Name HMS Doris Completed 18 November 1897 Construction started 29 August 1894 Length 107 m Builder Barrow-in-Furness | Laid down 29 August 1894 Reclassified As depot ship, 1917 Launched 3 March 1896 Draft 6.25 m | |
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Fate Sold for scrap, 2 February 1919 Class and type Eclipse-class protected cruiser | ||
HMS Doris was an Eclipse-class protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1890s.
Under the command of Captain R. C. Prothero, she was flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Harris when he was Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope Station in South Africa 1898-1900. In 1899 at least one of HMS Doris's QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns was mounted on an improvised field carriage and used as a field gun in the Second Boer War. The gun used at Magersfontein was known as Joe Chamberlain. Captain Prothero, known as 'Prothero the Bad', was a man of violent temper who terrified his officers and crew alike.
She paid off at Devonport in May 1901, when, to honour her crew, the men of the other ships in the harbour spontaneously manned yards and sides and gave a salute . After a refit, she was on 4 June 1902 commissioned into the Channel Squadron with the crew of HMS Arrogant. Captain Frederick Robert William Morgan was appointed in command.
When the First World War began in August 1914, Doris was serving with the 11th Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet. On 5 August, Doris captured a German merchant ship.