Ship Cover for the Trafalgar class turret battleships HMS Nile (1888) and HMS Trafalgar (1887). The documentation mainly relates to the initial design proposal including requirements in terms of weapons, armour and machinery, statements of dimensions and weights, general comparisons of the new design with contemporary ships in other navies, tabular comparisons of the new ships with existing British designs, drafts of tenders for the supply of turret machinery and components, schemes of complement, correspondence concerning the optimal suite of secondary guns to be adopted, vessel stability calculations, and masts and yards to be fitted. Additional documents include a lengthy document from Lord Walter Kerr dated July 1890 concerning the insufficiencies of the ventilation system, steam trial reports from 1895, and various papers relating to alterations carried out after 1900. In terms of date range, the documentation commences in July 1885 at the outset of the design stage and terminates in January 1911, by which point both ships were up for sale and disposal. Of final note is the presence of a letter from William White to the Department as a whole emphasizing the need for greater discipline and consistency in the assigning/filing of documents in the Covers.