Protected cruiser

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Protected cruisers, a type of cruising warship of the late 19th century, gained their description because an armored deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers notably lacked a belt of armour along the sides, in contrast to armored cruisers which carried both deck and belt armour. Protected cruisers were typically lighter in displacement and mounted fewer and/or lighter guns than armored cruisers. By the early 20th-century, with the advent of increasingly lighter yet stronger armour, even smaller vessels could afford some level of both belt and deck armour. In the place of protected cruisers, armored cruisers would evolve into heavy cruisers and light cruisers, the latter especially taking-up many of roles originally envisaged for that of protected cruisers.