HMS Foresight (1904)

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Career

Class and type:	Forward class scout cruiser
Name:	HMS Foresight
Builder:	Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan
Laid down:	October 1903
Launched:	8 October 1904
Commissioned:	August 1905
Fate:	Sold 3 March 1920 for scrapping
General characteristics
Displacement:	2,860 tons
Length:	365 ft (111 m) (p/p), 379 ft (116 m) (o/a)
Beam:	39 ft 3 in (12.0 m)
Draught:	14 ft 3 in (4.3 m)
Propulsion:	Two 4 cylinder triple expansion oil fired steam engines driving twin screws 16,500 ihp
Speed:	25 knots
Range:	Carried 150 tons coal (500 tons max)
Complement:	298
Armament:	As built Ten x 12pdr quick firing guns Eight x 3pdr quick firing guns Two x 18 in torpedo tubes As modified 1911/12 Nine x 4 in guns Six x 6pdr guns Two x 18 torpedo tubes
Armour:	conning tower: 3 inch deck: 1⅛ inch - ⅝ inch belt: 2 inch

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Foresight.

HMS Foresight was one of two Forward class scout cruiser of the Royal Navy, built at the yards of Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan. She was laid down in October 1903, launched on 8 October 1904 and completed in August 1905. She was initially given a main armament of ten 12 pounder guns but in 1911/12 these were replaced with nine more potent 4 inch guns.

[edit] Career

HMS Foresight was in the reserve of the Portsmouth Division of the Home Fleet from completion until 1909, when she joined the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla as its leader. In 1910 she joined the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, then in 1911 the 6th Flotilla at Dover.

At the start of the First World War she was joined the Dover Patrol, then the 8th Destroyer Flotilla, still at Dover. In this role she took part in the operations off the Flanders coast during October 1914 that helped to protect the Allied flank during the battle of the Yser. In May 1915 she was temporarily moved to the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron on the Humber, guarding against Zeppelin raids on the east coast. In 1915 she served in the Mediterranean and in July 1916 in the Aegean with her sister ship HMS Forward until the end of the war. She was sold for scrap after the war on 3 March 1920, to Granton S. Breaking Company.