Curiously enough, for some while, though every nation started building _Dreadnoughts_, Germany alone proceeded to build _Invincibles_ also. In 1911 Japan ordered a ship of fast battleship type; but, generally speaking, foreign nations have abstained from embodying this portion of the Cuniberti ideal in their designs. [Illustration: DREADNOUGHT. INDOMITABLE. NEPTUNE. INDEFATIGABLE. DREADNOUGHTS.] The programme for the years 1906–07 had been originally intended to include the building of four armoured ships, presumably one _Dreadnought_ and three _Invincibles_; but the Liberal party, which had just come into power, modified this to three battleships of an improved _Dreadnought_ type. This action led to a popular agitation which ultimately eventuated in the provision of no less than eight armoured ships in the estimates of three years later. The three ships which followed, the _Dreadnought_, the _Bellerophon_, _Téméraire_, and _Superb_, are some seven hundred tons heavier, but otherwise differ only in minor details. For the one heavy tripod of the _Dreadnought_, two were substituted, and the 4-inch anti-torpedo gun was also mounted. In the next year the _St. Vincent_ class, a group of similar type, but increased by 650 tons, were provided. The anti-torpedo armament is carried to 20 guns in the _St. Vincent_ class, which are 10ft. longer than their predecessors, and carry fifty-calibre big guns in place of the forty-five calibre pieces of the earlier ships. The constructive particulars of these ships are as follows:-- ==============+============+====================+===========+===========+======== Name. | Built at. | Machinery by. | Laid down.| Completed.| Trials. --------------+------------+--------------------+-----------+-----------+-------- _Bellerophon_ | Portsmouth | Fairfield | Dec., ’06 | Feb., ’07 | 21.9 _Téméraire_ | Devonport | Hawthorn, Leslie | Jan., ’07 | May, ’09 | _Superb_ | Elswick | Wallsend Co. | Feb., ’07 | June, ’09 | --------------+------------+--------------------+-----------+-----------+-------- _St. Vincent_ | Portsmouth | Scott Eng. & S. Co.| Dec., ’07 | Jan., ’10 | 21.9 _Collingwood_ | Devonport | Hawthorn, L. | Feb., ’08 | Jan., ’10 | 22 _Vanguard_ | Vickers | Vickers | April, ’08| Feb., ’10 | 22.1 ==============+============+====================+===========+===========+========