The lack of belt armour keeps the Bristol and Weymouth batches in the protected-cruiser category, while later Town-class batches with belt armour complete the move toward the light cruiser. The Bristols mixed 4-inch guns with heavy 50-calibre 6-inch weapons, while the Weymouths concentrated on the larger gun. The closing assessment gives the later, lighter 45-calibre 6-inch gun roughly 90 percent of the 4-inch weapon's handling advantages and 90 percent of the longer 6-inch gun's power. The final 6,000-long-ton design exercise asks viewers to allocate speed, power, firepower, and armour as a naval designer might have done in 1909. The exercise makes the tradeoffs within that displacement limit explicit.
Chapter · 42:41-46:38
The Town class as a successful transitional cruiser
The conclusion judges the early Towns a successful bridge from protected cruisers to light cruisers and explains the eventual 45-calibre 6-inch-gun compromise.