HMS Gladiator (1896)

History

United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Gladiator
Builder:	Portsmouth Dockyard
Laid down:	January 1896
Launched:	18 December 1896
Completed:	April 1899
Fate:	Capsized after collision, 25 April 1908 Scrapped October 1908
General characteristics
Class and type:	Arrogant-class protected cruiser
Displacement:	5,750 tons
Length:	342 ft (104 m)
Beam:	57 ft 6 in (17.53 m)
Propulsion:	Triple expansion engines 18 × Belleville water-tube boilers 2 × screws 10,000 hp (7,457 kW)
Speed:	19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Complement:	480
Armament:	4 × QF 6 inch /40 naval guns 6 × QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns Later replaced with 10 × BL 6 inch Mk VII naval guns 8 × 12 pounder guns 3 × QF 3 pounder guns 5 × machine guns 3 × 18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Deck : 3 in (76 mm)

HMS Gladiator was a second class protected cruiser of the Royal Navy, launched on 8 December 1896 at Portsmouth, England. She was of the Arrogant class rated at 5,750 long tons (5,840 t) displacement, with a crew of 250 officers and men. She had three distinctive stacks amidships with a conspicuous bridge well forward.

Gladiator was ordered to be commissioned at Portsmouth on 15 February 1900 to take out relief crews for the Australia Station.

She served with the Mediterranean Squadron in June 1902, when she visited Larnaka, under the command of Captain Frederick Owen Pike.

During a late snowstorm off the Isle of Wight on 25 April 1908, Gladiator was heading into port when she struck the outbound American steamer SS Saint Paul. Visibility was down to 800 yd (730 m), but the strong tides and gale force winds required both ships to maintain high speeds to maintain steerage.

Lookouts on each vessel saw the approaching danger off Point Hurst. The American ship attempted to pass to the port side, the standard procedure in such a situation. Lacking room for the manoeuvre, Captain William Lumsden choose to turn the opposite direction, ensuring a collision. Both ships attempted to slow but both were exceptionally heavy (Saint Paul was built for conversion in wartime to a cruiser). They hit at about 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph). Saint Paul struck Gladiator just aft of her engine room.

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Wikipedia