The surviving pair spent most of the rest of the war assigned to the Northern Patrol unsuccessfully searching for German warships and commerce raiders.

They were significantly larger and more heavily armed than their predecessors, although their armour was reduced in an attempt to compensate for the additional weight of the armament.

Archibald of the Greenwich National Maritime Museum as "armed in a manner that presented one of the most ferocious sights in the fleet".

[2] A planned fourth ship of the class, Orion, was cancelled due to financial pressures arising from the purchase of the Swiftsure-class battleships.

[4] The ships were powered by a pair of four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, which developed a total of 27,000 indicated horsepower (20,130 kW) intended to give a maximum speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph).

At full capacity, the ships could steam for 8,150 nautical miles (15,090 km; 9,380 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

During her sea trials on 6 December 1907, Minotaur made her designed speed when she reached 23.01 knots from 27,049 ihp (20,170 kW) during her eight-hour full-power test.

Shannon proved to be the slowest of the three and only reached 22.324 knots (41.344 km/h; 25.690 mph) from 27,372 ihp (20,411 kW) during her trial three days before Minotaur's.

They fired 380-pound (172 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,875 ft/s (876 m/s); this provided a maximum range of 16,200 yd (14,813 m) with armour-piercing (AP) shells.

[7] The secondary armament was much heavier than the older ships, with five single hydraulically powered turrets equipped with 50-calibre BL 7.5-inch Mk II guns mounted on each side.

Eight of these were mounted on the tops of the 7.5 inch gun turrets and the other eight in the superstructure (four fore and four aft), as per the deck plan illustration.

In the last year of the war, the reinforced foremast was replaced by a stronger tripod mast and the 12-pounder was moved to the top of the forward turret.

[18] When the war began, Minotaur searched unsuccessfully for the German East Asia Squadron in the Pacific and the commerce-raiding light cruiser Emden in the Indian Ocean before she was transferred to the Grand Fleet at the end of 1914.

Defence, however, had only reached Montevideo, Uruguay by 3 November when she received word that most of Admiral Cradock's squadron had been destroyed two days previously at the Battle of Coronel.

Defence departed Table Bay, Cape Town in December and rejoined the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet as its flagship upon her arrival.