H.M.S. Spartan in Chinese waters

H.M.S. Spartan was one of the twenty-one "Apollo" class cruisers ordered for the fleet in 1889. Built by Armstrongs at Elswick, on the Tyne, she was laid down in December that year, launched in February 1891 and completed the following year. Displacing 3,600 tons and measuring 314 feet in length with a 44 foot beam, she could steam at 20 knots and carried a variety of weaponry, most notably 2-6in. and 6-4.7in. quick-firing guns. Held at Devonport for a year before joining the Mediterranean Fleet in 1894, after a further year she was sent to the China Station where she remained until 1897. Returning home to Devonport, her subsequent service was mostly harbour-based and she was eventually scrapped in 1931, by which time she had been renamed Defiance II (since 1921).