The characteristic motif of the Barnaby designs has been described as a “maximum of offensive power and the minimum of defence.” This is not altogether correct; though as a generalization it is no very great exaggeration. In every Barnaby design proper, offence was the first thing sought for, but defence as then understood was by no means overlooked as to-day it appears to have been.

The bed rock “Reed idea” was to produce a ship which could attack and destroy the enemy without much risk of being damaged in doing so. The “Barnaby idea” was that “the best defensive is a strong offensive”; and a strict subordination of defence to what might best serve the attack on the same displacement.

The first big armoured ship to be laid down at all on Barnaby principles, the Inflexible, was built under somewhat peculiar circumstances. In the year 1871 a Committee was appointed. One of its findings was as follows:—

Amongst the Committee’s suggestions had been the abolition of the complete belt, and its concentration amidships. This recommendation was mainly intended to refer to cruising ships rather than to ships definitely intended for the line of battle; but the idea soon spread.

These suggestions had already been embodied in a modified form in the Shannon, of which particulars will be found later on. The Shannon, however, was frankly a “belted cruiser,” and no idea had then been entertained of adapting a similar system for heavy armoured ships.

In the year 1874, however, it transpired that the Italians were evolving an entirely new type of battleship, the Duilio and Dandolo, and adopting a central box system. By this means they were able to protect the citadel with 22-inch armour and mount four 100-ton guns in two turrets en échelon, so that all four could bear ahead and astern as well as on either broadside. The seriousness of the situation was increased by the fact that in most of the tactical ideas of the day, end-on approach figured largely.2

Compared with these Italian designs, the most powerful British ironclad of those days, the Dreadnought, with a belt of only 14-inch to 11-inch armour, and bearing but two of her four 38-ton guns end-on, cut a sorry figure.

It was deemed essential to build a “reply.” The largest gun actually available at the time was, however, the 81-ton M.L.; so this was adopted for the new ship. The Inflexible being frankly an adoption of Italian ideas, she can hardly be described as the design of any one man; Sir N. Barnaby having been tied down to an extent with which (from his subsequent writings) he did not, it would appear, altogether agree. A smaller central citadel than that of the Italian ships was adopted, but the thickness was carried to 24-inch, the thickest armour ever introduced into an ironclad either before or since. The bulkheads were 20-in. The freeboard of the central redoubt was 10ft. Round about it, fore and aft, on an armoured raft-body were built a bow and stern, with superstructures curtailed to the centre line sufficiently to allow of unimpeded end-on fire from the big guns, which, like those of the Italians, were placed in échelonned turrets.

With a view to satisfying the “masted turret-ship” ideal, an absurd brig rig was fitted to the Inflexible. With this it was possible for the ship to drift before the wind, haystack-fashion, but the rig was so much of the “placebo” order that it was designed to be taken down and thrown overboard in case of action! At a later date it was removed altogether and a military rig substituted.

The Inflexible was crammed with novelties. Like the Devastation she was the “Dreadnought” of her time. Chief among her innovations were the adoption of submerged torpedo tubes (of which she had two), the mounting of Nordenfeldts as a definite anti-torpedo-boat armament, and an ingenious anti-rolling arrangement, whereby water was admitted amidships to counteract the roll. This was very partially successful; but in 1910 the idea re-appeared in a slightly altered form and is now used in certain big Atlantic liners.

An ingenious feature of the Inflexible concerned the big guns. In the Devastation and Dreadnought types these could be run in and loaded inside the turret. With the much larger guns of the Inflexible this was impossible, without a very considerable increase of the size of the turrets. Outside loading without protection was recognised as unsuitable and practically impossible. A special glacis was, therefore, designed, which admitted of outside loading under cover, and at the same time ensured that, in the event of premature discharge, the projectile would emerge above the water-line and not below it.

This device is of special interest as the “last word” of those muzzle-loading guns to which the British Navy adhered so long as it possibly could. Had it been thought of earlier, the British Navy might perhaps have adhered to muzzle-loaders even longer than it did. As things were, the Inflexible device came too late to stay the tide which had already begun to set strongly in the breechloader direction.

