HMS Proserpine was a Pelorus-classcruiser of the Royal Navy. There were eleven "Third class" protected cruisers in the class, which was designed by Sir William White. While well armed for their size, they were primarily workhorses for the overseas fleet on "police" duties and did not serve with the main battlefleet.
They displaced 2,135tons, had a crew complement of 224 men and were armed with eight QF 4inch (102mm) (25pounder) guns, eight 3pounder guns, three machine guns, and two 18inch (457mm) torpedo tubes. With reciprocating triple expansion engines and a variety of boilers, the top speed was 20 knots (37km/h).
Service history
HMS Proserpine was laid down at Sheerness Dockyard in March 1896, and launched on 5 December 1896 when she was christened by Lady Nicholson, wife of Sir Henry Nicholson, Commander-in-Chief at The Nore.[1]
Captain John Locke Marx was appointed in command in September 1898, for service on the North America and West Indies Station, which had headquarters at Bermuda and (during summer) Halifax. In March 1900 she visited Nassau, Bahamas to assist HMS Hermes, stranded there with a broken shaft.[2] Commander Gerald Charles Adolphe Marescaux was appointed in command in October 1900. She returned to pay off at Chatham in early November 1901.[3] Shortly after returning home, she was involved in a collision while she was anchored off Sheerness harbour. The Royal Zeeland Steamship Company mailboat Koningen Regentes struck the bow of Proserpine, leaving slight damage to both vessels.[4] She was subsequently taken to Chatham Dockyard for repairs, and paid off at the naval base there 28 November 1901.[5]
East Indies Station 1904–12, Mediterranean 1913.
Returned to the UK, joined the 3rd Fleet 1913–14, 7th Channel Cruiser Squadron 1914.
Sent to the Mediterranean, East Indies and Egypt 1914-18 and finally the Red Sea 1918 to blockade Somalia, and gun running prevention in the Persian Gulf.[6]
Sold for scrap on 30 November 1919, at Alexandria 1919 and broken up at Genoa.[7]
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article HMS_Proserpine_(1896), and is written by contributors.
Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.