HMS Pelorus from the right
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HMS Pelorus was the nameship of the Pelorus class of third class cruisers. At the start of the First World War she was on patrol in the Bristol Channel, but before the end of 1914 she had been sent to the Mediterraean, where she formed part of the Gibraltar Patrol (with ten torpedo boats and two armed boarding ships). She was perhaps not the ideal patrol vessel, for from March-May 1915 she was detached at Palma in the Balearic Islands, watching a suspicious German steamship known to be equipped with a wireless set.
In the summer of 1915 the Pelorus was back with the main Gibraltar patrol, but the patrol did not even detect the German submarines U 35 and U 34 as they passed through the straits of Gibraltar on the way to the eastern Mediterranean. During 1916 she was at least partly converted to act as a depot ship, but in January 1918 she made up the 1st Detached Squadron of the Aegean Squadron, based at Suda Bay, Crete.
Displacement (loaded) |
2,135t |
Top Speed |
18.5kts natural draft |
Armour – deck |
1.5in-2in |
- gunshields |
0.25in |
- conning tower |
3in |
Length |
313ft 6in |
Armaments |
Eight 4in quick firing guns |
Crew complement |
224 |
Launched |
15 December 1896 |
Completed |
1897 |
Captains |
Commander E. Stevenson (1915) |
Sold for break up |
1920 |