Details of the Inflexible were:—

• Displacement—11,880 tons.
• Length (between perpendiculars)—320ft.
• Beam—75ft.
• Maximum Draught—26⅓ft.
• Armour—Belt amidships 24—16-inch, beyond that a protective deck only; 22—14-inch bulkhead, all iron; and 17-inch compound armour turrets.
• Armaments—Four 81-ton guns (to which eight 4-inch breechloaders were added later on). Two submerged tubes and two above-water launching appliances for torpedoes.
• Horse-power—8,010 (I.H.P.).
• Speed—13.8 knots.
• Coal—1,300 tons = nominal 10-knot radius of 5,200 miles.
• Built at Portsmouth Dockyard. Engined by Elder. Completed 1881.

On completion she was sent to the Mediterranean, with Captain Fisher (afterwards Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Fisher) in command of her. He was the chief gunnery officer of those days and the founder of the torpedo school. At the time it was put on record that, asked by a Press interviewer what he would do if the fortunes of war brought it about that he had to encounter a similar “last word” in naval construction, he replied that he would keep away from her till nightfall, and then send in the, then, novel second-class torpedo-boats which the Inflexible carried, to settle the foe. Over which statement the historian of fifty years hence may yet place Lord Fisher among the prophets. To-day, some thirty years later, similar ideas obtain, but have got no further. Fifty years hence——?

In 1882 the Inflexible was the central figure at the bombardment of Alexandria. The damage she did was infinitesimal compared to the ideas which the public had formed of her. Far more actual mischief was done by Lord Charles Beresford in a trivial gunboat, the Condor, which steered into close range of the hostile guns and knocked them over. At the time this was regarded as an act of spectacular heroism; but the historian of the future is far more likely to discover in it (as in the Fisher torpedo-boats) something closely akin to the reasoning behind Nelson when he destroyed the French fleet at the Nile or charged into them at Trafalgar. The commonplace expression, “sizing up the other man,” and acting accordingly, is the secret. In peace time we are all too apt to assess hostile weapons at their theoretical potentiality. The victors in war are those who gauge correctly the handling ability of the man behind the weapon and—act accordingly.

About the years 1877–78, towards the close of the Turco-Russian War, an Anglo-Russian war seemed probable, and four foreign ships building in England were purchased for the British Navy.

These were the Brazilian Independencia, an improved Monarch, designed by Sir E. J. Reed, which went into the British service as the Neptune. Save that she carried 38-ton guns instead of 25-ton, she reproduced the Monarch idea almost exactly. After certain vicissitudes she entered the British service, and eventually was fitted with a couple of military masts. The points of special interest about her were that (1) owing to some error her funnels were put in sideways instead of as designed; and (2) in service in any bad weather the sea regularly washed out her wardroom; (3) she was the first ship of the British Navy to carry a bath-room. As an effective warship she never figured to any large extent.

The other three purchased ships had been destined for the Turkish Navy; and all three turned out worse than the Neptune. The Hamidieh, re-christened Superb, more or less duplicated the Hercules. She took part in the bombardment of Alexandria a little later, and it was there discovered that her guns could not train at all well in comparison with contemporary British naval ships.

Of the fighting value of the other two ships, Pakyi-Shereef and Boordyi-Zaffir, which became the Belleisle and Orion, the least said the better. They turned out to be nothing but improvements on a type of “coast defender,” already obsolete, diminutives of the original Reed broadside idea applied to a Hotspur type hull. In place of the single 25-ton gun of the Hotspur, they carried four similar guns—the old 12-inch 25-ton M.L. These guns were carried in a central raised battery, from which, as in the Hotspur, one gun could always bear, and from which two bearing on an exact and unlikely broadside might be looked for.

No useful service was ever performed by these ships. The Belleisle ended her service as a target, the Orion as a hulk. They proved conclusively that the central battery idea was obsolete and so far probably did good service. In the past Sir E. J. Reed had argued, and for that matter proved, that for a given weight of armour and armament eight guns, four on either broadside, could be mounted with equal protection and economy of weight as against two pairs of guns in turrets.3 The Belleisle gave the lie to this idea, however, when it came to be applied to half the number of guns. The step from that to the same thing with more guns was made easy, and the turret idea assured, out of the Belleisle type. To the Belleisle and Orion more than any other ships may be traced the first real appreciation of “angles in between”—the demonstration that “right ahead” or “right on the broadside” were ideal positions which no enemy would willingly assume.

The Devastation and her sisters had, of course, anticipated this idea; but to the Belleisle, at most fighting angles only able to bring a quarter of her battery into action, may be traced most modern developments in gun disposition.

