The extraordinary reduction in weight thus secured made possible the advent of the _Majestic_ and _Magnificent_. These two vessels and the others of their class were as far in advance of the _Royal Sovereign_ as the heavy ironclads were in front of the iron-plated ships. The side armour of the _Majestic_ and _Magnificent_ of Harveyised steel was carried to twice the height that was possible with the _Royal Sovereign_, and though it was only 9 inches thick it offered a resistance to penetration by hostile projectiles at least equal to that of the massive sides of the _Royal Sovereign_, and was far stronger than the ponderous iron masses piled upon the sides of the great turret ships of a few years earlier. [Illustration: H.M.S. “MAJESTIC.” _Photograph by West & Sons, Southsea._] With the _Magnificent_, launched in 1894 and completed the following year, came the barbette ships with a high displacement. She, and the others of her class, carried four 12-inch guns and twelve 6-inch quick-firers, and thirty-eight anti-torpedo-boat guns, a number which had not been equalled by any other vessel except the _Royal Sovereign_, and five torpedo tubes, as against seven which had been installed in that vessel and her sisters. The _Magnificent_ had a displacement of 14,900 tons and engines of 12,000 indicated h.p., a designed speed of seventeen and a half knots which she exceeded, a coal capacity of 2,200 tons, a belt of 9 inches of steel armour, and from 10 to 14 inches of steel for the protection of the main guns. The _Majestic_ was another of the sisterhood, though there were certain differences of detail, no two vessels being precisely alike. She was 390 feet between perpendiculars and, including the overhang of the stern and the ram of 15 feet, about 430 feet in length. Her beam was 75 feet. Thus she was longer than the _Royal Sovereign_ but of the same beam, which made her a faster ship, her speed on her trial having reached 17.8 knots, although her engines indicated about 1,000 less h.p. than the battleships of the programme of 1889.