These ships are described on page 125. The principal ships built in Germany are the _Preussen_ and the _Friedrich der Grosse_, which, although designed by the German Admiralty constructors, are but reproductions on a less scale, and with some variations, of the British turret-ship _Monarch_, designed by myself. Lord Brassey (in “The British Navy,” vol. i., page 22) says: “In the mean time Germany had constructed three turret-ships of precisely the same type as the _Monarch_, but of somewhat smaller dimensions. These were the _Preussen_, the _Friedrich der Grosse_, and the _Grosser Kurfürst_.”[36] His lordship goes on to say (what I do not understand), “Their armor at the water-line is six inches thicker, while at the turrets it is two inches less, than that of the _Monarch_.” Now, as Lord Brassey elsewhere says (page 326), “the _Monarch_ is protected with 8-inch armor,” and (page 333), writing of the _Preussen_, “that the armor-plates at the water-line are 9¼ inches thick, below the water 7¼ inches, and above the water 8¼ inches,” it is obvious that there cannot be the difference of six inches which his first-quoted statement alleges. There doubtless was a difference of an inch, or possibly of two inches, in so far as a few of the armor-plates were concerned, but not more, and how far this difference extended is very doubtful, seeing that nowadays if the constructor of a ship thickens but two or three plates on each side of his ship he feels entitled to speak of her as being armored with plates of the maximum thickness, and to mislead mankind accordingly. Nor is this surprising, when we see in a late return to the British Parliament ships like the British _Collingwood_ class, the French _Brennus_ class, and the German _Sachsen_ class gravely included in the lists of “armored vessels.” The particulars of the German armored fleet, leaving out the _Hansa_, a weak and weakly armed ship of only 3500 tons and 12 knots speed, and all smaller armored craft, are as follows: SEA-GOING ARMORED SHIPS OF GERMANY.