The Drake class were enlarged and improved versions of the designed by Sir William White, Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy, to counter the new French armoured cruiser. The ships had an overall length of, a beam of and a deep draught of. They displaced and proved to be good seaboats in service. Their crew consisted of 900 officers and other ranks. The ships were powered by two 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by 43 Belleville boilers. The engines produced a total of and the Drakes easily reached their designed speed of. They carried a maximum of of coal. The main armament of the Drake-class ships consisted of two breech-loading Mk X guns in single gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. They fired shells to a range of. The ships' secondary armament of sixteen BL 6-inch Mk VII guns was arranged in casemates amidships. Eight of these were mounted on the main deck and were only usable in calm weather. They had a maximum range of approximately with their shells. A dozen quick-firing 12-pounder 12 cwt guns were fitted for defence against torpedo boats. Two additional 12-pounder 8 cwt guns could be dismounted for service ashore. The ships also carried three 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns and two submerged British 18 inch torpedo| torpedo tubes. The ship's waterlinearmour belt had a maximum thickness of and was closed off by transverse bulkheads. The armour of the gun turrets and their barbettes was 6 inches thick while the casemate armour was 5 inches thick. The protective deck armour ranged in thickness from and the conning tower was protected by of armour.
Ships
The following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the members of the Drake class. Standard British practice at that time was for these costs to exclude armament and stores. The compilers of The Naval Annual revised costs quoted for British ships between the 1905 and 1906 editions. The reasons for the differences are unclear.
History
The ships served in the First World War with only two surviving it. Good Hope was sunk at the Battle of Coronel in 1914 and Drake was torpedoed in 1917. Drake was also used to ferry Russian bullion in October 1914 from Arkhangelsk. The gold was security for western loans. The transfer took place at high seas, 30 miles off the coast in the dead of night.
