The Toxoanassa and its sistership were designed and built for the Amazonian anti-Piracy patrol. Piracy in the south of Mu was rife. The south was where the major mines for gold, silver, gems and other precious metals were mined. Until the railroads good be pushed through the mountains to link these small centres then their product would have to go by sea to the major ports, there to be distributed at the Sisterhoods remit. The Pirates, in most cases, were state sponsored ships that would try to intercept the shipping carrying the precious cargoes. Any interception that went right could make a fortune for the Pirates.
The Toxoanassa class featured two 12"/40cal 'chase' guns. These were mounted in casemates in the bridge structure. A complete armoured turret would have been too much weight forward in a cruiser sized vessel. They could fire directly ahead and around to 80 degree off the bow. The maximum elevation was only 9 degrees and the range was 10,000 yards. In 1902 this was not a problem as there was not the fire control units to do any better. The other problem was that the guns could only be loaded in the zero degree to the bow position. Rate of fire was only one round a minute, though that could be bettered with a first class and well drilled crew. Any pirate finding his vessel being hit by a 12" shell, could bend over and kiss his arse goodbye. The Sisterhood did not take kindly to Pirates and either executed them or worked them to death in the mines they had tried to rob.
The rest of the armament was six 6" in four single casemate turrets and a twin 6" turret aft. 3" anti-torpedoboat guns rounded out a more than useful armament. 1917 saw a pair of 3" AA guns being added in place of some of the low angle 3".
Both ships survived the war and with the completion of the Eurylophe class ships they were reduced to the training fleet. After four years the two ships had to have a decision made for them. To be kept in service, their size, made them in the Capital ship allocation. The Amazon Navy did not have enough allocation to keep the battleships that they wanted to, without trying to keep a couple of obsolete, overweight cruisers. The two ships were demilitarised and used as static training ships. During the 1930's the two ships were removed from the Navy list and sold for scrap.
