The design was made by Philip Watts.(1) With a hull of steel and further sheathed with wood, being flushed-decked and fitted out with a double bottom over the whole length. Laid down in February 1893 at the yard of Armstrong, United Kingdom, launched on 18 May two years later and the building was finished in February 1896. With a displacement of 4,788 tons (normal) were her dimensions 396’ (between perpendiculars) x 42’2”x 18’5” (mean) or 120.70 x 12,85 x 5,61 metres. The 2-shaft vertical triple expansion engines and 8 cylindrical boilers supplied 17,000 ihp allowing a speed of 24 knots while she had a coal bunker capacity of 350-1,000 tons. Her crew numbered 350 men. The armament consisted of 2x1-8” (1 fore, 1 aft) guns, 4x1-6” guns, 6x1-4.7” guns, 16x1-3pdr guns and 5x1-18” surfaced torpedo tubes. The armour of steel consisted of a protective deck all over the ships’ length with a thickness amidships of 5” sloping at the ends to 3”, 1.5”thick flats and a 5”glacis, while the guns were protected by 4.5” thick armour and the conning tower by 6”.
Note
1. Sir Philip Watts (30 Ma 1846 Deptford, Kent, England-15 March 1926 Chelsea, London, England) a British naval architect responsible for designing the Elswick cruisers and the famous HMS Dreadnought. He was director of the War Shipping department of Armstrong, Whitworth & Co, at Elswick between 1885-1901.
