HMS Centaur (1916)

HMS Centaur sometime between 1916 and 1919.
History
Class and type:	C-class light cruiser
Name:	HMS Centaur
Namesake:	centaur
Builder:	Vickers Limited
Laid down:	24 January 1915
Launched:	6 January 1916
Completed:	August 1916
Commissioned:	August 1916
Decommissioned:	October 1923
Recommissioned:	8 April 1925
Decommissioned:	March 1932
Fate:	Sold February 1934 for scrapping
General characteristics
Tons burthen:	3,750 tons
Length:	446 ft (136 m)
Beam:	42 ft (13 m)
Draught:	14.6 ft (4.5 m)
Propulsion:	Parsons turbines Eight Yarrow boilers Four propellers 40,000 shp
Speed:	28.5 knots
Range:	carried 300 tons (824 tons maximum) of fuel oil
Complement:	329-336
Armament:	5 × 6-inch (152 mm) (152 mm) guns 2 × 3-inch (76 mm) (76 mm) guns 2 × 2-pounder (907g) guns 1 × machine gun 2 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour:	3 inch side (amidships) 2¼-1¼ inch side (bows) 2-2½ inch side (stern) 1 inch upper decks (amidships) 1 inch deck over rudder

HMS Centaur was a C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy that served in the First World War and the Russian Civil War. She was the name ship of the Centaur group of the C-class of cruisers.

The Ottoman Empire had ordered a pair of scout cruisers in 1914. When the First World War started, construction was halted. A considerable amount of material had already been prepared, and much of this was used in the construction of HMS Centaur and her sister HMS Concord. Built by Vickers Limited, Centaur was laid down in January 1915 and launched on 1 January 1916.

Upon being commissioned into the Royal Navy in August 1916, Centaur was assigned to the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron, which operated as a part of Harwich Force in the North Sea to defend the eastern approaches to the Strait of Dover and English Channel. On 5 June 1917 she and the light cruisers HMS Canterbury and HMS Conquest sank the German torpedo boat S20 in the North Sea near the Schouwen Bank off Zeebrugge, Belgium. On 13 June 1918 she struck a mine and had to undergo repairs at Hull.