sentences:  At the time, he was constrained by the fleet plan of 1873 that had been created under Stosch's direction and had been approved by the .The plan governed the size and composition of the German fleet, calling for fourteen ocean-going ironclad warships, a total that was reached with the launching of the casemate ship in 1884.The nominal completion of the 1873 plan further restrained Caprivi, as in the view of many members of the , naval budgets could be reduced, since no new ships would be needed until the oldest ironclads began to reach thirty years of age in the mid-1890s.