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As built, 18 quick firing (QF) 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns were set nine along either side of the mid-section of her beam between main and foremasts. These reliable QF guns were in use with the Royal Navy between 1886 and the 1950s, and during WWI they fired a 3.3lb common Lyddite shell and had a rate of fire of 30 rounds per minute with a range of 4,000 yards. They were intended as a defence against fast enemy torpedo boats or torpedo boat destroyers attacking her beam.

Two lateral submerged 18-inch torpedo tubes were fitted one either side of the vessel just forward of the bridge. Torpedo hatch doors in the hull plating opened to allow a ram to project laterally from the vessel’s beam for the full length of the torpedo, protecting the torpedo from the movement of the water down her side which could potentially jam the torpedo in the beam tube as it came out.

Bow aspect of HMS Hampshire. The top of the waterline vertical armour belt can be seen between the darker hull paintwork below and the lower row of portholes. The two upper fo’c’sle decks, each with a row of portholes, are unarmoured. (IWM)