Name Powerful class Preceded by Edgar class Built 1894–98 | Operators Royal Navy Succeeded by Diadem class In service 1897–1932 | |
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The Powerful class were first-class protected cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. There were two ships in the Powerful class, the lead ship, Powerful, and Terrible.
Contents
Design
They were designed for hunting down commerce raiders such as the Russian armoured cruiser Rurik and numerous French armoured cruisers of the era. As a result, these were very large cruisers intended to be able to dominate other cruisers in a one-on-one battle. A secondary function was to act as a high speed, long range transport (which in fact was their only actual use during war).
The original armament was to be a uniform battery of twenty 6-inch guns. However, the Director of Naval Ordnance strongly believed that fewer larger (8-inch) guns would produce a better ship. The Office of Naval Construction countered that a 6-inch gun was suitable for fighting other cruisers, and that the 8-inch gun was too slow-firing to fight cruisers yet too small to fight battleships. He asked for at least a few guns of at least 9.2 inches as the smallest capable of damaging a contemporary battleship. This argument won, and the armament as constructed became two 9.2-inch guns and twelve 6-inch guns. Observers criticized these ships for their apparently light armament given their size. However, they had excellent sea keeping, high speed, and long range, all of which required space and tonnage.
These were the first cruisers in the Royal Navy with four funnels.
These ships had an armoured deck to stop plunging shells. This deck curved, with its crown in the middle of the ship 3 feet 6 inches (1.07 m) above the waterline, and the edges were 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) below the waterline. The deck was 6 inches (150 mm) thick over the machinery, 4 inches (100 mm) thick over the magazines, and 2.5 inches (64 mm) thick in the middle of the ship.
The dimensions of this class were limited by the then available dockyards available to build and maintain them.
In comparison to the Edgar class, these ships had a crew 64% larger, cost 61% more to build, had more than twice the horsepower, had 660 tons of armour versus 340 tons, were two knots faster, but had very nearly the same armament. The Edgar class remained to fight during the First World War, but the Powerful class had left the active fleet by then.
Building Programme
The following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the members of the Powerful class. Standard British practice at that time was for these costs to exclude armament and stores.
Trials
Terrible 1898 Trials
December 1898 sea trip, Portsmouth to Gibraltar, 12,500 ihp = 18 kn (33 km/h) average. Gibraltar to Malta, average 21.5 kn (39.8 km/h).
Careers
Both ships served in the China Station and provided landing parties which fought in the relief of the Siege of Ladysmith in the Second Boer War in South Africa. This event inspired the Field gun competition. Crews from the two ships also took part in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion in China. After 1904 they were laid up as an economy measure. During the First World War, they had most of their armament removed and served as troop transports and later accommodation ships.