Contemporaneous with the special Barnaby ships, reference may be made to the entirely nondescript Téméraire. She may be described as an absolute hybrid—partly Reed, partly Barnaby, partly gun inventors of the era, and partly nothing in particular.

Details of this ship are:—

• Displacement—8,540 tons.
• Length (between perpendiculars)—285ft.
• Beam—62ft.
• Draught—27¼ft.
• Armament—Four 25-ton 11-inch M.L. (two in barbettes), four 18-ton M.L.—two above water torpedo tubes.
• Armour (iron)—Complete 11—8in. belt. Bulkheads 8—5in. Barbettes 10—8in. Battery 10—8in. Horse-power—7,520 = 14.5 knots.
• Coal—620 tons = 2,680 miles at economical speed (nominal).

The Téméraire was unique in the world’s navies in that two of her 25-ton guns were carried—one forward, one aft—on special Moncrieff mountings, an adaption for naval purposes of the “disappearing gun,” invented for forts of that era. The gun, loaded under cover, was raised to fire by hydraulic mechanism, and then recoiled to the loading position. The ship was otherwise essentially of the Reed box-battery type; the other two 25-ton guns being in a central main-deck battery, and capable of a good deal of ahead fire. The other big guns (18 tons) were cut off from the 25-ton by an armoured bulkhead, and merely had the ordinary broadside training.

Like the Inflexible, the Téméraire had a heavy brig rig. Towards the end of her active service career this was replaced by a military rig; but all her active work was done as a brig. She was built at Chatham Dockyard, engined by Humphrys, and completed for sea in 1877.

In 1882 she was at the bombardment of Alexandria, and there did more execution than any other ship. Her subsequent career was uneventful, and in her own way she was a “monstrosity” as much as the Polyphemus was. She is generally understood to have been a “naval officers’ ideal” ship, rather than the regular production of the Chief Constructor. Whether this be true is, at least, doubtful. Certainly she may equally well be regarded as the forlorn hope of those who looked to see the general principles of the central battery system adapted to suit the new ideas as to ironclads. French ideas4 also had probably something to do with her peculiar design.

The idea embodied in the Inflexible was so pleasing to the authorities of that period that she was duplicated in two smaller vessels of the same type, the Ajax and Agamemnon, though the precise purpose for which these vessels were built is difficult to fathom. They were in every way inferior to the Inflexible, and mainly of interest as indicating the definite abandonment of the idea of the masted battleship, and they were also the last ships to mount muzzle-loading guns:—

Particulars of these ships were:—

• Displacement—8,660 tons.
• Length (between perpendiculars)—280ft.
• Beam—66ft.
• Draught (mean)—24ft.
• Guns—Four 38-ton M.L., two 6-inch 81-cwt. B.L.
• Horse-power—5,440.
• Speed—13.25 knots.

These were followed by the Colossus and Edinburgh, which were laid down in 1879. In these ships the 12-inch breechloader was adopted, and an attempt at what was then a very considerable speed was made. An auxiliary armament made its first really definite appearance, five 6-inch guns being mounted on the superstructure.

Particulars of these ships were:—

• Displacement—9,420 tons.
• Length (between perpendiculars)—325ft.
• Beam—68ft.
• Draught (mean)—26ft. 3ins.
• Guns—Four 45-ton B.L.R., five 6-inch, 89-cwt. do.
• Horse-power—7,500.
• Speed—15.50 knots.

At and about the same time considerable interest was being taken in rams. This resulted in the laying down of the Conqueror, a species of improved Rupert, and a type of ship destined to be enlarged upon in the future.

Particulars of the Conqueror were:—

• Displacement—6,200 tons.
• Length—270ft.
• Beam—58ft.
• Draught—24ft.
• Armament—Two 45-ton B.L.R., four 6-inch 89-cwt. do., six 14-inch torpedo tubes (above water).
• Horse-power—(maximum) 6,000.
• Speed—15.5 knots.
• Coal—650 tons.

The Conqueror was launched in September, 1881. Some three years later a sister, the Hero, was laid down, and launched towards the end of 1885. She differed from the Conqueror only in that all four of her 6-inch guns were mounted on the superstructure, whereas the Conqueror carried two of them on the main deck inside the superstructure.

Although developed from the Rupert, the Conqueror differed a good deal in appearance, on account of the whole of the after part of the ship being one huge superstructure. In her, the superstructure, as a very definite feature instead of a mere accessory, may be said to have made its first appearance, to remain as a factor of growing importance for many years.

