HMS Talbot was an 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...

 protected cruiser

Protected cruiser

The protected cruiser is a type of naval cruiser of the late 19th century, so known because its armoured deck offered protection for vital machine spaces from shrapnel caused by exploding shells above...

 of 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...

.

Early career

She was commissioned on 15 September 1895 for service on the North America and West Indies Station. She was present at Chemulpo Bay

Incheon

The Incheon Metropolitan City is located in northwestern South Korea. The city was home to just 4,700 people when Jemulpo port was built in 1883. Today 2.76 million people live in the city, making it Korea’s third most populous city after Seoul and Busan Metropolitan City...

 in 1904, during the historical naval battle

Battle of Chemulpo Bay

The Battle of Chemulpo Bay was an early naval battle in the Russo-Japanese War , which took place on 9 February 1904, off the coast of present-day Incheon, Korea.-Background:...

 between two Russian ships, the cruiser Varyag and the gunboat Korietz

Russian gunboat Korietz

Korietz was a gunboat in Russian Imperial Navy. She was the lead vessel in a class of nine ships in her class The etymology of the names of this class of ships was: Korietz is a Russian word for "Korean man",...

 against a fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy

Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

. Future Arctic

Arctic

The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...

 explorers and members of Robert Falcon Scott

Robert Falcon Scott

Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...

's ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition

Terra Nova Expedition

The Terra Nova Expedition , officially the British Antarctic Expedition 1910, was led by Robert Falcon Scott with the objective of being the first to reach the geographical South Pole. Scott and four companions attained the pole on 17 January 1912, to find that a Norwegian team led by Roald...

 Patrick Keohane

Patrick Keohane

Petty Officer Patrick Keohane was an Irish member of Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic expedition of 1910–1913, the Terra Nova Expedition.-Biography:Patrick Keohane was born in Courtmacsherry, County Cork, Ireland in 1879....

 and Edward Evans

Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans

Admiral Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans, KCB, DSO , known as "Teddy" Evans, was a British naval officer and Antarctic explorer...

 served aboard her.

The First World War

During the First World War she was assigned to Cruiser Force G and the 12 Cruiser Squadron operating in 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...

. In September of 1914 she captured a German merchant ship. On 27 March 1915 she arrived at the island of Tenedos for the Dardanelles

Dardanelles

The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...

 and participated in the Battle of Gallipoli

Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign

The naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign of the First World War were mainly carried out by the Royal Navy with substantial support from the French and minor contributions from Russia and Australia. The Dardanelles Campaign began as a purely naval operation...

. Talbot was initially attached to the First Battle Squadron of the fleet and supported the landings at the tip of the Peninsula. On 26 April she supported the battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

 HMS Goliath

HMS Goliath (1898)

HMS Goliath was one of the six Canopus-class pre-dreadnought battleships built by the Royal Navy in the late 19th century. In the First World War Goliath took part in the blockade of the German light cruiser in the Rufiji River but unsuccessful to bombard the cruiser in the delta.On 13 May 1915...

 during attempts to support the landing on “Y Beach”. In June she was the Senior Naval Officers' ship at Gaba Tepe, and during the Suvla

Suvla

Suvla is a bay on the Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula in European Turkey, south of the Gulf of Saros.On 6 August 1915 it was the site for the Landing at Suvla Bay by the British IX Corps as part of the August Offensive during the Battle of Gallipoli...

 landings she was the flagship of the 3rd Squadron. She remained at Gallipoli throughout the campaign, and covered the evacuation of Anzac beach in December 1915 and of Helles in January 1916.

In May 1916 Talbot was operating off the East African coast as part of the Cape Command. In January 1917 she was at Kiswere (Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

), when the second period of German commerce raids

Commerce raiding

Commerce raiding or guerre de course is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt the logistics of an enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging the combatants themselves or enforcing a blockade against them.Commerce raiding was heavily criticised by...

 began and in 1918 she was off the Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...

.