Marathon-class cruiser

Chromolithograph of HMS Magicienne by W. Fred Mitchell, 1892
Class overview
Name:	Marathon class
Builders:	Fairfields, Govan Portsmouth Naval Dockyard Chatham Naval Dockyard
Operators:	Royal Navy
Built:	1887–1889
In commission:	1889–1920
Completed:	5
Retired:	5
General characteristics
Type:	2nd class cruiser
Displacement:	2,800 long tons (2,845 t) (Medea & Medusa) 2,950 long tons (2,997 t) (Melpomene, Magicienne & Marathon)
Propulsion:	Dürr boilers (Medusa)
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement:	218
Armament:	6 × 6 in (152.4 mm) guns 9 × 6-pounder quick firing guns 1 × 3-pounder gun 3 × machine guns 2 × torpedo tubes

The Marathon-class cruiser was a class of second class cruiser of the Royal Navy ordered under the naval programme of 1887. The class was a smaller version of the Mersey class (lead ship - HMS Mersey).

Three of the ships, Melpomene, Magicienne and Marathon, were built for foreign (tropical) service, with a sheath of wood and copper - this added weight and made them slightly slower.

By 1901, the Royal Navy had ordered eight Dürr boilers from Germany, to be installed as a trial on board Medusa as a substitute for the Belleville boilers then in naval use.