Apollo-class cruiser

HMS Spartan, pictured in Norwegian waters in 1904
Class overview
Name:	Apollo class
Operators:	Royal Navy Royal Canadian Navy
Preceded by:	Pearl class
Succeeded by:	Astraea class
Built:	1889–1892
In commission:	1889–1931
Completed:	21
Lost:	5
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:	2 × 6-inch (152 mm) QF guns 6 × QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns 8 × 6-pounder guns 2 to 4 × 14 in (360 mm) torpedo tubes

Right elevation and deck plan as depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual 1897

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.

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By the last year of the First World War, the surviving ships were outdated, and six of this class were converted into blockships to be scuttled in the entrances to enemy-occupied ports in Belgium.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

External links

• World War 1 Naval Combat
• History of War