Victorian and Edwardian Miscellany: Royal Navy: Part 2

The workhorse of the Royal Navy has always been the cruiser, and amongst my collection of old photographs I have two that stand out as typical.

HMS Ariadne was a protected cruiser of the Diadem-class. They were termed 'protected, because they were fitted with an armoured deck but no belt or side armour like the armoured cruisers.

Her particulars were:

• Displacement: 11,000 tons
• Length: 435 feet
• Beam: 69 feet
• Draught: 27 feet 6 inches
• Propulsion: 2 × triple expansion engines (18,000 hp) each driving a propeller
• Maximum Speed: 20 knots
• Complement: 677
• Armament: 16 × 6-inch QF guns; 14 x 12-pounder (3-inch) QF guns, 3 × 3-pounder QF guns; 2 × 18-inch torpedo tubes
• Armour: Deck: 2.5-4 inches; Conning Tower: 12 inches; Casemates & Gun Shields: 4.5 inches

HMS Brilliant was a member of the the Apollo-class of 20 second-class protected cruisers. As such she was much smaller and more economic than HMS Ariadne and her like, but also somewhat less capable.

Her particulars were:

• Displacement: 3,600 tons
• Length: 314 feet
• Beam: 43 feet 6 inches
• Draught: 17 feet 6 inches
• Propulsion: 2 × triple expansion engines (9,000 hp) each driving a propeller
• Maximum Speed: 19.75 knots
• Complement: 273 to 300
• Armament: 2 × 6-inch QF guns; 6 x 4.7-inch QF guns, 8 × 6-pounder QF guns; 4 × 14-inch torpedo tubes
• Armour: Deck: 2 inches

Five ships of this class (including HMS Brilliant) were sunk as blockships as part of the Zeebrugge and Ostend raids in April 1918.