HMS Highflyer (1898)

Highflyer at anchor
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Highflyer
Builder	Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering, Govan
Laid down	7 June 1897
Launched	4 June 1898
Christened	Ethel, Mrs. Francis Elgar
Commissioned	7 December 1899
Fate	Sold for scrap, 10 June 1921
General characteristics
Class and type	Highflyer-class protected cruiser
Displacement	5,650 long tons (5,740 t)
Length	350 ft (110 m) (p.p.) 372 ft (113 m) (o/a)
Beam	54 ft (16.5 m)
Draught	21 ft 6 in (6.6 m)
Installed power	10,000 ihp (7,500 kW) 18 × Belleville boilers
Propulsion	2 × shafts 2 × 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines
Speed	20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement	470
Armament	11 × single QF 6 in (152 mm) guns 8 × single QF 12-pounder 12 cwt guns[Note 1] 6 × single QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns 2 × single 18 in (45 cm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Deck: 1.5–3 in (38–76 mm) Gun shields: 3 in (76 mm) Conning tower: 6 in (152 mm) Engine hatches: 5 in (127 mm)

HMS Highflyer was the lead ship of the Highflyer-class protected cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. She spent her early career as flagship for the East Indies and North America and West Indies Stations. She was reduced to reserve in 1908 before again becoming the flagship in the East Indies in 1911. She returned home two years later and became a training ship. When World War I began in August 1914, she was assigned to the 9th Cruiser Squadron in the Central Atlantic to intercept German commerce raiders and protect Allied shipping.

Days after the war began, she intercepted a Dutch ship carrying German troops and gold. She then sank the German armed merchant cruiser SMS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse off the coast of Spanish Sahara. Highflyer spent most of the rest of the war on convoy escort duties and was present in Halifax during the Halifax Explosion in late 1917. She became flagship of the East Indies Station after the war. The ship was sold for scrap in 1921.
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