“Then followed, in 1882, the _Leander_ and her three sister bark-rigged vessels, which are a compromise between the speed of the _Iris_ and the protection of the _Comus_. They are of 3750 tons displacement and 17 knots maximum speed; they carry ten 6-inch 4-ton B. L. R., and 725 tons of coal, and have a ‘partial protective deck,’ covering engines, boilers, and magazines, which is 1½ inches thick, and which bends down below the load water-line at the sides. Our new cruisers, the _Chicago_, _Boston_, and _Atlanta_, bear a closer resemblance to this type than they do to any other in respect of their protection. About this time the Chilian cruiser _Esmeralda_, of 3000 tons, appeared, having a protective deck complete from stem to stern-post, carrying an exceptionally heavy battery and coal supply, and withal attaining the unprecedented speed of 18.28 knots. Italy was not slow to perceive the advantages of this type, and accordingly bought an improved _Esmeralda_, the _Giovanni Bausan_, and at once commenced to build four others, the _Vesuvio_, _Stromboli_, _Etna_, and _Fieramosca_, each of 3530 tons. Japan ordered two improved _Esmeraldas_, the sister ships _Naniwa-Kan_ and _Tacachiho-Kan_, from Armstrong, in England, and a similar vessel, the _Unebi_, in France, while England laid down a similar class, the _Mersey_ and three others, and France a similar cruiser, the _Sfax_, of 4400 tons.”[20] The _Unebi_ was a bark-rigged, twin-screw, protected steel cruiser of 3651 tons. Her armament consisted of four 9.45-inch breech-loaders on sponsons, six 5.9-inch breech-loaders in broadside, one 5.9-inch bow pivot, twelve rapid fire and two Nordenfeldt machine guns, and a supply of Whitehead torpedoes. In September, 1886, she developed with forced draft 7000 horse-power and an average speed of 18.5 knots during four runs over the measured mile. She sailed for Japan in November, 1886, with a French crew numbering seventy-eight men, left Singapore for Yokohama on December 3, 1886, and has never been seen nor heard of since. She is said to have been top-heavy, and to have rolled dangerously in a sea way.