It was not, however, until 1883 that the first protected cruiser appeared. This was not built for the British Navy, but for a South American State, and under the name of the _Esmeralda_ came from the slips at Elswick. She had a complete protective deck, and not simply a protecting deck over her vital parts, engines capable of giving her a high speed, and a powerful armament. She was the pioneer vessel of her class. The British naval authorities, however, preferred the armoured cruisers, and led the way in 1881 with the _Imperieuse_ and _Warspite_, but soon abandoned this type and adopted the protected cruiser. These two vessels were each of 8,000 tons displacement, 315 feet in length, and had a partial belt of 10-inch armour along 140 feet on each side, transverse bulkheads 9 inches thick at each end of the belt, and a protective deck 1½ inches thick. They carried four 9.2-inch guns in separate barbettes, one forward, one aft, and one on either side, besides ten 6-inch guns, twenty-six smaller and machine guns, and six torpedo tubes. Their hulls, which were of steel, were sheathed with wood and coppered. [Illustration: RUSSIAN CRUISER “RURIK.” _By permission of Messrs. Vickers, Ltd._] [Illustration: RUSSIAN CRUISER “ROSSIA.” _Photograph by Stephen Cribb, Southsea._] Other nations, notably France and Russia, adhered to the armoured type, the former producing the _Dupuy de Lôme_, and the latter the _Rossia_ and _Rurik_. Both these vessels were built at St. Petersburg in 1896 and 1894 respectively, and must be distinguished from the present Russian cruisers bearing these names. The _Rossia_ was terribly knocked about in the war with Japan, but has survived it, thanks to her armour. She appeared at the Diamond Jubilee Review in 1897 at Spithead. The _Rossia_ and the present _Rurik_, the latter launched at Barrow in 1906, attracted attention on account of their speed, the former attaining twenty and a quarter knots and the more modern boat nearly twenty-one and a half knots. Both were heavily armed, the latter especially so, being the only Russian cruiser to carry four 10-inch guns. She has, besides, eight 8-inch guns, twenty 4.7-inch quick-firers, eighteen smaller quick-firers, and two torpedo tubes, and when she left the builders was one of the most formidable cruisers afloat. Accurate long-range shooting being indispensable, the _Rurik_ is also fitted with a range-finding tower. The new _Esmeralda_, built in 1895 for the Chilian Government by the Tyneside firm who built her earlier namesake, had not a little to do with the introduction of side armour on British cruisers, thanks to the improvement of the Harvey and Krupp processes of strengthening steel.