HMS Adventure (1904)

HMS "Adventure" was an "Adventure" class scout cruiser which served with the Royal Navy before and during the First World War. She was built by Armstrong Whitworth of Elswick, Tyne and Wear, being laid down on 7 January 1904 and launched on 8 September 1904.

Career

In April 1907 she collided with, and sank, a fishing boat off the Sussex coast. She led the 1st torpedo boat destroyer Flotilla and was refitted at Chatham docks in June 1910. She then became Flotilla leader for the 2nd destroyer Flotilla based in Devonport. She underwent another refit in August 1912, and then joined the 3rd light cruiser squadron on maneuvers. In July 1913 "Adventure" joined the 6th destroyer flotilla based at Dover.

In May 1915 she joined the 6th Light Cruiser squadron on the Humber to patrol against Zeppelins raiding up the east coast. In July of that year became the flagship at Queenstown until November 1917. On Boxing Day in 1915 she distinguished herself by rescuing the crew of the stricken steamship "Huronian". She escorted convoys to Gibraltar during the last summer of the war, then served in the Mediterranean and, in 1919, the Aegean. She returned to Immingham docks to be paid off on 12 August 1919. Her bad luck with collisions continued when she was rammed by a trawler on the Humber in January 1920. She was then sold to the breakers for scrap on 3 March 1920, and was towed by the fellow scout cruiser HMS "Skirmisher" to Morecambe.

References

*Colledge
*Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
* [http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/light-cruiser/hms-Adventure.html Adventure class in World War I]
* [http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_adventure_class_cruisers.html History of the Adventure class]
* [http://www.worldnavalships.com/adventure_class.htm The Adventure class]