The two Hecate class ships were to try and cure some of the problems found in the Hippolyte class. The unwieldly centre 12" turret was cured by moving it to a superfiring position aft. These ships were equivalent timeline to the RN King Edward the VII class. Where those ships had the 4x9.2" guns the Hecate had the extra twin 12" instead. This was a much better armament. The Hippolyte had a 4" secondary battery which was upgraded to a 6" secondary battery in the Hecate Class. The machinery was upgraded as well to raise the speed from the 17-18 knots of the Hippolyte to 20 knots for the Hecate.
These would be the last Amazonian Battleships to have triple expansion engines, it would be turbine machinery in the next classes. The triple expansion engines also limited these ships post war service. After a short stint as training ships 1919-25, both ships had been discarded by 1930.
Their war service started with trying to intercept Von Spee's cruiser squadron, then for the rest of the war the ships were used as escorts for the merchant convoys from Mu to Panama.
