Eclipse Class Cruiser (1894)

The nine Second-Class Cruisers of the Eclipse Class (sometimes referred to as the Talbot class) were completed for the Royal Navy between 1896 and 1898.

Overview of 9 vessels
Citations for this data available on individual ship pages
Name	Builder	Laid Down	Launched	Completed	Fate
Diana	Fairfield	13 Aug, 1894	5 Dec, 1895	15 Jun, 1897	Sold 1 Jul, 1920
Dido	London & Glasgow	30 Aug, 1894	20 Mar, 1896	10 May, 1898	Sold 16 Dec, 1926
Doris	Vickers	29 Aug, 1894	3 Mar, 1896	18 Nov, 1897	Sold 20 Feb, 1919
Eclipse	Portsmouth Royal Dockyard	11 Dec, 1893	19 Jul, 1894	23 Mar, 1897	Sold Aug, 1921
Isis	London & Glasgow	30 Jan, 1895	27 Jun, 1896	10 May, 1898	Sold 26 Feb, 1920
Juno	Vickers	22 Jun, 1894	16 Nov, 1895	16 Jun, 1897	Sold 24 Sep, 1920
Minerva	Chatham Royal Dockyard	4 Dec, 1893	23 Sep, 1895	4 Feb, 1897	Sold 5 Oct, 1920
Talbot	Devonport Royal Dockyard	5 Mar, 1894	25 Apr, 1895	15 Sep, 1896	Sold 6 Dec, 1921
Venus	Fairfield	28 Jun, 1894	5 Sep, 1895	9 Nov, 1897	Sold 22 Sep, 1921

Binoculars

In September 1914, the ships were allowed four additional pairs of Pattern 343 Service Binoculars.^[1]

Armament

Main Battery

Originally, all ships carried a mixed main battery:^[2]

Five 6-in P.II Mountings for Q.F. Mark II Guns
Six 4.7-in P.IV Mountings for Q.F. Mark IV Guns

With the exception of Eclipse all were re-armed with a single gun main battery (for dates see individual ships):

Eleven 6-in P.III U.D. Mountings for B.L. Mark VII Guns

Torpedoes

Originally, there were three tubes:^[3]^[4]

two submerged tubes with three torpedoes each and one (shared between them) for exercise, depressed 3 degrees and bearing abeam; axis of tube was 6 feet below load water line and 10 inches above the deck.
one stern tube with two torpedoes and one for exercise

All torpedoes would be stored at the submerged tubes except a single one stored at the stern tube.

In Talbot's trials, she was able to fire from submerged tubes with no deflection while running full speed. Her stern tube appears to have been above-water by design but was firing reliably even when full of water at speed, unlike the Apollo class which found this problematic the same year.^[5]

By 1909, the stern tube had been removed.^[6]

Footnotes

↑ Admiralty Weekly Order No. 331 of 8 Sep, 1914.
↑ Quarterly Appropriation List of Gun Mountings for B.L., Q.F, and Machine Guns, August 1914. The National Archives. ADM 186/195pp.29,36,45.
↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1894. pp. 72-73.
↑ Torpedo Manual, Vol. III, 1909. p. 265.
↑ Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1896. pp. 36, 37, 41.
↑ Torpedo Manual, Vol. III, 1909. p. 265.