The Monmouth-class was a ten-ship class of 10,000 ton armoured cruisers built around 1901 to 1903 for the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 and designed specifically for commerce protection. The ships were also referred to as County-class cruisers as they carried the names of British counties

County

A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...

.

Design

Expected only to fight light cruisers and armed merchant ships, they were armed with fourteen 6-inch guns at a time when most British armoured cruisers also carried at least a pair of 9.2 inch guns: Four of the guns were mounted in two twin turrets at a good height, the remaining ten were installed in hull-mounted casemate

Casemate

A casemate, sometimes rendered casement, is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired. originally a vaulted chamber in a fortress.-Origin of the term:...

s, 5 on each side. The lower casemate guns were just a few feet above water, making them impossible to use in heavy seas. Sir John Fisher commented that "Sir William White

William Henry White

Sir William Henry White was a prolific British warship designer and Chief Constructor at the Admiralty....

 designed the County class but forgot the guns.". On the other hand, they were relatively fast ships for their time.

Building programme

The following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the members of the Monmouth class. Standard British practice at that time was for these costs to exclude armament and stores. The compilers of The Naval Annual

Brassey's Naval Annual

The Naval Annual was a book that sought to bring together a large amount of information on naval subjects, which had hitherto been obtainable only by consulting numerous publications and chiefly from foreign sources...

 revised costs quoted for British ships between the 1905 and 1906 editions. The reasons for the differences are unclear.

Ship	Builder	Engine Maker	Date of			Cost according to
			Laid Down	Launch	Completion	(BNA Brassey's Naval Annual The Naval Annual was a book that sought to bring together a large amount of information on naval subjects, which had hitherto been obtainable only by consulting numerous publications and chiefly from foreign sources...  1905)	(BNA Brassey's Naval Annual The Naval Annual was a book that sought to bring together a large amount of information on naval subjects, which had hitherto been obtainable only by consulting numerous publications and chiefly from foreign sources...  1906)
Monmouth HMS Monmouth (1901) The sixth HMS Monmouth of the British Royal Navy was the lead ship of a class of armoured cruisers of 9,800 tons displacement. She was sunk at the Battle of Coronel in 1914....	London and Glasgow Shipping Company	London & Glasgow Shipping Company	29 Aug 1899	13 Nov 1901	2 Dec 1903	£709,085	£979,591
Bedford HMS Bedford (1901) HMS Bedford was a Monmouth-class armoured cruiser of 9,800 tons displacement, of the British Royal Navy. Built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd, Govan, she was launched on 31 August 1901. She only spent nine years in service before she was wrecked on 21 August 1910 off Quelport...	Fairfield, Govan Govan Govan is a district and former burgh now part of southwest City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick....	Fairfield	19 Feb 1900	31 Aug 1901	11 Nov 1903	£734,330	£706,020
Essex HMS Essex (1901) HMS Essex was a Monmouth-class armoured cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was built at Pembroke Dock and launched on 29 August 1901. She served in the First World War with most of her sisters, and survived to be sold for scrap on 8 November 1921. Essex was eventually broken up in Germany....	Pembroke Dockyard	J Brown John Brown & Company John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a pre-eminent Scottish marine engineering and shipbuilding firm, responsible for building many notable and world-famous ships, such as the , the , the , the , the , and the...	1 Jan 1900	29 Aug 1901	22 Mar 1903	£770,325	£736,557
Kent HMS Kent (1901) HMS Kent was a Monmouth-class armoured cruiser of 9,800 tons displacement, of the British Royal Navy. She was launched on 6 March 1901, with her heaviest guns being 6 inch quick-firers...	Portsmouth Dockyard	Hawthorn	12 Feb 1900	6 Mar 1900	1 Oct 1903	£733,940	£700,283
Berwick HMS Berwick (1902) HMS Berwick was a Monmouth-class armoured cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was launched on 20 September 1902. In 1908, she collided with the destroyer Tiger when the destroyer crossed Berwicks bows during an exercise in the English Channel, south of the Isle of Wight...	W. Beardmore William Beardmore and Company William Beardmore and Company was a Scottish engineering and shipbuilding conglomerate based in Glasgow and the surrounding Clydeside area. It was active between about 1890 and 1930 and at its peak employed about 40,000 people... & Company	Humphrys Humphrys Humphrys is a surname and may refer to:*Bob Humphrys , BBC Wales sports broadcaster*Fletcher Humphrys , Australian actor* Sir Francis Humphrys , British colonial administrator and diplomat...	19 Apr 1901	20 Sept 1902	9 Dec 1903	£776,868	£750,984
Cornwall HMS Cornwall (1902) HMS Cornwall was a 9,800 ton Monmouth-class armoured cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was launched at Pembroke, Wales in 1902, and commissioned in 1904....	Pembroke Dockyard	Hawthorne	11 Mar 1901	29 Oct 1902	1 Dec 1905	£789,421	£756,274
Cumberland HMS Cumberland (1902) HMS Cumberland was a Monmouth-class armoured cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was built by London & Glasgow Co. and launched on 16 December 1902. She served in the First World War with most of her sisters, seeing service in the Cameroons...	London & Glasgow Shipping Company, Glasgow	London & Glasgow Shipping Company	19 Feb 1901	16 Dec 1902	1 Dec 1904	£751,508	£718,168
Donegal HMS Donegal (1902) HMS Donegal was a Monmouth-class armoured cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd of Govan and launched on 4 September 1902. She served in the First World War with most of her sisters, and survived to be sold for scrap on 1 July 1920. She...	Fairfield, Govan Govan Govan is a district and former burgh now part of southwest City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick....	Fairfield	14 Feb 1901	4 Sep 1902	5 Nov 1903	£752,964	£715,947
Lancaster HMS Lancaster (1902) HMS Lancaster was a Monmouth-class armoured cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was built by Armstrong and launched on 22 March 1902. She served in the First World War with most of her sisters, and survived to be sold for scrap on 3 March 1920 to Ward of Birkenhead & Preston....	Armstrongs, Elswick	Hawthorn	4 Mar 1901	22 Mar 1903	5 Apr 1904	£763,084	£732,858
Suffolk HMS Suffolk (1903) HMS Suffolk was a Monmouth class armoured cruiser of the Royal Navy built in 1903 and sold out of the Royal Navy in 1920. She had a displacement of 9,800 tons, a speed of 23 knots, and a crew complement of about 680. Her primary armament consisted of 14 quick-firing 6-inch guns, arranged in a...	Portsmouth Dockyard	Humphrys	25 Mar 1901	15 Jan 1903	21 May 1904	£783,054	£722,681

External links

• The Dreadnought Project Technical details of the ships.