HMS Cardiff (1917)
An astonishing absence of a Cardiff in the Royal Navy took place after the selling of the first ship, in which over 250 years passed until the second Cardiff was commissioned. It was an amazingly quick procession, from being ordered under an Emergency Plan in April 1916 due to WWI, 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 WWI was over, her service was not. She deployed to the Baltic, operating near Reval against the Bolsheviks in operations that also involved Allied ground troops.
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 WWI. She was broken up in 1946.
See HMS Cardiff for other ships of the name.
HMS Cardiff Statistics
- Displacement: 4,100 tons
- Length: 425ft
- Beam: 45ft
- Draught: 14ft
- Complement: 327
- Armament:
- 5 x 6-inch guns
- 2 x 3-inch guns
- 2 x 2 pounder guns
- 8 x 21-inch torpedo tubes
- Speed: 29 knots
- Propulsion: 2 shafts, 2 turbines, 6 Yarrow boilers, 40,000shp
Referenced By
HMS Cardiff
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