Draught--(maximum) 30ft. Armament--Eight 13.5 inch 45 calibre, twenty 4-inch, three 21-inch torpedo tubes. Armour--Belt, 9--4-inch. Machinery--Parsons Turbine. Horse-power--(as designed) = 28 knots. Boilers--Yarrow. Coal--(normal) 1,000 tons; (maximum) 3,500 tons; oil also. _Lion_--Built at Devonport; engined by Vickers. _Princess Royal_--Built at Vickers; engined by Vickers. The _Lion_ was laid down in November, 1909, and launched in the following year. The _Princess Royal_ was laid down in April, 1910, and launched a year later. Both were arranged to be completed during 1912. The _Lion_ was somewhat delayed owing to slight repairs being required to her turbines. In addition, the authorities very wisely did not “hurry” her--hurrying ships to fit an exact official date having done more mischief than anything else in the past. The _Lion_ did her trials early in 1912, and reached a maximum of 31.7 knots by patent log, with a mean of 29 knots at full power and 24.5 or so at three-quarter power. For her trials the _Lion_ burned coal only, and this at the seemingly enormous rate of 950 tons a day, which worked out at approximately about a ton and a quarter per mile. This consumption, heavy though it seems, really pans out at about the usual “ton a mile,” as the ship developed horse-power far in excess of the contract. At the same time it necessarily draws attention to the enormous increase in coal stores required for supplying modern warships. It is unfortunately by no means clear that the question of the very great increase in coal required for modern warships has been thoroughly realised by the authorities. The amount provided may be said to be what ships needed in the pre-Dreadnought era. It is now an open secret that at the time of the “war scare” with Germany in 1911, the British Home Fleet was unable to proceed to sea owing to a shortage of coal supply, many ships being a thousand tons short and no proper arrangements for rapid remedy existing. This state of affairs, at one time alleged to be merely a newspaper _canard_, is not likely to occur again; but it is an indication of how difficult it is adequately to realise the problem of coal supply to ships of ever-increasing horse-power. During the _Lion’s_ trials it was found that the heat from the fore funnel was so great that the fire-control station (then carried on a tripod mast placed immediately over the forward funnel) was so intense as to render that position practically impossible. On the navigating bridge also, instruments were badly affected by the heat. The ship was consequently further delayed in order to effect essential modifications. These included the abolition of the tripod mast, shifting the fore funnel back a long way, and enormously increasing the height of all funnels.