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Highflyer Class. Essentially repeats of the Eclipse class but with a uniform 6 inch main gun armament and using water tube boilers as well as slightly more powerful machinery. HMS Highflyer became the last Victorian era cruiser in service with the Royal Navy, being in commission until 1921. |
Hermes
Built Fairfield, laid down April 1897, completed October 1899.
Highflyer
Built Fairfield, laid down June 1897, completed December 1899.
Hyacinth
Built London & Glasgow Co, Glasgow, laid down January 1897, completed September 1900.
Average cost £300,000.
Size:
Length 350 feet pp 372 feet overall, beam 54 feet, draught 22 feet, displacement 5,600 tons load.
Propulsion:
2 shaft TE engines, 10,000 ihp, 20 knots
Trials:
Hermes 10,500 ihp = 20.5 knots
Highflyer 10,334 ihp = 20.1 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:
Hermes
Nore Command.
31 October 1914 Torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U23 in the Straights of Dover.
Highflyer
9th Cruiser Squadron Mid Atlantic.
27 August 1914 Sank German Armed Merchant Cruiser Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse.
1914 5th Cruiser Squadron Cape Verde.
1916 West Indies.
1916 North America and West Indies.
1918 East Indies.
1921 Sold for scrap.
Hyacinth
Flagship Cape station.
18 May 1915 Captured German merchant ship Rubens.
26 March 1916 Sank German merchant ship Tabora.
1923 Sold for scrap.
| HMS Hermes. In 1913 she was refitted to act as an experimental seaplane carrier with a launching platform forward and stowage for three seaplanes aft. She was placed in reserve at the end of 1913 but brought back into service as a cruiser on the outbreak of war but sunk in October 1914 whilst acting as an aircraft transport. |
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