Apollo-class cruiser

Apollo class cruiser

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.

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 ) being drawn up by White, of which eight units were also ordered under the Naval Defence Act.

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 (the latter being of the ) 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.

+Apollo class cruisersNameBuilderLaid downLaunchedCompletedFateNotesChatham Dockyard29 April 188914 August 1890December 1891Broken up in 1920Andromache type minelayerChatham Dockyard27 May 188910 February 1891April 1892Broken up in 1920Andromache type minelayerVickers, Barrow in Furness22 August 188922 May 1890April 1891Sold in 1920Andromache type minelayerVickers, Barrow in Furness30 August 18892 August 1890December 1891Broken up in 1910Vickers, Barrow in Furness3 October 188929 November 1890January 1892Broken up in 1922Andromache type minelayerSamuda Brothers, Poplar29 October 18899 May 1891February 1893Broken up in 1921Samuda Brothers, Poplar29 October 188917 October 1891April 1893Broken up in 1914Robert Stephenson, Hebburn11 October 188927 December 1890May 1894Wrecked in 1901J & G Thomson, Clydebank27 August 188930 October 1890April 1892Broken up in 1914J & G Thomson, Clydebank29 October 188913 December 1890April 1892Expended as blockship in 1918Andromache type minelayerJ & G Thomson, Clydebank11 December 188924 February 1891May 1892Broken up in 1911Devonport Dockyard19 March 189013 November 1891June 1893Broken up in 1914Sheerness Dockyard24 March 189024 June 1891April 1893Expended as blockship in 1918London & Glasgow6 September 188912 March 1891April 1892Broken up in 1913London & Glasgow6 September 188920 June 1891November 1892Expended as blockship in 1918Intrepid type minelayerLondon & Glasgow17 March 189019 November 1891May 1893Expended as blockship in 1918Intrepid type minelayerPalmers, Jarrow30 October 188913 December 1890March 1893Broken up in 1911Palmers, Jarrow30 December 188925 March 1891January 18931910 to Royal Canadian Navy as Sold in 1920Palmers, Jarrow31 January 18906 August 1891May 1893Broken up in 1911Armstrong Mitchell, Elswick7 October 188927 October 1890April 1892Expended as blockship in 1918Armstrong Mitchell, Elswick16 December 188925 February 1891July 1892Broken up in 1931Sources: Conway's 1860–1905, p.77; Jane's, p.62; Cocker, p.26 27.