Right elevation and deck plan as depicted in Brassey's naval annual 1888
On 2 December 1884, the Secretary to the Admiralty stated, "The present Board have been gradually developing, and, as I would venture to say, in an effective manner, our resources for the protection of commerce. The late Board of Admiralty laid down an admirable type for the purpose in the Leander class. We have followed in their footsteps by producing the Mersey type, and we now propose to go a step further in the same direction, by laying down vessels of the Mersey class, but protected by a belt in lieu of an armoured deck. The belt will, I think, be approved by my hon. Friend who sits behind me (Sir Edward J. Reed)."[1] These belted cruisers were the Orlando class.
The following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the members of the Orlando class. Standard British practice at that time was for these costs to exclude armament and stores.[2] In the table:
Machinery meant "propelling machinery".
Hull included "hydraulic machinery, gun mountings, etc."[3]
^Note that the costs quoted in the 1895 edition and the 1903 edition are not the same. There seems to have been a revision of the costs quoted for British warships in The Naval Annual between the 1902 and 1903 editions, and a further revision between the 1905 and 1906 editions. (The 1906 edition costs cannot be quoted for the Orlando class because the class is not listed in the 1906 edition.)
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