bered that
the navy is made up of ships built during a period of fifteen or twenty
years; the newest being a great advance upon the older ones, yet
differing but little from those launched a few years before.

The indications at present are for fast ships of very large size, the
battleships--intended to act in squadrons--possessing the maximum of
offensive and defensive power; the cruisers--intended for scouting and
similar purposes--possessing a high rate of speed, heavy armament, and a
certain amount of protection; and, as the travelling speed of a fleet is
limited to that of the slowest vessel in the group, the aim of British
naval architects is to design all the battleships to go at approximately
the same speed, and similarly for the cruisers. A special feature of
all British warships is the large coal supply carried, in view of the
fact that they may be required to operate in any part of the world. For
this reason the armour in our ships is sometimes not so thick as in some
foreign ships, which sacrifice coal supply and radius of action to
obtain better protection. In other respects our ships are second to
none.

The British battleship of to-day varies from 12,000 up to 15,000 tons in
displacement, and has a maximum speed of fully 18 knots, or about
twenty-one miles an hour. They are armoured from end to end, and are
provided with two protective decks; the lower one, about the level of
the water-line, being to protect the "vitals"; the upper one, to prevent
the fragments of shells from above penetrating to the batteries below.
Forward and aft are the two barbettes, each carrying a pair of long
12-inch 50-ton guns, firing 850-pound shot, capable of penetrating 28
inches of wrought iron at a range of two miles. The secondary armament
of 6-inch or 7.5-inch guns is mounted in "casemates," or armoured
chambers, so disposed that two of them can also fire straight ahead, and
the other two straight astern. The most recent ships have these ahead
or astern guns mounted in turrets, and in the largest ships of all, some
of which are of 18,000 tons, these guns are 9.2-inch 380-pounders.

After the battleships come the cruisers, corresponding to the frigates
of olden days,--ships whose functions correspond to that of the cavalry
of land forces, having to act as scouts, carry messages, intercept the
enemy's ships, and capture his mercantile ships, or protect their own
merchant convoys. To perform these varied functions,