Apollo-class cruiser

The Apollo class were a class of second-class protected cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the late 19th century that served during the Boer War and World War I.

Latona, Apollo, Intrepid, Iphigenia, Andromache, Naiad and Thetis were converted into minelaying cruisers around 1907.

Ships
Twenty-one of the Apollo class of second-class cruisers were built under the 1889 Naval Defence Act, along with eight to a modified design (the Astraea Class).

By the last year of World War I, the surviving ships were outdated, and six of this class were converted into blockships to be scuttled in the entrances to enemy-occupied ports in Belgium. The Intrepid, Iphigenia and Thetis were expended on 23 April 1918 in the raid on Zeebrugge; the Brilliant and Sirius were unsuccessfully expended in the similar raid on Ostend. A further attempt to block Ostend took place in May, with the Sappho and the Vindictive (the latter being of the Arrogant Class) as blockships, but the Sappho broke down en route to Ostend and returned to port.