&sq=&lang=&file=File:HMS_Highflyer_AWM_302207.jpeg) Highflyer at anchor
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Highflyer |
| Builder | Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering, Govan |
| Laid down | 7 June 1897 |
| Launched | 4 June 1898 |
| Christened | Ethel, Mrs. Francis Elgar |
| Commissioned | 7 December 1899 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 10 June 1921 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Highflyer-class protected cruiser |
| Displacement | 5,650 long tons (5,740 t) |
| Length | |
| Beam | 54 ft (16.5 m) |
| Draught | 21 ft 6 in (6.6 m) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Complement | 470 |
| Armament |
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| Armour |
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HMS Highflyer was the lead ship of the Highflyer-class protected cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. She spent her early career as flagship for the East Indies and North America and West Indies Stations. She was reduced to reserve in 1908 before again becoming the flagship in the East Indies in 1911. She returned home two years later and became a training ship. When World War I began in August 1914, she was assigned to the 9th Cruiser Squadron in the Central Atlantic to intercept German commerce raiders and protect Allied shipping.
Days after the war began, she intercepted a Dutch ship carrying German troops and gold. She then sank the German armed merchant cruiser SMS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse off the coast of Spanish Sahara. Highflyer spent most of the rest of the war on convoy escort duties and was present in Halifax during the Halifax Explosion in late 1917. She became flagship of the East Indies Station after the war. The ship was sold for scrap in 1921.
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