The _King Edward VII._ and _Lord Nelson_ were the finest examples of the types of battleships carrying four big guns and a powerful secondary armament. Both classes were provided with four 12-inch guns, but the _Lord Nelson_ and the _Agamemnon_ marked an advance from the principle which had endured so long towards the principle of the all-big-gun one-calibre ship as exemplified in the _Dreadnought_. They were not, however, ships carrying all big guns of one calibre, for instead of a secondary armament like that of the _King Edward_, they carried ten 9.2-inch guns and twenty-four smaller weapons. The _Lord Nelson_ and _Agamemnon_ were about 410 feet in length by 79 feet 6 inches beam, and on a draught of 27 feet had a displacement of 16,500 tons. They were 15 feet shorter than the _King Edward_ class and 18 inches broader. Many naval men preferred the _Agamemnon_ to the _Dreadnought_, when the latter appeared in 1906, on account of the greater rapidity of fire of the former; but against this it was contended that her hitting power at long range was less. Upon her trials the _Agamemnon’s_ engines developed 17,285 h.p. indicated, and gave her a speed of eighteen and three-quarter knots, both power and speed being in excess of the estimates. Her high freeboard was a notable feature; her forward guns were 27 feet and her after pair 22 feet above the water-line, while in a superstructure above them were the smaller guns some 34 feet above the water-line, where they were admirably placed for dealing with any attempt at a torpedo attack. The _Agamemnon_ was built by the Beardmore firm, at Dalmuir, and launched in June, 1906, and the _Lord Nelson_ left the slips at Palmer’s establishment at Jarrow in the following September. It was contended that their 12-inch guns were half as powerful again as any of similar calibre mounted previous to 1906. Of their 9.2-inch guns, eight were in what are called twin barbettes, and the other two in single barbettes between the others. There are also a few 12-pounders and a greater number of 3-pounders, thirty-five in all, most of which are in a somewhat exposed position. These ships have each a complete belt extending along the water-line from stem to stern, 12 inches thick amidships, and tapering to 6 inches at the bow and 4 inches aft, while the sides above the belt and between the barbettes have 8-inch armour raised to the level of the upper deck; diagonal bulkheads, also of 8-inch armour, enclose the citadel at either end. Yet that 8-inch armour was declared by Mr. Beardmore, when the ship was launched, to be more than equal in its power of resisting projectiles to the 12-inch armour of only four years earlier.