Minotaur-class cruiser (1906)

Minotaur at anchor, shortly after she was completed
Class overview
Name	Minotaur-class cruiser
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Warrior class
Succeeded by	None
Built	1905–1909
In commission	1908–1919
Planned	4
Completed	3
Cancelled	1
Lost	1
Scrapped	2
General characteristics
Type	Armoured cruiser
Displacement	14,600 long tons (14,800 t)
Length	490 ft (149.4 m) (p/p) 519 ft (158.2 m) (o/a)
Beam	74.5 ft (22.7 m)
Draught	26 ft (7.9 m)
Installed power	24 Yarrow boilers 27,000 ihp (20,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts; 2 triple-expansion steam engines
Speed	23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Range	8,150 nmi (15,090 km; 9,380 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	802
Armament	2 × twin 9.2 in (234 mm) guns 10 × single 7.5 in (191 mm) guns 16 × single QF 12-pounder (3 inch, 76 mm) 18-cwt guns[Note 1] 5 × submerged 18 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Belt: 3–6 in (76–152 mm) Deck: 1.5–2 in (38–51 mm) Barbettes: 7 in (178 mm) Gun turrets: 4.5–8 in (114–203 mm) Conning tower: 10 in (254 mm)

The Minotaur class was a three-ship class of armoured cruisers built in the first decade of the twentieth century for the Royal Navy. These were the last class of armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy, with that role being substantially replaced by the first battlecruisers. These initially served with the Home Fleet, generally as the flagships of cruiser squadrons. Minotaur became flagship of the China Station in 1910 and Defence served as flagship of the 1st Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean from 1912; Shannon remained at home as flagship of several different squadrons.

When World War I began in August 1914, Defence participated in the pursuit of the German ships SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau and Minotaur hunted for the German East Asia Squadron and German commerce raiders in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Shannon remained with the Grand Fleet, as the Home Fleet was renamed, for the entire war. All three were present at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, where Defence was sunk with the loss of all men on board. The surviving pair spent most of the rest of the war assigned to the Northern Patrol unsuccessfully searching for German warships and commerce raiders. The pair were scrapped after the war.
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