STATION SHIPS

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In peacetime Aden always had a designated Station Ship, sometimes referred to as station guardship. Up to the 1890s this was usually a ship of the Royal Indian Marine. Although still under command of the admiral commanding the East Indies Squadron, the Aden Resident had priority call on how his station ship was used.

 

She was the Station Ship at Aden for quite some time, perhaps five or six years altogether. Her first commission was at Aden, where she relieved HMS Racoon as Station Ship in May 1901. She was also there in 1907 when the Suffolks were the infantry battalion in Aden. She has been described as a ‘2nd Class Protected Cruiser’ of the Pelorous Class, although by 1914 her rating had dropped to ‘3rd Class’.

Two cruisers at Steamer Point off the Saluting Bunder, by the coal storage yards. The Perseus is the right-hand ship.

 

She was laid down 1896-97, being launched on 15 July 1897. She was completed between 1897 and 1901 and is a prime example of how quickly a warship built in the late 1890s could become obsolete. She was sold for scrap on 26 May 1914. The main problem was her speed – a maximum of 20 knots. Her tonnage was 2,135 and she mounted eight 4-inch and eight 3-pdr guns.