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Neptune Class BattleshipThe Neptune class of battleships of the British Royal Navy was originally intended to include three ships, but the second and third were given thicker armour and changed in other ways, and usually characterized as Colossus-class vessels. The Neptune class was the first attempt by the Royal Navy to get a full ten-gun broadside from its dreadnoughts. This innovation was required to match competing foreign designs, such as the Brazilian Minas Geraes. In previous classes, of the ten guns mounted only 8 could face either broadside. In the Neptune's, the wing turrets were staggered so that each could fire cross-deck past the other. The staggered wing-turret arrangement had several ramifications, including a profligate consumption of deck length. This forced the designers to move the mid-ship "X" turret and place it next to the aft turret and superfire over it, thus economizing in deck space. The X turret was allowed to fire on the broadside only, since the blast of the upper guns concussed the men in the lower Y turret when firing astern. The superfiring disposition was placed aft because this made for a better sea boat than putting the huge weight of a pair of turrets towards the bow. This staggered echelon arrangement had been widely used in early ironclad warships, and its drawbacks were well-understood. Firstly, blast effects from cross-deck firing damaged the ship so badly that it was not allowed during peacetime. Secondly, the layout greatly complicated internal arrangements, since the preference for symmetrical layout of machinery spaces competed with the wholly unsymmetrical magazine spaces. Thirdly, magazines had to be located near both the machinery and the ship's side, the former creating a hot environment not consonant with the storage of explosives and the latter a location vulnerable to underwater attack. Despite the new gun layout, the Neptunes still required an extra 10 feet of length and 1 foot of beam, resulting in a further increase of 650 tons over previous classes. The main innovation in armor was the fitting of strakes protecting the funnel uptakes. Previously these were very vulnerable to damage that would have smoked out the lower decks. Otherwise, the increasingly inadequate 10-inch main belt was retained, and this and the other strakes were repositioned in detail. The power plant provided an additional 500hp over previous classes to offset the greater displacement. The troublesome cruising turbines of previous classes were finally suppressed. Secondary armament was slightly reduced. The result of this juggling was a full 10 gun broadside, available on a narrow arc. In service, the layout was not considered a success.
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