62
Th � BRITISH Empire: — united kingdom
completing are : 12 battleships, 16 first-class cruisers, 6 second- class cruisers, 10 third-class cruisers, 6 sloops, 4 twin-screw gunboats, 41 torpedo-boa.t destroyers, and a royal yacht. There are 1 1 vessels which are subsidized by the Admiralty as ' E-eserved Merchant Cruisers,' in addition to many others which are held at disposition, and marked for preferential employment, without subvention. The subsidized vessels are the Cam2Mnia and Lucania (Cunard Company), Himalaya, AiLstralia, Victoria, and Arcadia (P. & 0. Company), Majestic and Teutonic (White Star Line), and Ernp^ess of India, Empress of China, and Empress of Japan (Canadian Pacific Railway Company). In January, 1899, there were 164 ships in commission, exclusive of gunboats, small craft, the coastguard and portguard ships, and a number of vessels engaged in the training service and as harbour and depot ships. The various stations of the squadrons are the Mediterranean, Channel, North America and West Indies, South-East Coast of America, Pacific, Cape and West Coast of Africa, East Indies, China, and Australia.
The vessels were thus distributed in January 1899
Mediterranean and Red Sea . 38 Channel Squadron . . . 14 North America and West Indies 12 East Indies .... 9 China 28 Cape of Good Hope and West Africa . . . . 16 Pacific ..... 7
Australia South-east coast of America Particular Service Surveying Service Training Squadron . � .
Total
12 4 11 9 4
. 164
The following tabulated list of battleships, coast and port defence vessels, and principal cruisers of the British Navy, built, building and projected, requires a few words of explanation. The order of ships is chronological. In the first list, the ships of which the names are in italics are coast defence or floating battery ships. The numbers following the names of the others indicate the classes to which they have been assigned in the foregoing table. The letters in the first column signify the character of the ships -.—h. broad- side ; c.h. central battery ; L turret'; har, barbette. In the particulars of guns, Q.F." means quick-firing. Machine-guns are not given. The cruisers tabulated are of the first-class, and the more important and recent vessels of the second class.
