Laid down 13 August 1894 Construction started 13 August 1894 Length 107 m | Namesake Diana Completed 15 June 1897 Launched 5 December 1895 Draft 6.25 m | |
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Fate Sold for scrap, 1 July 1920 Builder Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company | ||
HMS Diana was an Eclipse-class protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1890s.
She was commissioned at Chatham on 16 February 1900 by Captain Henry Baynes, to take out reliefs for the HMS Ringarooma, HMS Boomerang and HMS Torch serving on the Australia Station. She arrived in Australia in April, when Baynes took command of the HMS Mildura, stationed there, and Captain Henry Leah of the latter ship took command of the Diana for the return journey.
The following year, she was commissioned with the complement of 450 officers and men at Chatham on 15 January 1901 to serve at the Mediterranean Station under the command of Captain Arthur Murray Farquhar. In March 1901 she was one of two cruisers to escort HMS Ophir, commissioned as royal yacht for the world tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George and Queen Mary), from Gibraltar to Malta, and then to Port Said. Captain Edmond Slade was appointed in command in April 1902, but Farquhar did not leave the ship until early June. In May 1902 she visited Palermo to attend festivities in connection with the opening of an Agricultural Exhibition by King Victor Emmanuel.