Birkenhead's lighter guns and wartime rescue work

The lighter weapon allowed ten guns instead of nine while giving up relatively little hitting power against the intended targets. Birkenhead also retained mixed coal-and-oil firing, placing the foreign design within the propulsion practices of its wartime generation. After the Admiralty's compulsory purchase, she helped rescue all but fifteen of the sinking accommodation ship Caribbean's crew and later fought at Jutland. Her service connects the subclass's foreign-order origins to practical wartime utility.