HMS Carysfort (1914)

The fourth HMS Carysfort was a C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy that saw service in World War I and the Russian Civil War. She was part of the Caroline group of the C class.

Construction
Constructed by either Pembroke Dockyard in Pembroke Dock, Wales, or Hawthorn Leslie and Company at Tyneside, England (sources differ), Carysfort was laid down on 25 February 1914, launched on 14 November 1914, and completed in June 1915.

World War I
Commissioned into service in the Royal Navy in June 1915, Carysfort was assigned to the 4th Light Cruiser Squadron in the Grand Fleet in August 1915, and in 1915 had a runway installed on her forecastle to allow French-built Royal Naval Air Service monoplanes to launch from her to attack German airships over the North Sea, but the aircraft proved unable to gain sufficient altitude to attack the airships and the runway had been removed by early 1916. In April 1916, she relieved the damaged light cruiser HMS Conquest (1915) in the 5th Light Cruiser in Harwich Force, which operated in the North Sea to guard the eastern approaches to the Strait of Dover and English Channel, and so did not participate in the Battle of Jutland. In 1917, she returned to the Grand Fleet as flagship of the 7th Light Cruiser Squadron, and in December 1917 collided with the merchant ship SS Glentaise in the North Sea off Orford Ness, Suffolk, England. She remained with the 7th Light Cruiser Squadron through the end of World War I in November 1918 and until 1919.

Postwar
In April 1919, Carysfort was reassigned to the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron in Harwich Force, and that year was sent to the Baltic Sea to take part in the British campaign there against Bolshevik and German forces during the Russian Civil War. She returned to the United Kingdom in 1920, and became a unit of the Atlantic Fleet in April 1921. In 1922, she patrolled off the coast of Ireland during the Irish Civil War. She then operated in Turkish waters in support of British interests in 1922-1923 during hostilities between Turkey and Greece. She was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Devonport in September 1923.

In September 1924, Carysfort recommissioned for service transporting troops. She became the flagship of the Devonport Reserve in 1927. She carried troops to China from February to July 1929, and then again became flagship of the Devonport Reserve in January 1930, serving in that capacity until relieved by the light cruiser HMS Comus (1914) in April 1931, when Carysfort was decommissioned and placed under dockyard control at Devonport.

Disposal
Carysfort was sold in August 1931 for scrapping and arrived at the yards of McLellan in October 1931 to be broken up.