Contemporaneously with these ships two entirely different types made their appearance. One of these was the “torpedo ram” Polyphemus, an absolutely unique vessel, the outcome (though not so designed) of the influence of the torpedo. The ship was never duplicated, and never performed much service, but it would be rash to assert that the future may not see something like her re-appear. She was first projected as a “ram” pure and simple, so long ago as 1873, and designed by Barnaby to suit the specifications of certain naval officers as embodying their ideals of the warship of the future. This is the generally accepted theory, though Sir N. Barnaby5 has made public a somewhat different view of the matter, and according to him, Admiral Sir George Sartorius, the naval officer principally concerned, lost his interest in the Polyphemus when it was decided to give her an armament of torpedo tubes and some quick-firers against torpedo attack. So far as can be gauged, the torpedo tubes were likewise a naval innovation with which Sir N. Barnaby was also not much in sympathy. At any rate, he has put on record the view5 that:—

The Polyphemus performed little useful service; her life on the Navy List was short; and she is always spoken of as a “failure.” Officers who served in her were, however, invariably enthusiastic about her, and had war occurred during the time that she was in existence there is no telling what she might have accomplished or how profoundly she might have affected naval construction.

In essence the Polyphemus was a semi-submerged craft, those parts of her which were above water being merely a light superstructure for the accommodation of her crew in peace time.

She was of 2,640 tons displacement, length 240ft. between perpendiculars, beam 40ft., and a normal mean draught of 20ft. In form she was cigar-shaped, plated with 3-inch armour on the upper part of her curved sides. With 5,520 I.H.P. she had the then very high speed of 17.8 knots. She carried 300 tons of coal, sufficient for a nominal radius of 3,400 miles at economical speed.

Her principal feature, however, was the fitting of five submerged tubes, one in the bow the others on the broadside. For repelling a torpedo attack she carried six 6-pounders and a couple of machine guns.

It is here of interest to relate that some years later the U.S. Navy created a species of Polyphemus imitation in the “ram” Katahdin. To a certain extent they had anticipated her likewise in the Alarm, 720 tons, launched in 1873, which carried a 15-inch smooth-bore gun under water in her ram, and the Intrepid (launched 1873), of 1,123 tons, of which no details ever transpired, and it may be said that she was “strangled at birth.” But the Polyphemus’s ancestry is undoubtedly American. The Katahdin (first produced as the “ram” Ammen) was not launched till 1893. She was of 2,050 tons and seventeen knots, and having no torpedo tubes, being a “ram” pure and simple, exactly reproduced the Sartorious-Barnaby idea. She soon disappeared from the U.S. Navy List, and she never did anything. She doubled the armour of the Polyphemus, whilst lacking her torpedo armament. Since then, the idea has found expression in three small U.S. “semi-submerged” boats, with the torpedo as their main armament; but these three boats never got beyond the “designed” stage. No other nation ever exhibited the least interest in the Polyphemus idea.

Reference has already been made to the Shannon, which was the first armoured cruiser of the British Navy. She was launched towards the end of 1875 and completed two years later. In substance she was a development of the idea which first found expression in the Inconstant, heavy armament being preferred to the protection of the guns. A narrow belt of armour with a maximum thickness of 9-ins. protected three-quarters of the water-line. This belt commenced at the stern and ended in a bulkhead some 70ft. from the bow. Forward of this bulkhead was an under-water protective deck, and a certain amount of armour was concentrated on the ram under water. The bulkhead, which was from 9in. to 8in. thick, rose to the upper deck, and afforded protection to a couple of 18-ton muzzle-loaders, capable of right-ahead fire. The remainder of her armament consisted of seven 12½ton guns, and was entirely unprotected.

Other details of the ship are as follows:—

• Displacement—5,390 tons.
• Length—260ft.
• Beam—54ft.
• Draught—23ft. 4in.
• Horse-power—3,370.
• Speed—12.35 knots.
• Coal carried—580 tons = nominal economical radius of 2,260 miles.

