HMS Adventure (1904)

HMS Adventure (1904)
Career
Class and type:	Adventure class scout cruiser
Name:	HMS Adventure
Builder:	Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick, Tyne and Wear
Laid down:	7 January 1904
Launched:	8 September 1904
Commissioned:	October 1905
Decommissioned:	12 August 1919
Fate:	Sold 3 March 1920 for scrapping
General characteristics
Displacement:	2,640 tons
Length:	395 ft (120 m) overall (o/a)
Beam:	38 1⁄4 feet
Draught:	13 1⁄2 feet
Propulsion:	Two 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines driving twin screws 16,000 ihp
Speed:	25 knots (46 km/h)
Range:	Carried 150 tons coal (455 tons max)
Complement:	268
Armament:	As built Ten x 12pdr quick firing guns Eight x 3pdr quick firing guns Two x 18 in torpedo tubes As modified 1911/12 Nine x QF 4-inch (101.6 mm) Mk IV guns Six x 6pdr guns Two x 18 torpedo tubes
Armour:	conning tower: 3-inch deck: 2-inch - 1⁄4-inch

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Adventure.

HMS Adventure was an Adventure class scout cruiser which served with the Royal Navy before and during the First World War. She was built by Armstrong Whitworth of Elswick, Tyne and Wear, being laid down on 7 January 1904 and launched on 8 September 1904.

Career

In April 1907 she collided with, and sank, a fishing boat off the Sussex coast. She led the 1st torpedo boat destroyer Flotilla and was refitted at Chatham docks in June 1910. She then became Flotilla leader for the 2nd destroyer Flotilla based in Devonport. She underwent another refit in August 1912, and then joined the 3rd light cruiser squadron on maneuvers. In July 1913 Adventure joined the 6th destroyer flotilla based at Dover.

In May 1915 she joined the 6th Light Cruiser squadron on the Humber to patrol against Zeppelins raiding up the east coast. In July of that year became the flagship at Queenstown until November 1917. On Boxing Day in 1915 she distinguished herself by rescuing the crew of the stricken steamship Huronian. She escorted convoys to Gibraltar during the last summer of the war, then served in the Mediterranean and, in 1919, the Aegean. She returned to Immingham docks to be paid off on 12 August 1919. Her bad luck with collisions continued when she was rammed by a trawler on the Humber in January 1920. She was then sold to the breakers for scrap on 3 March 1920, and was towed by the fellow scout cruiser HMS Skirmisher to Morecambe.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. 
• Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
• Adventure class in World War I
• History of the Adventure class
• The Adventure class