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Taranaki Daily News, 18 January 1916, Page 5

THE%ING EDWARD.

The King Edward VII,, which was recently sunk, was launched in 1903, and was the class ship for eight vessels, the last designs of Sir William White, who resigned in 1902 owing to ill-health, after long and valuable service to the Naval Construction Branch of the Admiralty. The King Edward VII. class succeeded the Queen class and marked an advance in the secondary armament, mounting four o.2in and ten flin guns, as against twelve 6in gun? in the T.ondons. Following the design of the Japanese battleship Mikasn, which was sunk by explosion in 1003, but was subsequently refloated and reconstructed, the King Edwards mounted their D.Sin guns in casemates on the upper deck. The Commonwealth was the first vessel of this class actually launched, although she was the last commenced of the three authorised in the Estimates of 1001. The, Zealandia (originally called the New Zealand) followed the same design and was authorised in the following year. By the time the last three vessels of the class were authorised the retention of the Cin gun in the secondary armament was being severely criticised, and in 1004 the Lord Nelson class was authorised, with a secondary armament o[ ten l).sin guns. The Dreadnought, the first all-'big-gun ship, followed a year later. The King Edward cost between £1,400,000 and £1,500.000, nearly £500,000 more than the Majestic. Her displacement was 16,350 tons and her top speed on trials was 10.04 Knots, which, however, was attained nt n much greater expenditure in coal than that of the other boats in the class. The King Edward was the flagship of the British squadron which visited Salonika and Constantinople during the Balkan war.