Cambrian Class Light Cruisers

Cambrian Class.  Near repeats of the Calliope class retaining their boiler layout but with a reversion to direct drive turbines rather than geared turbines.  Cambrian herself was completed with a single 6 inch in stead of the forward pair of 4 inch guns, a modification later applied to the rest of the class.

HMS Cambrian
Built Pembroke Dockyard, laid down December 1914, completed April 1916.

HMS Canterbury
Built John Brown, laid down October 1914, completed April 1916.

HMS Castor
Built Cammell Laird, laid down October 1914, completed November 1915.

HMS Constance
Built Cammell Laird, laid down January 1915, completed January 1916.

Size:
Length 420 feet pp 446 feet overall, beam 41 feet 6 inches, draught 14 feet 9 inches, displacement 4,320 tons normal 4,799 deep load.

Propulsion:
4 shaft Parsons/Brown-Curtis turbines, 40,000 shp, 29 knots

Armour:
3-1.5in belt, 1in decks

Armament:
2 x 6in 45cal Mk XIII (2 x 1), 8 x 4in 45cal Mk IV (8 x 1), 1 x 13 pounder, 2 x 21in TT

Comments:
Crew 323.

World War 1 Service:
Cambrian
4th Light Cruiser Squadron Grand Fleet.
1934 Sold for scrap.

Canterbury
Attached to Grand Fleet.
31 May-1 May 1916 Took part in the Battle of Jutland.
1916 5th Light Cruiser Squadron Harwich Force.
5 June 1917 Sank German torpedo boat S 20 off Belgian coast.
1918 Aegean.
1934 Sold for scrap.

Castor
Leader 11 Destroyer Flotilla Grand Fleet.
31 May-1 May 1916 Took part in the Battle of Jutland.
1935 Sold for scrap.

Constance
4th Light Cruiser Squadron Grand Fleet.
31 May-1 May 1916 Took part in the Battle of Jutland.
1936 Sold for scrap.

HMS Constance.  The class had a uniform 6 inch main armament by the end of the war after the Royal Navy decided early in the war that a single 6 inch gun was of more value than a pair of 4 inch guns.  The inability of German 4.1 inch guns to penetrate the armour of light cruiser armour at the Battle of Heligoland bight is thought to have had an influence on this.