HMS ''Galatea'' was one of eight

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...

s 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 ...

in the 1910s. She fought in 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 ...

, participating in the Battle of Jutland. Following the war, she was scrapped.

Design and description

The ''Arethusa''-class cruisers were intended to lead destroyer

flotilla A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' ( fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. Composition A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same clas ...

s and defend the fleet against attacks by enemy destroyers. The ships were

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

, with a beam of and a deep draught of .

Displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

was at normalFriedman 2010, p. 384 and at full load. ''Arethusa'' was powered by four

Parsons Parsons may refer to: Places In the United States: * Parsons, Kansas, a city * Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Parsons, Tennessee, a city * Parsons, West Virginia, a town * Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingt ...

steam turbines, each driving one

propeller shaft A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...

, which produced a total of . The turbines used steam generated by eight

Yarrow boiler Yarrow boilers are an important class of high-pressure water-tube boilers. They were developed by Yarrow & Co. (London), Shipbuilders and Engineers and were widely used on ships, particularly warships. The Yarrow boiler design is characteristic ...

s which gave her a speed of about .Gardiner & Gray, p. 55 She carried tons of fuel oil that gave a range of at . The main armament of the ''Arethusa''-class ships was two BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk XII guns that were mounted on the centreline fore and aft of the superstructure and six QF 4-inch Mk V guns in waist mountings. They were also fitted with a single QF 3-pounder anti-aircraft gun and four

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 in two twin mounts.

Service history

She was launched on 14 May 1914 at

William Beardmore and Company William Beardmore and Company was a British engineering and shipbuilding conglomerate based in Glasgow and the surrounding Clydeside area. It was active from 1886 to the mid-1930s and at its peak employed about 40,000 people. It was founded and ...

shipyard. On her commissioning she was assigned as the leader to the

2nd Destroyer Flotilla The British 2nd Destroyer Flotilla (also styled as Second Destroyer Flotilla) was a naval formation of the Royal Navy from 1909 to 1943 and again from 1945 to 1946. History The 2nd Destroyer Flotilla originated in early 1907 as a part of a Home ...

of the Harwich Force, guarding the eastern approaches to 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 ...

. On 4 May 1916, she took part in the shooting down of Zeppelin ''L 7''. At the Battle of Jutland, she was the flagship of the

1st Light Cruiser Squadron The 1st Light Cruiser Squadron was a naval unit of the Royal Navy from 1913 to 1924. History The 1st Light Cruiser Squadron was a Royal Navy unit of the Grand Fleet during World War I. Four of its ships ('' Inconstant'', '' Galatea'', '' Cordeli ...

under Commodore E.S. Alexander-Sinclair. She was the first ship to report the presence of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

ships, triggering the battle. ''Galatea'' was also the first to receive a hit by the German light cruiser , but no explosion occurred. She was sold for scrapping on 25 October 1921.Gardiner & Gray, p. 56

Mount Galatea Mount Galatea is the highest peak of the Kananaskis Range, a subrange of the Canadian Rockies in the province of Alberta. It is located in the upper Spray Lakes Valley of the Kananaskis Country system of provincial parks. The mountain was named ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada is named after this ship.

Notes

Bibliography

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External links

Ships of the Arethusa classBattle of Jutland Crew Lists Project - HMS Galatea Crew List
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galatea (1914) Arethusa-class cruisers (1913) 1914 ships World War I cruisers of the United Kingdom Ships built on the River Clyde