HMS Fox (1893)
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Fox |
| Operator: | Royal Navy |
| Launched: | 15 June 1893 |
| Commissioned: | 1896 |
| Decommissioned: | March 1919 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap 1920 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Astraea-class protected cruiser |
| Displacement: | 4,360 tons loaded |
| Length: | 320 ft (98 m) |
| Beam: | 49 ft 6 in (15.09 m) |
| Draught: | 19 ft (5.8 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: |
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| Range: | 7,000 nautical miles |
| Armament: | |
| Armour: |
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HMS Fox was a second class protected cruiser of the Astraea-class of the Royal Navy. The class represented an improvement on previous types, 1,000 tons displacement larger with better seaworthiness due to improved hull design. It also had somewhat increased firepower and superior arrangement of guns.
Ships of this category were designed for overseas duty where they were unlikely to encounter first class opposition. They were useful for showing the flag, suppressing piracy, escorting convoys during wartime, supporting colonial governments, and generally intimidating minor powers. They had some use in countering armed merchant cruisers of a hostile navy.
Fox was sheathed in wood and copper, to fit her for tropical waters. The hull of an unsheathed steel vessel operating in warm waters would usually become so encrusted with barnacles that its speed would be seriously affected within six months.
Fox was commissioned at Portsmouth by Captain F. S. Pelham 10 September 1901 to relieve HMS Marathon on the East Indies Station, and left home waters the following month after a commissioning trial in the Channel. She arrived at Malta on 28 October, at Aden on 11 November, and later proceeded to Bombay. In early January 1902 she sailed to Kuwait, carrying six small guns presented by the British to Sheikh Mubarak, after recent trouble between Britain and Turkey in the Persian Gulf. She was paid off after six years in January 1907 and sent to the reserve fleet. In May 1908, she was recommissioned for the Home Fleet. In June 1908, she was sent once more to the East Indies where she served until 1914.
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