Name HMS St George Reclassified Depot ship 1909 Beam 60 ft (18 m) Launched 23 June 1892 Weight 7,468 tons | Laid down 23 April 1890 Construction started 23 April 1890 Length 118 m Displacement 6.668 million kg | |
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Fate Sold for breaking up 1 July 1920 | ||
HMS St George was a first class cruiser of the Edgar class. She was launched on 23 June 1892.
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Service history
St George took part in the 40-minute-long Anglo-Zanzibar War in 1896. The obsolete armed yacht HHS Glasgow of Zanzibar fired upon a British flotilla led by St George, also comprising Philomel, Racoon, Sparrow and Thrush. The response sank Glasgow with a hole below the waterline. With a Union Jack flying over the sinking yacht in surrender, the flotilla launched lifeboats to rescue the crew of Glasgow which would lie at the bottom of Zanzibar Town Harbour until 1912.
In 1901, she was one of two escort ships for the royal yacht Ophir, which carried the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary) during their tour of the British Empire.
Following the end of this tour, the captain of Ophir, Commodore Alfred Winsloe, reverted to his position as Commodore commanding the Cruiser squadron, and was in late 1901 posted to St George, which thus became the lead ship of the squadron and carried his broad pennant. In May 1902 she was taken into Portsmouth for a refit, and later that year she served in the 1902 Coronation review.
She was the flagship of the Cape & West Africa Station (Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson) based at Simon's Town, and served in the First World War.
She was designated as a depot ship in 1909, and sold for breaking up at Plymouth on July 1, 1920.