Sentinel-class cruiser

HMS Sentinel
Class overview
Name	Sentinel class
Builders	Vickers Limited, Barrow
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Pathfinder class
Succeeded by	Boadicea class
Built	1903–1905
In service	1905–1923
In commission	1905–1920
Completed	2
Scrapped	2
General characteristics (as built)
Type	Scout cruiser
Displacement	2,895 long tons (2,941 t)
Length	360 ft (109.7 m) (p/p) 381 ft (116.1 m) (o/a)
Beam	40 ft (12.2 m)
Draught	14 ft 9 in (4.5 m) (deep load)
Installed power	12 water-tube boilers 16,500 ihp (12,300 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts; 2 triple-expansion steam engines
Speed	25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph)
Range	2,460 nmi (4,560 km; 2,830 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	289
Armament	10 × 12 pdr (3 in (76 mm)) guns 8 × 3 pdr (47 mm (1.9 in)) guns 2 × 18 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Deck: 0.625–1.5 in (16–38 mm) Conning tower: 3 in (76 mm)

The Sentinel-class cruisers were a pair of scout cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The sister ships spent about half of the first decade of their careers in reserve and were based in home waters when on active duty. When the First World War began in August 1914 they were given coastal defence missions on the north eastern coast of Britain. The ships were transferred to the Mediterranean in 1915 and then to the Aegean in mid-1916 where they remained until the end of the war in late 1918. Skirmisher was paid off in 1919 and was scrapped the following year, but Sentinel supported the British attempt to intervene in the Russian Civil War for a few months after the end of the war. She also returned home in 1919, but served as a training ship for a few years before she was broken up in 1923.