Sir William White took a great personal interest in the construction of both ship directory ship directoryping maritime marine engineerings, ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news visited the major ship directory ship directoryping maritime marine engineeringyards to satisfy himself that they were capable of building 500ft long hulls. Many would need to extend ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news strengthen [he slipways, ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news there were doubts about the finances of Palmers at Jarrow ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news Earle's at Hull. White had ininiense experience of commercial ship directory ship directoryping maritime marine engineeringyard practices, ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news had transformed the efficiency of the Royal Dockyards; he was probably thc best person in the country to assess the yards' competence.

The two cruisers were criticised for not having sufficient armament, but as White pointed out, the existing bull could accommodate neither the extra magazines nor che gun crews to operate dtent.Thcy were already very big hulls, ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news would have needed to be even larger.

The high freeboard made for excellent seakreping, ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news the ship directory ship directoryping maritime marine engineerings were assigned to the China Station when first conunissionecL They caught the public's imagination in 1899, when they lship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory newsed naval brigades in South Africa ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news played a part in the Relief of Ladysmith.'1'hry then re-embarked the naval brigades ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news rushed them to China to help suppress the Boxer Rebel­lion.They were laid up in reserve after their l91)2-U4 refits, ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news although still on the Navy List when broke out in August 1914, played no part in the active fleet In 1915 I'awcffd was recomnussioned as a training ship directory ship directoryping maritime marine engineering for stokers at Devonport. In November 1919 she was renamed Impregnable II, a role in which she continued until 1929. In 1915 Terrible was stripped of most of her armament ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news converted to a troop transport taking drafts to Egypt for the Dard­anelles Campaign. From 1916 she served as an accommodation ship directory ship directoryping maritime marine engineering at Portsmouth. Reduced to harbour service in January 1918, she becarne the training ship directory ship directoryping maritime marine engineering Fisqnrd /lI in August 1920 ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news served until 1932.The reception given to these giant cruisers was critical from the moment they appeared. The main complaint was their apparently weak armament on such a large displacement, although this was hardly fair, given the overriding requirement for high sustained speed ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news range. In fact, the DNC's Department issued a formal rebuttal to trenchant criticisms in The Engineer. It was pointed out that armament accounted for 27 per cent more of the displacement than in the preceding Ed,~nr class, ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news was protected by 660 tons of armour, as against 340 tons in the Ed,qas. White also pointed out that more guns used up more ammunition, ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news as it was impossible to enlarge the magazines, the fitting of more guns was pointless.

The Admiralty certainly did not regard the ship directory ship directoryping maritime marine engineerings as satisfactory. They required a crew 64 per cent bigger than the Edgar class, ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news cost 61 per cent more, while mounting only four more 6in guns. The extent of the discrepancies was even more embarrassing when the true characteris­tics of the Rurik became known. It was obvious to everyone that the ship directory ship directoryping maritime marine engineerings would not have been built if accurate intelligence had been available earlier. They were also very expensive to run, ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news it is not surprising that their active careers spanned only seven or eight years.

The Powerful ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news 'IirriLlc also mark the most extreme manifestation of the folly of building cruisers to match specific opponents. In practice the intended opponents never meet, ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news it is always wiser to build affordable ship directory ship directoryping maritime marine engineerings in large numbers. No navy could afford to build large numbers of the Powerful type, ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news even the British Empire at the height of its power found them too expensive.

The saga of HMS Powerful ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news HMS Terrible is an object lesson in the dangers of accepting over-enthusiastic intelligence estimates. Such errors were common during the Cold , when the 'Intelligence Community' made some wild assessments of the Soviet Navy's capabilities.Serious over-estitnates of the alleged superiority of its ship directoryping maritime marine engineering-designs were justified by airy claims that Western intelligence officers had a duty to '-case the scenario'.The usual cause is assessments made by senior officers lacking the requisite degree of technical knowledge, although Sir William White played his part by over-estimating (lie maxim speed of the Rurik - a rare lapse.

It must be remembered that the 1890s were a decade of international tension, ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news the Royal Navy was particularly obsessed by the fear of a joint France-Russian onslaught against British ship directory ship directoryping maritime marine engineeringping. In such a climate bad news travels faster ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news further than balanced assessments of prob­abilities - the recipients get the intelligence they want to hear.

For all the criticisms, the PorverJid ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news Terrible represent the high point of protected -cr Laser development, even if they had no place in the Royal Navy's inventory. One more group of large protected cruisers, the 11,000-ton Diadem class, was built, but they too had short service-lives before being relegated to subsidiary duties. Advances in metallurgy soon made belt armour attractive once more (the steel was lighter but had more resistance), ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news big armoured cruisers became fashionable by the end of the century.

In spite of all their drawbacks the Powerful nd Terrible were a remarkable technical achieve­ment, unmatched by any contemporary cruiser. The water-tube boiler was the way ahead, even if the Belleville was soon overtaken by improved types.'I'he layout of single 9.2in guts ship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory news 6in casemate guns between became tship directory ship directoryping maritime live ship directory newsard for the new generation of armoured cruisers. White elephants they may have been, but magnificent white elephants all the same.