HMS Sapphire (1904)

HMS Sapphire was a Topaze-class cruiser protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She saw active service in World War I and was sold for scrap in 1921.

Design and description
Rated as third-class cruisers, the Topaze-class ships had a length between perpendiculars of 360 ft, a beam of 40 ft and a draught of 16 ft. They displaced 3000 LT and their crew consisted of 313 officers and other ranks.

Sapphire was fitted with a pair of four-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by 10 water-tube boilers. The engines were designed to produce a total of 9800 ihp which was intended to give a maximum speed of 21.75 kn. They carried a maximum of 700 LT of coal which gave them a range of 7000 nmi at 10 kn and 2000 nmi at 20 kn.

The main armament of the Topaze class consisted of a dozen quick-firing (QF) 4 inch guns. One gun each was mounted on the forecastle and the quarterdeck. The remaining ten guns were placed port and starboard amidships. They also carried eight QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns and two above water 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes. The ships' protective deck armour ranged in thickness from .75 to 2 in. The main guns were fitted with 1 in gun shields and the conning tower had armour 3 in thick.

Construction
She was laid down in January 1904 at Palmers in their Jarrow shipyard, launched on 17 March 1904 and completed in February 1905.

Service
Sapphire was commissioned on 2 July 1914 at Chatham Dock, Kent, before moving out into Kethole Reach, in the estuary of the Medway. On 16 July, Sapphire for set sail from Sheerness Docks, Kent, for Spithead, Hampshire, where she took part in the Royal Fleet Review on 20 July.

On 8 January 1918, Sapphire arrived at Aden where Commander W. F. Sells joined from HMS Minto and took over command.

Sapphire was sold to TW Ward Ltd for breaking up at Grays, Essex on 9 May 1921.