page_title: Minotaur-class cruiser (1906)
section_title: Careers
hierarchical_section_title: Minotaur-class cruiser (1906) / Careers
caption_attribution_description: HMS SHANNON at Cromarty, November 1915
context_page_description: The Minotaur class was a three-ship class of armoured cruisers built in the first decade of the twentieth century for the Royal Navy. These were the last class of armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy, with that role being substantially replaced by battlecruisers. These initially served with the Home Fleet, generally as the flagships of cruiser squadrons. Minotaur became flagship of the China Station in 1910 and Defence served as flagship of the 1st Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean from 1912; Shannon remained at home as flagship of several different squadrons.
  When World War I began in August 1914, Defence participated in the pursuit of the German ships SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau and Minotaur hunted for the German East Asia Squadron and German commerce raiders in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Shannon remained with the Grand Fleet, as the Home Fleet was renamed, for the entire war. All three were present at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, where Defence was sunk with the loss of all men on board. The surviving pair spent most of the rest of the war assigned to the Northern Patrol unsuccessfully searching for German warships and commerce raiders.
context_section_description: The sisters were all initially assigned to the Home Fleet upon commissioning with Shannon frequently serving as the flagship of the 5th, 2nd and 3rd Cruiser Squadrons before reverting to the flagship of the 2nd Squadron in 1914. Minotaur became the flagship of the China Station in 1910 and she was briefly joined by Defence in 1912 before the latter was transferred to the Mediterranean at the end of the year to serve as flagship of the 1st Cruiser Squadron there.
  When the war began, Minotaur searched unsuccessfully for the German East Asia Squadron in the Pacific and the commerce-raiding light cruiser Emden in the Indian Ocean before she was transferred to the Grand Fleet at the end of 1914. She became flagship of the 7th Cruiser Squadron and was assigned to the Northern Patrol. Defence participated in the pursuit of the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and light cruiser SMS Breslau, but Rear-Admiral Ernest Troubridge decided not to engage Goeben due to the latter's more powerful guns, heavier armour and faster speed. She then blockaded the German ships inside the Dardanelles. The Admiralty ordered the ship to the South Atlantic in October to join Rear-Admiral Christopher Cradock's squadron searching for the German ships. Defence, however, had only reached Montevideo, Uruguay by 3 November when she received word that most of Admiral Cradock's squadron had been destroyed two days previously at the Battle of Coronel. The ship was then ordered to South Africa to escort a troop convoy to Great Britain. Defence departed Table Bay, Cape Town in December and rejoined the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet as its flagship upon her arrival.
  In early 1915, the sisters were all assigned to the Grand Fleet, each as flagship of their respective squadrons. Just before the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, the 2nd and 7th Cruiser Squadrons were combined with Minotaur as the flagship. During the battle the 2nd Cruiser Squadron was unengaged and did not fire their guns. In contrast the 1st Cruiser Squadron was engaged at close range by the German capital ships during the battle; Defence was hit by two salvoes from the German ships that caused the aft 9.2-inch magazine to explode. The resulting fire spread via the ammunition passages to the adjacent 7.5-inch magazines which detonated in turn. The ship exploded with the loss of all men on board; between 893 and 903 men were killed.
  Shannon and Minotaur were also present during the attempted interception of the High Seas Fleet by the Grand Fleet on 19 August although no combat occurred. For the rest of the war, the ships were assigned to the Northern Patrol. On 11 December 1917, the sisters and four destroyers were assigned to patrol the convoy route between Lerwick and Norway, but the Germans successfully destroyed a convoy off the Norwegian coast on the following day and returned home without being spotted. The British ships were only able to rescue survivors and escort the sole surviving ship from the convoy, the crippled destroyer Pellew, back to Scapa Flow.
  The sisters were paid off in 1919, although Shannon temporarily became a training ship before the two were sold for scrap in 1920. Shannon was not actually broken up until January 1923.
caption: Stern view of Shannon, November 1915
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