Apollo-class cruiser

The Apollo class were a class of second-class protected cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the late 19th century that served during the Boer War and the First World War.

HMS Spartan, pictured in Norwegian waters in 1904
Class overview
Name: Apollo class
Operators:
Preceded by: Pearl class
Succeeded by: Astraea class
Built: 1889–1892
In commission: 1889–1931
Completed: 21
Lost: 6
Scrapped: 15
General characteristics
Type: Protected cruiser
Displacement: 3,600 long tons (3,700 t)
Length: 314 ft (96 m)
Beam: 43 ft 6 in (13.26 m)
Draught: 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m)
Speed: 19.75 knots (22.73 mph; 36.58 km/h)
Complement: 273 to 300 officers and men
Armament:
Right elevation and deck plan as depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual 1897

Latona, Apollo, Intrepid, Iphigenia, Andromache, Naiad and Thetis were converted into minelaying cruisers around 1907.

Service

Twenty-one of the Apollo class of second-class cruisers were built under the 1889 Naval Defence Act, along with eight to a modified design (the Astraea class).

By the last year of the First World War, the surviving ships were outdated, and six of this class were converted into blockships to be scuttled in the entrances to enemy-occupied ports in Belgium. The cruisers Intrepid, Iphigenia and Thetis were expended on 23 April 1918 in the raid on Zeebrugge; Brilliant and Sirius were unsuccessfully expended in the similar raid on Ostend. A further attempt to block Ostend took place in May, with Sappho and Vindictive (the latter being of the Arrogant class) as blockships, but Sappho broke down en route to Ostend and returned to port.

Ships
Apollo-class cruisers
Name Builder Laid down Launched Completed Fate
Andromache Chatham Dockyard 29 April 1889 14 August 1890 December 1891 Broken up in 1920
Apollo Chatham Dockyard 27 May 1889 10 February 1891 April 1892 Broken up in 1920
Latona Vickers,
Barrow-in-Furness		 22 August 1889 22 May 1890 April 1891 Sold in 1920
Melampus Vickers,
Barrow-in-Furness		 30 August 1889 2 August 1890 December 1891 Broken up in 1910
Naiad Vickers,
Barrow-in-Furness		 3 October 1889 29 November 1890 January 1892 Broken up in 1922
Sappho Samuda Brothers, Poplar 29 October 1889 9 May 1891 February 1893 Broken up in 1921
Scylla Samuda Brothers, Poplar 29 October 1889 17 October 1891 April 1893 Broken up in 1914
Sybille Robert Stephenson, Hebburn 11 October 1889 27 December 1890 May 1894 Wrecked in 1901
Terpsichore J & G Thomson, Clydebank 27 August 1889 30 October 1890 April 1892 Broken up in 1914
Thetis J & G Thomson, Clydebank 29 October 1889 13 December 1890 April 1892 Expended as blockship in 1918
Tribune J & G Thomson, Clydebank 11 December 1889 24 February 1891 May 1892 Broken up in 1911
Aeolus Devonport Dockyard 19 March 1890 13 November 1891 June 1893 Broken up in 1914
Brilliant Sheerness Dockyard 24 March 1890 24 June 1891 April 1893 Expended as blockship in 1918
Indefatigable London & Glasgow 6 September 1889 12 March 1891 April 1892 Broken up in 1913
Intrepid London & Glasgow 6 September 1889 20 June 1891 November 1892 Expended as blockship in 1918
Iphigenia London & Glasgow 17 March 1890 19 November 1891 May 1893 Expended as blockship in 1918
Pique Palmers, Jarrow 30 October 1889 13 December 1890 March 1893 Broken up in 1911
Rainbow Palmers, Jarrow 30 December 1889 25 March 1891 January 1893 1910 to Royal Canadian Navy as HMCS Rainbow. Sold in 1920
Retribution Palmers, Jarrow 31 January 1890 6 August 1891 May 1893 Broken up in 1911
Sirius Armstrong Mitchell, Elswick 7 October 1889 27 October 1890 April 1892 Expended as blockship in 1918
Spartan Armstrong Mitchell, Elswick 16 December 1889 25 February 1891 July 1892 Broken up in 1931
Sources: Conway's 1860–1905, p. 77; Jane's, p. 62

Notes
  1. Scott, Percy (1919). Fifty Years in the Royal Navy. London: John Murray. pp. 88.

Publications



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