The "Devastation" class became more popular among the civilian population and in the Royal Navy as the ships got older. Rear-Admiral John Wilson, a former captain of the ship, stated in a meeting of the Royal United Services Institute discussing the most acceptable types of battleship in 1884, "I also agree with my friend Captain Colomb that we have no type of ship to my fancy equal to the or the good old "Thunderer". Give me the "Thunderer", the hull of the "Thunderer"; she had bad engines, she was not arranged as I would like inside, she was badly gunned as we all know, and she had not enough light gun or sufficient armaments; but she carried of coal, could steam at 10 knots from here to the Cape, and could fight any ship of her class on the salt water."