HMS Thetis (1890)

History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Thetis
Builder:	J & G Thomson, Clydebank
Laid down:	29 October 1889
Launched:	13 December 1890
Commissioned:	April 1892
Fate:	Deliberately sunk in the Zeebrugge Raid on 23 April 1918
General characteristics
Class and type:	Apollo-class 2nd class protected cruiser
Displacement:	3,400 tons
Length:	314 ft (95.7 m)
Beam:	43 ft (13.1 m)
Draught:	17.5 ft (5.3 m)
Propulsion:	Twin triple-expansion coal-fired steam engines, 7,000 indicated hp (5 MW), twin screws
Speed:	18.5 knots (34 km/h) maximum
Complement:	273 to 300 (Officers and Men)
Armament:	As built: 2 × QF 6-inch (152.4 mm) guns 6 (later 4) × QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns 8 × 6-pounder (3 kg) Hotchkiss 1 × 3-pounder Vickers 4 × Maxim machine guns 4 × 14 inch torpedo tubes 100 mines Converted pre-1914 to a lightly armed minelayer.
Armour:	1.3 to 2 in (33 to 51 mm) deck, no belt

HMS Thetis was an Apollo-class 2nd class protected cruiser of the Royal Navy, launched on 13 December 1890. Her first significant mission was service in the Bering Sea Patrol with American warships in a combined effort to suppress poaching in the Bering Sea.

Under the command of Captain W. Stokes-Rees, she later served on the Mediterranean Station until relieved in March 1901.^[1] She paid of at Chatham in early June 1901, and was placed in the Fleet reserve.^[2]

The latter half of her career was spent as a mine-layer. Laden with concrete, she was deliberately sunk as a blockship in attempt to block the canal in the Zeebrugge Raid during the First World War, on 23 April 1918.

References

Publications

Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. 

External links

• Media related to HMS Thetis (ship, 1892) at Wikimedia Commons