Page:The Development of Navies During the Last Half-Century.djvu/187

22-ton guns and thicker armour than any of the early ironclads. It is more the service on which they are to be employed than any special form of construction which has put them in the cruiser category. No more ships of this type have been built. In this country the further development of the cruiser has been in the direction of giving up external armour, and devoting all weight we can give to protection to a steel deck for the whole length of the ship, varying in thickness according to her size. The extreme of this principle is seen in the 'Blake' and 'Blenheim,' our two latest and largest cruisers, each of 9000 tons displacement. The interior is roofed over so as to cover the machinery, magazines, etc., with a steel deck 3 in. thick. The sides of this deck slope down to about 6 ft. below the water line, till they meet the hull, the thickness being double that of the horizontal portion. This disposition of armour does not attempt to exclude hostile shells, but, it is assumed, will prevent their explosion from impairing either the buoyancy or motive power of the vessel. Opinions as to the comparative merit of external and internal armour are divergent, and I offer none of my own. It is one of the many questions which actual conflict can alone decide. But if in the 'Imperieuse' and 'Warspite' we marked a considerable increase of speed over the early armoured cruisers, this quality is developed to a still greater extent in the 'Blake' and 'Blenheim.' They are to be provided with machinery of sufficient power to drive them in smooth water at the rate of 22 knots an hour, when pushed to the utmost