HMS Cardiff (1917)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See HMS Cardiff for other ships of the name.

HMS Cardiff was a C-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy.

The steps to Cardiff occurred in quick procession, from being ordered under an Emergency Plan in April 1916 due to World War I, then to being laid down in July 1916 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, to the culmination of her being launched in April 1917. She was part of a light cruiser class of five ships known as the Ceres-class.

She was commissioned in 1917, becoming flagship of the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron, part of the Grand Fleet in July 1917. In 1918, the war had come to a close, and Cardiff had the prestigious honour of leading the defeated German High Seas Fleet to the River Forth. The German Fleet was soon scuttled under the orders of a German Admiral to ensure they did not fall into the hands of the victors. Though World War I was over, her service was not. She deployed to the Baltic Sea, operating near Reval (Tallinn), Estonia against the Bolsheviks in operations that also involved Allied ground troops.

Between the wars Cardiff, now obsolescent, served overseas; in the early 1930s, she was the flagship of the Navy's Africa Station.

Cardiff survived to see yet another war, though she would not see action. She trained the Royal Navy's future sailors, the sailors that would protect Britain the way Cardiff and her crews had done so in World War I. She was broken up in 1946.

[edit] General characteristics

Displacement: 4,100 tons
Length: 425 ft (130 m)
Beam: 45 ft (13.7 m)
Draught: 14 ft (4.3 m)
Complement: 327
Armament:
- 5 × 6 inch (152 mm) guns
- 2 × 3 inch (76 mm) guns
- 2 × 2 pounder (907 g) guns
- 8 × 21 inch torpedo tubes
Speed: 29 knots (54 km/h)
Propulsion: 2 shafts, 2 turbines, 6 Yarrow boilers, 40,000 shp (40 MW)