[8] It is interesting to note, however, that even at this early date the German Admiralty made provision for the storage of oil in order to supplement the coal supply.
[9] Cf. Appendix I.
[10] The five later ships were given a belt with a thickness of 9·4 inches amidships, but otherwise their protection and armament closely resembled those laid down at an earlier date.
[11] See Appendix II.
[12] One of these "armoured cruisers" was not built.
[13] It has since become known that the Americans had designed an all-big-gun ship before the British Dreadnought was laid down.
[14] British naval opinion held from the first that these ships of the Nassau type vitiated the Dreadnought principle of simplicity of armament, and were so over-gunned as to be ineffective units. Sea-service has tended to confirm this view.
[15] In the three succeeding years, in accordance with the British Government's policy of a limitation of naval armaments, and as an example to other Powers, this advantage was partially lost, and hence the large programme of 1909-10.
[16] Cf. Appendix II.
[17] In his speech in the House of Commons on March 26th, 1913, the First Lord corrected this figure. He stated that the maximum to be attained under the new Fleet Law in 1920 was 107,000, apart from reserves.