Scouts. It was felt that it would only make confusion worse
confounded if these ships bore the original system of successive
numbering and were mixed up with those of later classes which it
was known would be produced as soon as the designs were
completed. Each of these ships was accordingly numbered in its
own class, S.S., S.S.P., S.S. Zero, Coastal, C Star and North
Sea, from 1 onwards as they were completed.

In the case of the rigids, however, for some occult reason the
old system of numbering was persisted in. The letter R is
prefixed before the number to show that the ship is a rigid.
Hence we have No. 1 a rigid, the second rigid constructed is No.
9, or R 9, and the third becomes R 23. From this number onwards
all are rigids and are numbered in sequence as they are ordered,
with the exception of the last on the list, which is a ship in a
class of itself. This ship the authorities, in their wisdom,
have called R 80--why, nobody knows.

With this somewhat lengthy and tedious explanation the following
table may be understood:

No. Type. Remarks.
1. Rigid Wrecked, Sept. 24, 1911.
2. Willows Became S.S. 1.
3. Astra-Torres Deleted, May 1916.
4. Parseval Deleted, July, 1917.
5. Parseval Never delivered from Germany.
(Substitute ship built by Messrs. Vickers).
6. Parseval Built by Messrs. Vickers.
7. Parseval Built by Messrs. Vickers.