HMS Hyacinth (1898)

HMS Hyacinth circa. 1915
History
United Kingdom
Name	Hyacinth
Builder	London & Glasgow Shipbuilding, Govan
Laid down	21 January 1897
Launched	27 October 1898
Christened	Mrs. Richmond
Completed	3 September 1900
Decommissioned	August 1919
Fate	Sold for scrap, 11 October 1923
General characteristics
Class and type	Highflyer-class protected cruiser
Displacement	5,650 long tons (5,740 t)
Length	350 ft (110 m) (p.p.) 372 ft (113 m) (o/a)
Beam	54 ft (16.5 m)
Draught	21 ft 6 in (6.6 m)
Installed power	18 × Belleville boilers 10,000 ihp (7,500 kW)
Propulsion	2 × shafts; 2 × triple-expansion steam engines
Speed	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement	470
Armament	11 × single QF 6 in (152 mm) guns 8 × single QF 12 pdr 12 cwt guns[Note 1] 6 × single QF 3 pdr Hotchkiss guns 2 × single 18 in (45 cm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Deck: 1.5–3 in (38–76 mm) Gun shields: 3 in (76 mm) Conning tower: 6 in (152 mm) Engine hatches: 5 in (127 mm)

HMS Hyacinth was one of three Highflyer-class protected cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. Initially assigned to the Channel Fleet, she spent much of her early career as flagship for the East Indies Station. She was reduced to reserve in 1912 after a lengthy refit before becoming the flagship of the Cape of Good Hope Station in 1913. After the beginning of World War I in August 1914, she spent the first few months of the war escorting convoys around South Africa. In early 1915, she was deployed to German East Africa to blockade the German light cruiser SMS Königsberg. She destroyed a German blockade runner attempting to bring supplies through the blockade in April and sank a German merchant vessel in early 1916. Hyacinth remained on the Cape Station for the rest of the war and was paid off in 1919, although she was not sold for scrap until 1923.
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