HMS Highflyer was the lead ship

Lead ship

The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable military ships and larger civilian craft.-Overview:...

 of the Highflyer class

Highflyer class cruiser

The Highflyer class cruisers were a three-ship class of second-class protected cruisers of the Royal Navy, laid down in 1897 and completed at an average cost of £300,000....

 cruiser

Cruiser

A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...

 which served with the 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 built at the yards of Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company

Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company

The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited was a British shipbuilding company in the Govan area on the Clyde in Glasgow. Fairfields, as it is often known, was a major warship builder, turning out many vessels for the Royal Navy and other navies through the First World War and the...

, Govan

Govan

Govan is a district and former burgh now part of southwest City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick....

, being laid down in June 1897, launched on 4 June 1898 and commissioned on 7 December 1899.

Pre-1914

Like her sisters she was a development of the earlier Eclipse class

Eclipse class cruiser

The Eclipse-class cruisers of the Royal Navy were protected cruisers constructed in the mid-1890s.-Design and history:They were enlarged versions of the preceding Astraea class. Between 1903 and 1905, all of the ships in the class except for Eclipse had their mixed and guns removed and replaced...

 with an uprated 6 inch main armament, water tube boilers and slightly more powerful engines. She carried out trials for the new Belleville boilers. From November 1902 to March 1903 Highflyer was commanded by Captain Arthur H. Christian as the flagship

Flagship

A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...

 of Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Drury

Charles Carter Drury

Admiral Sir Charles Carter Drury, GCB, GCVO, KCSI was a Canadian Royal Navy Admiral who went on to be Second Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Personnel.-Naval career:...

, was at the head of the squadron of six ships which took part in the Somaliland Campaign

Somaliland Campaign

The Somaliland Campaign was a series of military engagements fought early in the 20th century in the Horn of Africa by British and Italian colonial forces against the Dervish State of the Somali religious and nationalist leader Mohammed Abdullah Hassan...

 in various coastal capacities. The ships assisted in landing troops and stores, in transport work, and in the prevention of delivery of munitions to the enemy. Three officers attached to Highflyer were landed, and assisted the progress of the campaign with a wireless telegraphy

Wireless telegraphy

Wireless telegraphy is a historical term used today to apply to early radio telegraph communications techniques and practices, particularly those used during the first three decades of radio before the term radio came into use....

 apparatus.

Wartime service

In the year before the start of the war, she had been serving as the training ship for Special Entry Cadets, but in August 1914 she was allocated to the 9th Cruiser Squadron, under Admiral

Admiral

Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...

 John de Robeck

John de Robeck

Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Michael de Robeck, 1st Baronet GCB, GCMG, GCVO was an admiral in the British Royal Navy who commanded the Allied naval force in the Dardanelles during World War I....

, on the Finisterre station

Cape Finisterre

right|thumb|300px|Position of Cape Finisterre on the [[Iberian Peninsula]]Cape Finisterre is a rock-bound peninsula on the west coast of Galicia, Spain....

. She left Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

 on 4 August, in the company of the admiral on HMS Vindictive

HMS Vindictive (1897)

HMS Vindictive was a British protected cruiser of the Arrogant class built at Chatham Dockyard. She was launched on 9 December 1897 and completed in 1899....

. They then captured the liner

Ocean liner

An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...

 , which was carrying German reservists and gold. Highflyer escorted her to Britain, before returning to her station.

She was then transferred to the Cape Verde station, to support Admiral Stoddart’s 5th Cruiser Squadron in the hunt for the German commerce raider Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. She had been sighted at Rio de Oro

Río de Oro

Río de Oro , is, with Saguia el-Hamra, one of the two territories that formed the Spanish province of Spanish Sahara after 1969; it was originally taken as a Spanish colonial possession in the late 19th century...

, a Spanish anchorage on the Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...

n coast. At the Battle of Rio de Oro

Battle of Rio de Oro

The Battle of Río de Oro was a single-ship action fought in August of 1914 during the First World War. The British protected cruiser HMS Highflyer attacked the German auxiliary cruiser SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse off the small Spanish Saharan territory of Río de Oro.-Background:Under the command...

