Adventure-class cruiser

The Adventure class was a two ship class of scout cruiser serving with the Royal Navy in World War I, and consisting of the ships HMS Adventure and HMS Attentive.

Design
As with the Forward, Pathfinder and Sentinel classes, they were designed to work in company with destroyer flotillas but soon proved too slow for this role as newer destroyers outpaced them. They were the only one of the four pairs of Scout cruisers of this group to have four funnels. The last of the group, they were the considered the best of the four designs and influenced future Admiralty in-house designs. They were originally to be named the Eddystone class, but the name was altered prior to construction.

The two ships were built by Armstrong Whitworth, of Elswick, Tyne and Wear and launched in 1904. Not long after completion two additional 12 pounder guns were added and the 3 pounder guns were replaced with six 6 pounders. In 1911-12 they were rearmed with nine 4 inch guns. Although the class had been rearmed with 4 inch guns, these were outranged by those of many German destroyers and by the end of the war she carried a gun armament of two 6 inch guns six 4 inch guns and a 3 inch anti-aircraft gun. The Adventure class ships also had a clipper bow (a bow that curves forward as it rises from the water).

In common with the other scout cruisers, their main failings were their short range and low speed, which made them incapable of keeping up with the destroyer flotillas they were meant to be leading, and unable to operate far from friendly ports. After the end of the war, the remaining scout cruisers, including the two of the Adventure class, were phased out of operation with the Navy.

Ships

 * HMS Adventure - launched on 8 September 1904, sold for scrapping on 3 March 1920.
 * HMS Attentive - launched on 24 November 1904, sold for scrapping on 12 April 1920.