A vessel which attracted considerable attention when she was begun in 1902--at various other times since when changes in her plans have been suggested to meet the views of French naval experts, or the theories of successive Ministers of Marine, a tinkering process from which she has not been the only sufferer on the other side of the Channel--until she was completed in 1908, is the _Ernest Renan_ cruiser. The length of time which has elapsed between the laying-down and the completion of some French vessels has seen them surpassed by newer types from other shipyards, notably British, even before they have been commissioned. But this is not the case with the _Ernest_ _Renan_, which, apart from the _Dreadnought_ cruisers, is an exceedingly powerful ship, and a great credit to her builders at St. Nazaire. She is rather narrow, being only 70 feet 6 inches beam, with a length of 515 feet, and her draught is 26 feet 9 inches. She is more effectively protected than many a battleship of a few years earlier, having an armoured deck 2 inches in thickness, an armoured belt varying from 6¾ inches to 4 inches, while above the water-line belt she carries armour varying from 5 inches to 3 inches in thickness. Her armament is remarkably varied, including, as it does, four 7.6-inch guns, twelve 6.4-inch guns, twenty-one 1.8-inch guns, and two 1.4-inch guns, besides two submerged torpedo tubes. Her main gun positions are protected by 8 inches of armour, and her secondary armament by 5 inches of armour. CHAPTER IX GUNS, PROJECTILES AND ARMOUR The introduction of direct shell fire at Sebastopol was a most important advance in the science of attack, and was followed soon afterwards by the adoption of elongated instead of circular projectiles, the French leading the way. Both for solid shot and explosive projectiles, it became necessary to increase the range and accuracy. To do this the windage had to be reduced as much as possible and the barrels of the guns were rifled in order to give the projectile a certain amount of twist on its axis.