She was built solely and simply as an “answer” to a series of “rams” projected for the French Navy, apparently more with an Admiralty idea of not being caught napping “in case,” than from any belief in her efficacy. [Illustration: THE _HOTSPUR_, AS ORIGINALLY COMPLETED, 1871.] Sir E. J. Reed’s ideas in the matter of turret-ships now found expression in four ships of the _Cerberus_ type enlarged. These were the _Cyclops_, _Gorgon_, _Hecate_, and _Hydra_. Like their prototype, they were of the breastwork type, and differed only in having an inch more belt armour and a displacement of 3,560 tons. Differing from them, and perhaps more on Reed lines, was the _Glatton_. Her special feature was the introduction of water to reduce her freeboard in action. She had a single turret only, but her belt was 12ins. thick, and she represented the, then, “last word” in coast defence ships, so far as the British Navy was concerned. Details of her are as follows:-- Displacement--4,910 tons. Length--245ft. Beam--54ft. H.P.--2,870. Mean Draught--19ft. 5ins. Guns--Two 25-ton M.L.R. Armour (iron)--12-10in. Belt Turret, 14in. Coal--540 tons. Speed--12.11 knots (twin screw). Builder of Ship--Chatham Dockyard. Builder of Machinery--Laird. Floated out of Dock--1871; completed, 1871. Cost--Hull and Machinery, £219,529. The last ship of this group was the ram _Rupert_, of 5,440 tons, laid down at Chatham, in 1870. She was, in substance, merely an enlarged _Hotspur_, carrying two 18-ton guns in a single revolving turret forward and two 64-pounders behind the bulwarks aft. Her armour was slightly inferior to the _Glatton’s_: her speed considerably higher--14 knots being aimed at, though it was never reached. She was one of the very few ships which had their engines built in a Royal Dockyard, hers being constructed at Portsmouth Yard. About the year 1890, when re-construction was very much to the fore, the _Rupert_ was re-constructed. She was given a couple of 10in. breech-loaders instead of her old 10in. M.L., a military-top, and a few other improvements. The net result of this re-construction was that when, after it, she first proceeded to coal she began to submerge herself almost at once. Her torpedo tubes were awash before she had received her normal quota of coal, and she was, generally, the most futile example of re-construction ever experienced.