HMAS Encounter (1902)

Portside view HMAS Encounter
History
United Kingdom
NameEncounter
BuilderHM Dockyard Devonport
Laid down28 January 1901
Launched18 June 1902
ChristenedLady Sturges Jackson
Completed6 December 1905
Commissioned21 November 1905
FateTransferred to the Royal Australian Navy
Australia
NameEncounter
Acquired1912, permanently transferred 5 December 1919
Commissioned1 July 1912
Decommissioned15 August 1929
RenamedHMAS Penguin (May 1923)
ReclassifiedSubmarine depot ship (May 1923)
Motto"Show the Flag"
Nickname(s)"The Old Bus"
Honours and
awards
  • Battle honours:
  • Rabaul 1914
FateScuttled off Sydney Heads, 14 September 1932
General characteristics
Class and typeChallenger-class cruiser
Displacement5,880 long tons (5,970 t) standard
Length
  • 376 ft 1.75 in (114.65 m) overall
  • 355 ft (108.20 m) between perpendiculars
Beam56 ft 2.125 in (17.12 m)
Draught21.25 ft (6.48 m)
PropulsionKeyham 4-cylinder triple expansion steam engine, 12,500 hp (9,300 kW), two shafts
Speed21 knots (38.9 km/h; 24.2 mph)
Complement
  • RN: 475
  • RAN: 26 officers, 269 sailors
Armament

HMAS Encounter was a second-class protected cruiser of the Challenger class operated by the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was built by HM Dockyard Devonport and completed at the end of 1905.

Encounter spent the first six years of her career operating with the RN's Australia Squadron, before being transferred to the newly formed RAN. During World War I, the cruiser became the first ship of the RAN to fire in anger when she bombarded Toma Ridge. Encounter operated in the New Guinea, Fiji-Samoa, and Malaya areas until 1916, when she returned to Australian waters. The ship spent the rest of the war patrolling and escorting convoys around Australia and into the Indian Ocean. In 1919, Encounter was sent to evacuate the Administrator of the Northern Territory and his family following the Darwin Rebellion.

Encounter was paid off into reserve in 1920, but saw further use as a depot ship until being completely decommissioned in 1929. In 1932, the cruiser was scuttled off Sydney.