Useful careers despite a failed 20-knot design target

The class moved through reserve, Mediterranean, and stationary support duties as its front-line value declined. Medusa was among older cruisers towed to a new mooring in 1906, an example of increasingly static employment. Source figures place the ships between 19.25 and 20 knots, though the closing assessment is that none actually reached the intended 20 knots. Private firms and naval dockyards shared construction, and machinery arrangements varied across the class. Their later usefulness came from matching modest capabilities to suitable work.