In the _Reina Regente_ the Spanish government expects to have the fastest cruiser afloat. Her keel was laid in the Thompson’s Yard at Clydebank on June 11, 1886, and she was launched February 24, 1887. She is built of steel, is 320 feet in length, 50 feet 7 inches in beam, has a sea-going displacement of 4800 tons, and with her full capacity of coal and stores on board, a displacement of 5600 tons. The motive power consists of two independent, horizontal, triple-expansion engines (each working in its own compartment), which are capable of developing with forced draft 12,000 indicated horse-power and a speed of 20.5 knots. The battery will consist of four 9.45-inch Hontoria rifles, mounted on platforms raised four feet above the deck, and situated two forward and two abaft the superstructure; of six 4.72-inch Hontoria guns, two mounted each side on sponsons, and one each side in a recessed port; of eight 6-pounder rapid-fire guns, six revolving cannons, and five above-water torpedo-tubes. The ship has a complete steel deck, curving from about six feet below the water-line to its horizontal height; this latter section is about one-third the width of the ship, and is three inches thick over the engines and boilers, and one inch thick for the rest, while the inclined and curved sides are four and three-quarter inches thick. To assist in excluding water when pierced, a complete belt of cellulose extends around the ship inside the inner skin, and about the height of the water-line. The torpedo-boat chaser _Destructor_ is not only a good sea-boat, and capable of making a long passage at high speed, but has proved herself to be one of the fastest vessels afloat. She has 350 tons normal displacement, and when fully loaded and equipped 458 tons. Her engines have developed 3829 indicated horse-power. During ten days in November, 1886, a maximum speed of 23¾ knots was attained, and on December 13th of that year she reached a mean speed for four hours of 22.65 knots, and an estimated coal endurance of 5100 miles at 11½ knots, and of 700 miles at full speed. In January, 1887, she ran in twenty four hours from Falmouth to Finisterre, thus covering the 495 miles at a mean speed of 21 knots.