The speed of the Shannon was so low, even in those days, that it is a little difficult to surmise for what purpose she was designed, especially as this design was more or less contemporary with the re-designing of the Dreadnought.6 It found favour, however, since she was almost immediately followed by two larger replicas, the Nelson and the Northampton, details of which were:—

• Displacement—7,630 tons.
• Length (between perpendiculars)—280ft.
• Beam—60ft.
• Draught (maximum)—26ft. 6in.
• Armour—Belt amidships, 9in. to 6in., compound: bulkhead ditto. Armour deck only, at ends.
• Main Armament—Four 18-ton M.L.R., eight 12-ton M.L.R., two above-water 14-inch torpedo tubes.
• Horse-power—6,640.
• Speed—14.41 knots.
• Coal carried—1,150 tons = nominal radius of 3,850 miles.

These ships differed from the Shannon in that the armour belt was confined to a water-line strip amidships, while the after guns were also protected by a bulkhead. The most curious, and to modern ideas, eccentric feature of these ships, was that they were fitted with triangular rams, which, “for the sake of safety,” could be removed in peace time and merely put on for war purposes! As a matter of fact, the ships always carried their rams without rendering themselves dangerous to anybody. On the other hand, shortly after construction, the Northampton was run into by a small trading schooner, which cut her down to the water’s edge. The ships, therefore, started with an unfavourable reputation, which the Northampton followed up by a total inability to make even her moderate designed speed. The Nelson, on the other hand, proved herself a comparatively good steamer, so much so that at a later date she was to a certain extent modernised. Both ships were originally heavily masted, the idea being to perform most of their peace service when convenient under sail. The Nelson sailed moderately well, but the Northampton very badly. It was possibly with some view to remedying this that some years later, when it was decided that the Imperieuse, originally built as a brig, should be given a military rig, her lofty iron fore and mainmast were taken out of her and substituted for the two equivalent masts in the Northampton. The change, however, was not satisfactory, as thereafter she sailed if anything worse than ever.

At and about this year protected cruisers made their first appearance in the Comus class. Of these altogether eleven were built, the best known of these being the Calliope, which in the early nineties became famous through steaming out of Samoa Roads in the teeth of a hurricane, which utterly destroyed every foreign vessel anchored there at the same time. The Comus class consisted of the Calliope, Calypso, Canada, Carysfort, Champion, Cleopatra, Comus, Conquest, Constance, Cordelia, and Curacoa. They averaged 2,380 tons displacement, though the first mentioned, which were the last to be built, were slightly larger. The original armament consisted of two 6-ton muzzle-loaders and twelve 64-pounders. This was afterwards varied by the substitution of breechloaders. The ships generally had a speed of about thirteen knots, and were completed between the years 1877, for the earliest, and 1884 for the latest. They had a 1½-inch protective deck for the engines amidships. These ships, which were generally officially known as the “C” class cruiser, were undoubtedly diminutives of the Shannon, or, at any rate, inspired by a similar idea.

Besides growing downwards the idea also grew upwards, and resulted in the building of six ships of the “Admiral” class, of which the first was the Collingwood. These, which were the apotheosis of the Barnaby idea, represented an absolute revolution in naval construction, so far as big ships were concerned.

The “Admirals” were not all identical, as they formed four different groups in the matter of displacement and three in armament. In all, however, the integral idea was the same. Amidships was a narrow belt, 150ft. long by 7½ft. wide, which sufficed to protect engines, boilers, and communication tubes of the barbettes. This belt varied in thickness from 18ins. to 8ins, of compound armour. The ends of the belt were closed up by 16-inch bulkheads. Forward and aft was merely a curved protective deck; there was also a flat protective deck on top of the armour belt. The ships were of low freeboard, forward and aft, but had a large superstructure built up amidships. At either end of the superstructure, with their bases unprotected by armour except for the communication tubes already referred to, were many-sided barbettes with plates set at an angle of about forty-five degrees. These barbettes were about 11½ins. thick, and carried each a couple of the heaviest guns then available. These were 12-inch breechloaders in the Collingwood, and 13.5-inch in the other ships, except the Benbow, which mounted one 16.5 inch 110-ton in each barbette instead. An auxiliary armament was mounted inside the superstructure. The speed of these ships was about seventeen knots, and was considerably in excess of the average for the period.

As compared with the Colossus and Edinburgh class of the same date and era of design, the “Admirals” were somewhat inferior in armour protection, but because of that secured a far better speed and a greatly superior big gun command.

