HMS KENT

Photo showing the impacts received by her hull during the battle.

Career (United Kingdom)

Name: HMS Kent
Namesake: Kent

Builder: Portsmouth Royal Dockyard

Laid down:12 February 1900 Launched:6 March 1901

Christened: Lady Hotham

Completed: 1 October 1903

Fate: Sold for scrap, 20 June 1920

General characteristics

Class and type: Monmouth-class armoured cruiser

Displacement: 9,800 long tons (10,000 t) (normal)

Length:463 ft 6 in (141.3 m) Beam:66 ft (20.1 m)
Draught:25 ft (7.6 m)

Installed power: 22,000 ihp (16,000 kW) 31 water-tube boilers

Propulsion: 2 ? shafts 2 ? 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines

Speed: 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)

Complement: 678

Armament:

? 2 ? twin, 10 ? single BL 6-inch Mk VII guns
? 10 ? single QF 12-pdr 12 cwt guns[Note 1]
? 3 ? QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns
? 2 ? single 18-inch torpedo tubes

Armour:

? Belt: 2?4 in (51?102 mm)
? Decks: .75?2 in (19?51 mm)
? Barbettes: 5 in (127 mm)
? Turrets: 5 in (130 mm)
? Conning tower: 10 in (254 mm)
? Bulkheads: 5 in (127 mm)


HMS Kent was one of 10 Monmouth-class armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She was placed in reserve when completed in 1903, but was recommissioned for the China Station in 1906. She remained there until she returned home in 1913 for a lengthy refit.

At the beginning of World War I in August 1914, she was still refitting. In October Kent was ordered to the South Atlantic to join Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock's squadron in their search for the German East Asia Squadron, but arrived at the Falkland Islands after the British squadron had been destroyed in the Battle of Coronel. During the subsequent Battle of the Falkland Islands, the ship sank a German light cruiser. Several months later she discovered the sole surviving German ship from that battle and forced Dresden to scuttle herself in the Battle of M?s a Tierra. She was briefly assigned to the China Station in mid-1915, but returned home several months later to begin convoy escort duties until mid-1918 when she returned to the China Station. In early 1919 the ship was deployed to Vladivostok to support the Siberian Intervention during the Russian Civil War. Kent was sold for scrap in 1920.