British Armoured Cruisers
Entries in bold indicate photos.
Shannon Class
| Shannon | Shannon was the first British armoured cruiser. She was too slow for use as a cruiser, and too lightly armed and armoured for fleet work. |
Nelson Class
|
Nelson Northampton |
The Nelsons were an enlargement of the Shannon, with more powerful machinery, improved armour and armament. |
Imperieuse Class
|
Imperieuse Warspite |
The Imperieuse were built with all or nothing protection, and were too slow due to extra weight added during construction. |
Orlando Class
|
Aurora Australia Galatea Immortalite Narcissus Orlando Undaunted |
The Orlandos were enlarged versions of the Mersey class protected cruisers. All exceeded their design power and speed. |
Cressy Class
|
Aboukir Bacchante Cressy Euryalus Hogue Sutlej |
The Cressy class were armoured versions of the Diadems. Improved armour processes allowed a greater area to be covered for a given weight than preceeding classes. |
Drake Class
|
Drake Good Hope King Alfred Leviathan |
The Drakes were considered armoured versions of the Powerfuls. They proved excellent seaboats and proved popular in service. |
Monmouth Class
|
Bedford Berwick Cornwall Cumberland Donegal Essex Kent Lancaster Monmouth Suffolk |
The Monmouhts were built to a smaller and cheaper design than the Drakes to increase numbers in reponse to foreign powers who had themselves started large construction programmes. |
Devonshire Class
|
Antrim Argyll Carnarvon Devonshire Hampshire Roxburgh |
The Devonshires were an attempt to improve on the Monmouths without significantly increasing size or cost. |
Duke Of Edinburgh Class
|
Black Prince Duke Of Edinburgh |
The Dukes were the first British ships to be designed by Philip Watts, as Chief Constructor. The most important addition was the increase in main armament, although the secondary guns were mounted too low to be worked in heavy seas. |
Warrior Class
|
Achilles Cochrane Natal Warrior |
The Warriors were modified Dukes, and featured an increase in secondary armament size. More importantly, the 7.5" guns were mounted high in turrets, rather than low in casemates. They were good seaboats, and proved popular with their crews. |
Minotaur Class
|
Defence Minotaur Shannon |
The last British armoured cruisers were also the largest. The secondary armament was again turreted, but the armour protection was considered deficient. |
|
Back. |