HMS Hampshire (1903)

HMS Hampshire was one of six Devonshire-class armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the twentieth century. Armstrong Whitworth laid her down at their Elswick shipyard on 1 September 1902, launched her on 24 September 1903 and completed her on 15 July 1905. She was designed to displace 10,850 long tons and carried four 7.5-inch and six 6-inch guns, with seventeen Yarrow and six cylindrical boilers feeding two steam engines that gave 21,000 indicated horsepower and a top speed of 22 knots. She served with the Channel Fleet, the Mediterranean Fleet and the China Station, hunted German raiders after the outbreak of the First World War, joined the Grand Fleet and was present at Jutland. On 5 June 1916 she was carrying Lord Kitchener to Russia when she is believed to have struck a mine laid by the German submarine U-75 off Orkney, and she sank with 737 of the 749 aboard. Her wreck is a protected site and the Kitchener Memorial on Marwick Head stands nearby.