HMS Talbot (1895)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Talbot.

HMS Talbot was an Eclipse-class protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1890s.

Talbot at anchor, c. 1904
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Talbot
Builder	Devonport Dockyard
Laid down	5 March 1894
Launched	25 April 1895
Completed	15 September 1896
Out of service	1919
Fate	Sold for scrap, 6 December 1921
General characteristics
Class and type	Eclipse-class protected cruiser
Displacement	5,600 long tons (5,690 t)
Length	350 ft (106.7 m)
Beam	53 ft 6 in (16.3 m)
Draught	20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Installed power	9,600 ihp (7,200 kW) 8 cylindrical boilers
Propulsion	2 shafts, 2 Inverted triple-expansion steam engines
Speed	18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph)
Complement	450
Armament	As built: 5 × QF 6-inch (152 mm) guns 6 × QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns 6 × 3-pounder QF guns 3 × 18-inch torpedo tubes After 1905: 11 × six-inch QF guns 9 × 12-pounder QF guns 7 × 3-pounder QF guns 3 × 18-inch torpedo tubes
Armour	Gun shields: 3 in (76 mm) Engine hatch: 6 in (152 mm) Decks: 1.5–3 in (38–76 mm) Conning tower: 6 in (152 mm)

Early career

HMS Talbot was laid down 5 March 1894 and launched 25 April 1895. She commissioned on 15 September 1896 for service on the North America and West Indies Station, but was back in the United Kingdom a couple of years later.

In 1899 she brought back, from the United States, the body of Lord Herschell to London.

In April 1901 she was commissioned at Devonport by Captain Frederick George Stopford, with a crew of 437, to serve at the China Station. She arrived at Hong Kong on 10 December 1901. In June 1902 she visited Kobe in Japan. Captain Lewis Bayly was appointed in command on 11 July 1902.

She was present at Chemulpo Bay in 1904, during the historical naval battle between two Russian ships, the cruiser Varyag and the gunboat Korietz against a fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Future Arctic explorers and members of Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition Patrick Keohane and Edward Evans served aboard her.

First World War

Talbot shelling Turkish positions at Suvla Bay

During the First World War she was assigned to Cruiser Force G and the 12 Cruiser Squadron operating in the English Channel. In September 1914 she captured a German merchant ship. On 27 March 1915 she arrived at the island of Tenedos for the Dardanelles and participated in the Battle of Gallipoli. Talbot was initially attached to the First Battle Squadron of the fleet and supported the landings at the tip of the Peninsula. On 26 April she supported the battleship HMS Goliath during attempts to support the landing on "Y Beach". In June she was the Senior Naval Officers' ship at Gaba Tepe, and during the Suvla landings she was the flagship of the 3rd Squadron. She remained at Gallipoli throughout the campaign, and covered the evacuation of Anzac beach in December 1915 and of Helles in January 1916.

In May 1916 Talbot was operating off the East African coast as part of the Cape Command. In January 1917 she was at Kiswere (Tanzania), when the second period of German commerce raids began and in 1918 she was off the Cape of Good Hope.

HMS Talbot, unknown port, date unknown.

Fate

She was laid up at Haulbowline, Cork Harbour from 1919-1921. She was sold for scrap on 6 December 1921.

References

• Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
• Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
• McBride, Keith (2012). "The Cruiser Family Talbot". In John Jordan (ed.). Warship 2012. London: Conway. pp. 136–41. ISBN 978-1-84486-156-9.

External links

• Eclipse Class Cruisers on World War 1 Naval Combat
• The Eclipse class
• HMS Talbot's career