Machinery, mine rails, and broadside torpedoes shaped the deck plan

The plan view makes the class's priorities visible before any performance figures are considered. Machinery consumed much of the internal volume because the design was built around exceptional speed. External rails carried as many as seventy mines along the working deck. The two quadruple torpedo launchers were arranged to put all eight weapons onto either broadside. Engines, mines, and torpedo arcs therefore produced an offensive layout characteristic of a very large destroyer rather than a protected cruiser intended to exchange gunfire.