Only limited changes would be needed to make the Blakes look at home twenty or thirty years later. Twin six-inch mountings at the bow and stern, possibly combined with a modest hull extension, would update the silhouette without erasing the original design. The existing 9.2-inch guns already gave the ships a powerful heavy punch. The visual exercise is a design comparison rather than a proposed historical refit. It shows how the hull anticipated later cruiser proportions and armament layouts.
Notable Point · 29:48-30:32
Why the Blake hull looked decades ahead
The Blakes' hull form and heavy end-on guns suggest how modest armament changes could have made the 1889 design resemble cruisers built decades later.