In all the “Admiral” class the armour weighed about 2,500 tons—say, 20 per cent. of the displacement. This proportion has never been very greatly varied from either before or since, and the popular idea that Barnaby designs sacrificed armour weight for other features is entirely incorrect. The real Barnaby ideal is better described (the conditions of his own time being kept in mind) as an attempt to put into practice “everything or nothing,” so far as protection was concerned. To-day, a compromise is in fashion, and Barnaby is very much out of date. It may well be but a phase in the cycle of naval design. Properly to appreciate the Admiral class ideal, we have to translate it into the ideal which obtains to-day. Thus put, the Admirals would be somewhat swifter than our existing battle-cruisers, their vitals would be invulnerable and their armaments superior to that of any potential enemy. They would not, in fact, very greatly differ from Admiral Bacon’s conception (published some five years before the present war) of the battleship of the future, in which he predicted the disappearance of much of the side armour of to-day.

The coming of the medium calibre quick-firer soon rendered the “Admirals” obsolete and even ridiculous. The medium calibre quick-firer profoundly modified design until the development of the big gun enabled it to act well beyond the effective range of the medium gun, and incidentally enabled it to fire nearly as fast as the elementary quick-firers were built to do. Thus we have come back to something very akin to the condition under which the Barnaby ships were designed.

These ships could not, perhaps, be described as an absolutely original idea, save in so far as the British Navy was concerned, since the Italian Italia was launched in the same year that the Collingwood, the first of the “Admirals” was laid down. The Italia, equally abnormally fast (or faster) for the period, carried four 100-ton guns échelonned in one large heavily armoured barbette amidships, but had no water-line belt whatever, and relied entirely upon an armour-deck to protect the motive power. In the “Admirals” the motive power was thoroughly protected by the vertical belt amidships, while flotation otherwise depended upon internal sub-divisions.

The “Admiral” class idea was re-developed into armoured cruisers in a somewhat curious fashion. At that time the French Navy was second in the world, and French ideas of construction commanded a great deal of respect. French notions at that era ran largely to single gun positions, four guns being separately disposed in four barbettes placed one ahead, one astern, and one on either side. The particular point of this arrangement was that while British designs accepted two or four big guns bearing, the French system allowed for a definite mean of three. More practically put, this may be translated into a conception that an enemy would use every effort to avoid positions in which four big guns could be brought to bear on him, and seek those in which he was exposed to two only. A gun-arrangement which gave three big guns bearing in any position seemed therefore far more reasonable on paper.

It stands to the credit of Sir N. Barnaby (or else to the credit of the Admiralty of the era) that he recognised the impossibility of any such manœuvres in fleet actions, but at the same time he also realised how heavily it might tell in cruiser duels. Out of which the Imperieuse and Warspite were born.

Details of these ships:—

• Displacement—8,400 tons.
• Length (between perpendiculars)—315ft.
• Beam—62ft.
• Draught (maximum)—27⅓ft.
• Armament—Four 9.2 24-ton B.L., six 6-inch, 89cwt., six torpedo tubes.
• Horse-power—10,000=16.75 knots.
• Coal—1,130 tons = nominal radius of ten knots of 7,000 miles.
• Armour—Belt amidships of 10in. compound, with 9-inch bulkheads, 8-inch barbettes. No armour to lesser guns. 3-inch protective deck fore and aft, and on top of belt.

The Imperieuse was built at Portsmouth Dockyard and engined by Maudslay. The Warspite, built at Chatham, was engined by Penn. Both were completed in 1886 at a total cost of about £630,000 each. They were copper sheathed, and (like the Inflexible) originally were to carry a heavy brig-rig. This was removed at an early stage, and a single military mast between the funnels substituted. The Imperieuse’s masts were subsequently put in the Northampton (which see). Both proved faster than anticipated; but the coming of the quick-firer placed them in the semi-obsolete category almost as soon as they were completed. The type was never repeated. Till recently the Imperieuse still existed as a depot ship for destroyers; the Warspite has long since gone to the scrap heap. Years after their conception a modernised version of them was to some extent reproduced in the Black Prince class. In their own day, however, they appeared and that was all.

The “battleship of the future” ideal of those days had to some extent been foreshadowed in the Benbow, with her couple of 110-ton guns. The monster gun was “the vogue” and no way of carrying it on existing displacements allowed of more than two such pieces being mounted.

The idea of the moment became the mounting of guns capable of delivering deadly blows, and (corollary therewith) protection to ensure that that deadly blow could be delivered with relative impunity. Since the secondary gun had now come in, auxiliary guns and a secondary battery were a sine quâ non; but the ideal ship was to be one incapable of vital injury from such weapons. On lines such as these the Victoria class was designed.

