Centurion-class battleships for distant stations

Armed with four 10-inch guns and capable of about seventeen knots, the Centurion class was intended chiefly for Mediterranean and Far Eastern service. A slightly lighter and longer hull, together with a marginally smaller crew, supported maintenance and efficiency on distant stations. The ships still overmatched the armoured cruisers they were likely to face far from home. They can therefore be read as second-class battleships and partial forerunners of the battlecruiser idea: capital-ship power stationed abroad to dominate lesser opponents.