 mm carried by Châteaurenault and Guichen. Extended trials delayed her commissioning, and, as a result, Jurien de la Gravière was completed only in 1903. By this time, the Command of the French Navy (Marine Nationale) completely abandoned construction of large armored cruisers, realizing that at such a high cost, their protection was too weak for a serious squadron battle.
Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following rewards:
+24 hours Warships Premium time
Overall Reward
Completing the entire collection provides the following rewards:
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Santa's Gift Container |
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Prussia With the proclamation of the German Empire in 1871, the Kingdom of Prussia became its main constituent part. This particular national flag of Prussia existed from 1892 to 1918. The center of the cloth contains the emblem of the kingdom: a black crowned eagle, with the right paw holding the Prussian royal scepter, while the left paw holds the state apple (Reichsapfel). The wings are covered with golden trefoils (Kleestengeln), and the eagle's chest carries the golden monogram of the first King of Prussia, Friedrich I FR (Fridericus Rex). |
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Pickelhelm |
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