![]() Challenger | |
History | |
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Name | HMS Challenger |
Builder | HM Dockyard Chatham |
Laid down | 1 December 1900 |
Launched | 27 May 1902 |
Christened | Mrs. Eva Holland |
Completed | 1904 |
Fate | Broken up for scrap in 1920 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Challenger-class protected cruiser |
Displacement | 5,900 tons |
Length | 355 ft (108.2 m) |
Beam | 56 ft (17.1 m) |
Draught | 21 ft 8 in (6.60 m) |
Propulsion | 12,500 horsepower |
Speed | 21 knots (39 km/h) |
Armament |
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HMS Challenger was a second-class protected cruiser of the Challenger-class of the Royal Navy.
Challenger was designed by Sir William Henry White, Director of Naval Construction, and was built at the Chatham Dockyard, where she was laid down on 1 December 1900. [1] She was launched there on 27 May 1902, when she was named by Eva Holland, wife of Rear-Admiral S. C. Holland, Admiral-Superintendent of Chatham Dockyard. [2]
Her machinery was made by the Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company, and there were 12 boilers of the Babcock & Wilcox type. [1]
Challenger was commissioned by Captain F.C.T. Tudor, R.N., on 3 May 1904, [3] and commenced duty on the Australia Station in July 1904 as recruit training ship. [4] [5] She was paid off into reserve on 10 October 1912 before recommissioning during the First World War. She initially served as part of the Ninth Cruiser Squadron off West Africa before serving in East African waters. She was sold in 1920 and was broken up for scrap.
HMAS Pioneer was a Pelorus-class protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy at the end of the 19th century. She was transferred to the fledgling Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in 1912. During World War I, the cruiser captured two German merchant ships, and was involved in the East African Campaign, including the blockade of the cruiser SMS Königsberg and a bombardment of Dar-es-Salaam. She returned to Australia in late 1916 and was decommissioned. Pioneer was used as an accommodation ship for the following six years, then was stripped down and sold off by 1926. The cruiser was scuttled outside Sydney Heads in 1931.
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HMS Cadmus was a Cadmus-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched at Sheerness in 1903, spent her entire career in the Far East and was sold at Hong Kong in 1921.
Media related to HMS Challenger (ship, 1902) at Wikimedia Commons