HMS Thetis (1890)

HMS Thetis was an Apollo-class cruiser second-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.

She served on the Mediterranean Station until relieved in March 1901. She was paid off at Chatham in early June 1901, and was placed in the Fleet reserve. She was commissioned at Chatham on 25 November 1902 with a complement of 273 officers and men for service on the China Station. She left Sheerness on 14 December, stopping in Gibraltar, Malta, Port Said, Aden and more places before arriving in China the following year.

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.