The call was for an improved Benbow. The armament was to be no less and, if possible, more; while better protection was an essential feature.

Details of the Victoria type, of which only two were built, are as follows:—

• Displacement—10,470 tons (approximately that of the Benbow).
• Length (between perpendiculars)—340ft.
• Beam—70ft.
• Draught (maximum)—27¼ft.
• Armament—Two 110-ton guns (in a single turret), one 9.2 (aft), twelve 6-inch; twenty-one anti-torpedo guns, and six torpedo tubes (14-inch).
• Armour (compound)—18-inch to 16-inch belt amidships, redoubt and bulkheads, 18-inch turret, 2-inch in battery. Armour deck, and heavily armoured conning tower.
• Horse-power—14,000 = 16.75 knots.
• Coal—1,200 tons = 7,000 miles at 10 knots.

The Victoria was built at Elswick and engined by Humphrys; launched in 1887 and completed for sea in 1889. The Sanspareil, engined by the same firm, but built at Blackwall (Thames Ironworks) was launched a year later, but completed about the same time.

The design of these ships closely approximated to the Conqueror, of which they were merely enlarged editions with a heavily increased battery.

The Victoria on completion became the flagship in the Mediterranean of Admiral Sir George Tryon. In the course of evolutions off the coast of Syria on June 22nd, 1893, she was rammed and sunk by the Camperdown. The disaster, which cost the lives of the Admiral and 321 officers and men, teaches no useful lesson, saving the danger of transverse bulkheads. Water-tight doors were shut too late. The sea entered. The ship gradually turned over, then suddenly “turned turtle” and capsized.

The mystery of her loss has never been fully explained. Admiral Tryon gave an order for the fleet, then in two lines, to turn inboard sixteen points, while at six cables apart. This manœuvre, with turning circles as they were, was bound to create a collision. This was pointed out to Admiral Tryon, who, however, took no notice of the representations. It has since been assumed that he went suddenly mad. A more reasonable explanation is that he intended the ships to “jockey with their screws” (a manœuvre which he never employed as a rule), and forgot to mention the fact, though details of evidence in the court-martial hardly bear this out.

The exact signal as made was:—

This signal was capable of more than one interpretation. Along one of them each ship in the two squadrons might easily have rammed the other in succession, according to some interpretations. Using screws, both divisions might have closed in very closely but quite safely. Acting other than simultaneously they might anyway have effected the manœuvre without disaster. At eight cables (a distance which was suggested to the Admiral an hour before) it might have been done quite safely. There have been other explanations also.

In the Fleet at the time everything was believed, except the “blunder” theory which has gone down to history. To this day that is accepted with reservation. But the rest is mystery.

The Camperdown, in turning, crashed into the Victoria, striking her forward, curiously enough directly on a bulkhead, just as the Vanguard was struck when she was rammed.

It was not expected that the Victoria would be sunk. Had the water-tight doors been closed during the manœuvre, instead of at the last moment, she would probably have remained afloat. As things were, it was impossible to close many at the time the order was given, but her low-freeboard also played a part. The sea invaded the door on the starboard side of the superstructure and thence got everywhere on that side of the ship. It was that which threw her over and capsized her, but the chance circumstance of the blow on the lateral bulkhead should not be forgotten. The Victoria was struck just on one of the points where all the odds were against her being struck.

The Sanspareil had an uneventful career, and was eventually sold out of the Service somewhat suddenly under the “scrap-heap” policy of Admiral Fisher in 1904.

Following upon the Imperieuse type, an entirely new class of armoured cruisers, the Orlandos, were designed. Just as the Victorias were improved and enlarged Conquerors, so the Orlandos were “improved Merseys.” Particulars of these ships, of which seven were built altogether, are as follows:—

• Displacement—5,600 tons.
• Length (between perpendiculars)—300ft.
• Beam—56ft.
• Draught (maximum)—22½ft. (actually more).
• Armament—Two 9.2in. B.L.; ten 6in.; and six torpedo tubes.
• Armour (compound)—Belt amidships 10in., with 16in. Bulkheads. Protective deck at ends. All guns protected by shields only.
• Horse-power—8,500 = 18 knots.
• Coal (maximum)—900 tons = nominal radius of 8,000 miles.