HMS Cardiff (D58)

In wartime camouflage, 1942
History
United Kingdom
NameCardiff
NamesakeCardiff
OrderedMarch–April 1915
BuilderFairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan
Laid down22 July 1916
Launched12 April 1917
Completed25 June 1917
Decommissioned3 September 1945
Out of serviceSold for scrap, 23 January 1946
IdentificationPennant number: 29 (Jan 18);[1] 39 (Apr 18); 58 (Nov 19); I.58 (1936); D.58 (1940)[2]
FateBroken up from 18 March 1946
General characteristics (as built)
Class and typeC-class light cruiser
Displacement4,190 long tons (4,260 t)
Length450 ft 3 in (137.2 m) (o/a)
Beam43 ft 5 in (13.2 m)
Draught14 ft 8 in (4.5 m) (mean)
Installed power
Propulsion2 × shafts; 2 × geared steam turbines
Speed29 kn (54 km/h; 33 mph)
Complement460
Armament
Armour

HMS Cardiff was a C-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was one of the five ships of the Ceres sub-class and spent most of her career as a flagship. Assigned to the Grand Fleet during the war, the ship participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in late 1917. Cardiff was briefly deployed to the Baltic in late 1918 supporting anti-Bolshevik forces during the British campaign in the Baltic during the Russian Civil War.

She was then transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in early 1919 and spent most of the rest of the year in the Adriatic Sea. In early 1920, the ship was in the Black Sea supporting the Whites against the Bolsheviks. Cardiff spent most of the rest of her time between the world wars overseas or in reserve. The ship played a minor role in World War II as she was initially assigned to the Northern Patrol, but became a training ship in late 1940 and continued in that role for the rest of the war. Cardiff was sold for scrap in early 1946 and subsequently broken up.

  1. ^ Colledge, J J (1972). British Warships 1914–1919. Shepperton: Ian Allan. p. 48.
  2. ^ Dodson, Aidan (2024). "The Development of the British Royal Navy's Pennant Numbers Between 1919 and 1940". Warship International. 61 (2): 134–66.


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