beam and had more freeboard than their predecessors of the . At normal load they had a metacentric height of , and at deep load, . The Minotaurs were designed to carry 779 officers and enlisted men, but mustered 802–842 between 1908 and 1912. The ships were powered by a pair of four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, which developed a total of intended to give a maximum speed of . The engines were powered by 24 water-tube boilers with a working pressure of . They carried a maximum of of coal and an additional of fuel oil that was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. At full capacity, the ships could steam for at a speed of . During her sea trials on 6 December 1907, Minotaur made her designed speed when she reached 23.01 knots from during her eight-hour full-power test. Shannon proved to be the slowest of the three and only reached from during her trial three days before Minotaurs. Armament The Minotaurs carried only four 50-calibre BL 9.2-inch Mk XI guns, compared to the six of the earlier ships, but the guns were mounted in twin hydraulically powered centreline turrets, which gave them the same four-gun broadside as the Duke of Edinburghs. The guns had an elevation range of −5°/+15°. They fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of ; this provided a maximum range of with armour-piercing (AP) shells. The rate of fire of these guns was up to four rounds per minute and the ships carried 100 rounds per gun. The secondary armament was much heavier than the older ships, with five single hydraulically powered turrets equipped with 50-calibre BL 7.5-inch Mk II guns mounted on each side. The guns could be depressed to −7.5° and elevated to +15°. Using 4crh AP shells, they had a maximum range of . Their projectiles were fired at a muzzle velocity of at four rounds per minute. Each gun was provided with 100 rounds. Anti-torpedo boat defence was provided by sixteen QF 12-pounder 18-cwt guns. Eight of these were mounted on the tops of the 7.5 inch gun turrets and the other eight in the superstructure (four fore and four aft), as per the deck plan illustration. They fired , projectiles at a muzzle velocity of ; this gave a maximum range of at their maximum elevation of +20°. They also mounted five