Slow machinery and the last lifting screw

A Laird horizontal two-cylinder compound engine, fed by eight cylindrical boilers and rated at 3,370 indicated horsepower, produced only about twelve and a quarter knots against a thirteen-knot design target. Her Russian counterpart performed better with roughly 1,000 more indicated horsepower. The original 280-ton coal capacity also proved inadequate and had to be doubled. Because designers still expected sail to provide strategic endurance, the propeller and shaft could be lifted into the hull to reduce drag when the engine stopped. Shannon was the last Royal Navy ship with this lifting-screw arrangement, a transitional feature between sail-assisted cruising and dependable steam propulsion.