HMS Spartan, pictured in Norwegian waters in 1904
Class overview
NameApollo class
Operators
Preceded byPearl class
Succeeded byAstraea class
Built1889–1892
In commission1889–1931
Completed21
Lost6
Scrapped15
General characteristics
TypeProtected cruiser
Displacement3,600 long tons (3,700 t)
Length314 ft (96 m)
Beam43 ft 6 in (13.26 m)
Draught17 ft 6 in (5.33 m)
Speed19.75 knots (36.58 km/h; 22.73 mph)
Complement273 to 300
Armament
Right elevation and deck plan as depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual 1897

The Apollo class were second-class protected cruisers designed by Sir William White and built for the Royal Navy in the late 19th century. Twenty-one ships of this class were built, making it the largest single class of steel cruisers ever built for the Royal Navy to the same design.

Design and construction

The design followed White's standard pattern for smaller steel cruisers, being of protected type (with an internal curved steel armour deck protecting the machinery spaces) and featuring low freeboard amidships with raised bulwarks connecting the forecastle and poop for weatherliness. It drew heavily from the slightly earlier Medea, but with enlarged dimensions and a revised armament which, for the first time in Royal Navy 2nd-class cruisers, included the new 4.7-inch quick-firing gun. Six of these were carried; three on each side of the main deck. Two 6-inch guns were carried on the centreline, one at either end of the ship upon the forecastle and the poop.

Ten ships of the class were sheathed and coppered for tropical service. These were; Aeolus, Brilliant, Indefatigable, Intrepid, Iphigenia, Pique, Rainbow, Retribution, Sirius and Spartan. The sheathing added 200 tons to each ship's displacement and reduced their speed by a quarter of a knot.

Critical opinion of the design was that it was an improvement on the Medea, but still rather small. In practice they proved to be wet ships and poor seaboats, the low deck amidships being a factor.

Twenty-one ships of this class were ordered under the 1889 Naval Defence Act, making up half of the Act's required forty-two cruisers. The obvious limitations of the Apollos led to a further enlarged & improved design (the Astraea class) being drawn up by White, of which eight units were also ordered under the Naval Defence Act.

Service

Ships of this class served during the Boer War.

Sybille was wrecked 16th January 1901.

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

In 1910 Rainbow was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy. In the same year, Indefatigable was renamed Melpomene to make her original name available for a new battle-cruiser.

After nearly two decades of service, the ships were becoming worn out and units of the class were being progressively sold off in the early 1910s; Melampus in 1910,Pique, Retribution and Tribune in 1911, Melpomene in 1913, and Aeolus, Scylla & Terpsichore in 1914. The remainder found a reprieve with the outbreak of the First World War.

By the last year of the First World War, the surviving ships were no longer of any fighting value, 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.

Spartan was renamed Defiance in 1921.

The surviving members of the class were for disposal after the war, mostly being sold between 1920 and 1922, with only Defiance being retained (as part of the torpedo school at Devonport) until finally sold in 1931.

Ships

Apollo-class cruisers
Name Builder Laid down Launched Completed Fate Notes
Andromache Chatham Dockyard 29 April 1889 14 August 1890 December 1891 Broken up in 1920 Andromache-type minelayer
Apollo Chatham Dockyard 27 May 1889 10 February 1891 April 1892 Broken up in 1920 Andromache-type minelayer
Latona Vickers,
Barrow-in-Furness
22 August 1889 22 May 1890 April 1891 Sold in 1920 Andromache-type minelayer
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 Andromache-type minelayer
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 Andromache-type minelayer
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 Intrepid-type minelayer
Iphigenia London & Glasgow 17 March 1890 19 November 1891 May 1893 Expended as blockship in 1918 Intrepid-type minelayer
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; Cocker, p.26-27.

Notes

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

Publications


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