THE WORLD’S WAR-SHIPS. 
27 
sides in front of them. Between each two guns is a thin transverse 
bulkhead to protect the crews from splinters, they are each one inch 
thick. They are rigged as ships, but are intended in action only to 
have the lower masts standing. They have two funnels and can hardly 
be mistaken for the other two-funneled broadside ships, owing to the 
long double tier, provided the upper deck armament is discerned. It 
may be remarked how opposed this style of protection is to that 
of the Inflexible for instance. The Nelson can steam considerably the 
better of the two. 
A great advance was made with the Imperieuse and Warspite, 
although at first they had to meet a good deal of hostile criticism. 
The length is 315 feet, the beam 62 feet, and the tonnage displace¬ 
ment 8400 tons. The maximum speed is nearly 17 knots, and at 10 
knot speed they can steam 7000 knots. 
They are built of steel, and are copper sheathed. The 3 belt only 
extends for 140 feet, and is steel-faced 10 inches thick. The armoured 
deck that meets it fore and aft is of steel three inches thick. Tho 
transverse bulkheads are nine inches thick, but do not extend higher 
than the belt, but a steel deck, half the thickness of that at the ends, 
runs along the top of the belt forming the lower deck. On the main 
deck are six 6'6-inch B.L., of which two fire out of recessed ports as 
either bow or broadside guns. On the upper deck are four 9’2-inch 
guns. These are in small barbettes, two amidships, and two bow and 
stern in line with the keel. The conning tower is just abaft the 
forward barbette. The funnels are fore and aft of the amidship 
barbettes. There is only a military mast. 
These were followed by the belted cruisers, of which we have seven, 
the Aurora, Australia, Orlando, Narcissus, Galatea, Undaunted, and 
Immortalite. Their length is 300 feet, beam 56 feet, displacement 
5600. Their maximum speed is over 18 knots, with a coal endurance 
of 8000. Their belt is 10 inches thick, and is met fore and aft by an 
armoured steel deck three inches thick. 
The transverse bulkheads are 16 inches thick, and over them and 
the belt is a steel deck two inches thick. The armour is, therefore, 
the same in type as in the preceding class, only that the belt extends 
to nearly 200 feet in length. On the main deck are 14 quick-firers. 
On the upper deck there are two 9'2-inch B.L. guns firing from small 
barbettes as bow and stern chasers. The two broadside guns, how¬ 
ever, are here replaced by ten 6’6-inch guns, of which six are 
broadside weapons only, the remaining four being placed in small 
towers so as to enable them to fire respectively bow or stern as well. 
They have two military masts and two funnels, and are easily recog¬ 
nised by the very unusual proximity of the foremast to the bow funnel. 
The protected cruisers, though mustering in number close on a 
hundred, need not detain us long. They are comprised in some six or 
seven classes, that differ in construction little from one another. The 
pioneers of the type are the American ships Idaho and Wampanoag, 
built after the successful careers of the Sumter and Alabama had 
demonstrated the need of such vessels. 
The first British ships thus designed solely for the protection of our 
