The _Victoria_ was a steel-armoured first-class single-turreted battleship, and was built at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1887. Her armour was from 18 to 16 inches thick, and there was a protective deck 3 inches thick. She had two sets of three-stage expansion engines, and steam was generated in eight steel boilers with four furnaces each, which were fired from four independent stokeholds. She was one of the three ships to be armed with 111-ton guns, of which she had two in a turret forward. One 29-ton gun was mounted aft to fire over the stern, and she also had twelve 6-inch, twelve 6-pounder quick-firers, twelve 3-pounder quick-firers, eight machine guns, and four torpedo tubes, two of which were submerged. Her displacement was 10,470 tons, length 340 feet, breadth 70 feet, and depth 27 feet 3 inches. The rapidity with which she heeled over and sank was supposed to be partly due to the weight of these enormous guns. Great things were expected from the type represented by the _Benbow_, launched in 1885, and completed three years later, which, next to the _Inflexible_ which cost nearly £800,000, was the most expensive ship Britain had then built, and cost the country close upon £775,000. She was very heavily armed, as she carried two 16.25 inch and ten 6-inch guns, all breech-loaders, and was the first vessel to be given five torpedo tubes. This vessel may be said to have inaugurated the big gun era, notwithstanding that she came under the category of soft-ended ships. The last British single-turret ship was the _Sans Pareil_, launched in 1887, and completed two years later, and in many respects a sister ship to the unfortunate _Victoria_. These three vessels did not give the satisfaction anticipated, and though various alterations were made in the _Victoria_ no great improvement was effected, and the results were not considered such as to justify the construction of any more like them. The _Benbow’s_ big guns were in barbettes, and those of the _Sans Pareil_ were in a turret. The _Nile_ and _Trafalgar_, which were begun in 1886, were of 11,940 tons displacement, and were the largest ships up to then built for the Navy. Their heaviest guns, instead of being in barbettes, were placed in turrets. These vessels were exceedingly heavily armoured, having a belt of steel no less than 20 inches thick, and above this was an armoured redoubt, or citadel, protected by compound armour 18 inches in thickness for 141 feet along each side, the redoubt having parabolic ends of the same thickness of armour, enclosing the turret bases. Armour of equal thickness was placed on the turrets. The secondary armament, consisting of 4.7 inch quick-firing guns, was contained in an octagonal battery with steel sides 3 to 5 inches thick, placed between the turrets. These ships were 345 feet in length by 73 feet beam, and about 28 feet mean draught.