HMS Blonde (1910)

HMS "Blonde" was a "Blonde" class scout cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was laid down in December 1909 in Pembroke Dockyard, launched on 22 July 1910 and completed in May 1911.

Like her sister ship, HMS "Blanche", she was essentially a development of the earlier "Boadicea" class with more 4 inch guns and, for the first time on a cruiser, the potent 21 inch torpedo. She was designed to operate with destroyer flotillas, and did spend 1911-1912 in the Mediterranean as Senior Officer’s ship of the Seventh Flotilla, but by 1912 she was already at least 2.5 knots slower than the majority of destroyers.

During the First World War she served with the Grand Fleet, and was attached to a variety of Battle Squadrons, beginning with the Fourth Battle Squadron. She was no longer with that squadron by the summer of 1916, and missed the battle of Jutland. In September 1917 she was she was converted to lay mines but was never used in active service in this role. Surplus to requirements after the end of hostilities, she was sold for scrap on 6 May 1920 to T. C. Pas, and was broken up in the Netherlands.

References

*Colledge
*Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
* Gray, Randal (ed), "Conway's All The Worlds Fighting Ships, 1906-1921", (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1985), ISBN 0-85177-245-5
* [http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/light-cruiser/hms-Blonde.html Blonde class in World War I]
* [http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_blonde_class_cruisers.html History of the Blonde class]
* [http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/blonde_class.htm Blonde class at battleships-cruisers.co.uk]