The _Nelsons_ are often counted as “Dreadnoughts”; but their only claim to the position is they do not happen to carry any 6-inch guns. Actually they are nothing but improved _King Edwards_, bearing to those ships very much the same relation as the _Warriors_ to the _Black Princes_. Their comparatively slow speeds and their mixed armaments entirely differentiate them from the swifter “all-big-gun” ship which followed, and, for that matter, caught them up.[23] The _Nelsons_ were never really successful ships outside the points alluded to above. Eight of their ten 9.2’s were placed in twin turrets, and in many circumstances two 9.2 so mounted proved very little superior in efficiency to a similar single gun in an isolated gun-house.[24] In the matter of protection the _Nelsons_ far exceeded the _King Edwards_. In place of a 9in. belt amidships they were given a 12in. one, while the 8in. and 6in. strakes above of the earlier ships became a uniform 8in. The bow belt forward was also augmented to 6in. on the water-line, surmounted by 4in., instead of a belt uniformly increasing from 2in. to 6in. further aft. But none of this made them “Dreadnoughts,” and the absence of “Dreadnought” features relegated them to the second line very soon after they were completed. In these ships the tripod mast, the idea of which dates back to the _Captain_ era, re-appeared. The _Nelsons_ were given as mainmasts the first of those modern tripods which have characterised nearly every British capital ship since built till the _Lion_ was altered. The idea of the tripod mast is to avoid the many shrouds of an ordinary mast; and so give greater training to the guns. Whether the idea be of use is another matter. Generally speaking ideas abandoned by our forefathers have failed to live long if resuscitated. In the 1902–03 and 1903–04 Estimates provision was made for four vessels each year of a new type, known as “Scouts.” These were the _Adventure_ and _Attentive_ (Elswick), _Forward_ and _Foresight_ (Fairfield), _Pathfinder_ and _Patrol_ (Laird), _Sentinel_ and _Skirmisher_ (Vickers-Maxim). One was awarded each year to each of the firms mentioned, but all were actually laid down between June, 1903, and January, 1904. The first four to be given out to contract were originally named _Eddystone_, _Nore_, _Fastnet_, and _Inchkeith_. These vessels came to be built owing to an appreciation of the fact that destroyers had altogether lost their original rôle and had become torpedo-boats, pure and simple. The “Scouts,” though from three to four times the size, were the old “catchers” re-introduced. They compared with these as follows:--