HMS Centaur was a C-class

C class cruiser

The C class was a group of twenty-eight light cruisers of the Royal Navy, and were built in a sequence of seven classes known as the Caroline , Calliope , Cambrian , Centaur , Caledon , Ceres and Carlisle classes...

 light cruiser

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...

 of the British Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. She was the nameship of the Centaur group of the C-class of cruisers.

She was built by Vickers Limited

Vickers Limited

Vickers Limited was a famous British engineering conglomerate that merged into Vickers-Armstrongs in 1927.-Early history:Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor &...

 and laid down in January 1915, launched on 1 January 1916 and commissioned into the Navy in August 1916. The Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 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

HMS Concord (1916)

HMS Concord was a C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was part of the Centaur group of the C-class of cruisers.She was built by Vickers Limited and laid down in February 1915, launched on 1 April 1916 and commissioned into the Navy in December 1916. The Ottoman Empire had ordered a pair...

.

Upon being commissioned into the Navy, Centaur was assigned to the 5th Light Cruiser Flotilla, which operated with the Harwich

Harwich

Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...

 Force to defend the Eastern approaches to the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

. On 5 June 1917 she sunk the German torpedo boat S20 in the channel. On 18 June 1918 she was damaged by a mine, but survived the war. Considered obsolete, she was sold in February 1934 to King, of Troon

Troon

Troon is a town in South Ayrshire. It is situated on the west coast of Scotland, about eight miles north of Ayr and three miles northwest of Glasgow Prestwick International Airport. Lying across the Firth of Clyde, the Isle of Arran can be seen. Troon is also a port with freight and ferry services...

and arrived at their yards on 6 March 1934 to be scrapped.