HMS Newcastle

HMS Newcastle was a Bristol class light cruiser that served in a wide variety of theatres during the First World War, from China to the Adriatic. She was commissioned to replace HMS Bedford on the China station. This was a period of turmoil in China, and the Newcastle was involved in protecting British interests at Shanghai during a 1913 rebellion.

HMS Newcastle from the right

At the outbreak of the First World War the Newcastle was at Esquimalt, the home of the Canadian Pacific Fleet. From there she was sent to South American to take part in the hunt for the German commerce raider AMC Prinz Eitel Friedrich.

The Prinz Eitel Friedrich was a converted passenger liner that operated off Australia, South American and in the South Pacific before a shortage of coal forced her to seek internment in the United States on 9 April 1915.

The Newcastle remained in the Pacific from January 1915 to November 1916, capturing the German Mazatlan in January 1916. During 1917 the Newcastle was widely travelling, starting at Mudros, a small port of the island of Lemnos used as the allied base during the blockade of the Dardanelles. By March 1917 she was in the East Indies, before returning to the Adriatic in May 1917. She returned to South America as Flagship on the South East Coast of South American Station (1918-1919). She was paid off in 1920 and sold in 1921.

Books on the First World War | Subject Index: First World War

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