HMS Centaur (1916)

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Career
Class and type:	C-class light cruiser
Name:	HMS Centaur
Builder:	Vickers Limited
Laid down:	January 24, 1915
Launched:	January 6, 1916
Commissioned:	August 1916
Fate:	Sold to be broken up for scrap 1934
General characteristics
Tons burthen:	3,750 tons
Length:	446 ft (136 m)
Beam:	42 ft (13 m)
Draught:	14.6 ft (4.5 m)
Propulsion:	Parsons turbines Eight Yarrow boilers Four screws 40,000 shp
Speed:	28.5 knots
Range:	carried 300 tons (824 tons maximum) of fuel oil
Complement:	329-336
Armament:	5 × 6 inch (152 mm) guns 2 × 3 inch (76 mm) guns 2 × 2 pounder (907g) guns 1 × machine gun 2 × 21 inch torpedo tubes
Armour:	3 inch side (amidships) 2¼-1¼ inch side (bows) 2-2½ inch side (stern) 1 inch upper decks (amidships) 1 inch deck over rudder

HMS Centaur was a C-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was the nameship of the Centaur group of the C-class of cruisers.

She was built by Vickers Limited and laid down in January 1915, launched on January 1, 1916 and commissioned into the Navy in August 1916. The Ottoman Empire had ordered a pair of scout cruisers in 1914. When the First World War started, construction was halted. A considerable amount of material had already been prepared, and much of this was used in the construction of HMS Centaur, and her sister HMS Concord.

Upon being commissioned into the Navy, Centaur was assigned to the 5th Light Cruiser Flotilla, which operated with the Harwich Force to defend the Eastern approaches to the English Channel. On 18 June 1918 she was damaged by mine, but survived the war. Considered obsolete, she was sold in February 1934 to King, of Troon and arrived at their yards on March 6 1934 to be scrapped.

[edit] References

• Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475. 
• Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
• Ships of the Centaur class

v • d • e C class cruisers Caroline class Caroline · Carysfort · Cleopatra · Comus · Conquest · Cordelia Calliope class Calliope · Champion Cambrian class Cambrian · Canterbury · Castor · Constance Centaur class Centaur · Concord Caledon class Caledon · Calypso · Cassandra · Caradoc Ceres class Cardiff · Ceres · Coventry · Curacoa · Curlew Carlisle class Cairo · Calcutta · Capetown · Carlisle · Colombo Preceded by: Arethusa class · Followed by: Danae class List of cruisers of the Royal Navy