HMS Cassandra (1916)

HMS Cassandra was a C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was part of the Caledon group of the C-class of cruisers.

She was built by Vickers Limited, Barrow in Furness and laid down in March 1916, launched on 25 November 1916 and commissioned into the Navy in June 1917.

She had a short career, and initially joined the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet. She suffered a mishap when she ran aground on Fair Isle on 15 August 1917 but was successfully salvaged. Despite this she survived the war, and was sent into the Baltic to operate against the Bolsheviks. On 5 December 1918 she ran into an uncharted German minefield. She struck a mine and sank in Gulf of Finland with the loss of 10 sailors but the remaining crew of 400 was evacuated.

Rediscovery
The Estonian Navy and Estonian Maritime Museum announced in August 2010 that they had located the wrecks of HMS Cassandra, and two Flower-class sloops HMS Myrtle (1915) and HMS Gentian (1915) near Saaremaa Island in depths of 60-100 metres.