HMS Shannon ( 1906 ) HMS " Shannon " was a armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the mid - 1900s . Before the First World War , she served with the Home Fleet , generally as the flagship of a cruiser squadron . The ship remained with the Grand Fleet , as the Home Fleet was renamed when the war began , for the entire war , but only participated in a single battle , the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 . " Shannon " spent most of the war unsuccessfully patrolling the North Sea for German warships and commerce raiders . She was paid off in 1919 and sold for scrap in 1922 . Description . " Shannon " displaced as built and at deep load . The ship had an overall length of , a beam of and a mean draught of . Her beam was wider and her draught one foot less than her sisters in the belief that she would prove to be the fastest ship in the class . " Shannon " was powered by a pair of four - cylinder triple - expansion steam engine s , each driving one shaft , using steam was provided by 24 Yarrow water - tube boilers . The engines were designed to reach a total of and were intended to give a maximum speed of . " Shannon " proved to be the slowest ship in the class ; during her sea trials on 3 December 1907 her engines reached , but she only reached a speed of The ship carried a maximum of of coal and an additional of fuel oil that was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate . At full capacity , she could steam for at a speed of . " Shannon " was designed to carry 779 officers and enlisted men , but had a complement of 819 in 1908 and 842 in 1912 . The ship ' s main armament consisted of four BL 9 . 2 - inch Mark X guns in two twin - gun turret s , one each fore and aft . Her secondary armament of ten BL 7 . 5 - inch Mark II guns were mounted amidships in single turrets . Anti - torpedo boat defence was provided by sixteen QF 12 - pounder ( 3 - inch ) 18 - cwt guns . " Shannon " also mounted five submerged 17 . 7 - inch torpedo tube s , one of which was mounted in the stern . The waterline armour belt consisted of of Krupp cemented armour roughly between the fore and aft 7 . 5 - inch gun turrets , but was reduced in steps to three inches to the ends of the ship . The gun turrets and barbette s were protected by of armour . The thickness of the lower deck was . The armour of the conning tower was thick . Construction and career . " Shannon " was ordered as part of the 1904 – 05 naval construction programme as one of the three " Minotaur " - class armoured cruisers . She was laid down on 2 January 1905 at Chatham Dockyard . The ship was christened on 27 April 1907 by Lady Carrington and commissioned on 19 March 1908 at the cost of £1 , 415 , 135 . While fitting out in Portsmouth , " Shannon " was accidentally struck on 5 December 1907 by the battleship which had broken loose from her anchorage ; both ships were only lightly damaged . Upon commissioning , the ship became the flagship of the 5th Cruiser Squadron of Home Fleet and was later transferred to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron as a private ship when the fleet reorganized in April 1909 . She became the flagship of her squadron on 1 March 1910 and made a port visit to Torbay in January 1911 . " Shannon " was relieved as flagship by the battlecruiser on 5 March 1912 and was transferred to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron as that squadron ' s flagship . In January 1914 , she relieved " Indomitable " as flagship of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron during exercises off the northwest coast of Spain . The following month , " Shannon " , together with the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron and the rest of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron , made a port visit to Brest , France . In October 1914 , the ship was patrolling off the coast of Norway and almost intercepted the armed merchant cruiser on several occasions . During a sweep into the Heligoland Bight on 26 November , she was unsuccessfully bombed by a German aircraft . She began a refit shortly afterwards that lasted until 24 January 1915 . " Shannon " was present in Cromarty Firth when the armoured cruiser ' s magazine exploded on 30 December 1915 and her crew attempted to rescue survivors from " Natal " . The ship received a QF 12 - pounder ( three - inch ) 12 - cwt anti - aircraft ( AA ) gun and a QF 3 - pounder ( 47 mm ) AA gun in 1915 – 16 . The 12 - pounder gun was mounted on the aft superstructure and the 3 - pounder on the quarterdeck at the extreme rear . Sometime afterwards , a fire - control system was installed with a director mounted on a platform fitted to the foremast . During the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916 , she was on the unengaged side of the fleet and did not fire her 9 . 2 or 7 . 5 - inch guns at all during the battle . The ship spent several days after the battle searching for survivors from her sister " Defence " and other sunken ships . Before the end of the war the 12 - pounder AA gun mounted on the aft superstructure was moved to the roof of the forward 9 . 2 - inch gun turret . " Shannon " was paid off on 2 May 1919 and became an accommodation ship until sold for breaking up on 12 December 1922 .