The _Nile_, launched in 1888, had a complete belt, and was the last low freeboard turret ship. She was preceded by what were known as the soft-ended barbette ships, because their ends were comparatively unprotected, the weight being concentrated amidships in order, among other objects, to increase the sea-going qualities of the vessels; the first of these was the _Collingwood_, begun in 1882 and launched in 1886, the principal armament being carried in barbettes. [Illustration: H.M.S. “VICTORIA” FIRING 111-TON GUN. _Photograph by Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Ltd._] [Illustration: H.M.S. “VICTORIA,” SHOWING 111-TON GUNS AND TURRET. _Photograph by Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Ltd._] The _Collingwood_ has been regarded as the pioneer vessel of the modern battleship, for it certainly was the first in which the real advantages of steel were displayed. On her was introduced the system of mounting four heavy guns in pairs on the middle line of the ship, not in turrets as in her predecessors carrying a few big guns, but in barbettes or fixed gun positions protected by heavy armour. The barbettes and turrets have been so modified in later ships that sometimes one term and sometimes the other is used by experts to denote the same design. The method of mounting the guns, as illustrated in the _Collingwood_, remained in vogue in the British Navy until it was supplemented by the _Dreadnoughts_. The _Collingwood’s_ side armour was 18 inches in thickness; the armour of her bulkheads was 16 inches, that of the conning tower 12 inches, and that of her barbettes, in which her four 12-inch 45-ton guns were mounted, was 11½ inches. She also carried six 6-inch guns and several smaller guns. Her displacement was very little more than that of the _Colossus_, but she was two knots faster. Other vessels, described as sisters to the _Collingwood_, followed, but they were all rather larger, among them being the _Camperdown_, which had the misfortune to sink the _Victoria_ during naval manœuvres in 1893 in the Mediterranean, when Admiral Sir George Tryon and nearly all the crew of his flagship went down with the vessel.