HMAS Melbourne (1912)

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For other ships of this name, see HMAS Melbourne.

Career Australia	=
HMAS Melbourne
Class and type:	Town class cruiser
Builder:	Cammell Laird & Co Ltd
Laid down:	4 April 1911
Launched:	30 May 1912
Commissioned:	18 January 1913
Status:	Sold for scrap in 1929
General Characteristics
Displacement:	5,400 tons
Length:	456 feet 10 3/8 inches
Beam:	49 feet 10 inches
Draught:	19 feet 7 inches
Propulsion:	Parsons turbines, Yarrow boilers, 4 screws
Speed:	23.2 knots
Complement:	485
Armament:	8 x 6-inch 50 calibre guns 4 x 3-pounder guns 1 x 12-pounder gun 2 x .303-inch Maxim guns 8 x .303-inch Lewis guns 2 x 21-inch torpedo tubes
Motto:	"Viries Acquiret Eundo"
Badge:

HMAS Melbourne was a Town-class light cruiser laid down by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead in England on 4 April 1911, launched on 30 May 1912 by Mrs. F. Braund, daughter of Mr. Barry Smith of Adelaide, and commissioned on 18 January 1913.

[edit] Operational History

She was involved in the pursuit of the German SMS Emden in 1914, though it fell to HMAS Sydney to bring that ship to action. Melbourne served on the North America and West Indies Stations from 1914 to 1916 before joining the Grand Fleet in the North Sea, where she remained for the remainder of the war.

Melbourne was paid off to reserve and laid up inactive at Sydney between 5 August 1919 and 14 April 1920 and again from 29 September 1924 to 8 October 1925. HMAS Melbourne sailed from Sydney for the United Kingdom on 9 February 1928, arrived at Portsmouth on 12 April 1928, paid off on 23 April 1928, was sold to the Alloa Shipbuilding Company of Rosyth in Scotland in December 1928 and broken up in 1929.