Arrogant-class cruiser
The "Arrogant"-class cruiser was a class of four protected cruisers built for the British Royal Navy at the end of the 1890s. One ship, , was lost following a collision with a merchant ship in 1908, while saw active service in the First World War, taking part in the Zeebrugge Raid in April 1918 before being sunk as a blockship during the Second Ostend Raid in May 1918. Design. The 1895–96 programme of naval construction for the Royal Navy included provision for four Second-class cruisers of the "Arrogant" class. While most contemporary Royal Navy cruisers were intended  for trade protection, the "Arrogant" class was designed to operate with the main battle fleet, finishing off crippled enemy ships by ramming. They were originally described as "Fleet Rams". To suit the class for its proposed role, the ram bow was larger and stronger than normal. It was supported by the ship's protective deck and by of side armour plating covering the forward part of the ship. While the protective deck had a similar thickness compared to that of the preceding , the ship's conning tower had much thicker protection than normal, with of armour to resist close-range  enemy shells. The design had a shorter hull with greater beam and an auxiliary rudder ahead of the main rudder to improve manoeuvrability (with a turning circle of compared with for the same-length s). The "Arrogants" were the first British second-class cruisers to use water-tube boilers, with 18 Belleville boilers feeding triple-expansion steam engines which drove two shafts, giving a speed of . The ships' main gun armament was a mixture of four guns and six guns, and a secondary armament of eight 12-pounder (76 mm) and three 3 pounder (47 mm) guns, supplemented by 5  machine guns and three torpedo tubes. The "Arrogants", like many of the armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy, were often criticised by the contemporary press, with the 1896 Brassey's Naval Annual considering that the class’s armament and speed were "hardly satisfactory", with unfavourable comparisons made to armoured cruisers being built for export, and ships in service with France and Germany. The ships’ armament was strengthened in 1903–04, when the existing main gun armament was replaced by a homogeneous battery of ten 6 inch guns. History. The four ships were laid down at Devonport and Portsmouth naval dockyards  in 1895–96, launching in 1896–97 and were completed between 1898 and 1900.