The Edgar-class first-class protected cruisers

Having recently written a blog post about Antoine Vanner's next book in the Dawlish Chronicles series, I decided to take a closer look at the classes of British ships mentioned in the book.

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The Edgar-class were a group of nine first-class protected cruisers that were built for the Royal Navy in the late nineteenth century.

On 30th May 1889, the Naval Defence Act received royal assent. As a result, the 'two-power standard' (i.e. the Royal Navy to be as strong as the combined strength of the world's next two largest navies ... which in 1889 meant the French and Russian Navies) was formally adopted as a central tenet of British naval policy, and this led to a large number of new ships being ordered to increase Britain's naval strength.

HMS Edgar.

The Edgar-class was one of the classes that were ordered as a direct result of this Act, and they served until they were scrapped in the 1920s.

The class's characteristics were:

• Displacement: 7,700 tons
• Dimensions:
• Length: 387ft 6in (118.11m)
• Beam: 60ft (18.3m)
• Draught: 24ft (7.3m)
• Propulsion: 4 x double-ended boilers providing steam to 2 x three-cylinder reciprocating triple expansion engines (12,000ihp) each connected to a shaft driving a propeller
• Speed: 20 knots
• Range: 10,000 nautical miles at 10 knots
• Complement: 544
• Armament: 2 x 9.2-inch (230mm) Mk VI BL guns; 10 x 6-inch (152mm) QF guns; 12 x 6-pounder (57mm) QF guns; 4 x 18-inch (450mm) torpedo tubes
• Armour:
• Deck: 5 to 3 inches (127mm to 76mm)
• Casemate: 6 inches (152mm)
• Gun shields (9.2-inch guns): 3 inches (76mm)
• Conning tower: 10 inches (254mm)

There were nine ships in the class:

• Edgar: Laid down: 3rd June 1889; Launched: 24th November 1890; Commissioned: 2nd March 1893; Sold 9th May 1921
• Hawke: Laid down: 16th June 1889; Launched: 11th March 1891; Commissioned: 16th May 1893; Sunk by a torpedo fired by the German U-9: 15th October 1914
• Endymion: Laid down: 22nd November 1889; Launched: 22nd July 1891; Commissioned: 26th May 1894; Sold 16th March 1920
• Royal Arthur (laid down as Centaur): Laid down: 20th January 1890; Launched: 26th February 1891; Commissioned: 2nd March 1893; Sold: August 1921
• Gibraltar: Laid down: 2nd December 1889; Launched: 27th April 1892; Commissioned: 1st November 1894; Sold: August 1923
• Grafton: Laid down: 1st January 1890; Launched: 30th January 1892; Commissioned: 18th October 1894; Sold: 1st July 1921
• St George: Laid down: 23rd April 1890; Launched: 23rd June 1892; Commissioned: 25th October 1894; Sold: 1st July 1921
• Theseus: Laid down: 16th July 1890; Launched: 8th September 1892; Commissioned: 14th January 1894; Scrapped: 1921
• Crescent: Laid down: 13th October 1890; Launched: 30th March 1892; Commissioned: 22nd February 1894; Sold: 21st September 1921

These ship provided valuable service during the First World War despite being obsolete by 1914.