HMS Undaunted: a modern cruiser and first captaincy

HMS Undaunted was an Orlando-class armoured cruiser and a prestigious first captaincy in a newly commissioned ship. Her battery combined two 9.2-inch guns with ten 6-inch guns, lighter Hotchkiss weapons, and six 18-inch torpedo tubes, backed by a 10-inch waterline belt. The design detail explains why this was a conspicuously modern appointment rather than a marginal command. A navigation officer later ordered a port turn instead of starboard and caused an accident, a reminder that modern hardware still depended on precise bridge orders.