HMS Powerful (1895)  HMS "Powerful" was the lead ship of her class of two protected cruisers built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the 1890s. She was initially assigned to the China Station and then provided landing parties which fought in the Siege of Ladysmith of 1899–1900 during the Second Boer War. After a lengthy refit, the ship was placed in reserve until 1905 when "Powerful" became the flagship of the Australia Station. Upon her return home in 1912, she was again reduced to reserve for a brief time before she was reclassified as a training ship. The ship remained in this role until 1929 when she was sold for scrap. The "Powerful"-class cruiser was designed to counter the Russian armoured cruiser which had been designed as a long-range commerce raider. This required long range and high speed to catch the Russian ship. The ships displaced at normal load. They had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . The ships were powered by a pair of four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by 48 Belleville boilers. The engines were designed to produce a total of at forced draught and gave a maximum speed of . "Powerful" reached a maximum speed of from during her sea trials. She carried enough coal to give her a range of at and her complement consisted of 894 officers and ratings. The main armament of the "Powerful"-class cruisers consisted of two Mk VIII guns in single gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Her secondary armament of a dozen Mk I or II guns was arranged in casemates amidships. The end casemates were the first two-storey (guns on the main and upper decks) casemates in the RN. For defence against torpedo boats, sixteen 12-pounder 12-cwt guns and a dozen 3-pounder () Hotchkiss guns were fitted. Two additional 12-pounder 8-cwt guns could be dismounted for service ashore. The ships also mounted four submerged 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, a pair on each broadside. With the exception of the barbettes, which used mild steel, all of the protective plating of the cruisers was Harvey armour. The curved protective deck ranged in thickness from and the conning tower was protected by . The armour of the gun turrets, their barbettes and the casemates was 6 inches thick.