deep load. Lord Nelson had a metacentric height of at extra deep load. The Lord Nelson class "proved good seaboats and steady gun platforms, with excellent manoeuvrabiling qualities." Their crew numbered 749–756 officers and ratings in peacetime and averaged 800 men during the war. The ships were powered by a pair of four-cylinder inverted vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one four-bladed, screw, using steam provided by fifteen water-tube boilers that operated at a pressure of . The boilers were trunked into two funnels located amidships. The engines, rated at , were intended to give a maximum speed of , but both ships slightly exceeded their design speed, reaching during their sea trials. The Lord Nelsons were the first British battleships to be built with fuel oil sprayers to increase the burn rate of the coal. They carried a maximum of of coal and an additional of fuel oil in tanks in their double bottom. At a cruising speed of , the ships had a range of burning only coal and using coal and oil. Armament The main armament of the Lord Nelson-class ships consisted of four 45-calibre breech-loading (BL) 12-inch Mark X guns in a pair of twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. The guns had a maximum elevation of +13.5° which gave them a range of . They fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of at a rate of two rounds per minute. The ships carried 80 shells per gun. Their secondary armament consisted of ten 50-calibre BL 9.2-inch Mk XI guns. They were mounted in four twin-gun turrets positioned at the corners of the superstructure and a pair of single-gun turrets amidships. The guns were limited to an elevation of +15° which gave their shells a range of . They had a muzzle velocity of and a maximum rate of fire of four rounds per minute. Each gun was provided with 100 rounds. For defence against torpedo boats, the ships carried two dozen 50-calibre quick-firing (QF) 12-pounder () 18 cwt guns in single mounts in the superstructure. At an elevation of +20°, their muzzle velocity gave the guns a range of with their projectiles. The ships were also fitted with 10 QF 3-pounder () Hotchkiss guns, two in the superstructure and the others on the turret roofs. They were equipped with five submerged 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside and