Challenger Class Second Class Protected Cruisers

Challenger Class.  Another virtual repeat of the Eclipse class with the modifications made in the Highflyer class being added to by increasing the engine power and top speed further as well as replacing the ventilation cowls with wind sails.  they were the last of the line of cruiser designs that were derived from the Apollo class.

HMS Challenger
Built Chatham Dockyard, laid down December 1900, completed April 1904.

HMS Encounter
Built Devonport Dockyard, laid down January 1901, completed October 1905.

Size:
Length 350 feet pp 372 feet overall, beam 54 feet, draught 20 feet 6 inches, displacement 5,880 tons load.

Propulsion:
2 shaft TE engines, 12,500 ihp, 21kts

Trials:
Challenger 12,781 ihp = 21.79 knots

Armour:
3in gun shields, 3-1.5in decks

Armament:
11 x 6in QF (11 x 1), 9 x 12 pounder QF (9 x 1), 6 x 3 pounder QF (6 x 1), 2 x 18in TT

Comments:
Crew 450.

World War 1 Service:
Challenger
9th Cruiser Squadron Mid Atlantic.
September 1914 Captured German steamer Ulla Boog.
1914 West Africa including blockade of SMS Konigsberg.
13 June 1916 Bombarded Dar es Salaam.
1920 Sold for scrap.

Encounter
1912 Transferred to the Royal Australian Navy.
1914 Pacific.
24 April 1915 Captured German merchant ship Elfriede.
1915 China.
1916 Pacific.
1932 Scuttled.

HMS Challenger.  Both ships spent their early years on Australian station with Encounter being transferred to the Royal Australian Navy and serving the rest of her career in the region.  Challenger returned to the UK in 1912 to go into reserve but was re-commissioned when war broke out and after initial service in the Atlantic spent the rest of the war in West African waters.