Blake Class Cruiser (1889)

The two protected cruisers of the Blake Class were completed in 1892 and 1894.

Overview of 2 vessels
Citations for this data available on individual ship pages
Name	Builder	Laid Down	Launched	Completed	Fate
Blake	Chatham Royal Dockyard	Jun, 1888	23 Nov, 1889	2 Feb, 1892	Sold 9 Jun, 1922
Blenheim	Thames Ironworks, Shipbuilding and Engineering Company	Oct, 1888	5 Jul, 1890	1 Jan, 1891	Sold 13 Jul, 1926

Armament

Guns

• two 9.2-in Mark VI guns
• ten Q.F. 6-in guns
• sixteen Q.F. 3-pdr guns

In late 1903, there was a lively consideration of altering the armament of the cruisers of the Blake and Edgar classes, sparked by unfavourable comparisons to French cruisers. The proposal was to upgrade the 9.2-in guns to Mark X weapons and eliminate the four main deck 6-in guns and to use the reduced displacement to provide 6-inch armour casemates for the remaining upper deck 6-in guns, which would be Mark VII. This was in reflection to the utility of guns mounted so low as to have negligible utility. However, it was decided in late December that no action was to be taken.

Torpedoes

• two submerged 14-in tubes, angled directly abeam and probably at 3 degrees depression as was the standard in cruisers.

In 1896, Blenheim had a torpedo hang up on firing from a submerged tube. It eventually was fired from the bar, but broke up and sank. The issue was determined to be soft metal used in the construction of "stops", and harder metal was to replace these fittings.

See Also

• Wikipedia