HMS Doris (1896)

Doris at anchor during World War I
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Doris
Builder:	Naval Construction & Armaments Co., Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down:	29 August 1894
Launched:	3 March 1896
Completed:	18 November 1897
Reclassified:	As depot ship, 1917
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 2 February 1919
General characteristics
Class and type:	Eclipse-class protected cruiser
Displacement:	5,600 long tons (5,690 t)
Length:	350 ft (106.7 m)
Beam:	53 ft 6 in (16.3 m)
Draught:	20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Installed power:	9,600 ihp (7,200 kW) 8 cylindrical boilers
Propulsion:	2 shafts, 2 Inverted triple-expansion steam engines
Speed:	18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph)
Complement:	450
Armament:	As built: 5 × QF 6-inch (152 mm) guns 6 × QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns 6 × 3-pounder QF guns 3 × 18-inch torpedo tubes After 1905: 11 × six-inch QF guns 9 × 12-pounder QF guns 7 × 3-pounder QF guns 3 × 18-inch torpedo tubes
Armour:	Gun shields: 3 in (76 mm) Engine hatch: 6 in (152 mm) Decks: 1.5–3 in (38–76 mm) Conning tower: 6 in (152 mm)

HMS Doris was an Eclipse-class protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1890s.

Under the command of Captain R. C. Prothero, she was flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Harris when he was Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope Station in South Africa 1898-1900. In 1899 at least one of HMS Doris's QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns was mounted on an improvised field carriage and used as a field gun in the Second Boer War. The gun used at Magersfontein was known as Joe Chamberlain. Captain Prothero, known as 'Prothero the Bad', was a man of violent temper who terrified his officers and crew alike.

She paid off at Devonport in May 1901, when, to honour her crew, the men of the other ships in the harbour spontaneously manned yards and sides and gave a salute . After a refit, she was on 4 June 1902 commissioned into the Channel Squadron with the crew of HMS Arrogant. Captain Frederick Robert William Morgan was appointed in command. She took part in the fleet review held at Spithead on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII.

When the First World War began in August 1914, Doris was serving with the 11th Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet, and her Captain was Frank Larken On 5 August, Doris captured a German merchant ship.

By November 1914, Doris was cruising off the West Coast of Ireland. On 7th of that month she was ordered to proceed to Alexandria to form part of the Allied force opposing Turkey. She was ordered to patrol the Syrian coast, looking out for enemy ships and shore installations, and to "exercise general pressure."