HMS ''Eclipse'' was an protected cruiser built for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

in the mid-1890s.

Design

Eclipse-class second-class protected cruisers were preceded by the shorter Astraea-class cruisers. ''Eclipse'' had a displacement of when at normal load. It had a total length of , a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of , a metacentric height of around , and a draught of . It was powered by two inverted triple-expansion steam engines which used steam from eight cylindrical

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

s. Using normal draught, the boilers were intended to provide the engines with enough steam to generate and to reach a speed of ; using forced draft, the equivalent figures were and a speed of . Eclipse-class cruisers carried a maximum of of coal and achieved maximum speed of in sea trials. It carried five 40-

calibre In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore match ...

quick-firing (QF) guns in single mounts protected by

gun shield A U.S. Marine manning an M240 machine gun equipped with a gun shield A gun shield is a flat (or sometimes curved) piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, or artillery piece ...

s. One gun was mounted on the

forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...

, two on the

quarterdeck The quarterdeck is a raised deck behind the main mast of a sailing ship. Traditionally it was where the captain commanded his vessel and where the ship's colours were kept. This led to its use as the main ceremonial and reception area on bo ...

and one pair was abreast the

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

. They fired shells at a muzzle velocity of . The secondary armament consisted of six 40-calibre guns; three on each

broadside Broadside or broadsides may refer to: Naval * Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare Printing and literature * Broadside (comic ...

. Their shells were fired at a muzzle velocity of . It was fitted with three 18-inch

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s, one submerged tube on each

and one above water in the

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

. Its ammunition supply consisted of 200 six-inch rounds per gun, 250 shells for each 4.7-inch gun, 300 rounds per gun for the s and 500 for each three-pounder. ''Eclipse'' had ten torpedoes, presumably four for each broadside tube and two for the stern tube.

Service

HMS ''Eclipse'' was launched in 1894 and completed in 1897. In 1899 she served in the Indian Ocean under the command of Captain P. W. Bush, as flagship of the East Indies Squadron. She was commissioned at Chatham dockyard in late May 1901, with a crew of 450 officers and men under the command of Captain Robert Henry Simpson Stokes, to relieve HMS Hermione on the China Station. On the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

she formed part of the 12th Cruiser Squadron, which patrolled at the Western end of the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

, with particular duties to stop suspicious vessels and prevent disguised minelayers from interfering with cross-Channel traffic.Naval Staff Monograph No. 23 1924, pp. 54–56.Corbett 1920, pp. 31, 76.

Footnotes

References

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eclipse (1894) Eclipse-class cruisers Ships built in Portsmouth 1894 ships