sentences:  In 1900, "Vizeadmiral" (Vice Admiral) Alfred von Tirpitz, the State Secretary for the "Reichsmarineamt" (Imperial Naval Office), secured the passage of the Second Naval Law, an amendment to the First Naval Law of 1898.The previous law had called for a total strength of nineteen battleships by 1 April 1904, which was reached with the five s, but the new law increased the projected battle fleet to a total of thirty-eight.The first tranche of vessels—the —introduced the gun, marking a significant increase in power over earlier German battleships.