The _Royal Sovereign_, launched in 1891 and completed the following year, introduced what is known as the high freeboard barbette type, and in 1893 there was completed the _Hood_, the last of the British turret ships. The _Royal Sovereign_ was noteworthy for several reasons. A record for rapid building was established in her, for she was laid down in September, 1889, and was launched as early as February, 1891, a quicker piece of work for a vessel of her dimensions and the weight of material handled than had ever been accomplished. One novelty about her armament was that she carried as many as eight Maxims. In her also the “big four” were 13½-inch breech-loaders, as against the 12-inch guns placed in her predecessors; these were mounted in pairs in barbettes. She also had ten 6-inch quick-firers, six of which were behind shields and four in casemates; and sixteen 6-pounders, twelve 3-pounders, and three torpedo tubes completed her weapons of offence. For the protection of the ship a belt of compound armour, 18 inches thick, extended along the water-line a sufficient distance to protect the bases of the barbettes. Across the ship at the top of the belt was a protective steel deck 8 inches thick, and this deck was continued at the level of the bottom of the belt to the extreme ends of the ship. Above the thick belt on the sides and protecting the ship as high as the main deck and from the fore to the after barbette was a belt of steel armour 4 inches thick, and above this, on the main deck, were the casemates enclosing the 6-inch quick-firers. Altogether eight of these vessels were built, the _Hood_ being the only one of them to be given turrets instead of barbettes. Artillerists, however, were not to be beaten, and so far as steel armour and compound armour were concerned, the gun appeared once more to be obtaining the advantage. The Harvey process of strengthening the resisting powers of steel came to the rescue of the armour-plate. The _Renown_, which has been called a “half-way house” between the _Royal Sovereign_ and the _Centurion_, was the first warship in the British Navy to be given Harveyised steel armour, of which both her armoured belt and her armoured bulkheads were constructed. Whereas in the _Royal Sovereign_ the thickest armour was 18 inches, that of the _Renown_ was 10 inches, and yet the latter was declared to be the better protected.