Euryalus, named after the Greek hero
Euryalus, was
laid down on 18 July 1899 by
Vickers, Sons & Maxim at their
Barrow-in-Furness shipyard. She was launched 20 May 1901 in front of 30,000 spectators, and christened by
Mrs. Douglas Vickers, wife of one of the directors of the company. On 11 June 1901, the south side of the Ramsden dock at Barrow caught fire, and was practically destroyed before the flames could be extinguished. The recently launched
Euryalus was laying alongside this wharf, and the fire set ablaze the teak wood sheathing of the cruiser. Considerable damage was done to the ship before she was hauled from the pier into the middle of the dock, and her completion was severely delayed. Towed to
Cammell Laird at
Birkenhead for repairs, the ship slipped off the blocks supporting her in
drydock and was severely damaged. While on sea trials on 27 June 1903, she collided in the
Hamoaze,
Devonport with the fleet tug , which sank.
Euryalus was finally completed on 5 January 1904, nearly two years after her
sister ships. At the outbreak of the war in August 1914, she was assigned to the 7th Cruiser Squadron, tasked with patrolling the
Broad Fourteens of the
North Sea in support of a force of
destroyers and
submarines based at
Harwich, which protected the eastern end of the English Channel from German warships attempting to attack the supply route between
England and France. On 10 August, she became the flagship of
Rear-Admiral Arthur Christian, commander of the Southern Force, formed to command all of the forces defending the eastern end of the Channel. During the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August, the ship was in reserve off the Dutch coast, and saw no action. On 20 September 1914,
Euryalus and her sisters , and were on patrol in the Broad Fourteen.
Euryalus had to return to port that morning to recoal. Two days later the three remaining cruisers were sunk by the
SM U-9 and Christian was subsequently relieved of his command. As a result of these losses, she, and her sister , were transferred to the
12th Cruiser Squadron to escort ships between England and
Gibraltar in early October.
Euryalus and
Bacchante were transferred to Egypt in late January 1915 to reinforce the defences of the
Suez Canal, although the Turkish
raid on the Suez Canal had already been repulsed by the time that they arrived in February. Upon arrival Rear-Admiral
Richard Peirse, commander of the East Indies Station, hoisted his flag in
Euryalus. By this time the preliminary bombardments of the Turkish defences of the
Dardanelles had already occurred, and the sisters were transferred north in March as the Turks east of the Canal proved to be reasonably quiet.
Euryalus became the flagship of Rear Admiral
Rosslyn Wemyss in April, after he was put in charge of the main landings at Gallipoli. During the landings at Cape Helles on the morning of 25 April,
Euryalus transported three
companies of the 1st
Battalion of the
Lancashire Fusiliers and a
platoon of the
Royal Naval Division, and then provided fire support to the landing after the soldiers were transferred to their boats for the actual landing on Beach 'W'. She also bombarded Turkish positions during the
Second Battle of Krithia on 6 May. A month later, Wemyss hauled down his flag and resumed his original commanding of the Allied base at
Mudros.
Euryalus received a brief refit at
Malta from 30 December 1915 to 20 January 1916 before proceeding to Egypt to reinforce the defences there. On 15 January 1916 Wemyss, the new Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, hoisted his flag aboard
Euryalus. From 3 January 1917 through 24 April, she was refitted at
Bombay. On 29 June she bombarded the barracks in the Yemeni town of
Hodeida together with the
troopship RIM Northbrook of the
Royal Indian Marine. Rear Admiral
Ernest Gaunt relieved Wemyss as commander-in-chief on 20 July 1917 and transferred his flag to
Northbrook on 29 August. In early November, the ship dismounted four 6-inch and four 12-pounder guns at Bombay before proceeding to Hong Kong. She was
paid off there on 20 December to complete her conversion into a minelayer. This was not finished when the war ended,
Euryalus was sold for scrap on 1 July 1920 and broken up in Germany beginning in September 1922. ==Notes==