HMS Amphion (1911)

Amphion about 1914
History
United Kingdom
Name	Amphion
Ordered	1910 Naval Programme
Builder	Pembroke Dockyard
Laid down	15 March 1911
Launched	4 December 1911
Completed	March 1913
Fate	Sunk by mine, 6 August 1914
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Active-class scout cruiser
Displacement	3,340 long tons (3,390 t) (normal)
Length	405 ft (123.4 m) (o/a)
Beam	41 ft (12.5 m)
Draught	14 ft 6 in (4.4 m)
Installed power	12 × Yarrow boilers 18,000 shp (13,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 × shafts; 2 × steam turbine sets
Speed	25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph)
Range	4,630 nmi (8,570 km; 5,330 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	293
Armament	10 × single 4 in (102 mm) guns 4 × single 3-pdr 47 mm (1.9 in) guns 2 × single 18 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Deck: 0.5–1 in (13–25 mm) Conning tower: 4 in (102 mm)

HMS Amphion was an Active-class scout cruiser built for the Royal Navy before the First World War. Completed in 1913, she was initially assigned to the First Fleet and became a destroyer flotilla leader in mid-1914. When the war began, her flotilla was assigned to the Harwich Force. While patrolling on the first full day of the war, Amphion and her destroyers encountered and sank a German minelayer, SMS Königin Luise, but not before she had laid many of her mines. While returning from patrolling the following morning, Amphion struck a mine on 6 August 1914 off the Thames Estuary and sank with the loss of 132 crewmen killed. She was the first ship of the Royal Navy to be sunk in the First World War. The wreck site is protected and may not be dived upon without permission from the Ministry of Defence.