, on 26 August Highflyer found the German ship taking on coal from three collier

Collier (ship type)

Collier is a historical term used to describe a bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially for naval use by coal-fired warships. In the late 18th century a number of wooden-hulled sailing colliers gained fame after being adapted for use in voyages of exploration in the South Pacific, for...

s. The Highflyer demanded that she surrender. The captain of the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse claimed the protection of neutral waters, but as he was breaking that neutrality himself by taking on coal and supplies for more than a week, his claim was denied. Fighting broke out at 3.10pm, and lasted until 4.45pm, when the crew of the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse abandoned ship and escaped to the shore. The Kaiser Wilhelm de Grosse was sunk, the Highflyer losing one man killed, and six injured in the engagement.

On 15 October Highflyer briefly became the flagship of the Cape Verde station, when Admiral Stoddard was ordered to Pernambuco

Pernambuco

Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...

. Later in the same month she was ordered to accompany the transport ships carrying the Cape garrison back to Britain. Towards the end of the month she was ordered to search the Atlantic coast of North Africa for the cruiser SMS Karlsruhe

SMS Karlsruhe (1912)

SMS Karlsruhe was a light cruiser of the built by the German Kaiserliche Marine . She had one sister ship, ; the ships were very similar to the previous s. The ship was laid down in 1911, launched in November 1912, and completed by January 1914...

.

After the Battle of Coronel

Battle of Coronel

The First World War naval Battle of Coronel took place on 1 November 1914 off the coast of central Chile near the city of Coronel. German Kaiserliche Marine forces led by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee met and defeated a Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher...

 Highflyer came back under the control of Admiral de Robeck, as part of a squadron formed to guard West Africa

West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

 against Admiral Maximilian von Spee

Maximilian von Spee

Vice Admiral Maximilian Reichsgraf von Spee was a German admiral. Although he was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the counts von Spee belonged to the prominent families of the Rhenish nobility. He joined the Kaiserliche Marine in 1878. In 1887–88 he commanded the Kamerun ports, in German West...

. This squadron, consisting of HMS Warrior

HMS Warrior (1905)

HMS Warrior was a Duke of Edinburgh-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1900s. She was stationed in the Mediterranean when the First World War began and participated in the pursuit of the German battlecruiser and light cruiser . Warrior was transferred to the Grand Fleet in...

, HMS Black Prince

HMS Black Prince (1904)

HMS Black Prince was a armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1900s. During the First World War she served in the Mediterranean before joining the Grand Fleet...

, HMS Donegal

HMS Donegal (1902)

HMS Donegal was a Monmouth-class armoured cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd of Govan and launched on 4 September 1902. She served in the First World War with most of her sisters, and survived to be sold for scrap on 1 July 1920. She...

 and Highflyer was in place off Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...

 from 12 November, but was soon dispersed after the battle of the Falklands. Highflyer then took part in the search for the commerce raider Kronprinz Wilhelm

SS Kronprinz Wilhelm

SS Kronprinz Wilhelm was a German passenger liner built for the Norddeutscher Lloyd, a former shipping company now part of Hapag-Lloyd, by the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin, in 1901...

, coming close to catching her in January 1915. She remained on the West Africa station until 1917, making up part of the Cape Verde division.

In 1917 she was transferred to the North America and West Indies Squadron. This was the period of unrestricted submarine warfare

Unrestricted submarine warfare

Unrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchantmen without warning, as opposed to attacks per prize rules...

, and it was eventually decided to operate a convoy

Convoy

A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...

 system in the North Atlantic. On 10 July 1917 HMS Highflyer provided the escort for convoy HS 1, the first convoy to sail from Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 to Britain. She was at Halifax

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

 for the Halifax Explosion

Halifax Explosion

The Halifax Explosion occurred on Thursday, December 6, 1917, when the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was devastated by the huge detonation of the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship, fully loaded with wartime explosives, which accidentally collided with the Norwegian SS Imo in "The Narrows"...

 on 6 December 1917, and assisted rescue efforts in the aftermath.

She survived to become the last Victorian

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 cruiser in service with the Royal Navy, remaining in commission until 1921 as flagship of the East Indies station in Bombay when she was sold there for scrap on 10 June of that year.