HMS Trafalgar (1887)

The ship was designed as an improved version of existing battleships with greater displacement and a thicker armoured belt amidships.

As originally designed, Trafalgar was to have displaced 11,940 tons, and carried a secondary armament of ten guns of 5-inch (130 mm) calibre, disposed in the broadside battery.

This in turn led to the main belt being immersed to a deeper level than had been intended, with a potential decrease in defensive effect in combat.

[citation needed] As compared to HMS Sans Pareil, Trafalgar's under-water hull form was finer, with a larger rudder.

Together with the reduced freeboard as compared to earlier ships, this had a significantly adverse effect on her handling; as she spent her active service in relatively calm water in the Mediterranean, however, this defect was of minimal importance.

HMS Trafalgar , sometime during the 1890s
Officers, crewmen and two dogs on the quarterdeck, at Malta, 1897
Trafalgar, aground on the rocks at Devil's Point off Devonport in 1907